[AmazThrowAway]

I would warn you against taking the responses that you read on here (including this one) as an objective sample -- HN is not representative of the broader world, and (just like with product reviews) your sample may be biased towards people who either LOVE them or HATE them (and are thus motivated to comment).

However, I can tell you some references that helped me become much less stressed about SSRIs and their friends, and indeed if they were indicated by a doctor I would now take them much more readily.

Scott Alexander (pen name) is a psychiatrist (MD) and all-around smart due who writes extensively about the medical system, medicine for mental health, and the challenges these systems create. He has an excellent series of blog posts which review the data :

https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/07/ssris-much-more-than-y...

https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/11/07/ssris-an-update/

It's scary to take drugs which alter your mental state. I don't drink and have never done any sort of recreational drug for this reason. But Scott helped convince me that both it was both possible that SSRIs would help me and unlikely that they would cause long-term damage.