Happy Pills

I felt the need to write a blog today given that I won't be able to do another one on this date for 4 years!
So 'they' have now decided that anti-depressants are pretty much ineffectual, and people are just as well off taking placebo's. I beg to differ. If it is only the fact that they are taking a pill (and the content of the pill makes no difference) then why is it that it has negative affects on the person taking it too? Surely if it is all a cognitive response to believing you are taking a pill to make yourself better, then you wouldn't create negative reactions as well?
I don't see it as a bad thing that someone takes a pill which makes no difference to them physically if it helps them to access part of their mental self that they couldn't reach on their own.
That's not to say I think anti-depressants are the best thing to use to help with depression. In my opinion, nobody should be on medication without having at least tried counselling, or some other kind of therapy. They can be seen as an easy route out of depression, without having to disturb the waters by going to counselling. The trouble is though, they do make the lows easier to cope with but they take the shine out of the highs too. A bi-polar patient described it well on Holby City recently. She had stopped taking her Lithium and on being asked why, she said it was because she missed the sun shining and the brightness of the world when she was on a high.
Surely it's worth disturbing those waters and causing a few ripples to be able to live a life where you can handle the lows when you need to, and can embrace those highs?
To bring it back to the anti-depressants, if they are a necessary aid along the way then fair enough, use them (regardless of whether or not they technically do work). I know people who would not be here today if it weren't for those pills. They needed something to help them and fast. Those pills kept them alive long enough to be able to get the therapy they needed.