Do Antidepressants Work?

Now they say there is no such thing as a chemical brain imbalance?

Now they tell me.

I just read in a story by Tessa Schlesinger, followed by a story in the very reliable Psychology Today, that there’s no such a thing as a chemical imbalance in the brain and antidepressants don’t work. Further research confirmed it is true. It is not an imbalance of brain chemicals that cause depression.

What the actual hell?

I’ve been taking antidepressants since Prozac came out. I’ve been on them for about 40 years, and I currently take three different antidepressants daily, plus thyroid supplements. I don’t know how or why they work, but the last time I took myself off them, I ended up in a hospital.

Isn’t this dangerous? Telling people like me who have been diagnosed most of their lives as having major depressive disorder. Or bipolar disorder. That the meds don’t work, that our brains do not have a chemical imbalance (which they told us for 40 years) would seem to be a dangerous proclamation.

How many people will completely stop taking their antidepressants upon hearing this? It makes me wonder why I have been taking them so long, what they may have done to my brain, and how dependent on them I am. Am I dependent on them because I’ve been taking them so long?

When will they answer the questions all people with depression will want to hear?