This is a little bit of a late response to this but sometimes the root cause of depression is an organic malfunction within the brain. I have suffered from depression since I hit puberty (36yrs old now) and trying to go without my medication (which I have desperately tried to do,via counseling, spirituality awareness and study, etc...) doesn't work. The brain is an organ like the pancreas is. And while you have some control over what goes on there, sometimes it can physically fail, like said pancreas in diabetics, and require medication to correct that failure. I agree that there are many people on anti-depressants that don't need to be and pharmaceutical treatment should be a last resort. But there are people who legitimately need them and cannot just address the source of the depression and fix it all on their own. It's a nasty problem to have because, unless you've experienced it firsthand, you can't understand what it's like to not be able to control a function of your brain. And the stigma attached to this illness, the judgement of others as to why you cannot "fix" the problem on your own, isn't helpful.