I had no effects from meds except horrible side effects. Luckily I had a pdoc that did research on meds & alternative treatments. He had found that 1800mg/day of the Omega -3 EPA (not DHA) wirks well on depression. I found one that also had a high dose of DHA. The EPA helped my depression & the DHA helped me regain memory & thinking ability. I would talk & just lose words before that.
At that same time I left the marriage I had been in for 33 years. Found an awesome T & after several years if intense DBT therapy & realuzed that my growing up environment had been stressful in a very similar way as my marriage. 54 years of living like that & other outside things happening brought me crashing down. Getting away from everything gave me the ability to start healing, using totally natural means.
This however seems to mostly apply to situational caused mental illness when one can remove themselves from the situation.
Chemical imbalances that may be inherited or drug induced are a different thing. Sometimes it is not easy to distinguish & even mental health professionals don't always get it because the symptoms all present themselves the same & when a situation becomes seemingly the norm even the person themselves doesn't get it.
I know my pdocs for years were frustrated by my horrible side effects & seemingly treatment resistent depression where I was hospitalized continually for sui attempts. Looking back I can see 20/20 that those attempts were seriously what I felt was my only way out of being trapped. A horrible 13 years of my life until a way out finally came to me.
Mental health & treatments are so complicated.