Thank you... I thought I might suffer from depression until I realized it wasn't me that sucked (at least not completely). I always try to encourage people to stay away from psychotropic medications- at best they delay symptoms and at worst are extremely damaging. I think talking to someone you trust is the best solution... they can help people see their value as individuals.
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The medications have their place but only in severe cases and in combination with other treatments. The problem is the medications are a lot cheaper and easier to give out than long term psycho-therapeutic treatments. Even if things changed there aren't enough people in most western countries to provide psychotherapy for all that need it. Psychological issues are not glamorous enough to attract the funding and tend to get put at the back of the queue compared to other things.
Especially with depression where the blame the victim mentality still persists. The therapeutic community has become shills for big pharma. The guy I take care of (my former boss) has a table full of meds and the only thing I can see that's really wrong is that he's over medicated!
I think it is slightly more complex - it is far cheaper to medicate people than deal with the underlying problems through social interventions and psychological interventions (like CBT). This means that they are often pushed as the complete solution when they are not. Obviously the drug companies love that.
Agreed, problems are always more complex than they seem... This is an excellent video that shows the trend away from therapy toward medication. It's long but very complete.
I know you were talking about depression specifically, but it's covered in here.