Science

There is still benefit for many people who take SSRIs and other antidepressants/antianxiety. I have found sertraline to be pretty helpful, personally. That said, this review is consistent with the notion that depression is not simply a serotonin deficiency. I've seen some arguments that neurotransmitter reuptake inhibitors work for more complicated chemical reasons because of the way that serotonin and other neurotransmitters interact with each other. I've also heard the argument that while SSRIs are good, it's no better than a true active placebo that mimics the side effects of an SSRI. I'm certainly not a medical expert, but I'd caution against telling people that a medicine someone is taking is actually doing nothing. It's not uh...it's not really what you want to hear someone else put on you, especially for political reasons. Much better I think to simply acknowledge that the drugs can help some people's symptoms, and then pivot into the myriad social material causes of depression and anxiety, namely being human in an inhuman capitalist hellscape.