My Clinical Psychologist observed that CBT worked for me, and asked why I thought drugs might be a better alternative (I dont btw, its a rhetorical question and answer conversation we had). He also observed that there are two classes of drugs for depression, in shorthand one boosts a chemical, and the other supresses it. To his way of thinking, if you can "solve" the problem by both over and under stimulating something in the brain, you don't really know how it works.

I have mentioned this before. I was taken to task by people who have much stronger energy in the field, graduates, pharmacology experts, people who nit-picked the language or applicability of comment from a Clinical Psychologist to this praxis. I just repeat here, that there are practitioners in the field working with people who come in the door marked "depression" who don't like the exit based on drugs. And there are patients here who also don't like that choice, based on things.

I also know people very happy they can treat their anxiety and depression with drugs. People of all ages and sexes. We get to make choices. This is good.

Prozac was the revolutionary, groundbreaking, miraculous cure for depression. The first in its class of "SSRIs" where the makers told fairy-tales of serotonin as a neurotransmitter (ignoring that over 80% of it is found in the GI tract). Patients, caregivers, and especially prescribers are wont to believe fairy tales when they are dressed up in scientific jargon, even when they diverge completely from the realities of biochemistry that we know.

In reality, Prozac is fluoride. That is its active ingredient: fluoride. So, if you're fluoridating your water supply, and using fluoride toothpaste, and taking Prozac, all of these modalities are essentially delivering the same molecule to the patient.

It doesn't matter how "antidepressants" actually work. It doesn't matter whether or not they work at all. What matters is that they tick a checkbox on the list, saying "patient is being treated for X disorder" and "patient is compliant with treatment, appointments, prescription". SSRIs, at their inception, carried black-box warnings about homicidal ideations. Of course, those warnings were wildly unpopular and eventually needed to be suppressed. But they're still true. That's right, not merely suicidal, but the users of SSRI-class drugs are driven to thoughts and actions of homicide. Just ask the Columbine Kids.