Can Antidepressants Really Cure Depression?

Depression has become one of the most talked about medical conditions that affect many of us. The way depression is treated and addressed has been a hot topic of conversation recently. It has become one major health issue that dominates the mainstream media. The use of antidepressants is also highly buzzed about. Does it work though?

A Global Topic

Are antidepressants safe and do they really work on you? This is something that has been widely discussed by doctors and researchers in recent years. This worldwide debate on the topic of antidepressants has been fairly recent when British author Johann Hari released his book, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression — and the Unexpected Solutions.

His Book

Hari had been using antidepressants for about 13 years, something that began when he was just a teenager. Through his new book, he aims to unravel the answers to some of the questions that have been eating his head on the topic of antidepressants for years. He especially wants to know what caused his depression and why his antidepressants have not yet cured the depression?

A Controversy

Lost Connections was started as a fanfare of endorsements from famous faces like musicians Elton John and Brian Eno, political activist Naomi Klein, and even Hillary Clinton. This led to one important question being asked: “Is everything we know about depression wrong?” There was a need for radical solutions. This soon caused a lot of controversy on the topic of depression.

The Big Debate

Lost Connections was swarmed with a number of claims that antidepressants are majorly ineffective, that this uselessness has been smartly covered up by the pharmaceutical industry with all credit to the regulatory systems, and also the physiological mechanisms that most times suggested triggering depression which cannot be laid out with evidence.

Works For Some

“Telling people, as I was told by my doctor, that depression is caused by a problem in your brain is, firstly, untrue,” Hari explains as he talks to the press about his understandings of depression. Still, there are so many unanswered questions as to why antidepressants fail to work on some people. So is there any explanation as to how or why this could be?

Just A Story?

Since he has experienced depression and antidepressants first had, he has a lot to say. “[A]nd,” Hari also states, “it is also really problematic because it cuts people off from finding the real causes of their depression and anxiety. We’ve been telling ourselves this chemical story for 35 years and every year depression and anxiety gets worse.”