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> Pre-antidepressants my life was fantastic on paper: stable job, close friends, good family, strong relationship, perfect health

I had the same. Post-SSRIs I have none of those things, and am surprised that I'm still alive.

When I asked my shrink 'why zoloft?' the only reason was 'got to start somewhere'. I wish we had evidence-based psychiatry, but instead we have 'throw shit at the wall' psychiatry.

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By this standard we don't have much evidence based anything in medicine. The process of finding a treatment that works for you by just trying things and see how it goes is true for lots of illnesses. My MiL tried 20+ different drugs for her chronic fatigue until she found one that worked.

Once you've been diagnosed with MDD and decide you're willing to try a medication the process of finding one that works and has tolerable side-effects starts. I don't really consider that to be "not evidence based." If you keep a medical journal while you try different drugs you're arguably doing science.

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