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I am convinced that 99% of the time, antidepressants a placebo effect. It's like giving someone a hat and telling them they'll feel better if they wear it. So they put the hat on, and they say they don't really feel better. But then they're told "oh it just takes a few months, and certainly you feel something". And they have to agree, because they do feel something different. They feel a hat on their head when before they didn't. But that feeling isn't really doing anything. And maybe in a few months their life situation will change and they won't be depressed anymore. And if they're still depressed after all that time? Well just try a new hat, or the same one but in a different size! It feels different now, right? Different from the last hat? Maybe that's what they need! Let's check back in a few months and see if that works!
I've honestly thought the same thing for a number of years. If you look into the research, antidepressants are consistently only marginally better than placebo. Moods change over time in general and with different environmental factors. So obviously at some point your mood improves, aided by placebo.
Despite me not really believing in them, psych meds are have been part of my journey. I hate that people think that I am not trying things and giving them a fair shot. I desperately am and continue to do so. It's just that my life hasn't really changed in a positive way. I really, sincerely try. Like with my therapy, I take extensive notes and do my best to utilize the techniques they give me. I even had the opportunity to use some successfully this past Friday! But it only seems to help sometimes despite me trying so hard.
I will say that I don't think psych meds are totally bunk in certain specific scenarios. People with severe biological/organic derangements like schizophrenia and bipolar 1 disorder do massively benefit from psychiatric medications.
But the difference is that with these conditions, we are giving very high dosages of very powerful antipsychotic medications. Outside of that, the human mind doesn't seem to operate that way. The previous thought about depression caused by chemical deficiency in serotonin has been disproven.
My issues are episodic and intermittent, making a lot of this stuff harder to tackle and "treat".
I am inherently suspicious of any type of "medicine" that you are instructed to try for 3-4 months and see how you feel on it. That's absurd. Imagine any physical ailment where they tell you to wait 3-4 months to see if it gets better.
That's time. That's all it is. Time. If I give you an ointment for a sprained ankle and tell you that after 4 months it will be healed; as long as you continue to also ice it, and rest it, and do all the other things you are supposed to do with a sprained ankle. Guess what? That ointment didn't do shit. Time and basic self care did.
Except with long term depression, time and self-care just aren't going to cut it. But you are expected to just keep trying new "medications" for months at a time.