define "work":
that a treatment is, on average, superior to placebo in a statistically significant sense, when adherence rate is good (i.e. reasonably low drop-out rate), and results evaluated over the length of time people are expected to follow with this treatment. with the harms subsequently studied, informed, prevented when possible, and suitably addressed following protocols developed.
it's possible to argue that *any* treatment there is doesn't work, *if* we're talking about individuals. and medicine works like that. every harm caused is 100% levered onto the MH client. it is for this reason that psychoeducation, informed consent, structuring feedback, and damage control are paramount.
but it's also clear as day that we don't have these things in place in our system. that antidepressants and antipsychotics are given out carelessly to make us less of a "problem" or a "burden". that the amount of ableism, gaslighting, victim blaming in the MH field is appalling. that so many of us on SS are psychiatric survivors/victims. that addressing the social realities we live in is more looking at the root cause, than having everyone put on smiley faces in unbearable social conditions. that prevention is always superior than treatment. to have us not being forced to dig our own graves, than "preventing" us being buried into or jumping into it.
drugs never ever worked compared to *these* things. social changes and anti-ableism.
