Surferjet you're really NOT getting it.
It's NOT 'finding the willpower/strength to carry on' for those of us with severe depression it's LITERALLY being unable to function - at my worst I couldn't spell my name! Remember my dob! On one especially bad occasion I couldn't speak - as in my brain couldn't facilitate the physicality of speech, needed someone to physically dress me.
Slightly less bad time I've been in supermarket UNABLE to choose which tin of beans I needed, couldn't work out which notes/coins I needed to hand over to pay.
"I’m old enough to remember when AD’s were called ‘tranquillisers’" no - they are COMPLETELY different medications they weren't just called something different. Tranquillisers were used for depressed people but they were never antidepressants.
"Is my depression not as bad as the woman on antidepressants?" Sorry to be blunt but no! It's a scale but temporary low mood even normal grief is not depression. Constant INABILITY to function on anything approaching a normal level IS but even that is on a sliding scale. Not everyone who is depressed is depressed enough to need antidepressants, and if that describes you at your worst, it doesn't make your depression any less important to you, but it means you don't understand fully understand what it's like to be at the other end. And as such are really unqualified to comment that they're not necessary for people who are that ill!
Most if not all of us with severe depression start off being dismissive ourselves - because we don't know better - and trying things like improving sleep, eating better, exercise, chatting with friends, all sorts to "cheer ourselves up" it's when these and other methods of dealing with depression DO NOT WORK even over months/years that it becomes clear to our Drs and ourselves that we NEED something more.
If you're able to feel better from a splash of water etc great - but that's not severe depression you're suffering from if that's the case.
It's like someone with a gashed knee that simply needs cleaning & dressing at home, saying to someone with a broken leg to do the same as them!
And your family/life situation doesn't necessarily mean you won't be/get severe depression either there are people with everything they could wish for in life who STILL suffer from severe depression - look at the celebrities that do, they often have supportive families, no money worries, lovely homes etc and yet still are very ill.
While it's daft to compare and overly concern ourselves with "is my depression worse than hers" in real life, I think in the context of this discussion and the dismissive, sometimes uncaring comments made by some here that say or imply those of us who do/have taken ads are simply "weak" or "lazy" or not trying hard enough to "get over" our depression I think it IS important to recognise that not everyone's depression is the same or the same severity.
"I think this thread makes it very clear that some people still don't, or don't want to, understand that mental health issues can be completely debilitating. They refuse to comprehend it because they have not experienced it, so they are lacking in empathy." Totally agree.
"We need to stop viewing mental ill health as a medical disorder, it isn't." In some cases it is. Just because the seratonin theories are now being challenged doesn't mean it's not medical. Genetic & brain structure causes & others do mean it could be medical.
And even the "chemical imbalance" isn't necessarily being completely discredited, some of the scientists saying it's not the amount of seratonin etc are saying it's different peoples response to those levels eg it may be that some people need more seratonin uptake than others as their BODY needs a greater input.
Not all depression is situational in cause or totally so.
I do agree that other treatments for mh are woefully underfunded and hard to access - but then do we simply abandon sick people to their illness because of that? Offer them nothing?
If you are a mh professional though I'm shocked that you don't understand the many NON situational causes of mental illness. Are you even medically trained?