I think something the other poster’s comment (as fantastic as it was) didn’t touch on was that antidepressants are also being prescribed to treat symptoms of societal collapse. Poverty, wage slavery, lack of access to basic amenities and necessities, lack of access to secure income, economic divide, societal divide and many other factors are becoming more common and driving some of this apparent need for antidepressants. There’s a genuine mental health crisis - not of people who are born with issues of neurochemistry that need to be alleviated with medication but people whose needs are going unmet so they become depressed. Quality of life, and perceived quality of life, are strong protective factors against the development of many mental illnesses.