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lostinfantasies said:
I've always had this belief against antidepressants in that I think they provide some sort of 'false happiness'.

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Nothing at all like that. Very early on, when Prozac hit the market, there was a lot of press hype that suggested the "happy pill" idea. It's just not like that. Not at all like that.

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I would ideally prefer to overcome any problem I might have by myself, in my own state of mind (not altered chemically, etc.)

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The idea behind taking the antidepressant is to give you a better chance to do just that. To permit you to alter your state of mind, when the burden of doing so seems otherwise overwhelming.

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Now I'm just wondering whether that's the case. You can become overly-reliant on them, can't you? How do they work?

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You can become physiologically adapted to them. Your body adjusts, and you will notice their absence if you stop. Over-reliant? That's not a word I would use.

I've learned, in my own case, that I can get caught up in an overwhelming sense that I am unworthy of anyone caring about me. That any sense of hope about the future is extinguished. That existing has become somewhat pointless. And with that, I start ruminating about putting an end to it all. In my state of mind, it seems a logical conclusion.

And I've learned that an antidepressant helps me move away from that place, where I can begin to recognize that my prior thinking was not valid. Where once my conclusion that I was unworthy of existence seemed inescapable, if not self-evident, I no longer seem caught up in what are really distorted perceptions.

I use therapy with medication, because it's a rather efficient way for me to get to a more reasonable state of mind. Antidepressant medication has saved my life, more than once. No false happiness. But no false bleakness, either.

Lar