Except many chemicals create a dependency on being provided supplementally, and I would almost guarantee that an honest study would find that anti-depressants are not somehow immune to this.

Take melatonin as an easy and relatable example.

Taking doses of this regularly has been shown to create a dependency on it, despite being extremely safe (serotonin contamination not withstanding) and a chemical we make ourselves literally every day.

Why is this? You're not going to go into withdrawal, but rather you will stop producing enough melatonin (or will be resistant to the natural levels your body produces) to reduce the efficacy of it -- semi-permanently if not permanently.

Insulin is, of course, another easily relatable chemical that our body naturally produces, but when you are on supplemental insulin (say, due to diabetes) you simply raise your tolerance to the chemical and it becomes less effective over time, but results in a permanent effect.

Anti-depressants do not target the key problems of their lives and do not resolve those problems. It doesn't help them cope with those problems.

And having been on Prozac and Valium as a child, the weight gain (which was not created by an improved mood, as my mood continued to worsen due to the core issues being unresolved) was not only not worth it, it changed my body for the long term. My metabolism slowed down tremendously and the transformation I endured is something that will always stay with me.

A very, very small number of people may have legitimate imbalances in their brain chemicals, and the only causes.

But 99.9% of prescriptions, excuses and examples that could be provided will have had other unresolved formative issues because our brain chemicals do a pretty good job of balancing themselves without outside help.

We cannot help anyone if we can't tackle the over prescription of anti depressants and acknowledge that they do more harm than good in nearly every instance.