[PheonixPharts]

> mental health and medications.

The individualization of mental health problem misses that there are very likely systemic causes of depression.

I've gone through several severe periods of depression, and at the time it all seemed like something was wrong with me and this is the prevailing narrative. In retrospect all of these were caused by a very real external problem in my life that I didn't see (depressing job, emotionally abusive parents, unhealthy marriage etc).

I have no doubt that had I sought medication in any of these cases I would have been given it. But that would have prevented me from being forced to realize the very real problems in my life.

In a broader perspective there are plenty of wide spread social issues that are very likely legitimately causes depression. The idea of simply medicating this away is akin to simply giving Tylenol to someone who has a abscessed tooth. I'm horrified at the wide adoption of medications (often with adverse side effects) to mask what are very real and legitimate sources of depression.

A better alternative is to openly discuss and challenge the prevailing social issues leading to a mental health crisis.