I think antidepressants should be the option, not the rule, to treating mental illness. I have my own personal experience with antidepressants, and it wasn't a good one. It caused suicidal ideation, destroyed my thyroid, and gave me pancreatitis, and permanent heart damage. So, it didn't work for me at all.

Also, there is a great documentary available online called "Numb" about the horrible side effects of not titrating off long-term antidepressant use slowly enough. People in the documentary share their horror stories of the physical and mental side effects they experience during their antidepressant titration. Some of the people fail to get off their medication, whereas some succeed. So, if you ever decide to go off of your antidepressant, I highly recommend watching this documentary.