Antidepressant medication as we know it today came into existence around 70 years ago. Before then, I guess people were just somehow much better at and more capable of managing their mood and emotions despite going through 2 brutal world wars not long prior, as well as all manner of other horrific shit before then and throughout all of human history. Famines, fires, plagues, wars, genocides etc beyond counting.
The prevalence of antidepressants and the prescribing thereof is directly proportional to the increase in reliance on the internet, as well as the concurrent decline of people actually going outside and interacting with each other and engaging with hobbies in person.
I've also been through some rough times in my life (just like every other motherfucker to ever exist), but I will never take any form of chemical antidepressant. Ever. Why would I bother, when just spending time out in nature is an antidepressant. Talking with other human beings in person is an antidepressant. Exercising and working out is an antidepressant. Living in a clean, tidy home is an antidepressant. Preparing and eating healthy home-cooked food is an antidepressant. Refining a hobby or skill is an antidepressant. Spending time with your loved ones is an antidepressant. Looking away from computer/phone screens for a few hours a day is an antidepressant.
Popping a pill to trick your brain into thinking you're happy is fake bullshit artifice.
The way I see it, the only real purpose to antidepressants is that they are a requirement for living in the modern day always online digital world- in which you wake up, work for 8 hours on a laptop in the spare room, eat a takeaway and go to bed. It basically serves the same function as the
Joy pills in that We Happy Few game. It's a way to force a square peg into a round hole and allow you to cope with an unnatural and both physically and mentally unhealthy lifestyle.
We live in the safest and most comfortable time in documented history thus far, yet it so often seems that at least half the population in the West (including children) are on some form of antidepressant medication. Seems a little bit strange and contradictory, if you ask me.