CMV: Most people who are prescribed antidepressant drugs as a treatment for depression do not need them as their depression isn't caused by a chemical imbalance, but by real-world stressors.

No, I don't think that all people diagnosed with depression should "just deal with it". I understand that depression can be a terrible thing that negatively affects your life in a number of untold ways. I also acknowledge that antidepressants can be an effective treatment.

However, I think that there are too few standards from separating depression caused by imbalances in brain-chemistry, and depression stemming from real-world stressors such as personal finance, relationships, career futures, politics, and much more.

Here are the top three arguments I hear against my position and why I don't agree:

1: People with clinical depression can't just "get over it" or "deal with it". Antidepressants save lives by finally giving people relief from the depression and anxiety that plagues them.

Imagine that you are $150k in student/credit debt. Despite having a bachelor's degree you make $30k annually, see nearly a third of that money eaten up with taxes, and nearly half of what's left get's spent on rent, which is increasing annually. In the end, you barely have enough to make your minimum payments. The cherry on top is that your boss brings home $500k annually and treats you like a peasant at work, albeit when he isn't "working from home".

Every day you have to think about the future and how your current situation affects you. You have to think about future-you. Your prospects are bleak - some might say depressing. You can't just sleep it off or "get over it", because it's not changing. The only thing you can do is try to earn more money, pay your debts, find a job that makes you happy, etc.

But instead you focus on how it makes you feel: You determine you cannot eliminate the depression on your own so you get antidepressants.

All you are doing is numbing the pain of the real world. You don't have a condition, but you are depressed. The difference is that you are depressed for a reason, and that depression might be what you need to motivate yourself to fix your problems. The pills just make you accept your fate rather than work for a brighter future. In this context they are complacency pills...

2: Doctors don't get kickbacks for prescribing certain medicines.

No, they don't. It's illegal to pay a doctor in exchange for prescribing people medications. Instead pharmaceutical companies do what lobbyist do: They send doctors to "seminars", which is just an excuse to send them somewhere exciting for a week at an all-inclusive resort all while bombarding them with marketing for the medicines they manufacture. They don't have take the company's advice, buy your crazy if you think they aren't influenced by the bribery.

Not that it matters, Doctors already find it easier to prescribe "miracle pills" rather than look for less risky treatment options. Though often, pills are all the only thing a patient can afford as therapy is too expensive.

3: People depend on Antidepressants for their day-to-day lives. You can't just take that away from them or doubt the effectiveness of the drugs. That's insulting!

The feelings of the patients are irrelevant, as they are not doctors and they are biased. Some people truly need antidepressants, and they shouldn't be denied it.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't question the usefulness of these drugs when they are being prescribed more and more often, many times as a first choice of treatment.

These drugs have severe side-effects, including depression! Why risk screwing someone up worse when they actually can get over it themselves.

Tl;Dr: The standards for prescribing antidepressants don't take into account whether the depression is chemical or circumstantial. Many of the arguments against stricter regulation are appeals to emotion, not science. Now we have a lot of people on pills that just numb the pain of the real world (which isn't much different than illicit drug abuse - minus the high). However, clinical depression does exist and some people do need antidepressants to function normally. These people likely make up a minority of those prescribed antidepressants to treat depression.

NOTE: Yes, SSRI's marketed as antidepressants can be prescribed for a variety of other problems, including medical problems that have nothing to do with the brain. I am not taking these situations into account; only drugs prescribed to treat depression.

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