Not a psychologist so take it with a grain of salt but from what I've heard over the years, medication isn't supposed to fix any major problems. Simply because as of now there is no magic pill that will heal you without deteriorating your body or coming with other extremely dangerous side-effects. I've never taken depresso meds myself, can't tell for sure what they do with you, but I talked to many people who just report temporary numbness, sleep improvement and stuff like that. Guess you can call that "passive" effects. The purpose is basically to stop unsettling emotions and nothing more. I believe.
Therapy... Apparently therapy works for some people and doesn't for others. They say therapy is an effort from both sides - you need to be determined to change something and the therapist is the one who knows the best ways for helping you get there. Sounds legit. I saw a therapist in my early childhood to fix some of my social issues I think... don't exactly remember. I hated therapy because I was forced to attend it and fixated my mind on not listening to any advice. Cause, obviously, I am incredibly smart and know better than everyone else, right? The result was a complete waste of time and money for my parents. I can imagine it would've turned out better if I hadn't been such a stubborn little bitch. Although, to be fair, there are certainly some things that cannot be fixed regardless of the effort you put in. And that's really heartbreaking.
Mindfulness is weird. Tried different spiritual fuckery. Kind of worked at first but didn't last long. It's probably a personality type thing, like working out or socializing or whatever. People say getting jacked will get rid of all your insecurities and make you a happy person. It does, I guess? For as long as you're committed to it, at least. There's no point in forcing yourself to be an athlete when you know this lifestyle has no meaning to you. There's no point in forcing yourself to make as many friends as possible when you prefer to be alone. And, ultimately, there's no point in cramping up that mindful energy when you couldn't give less of a shit about it.
For most people there are proven ways to get out of crippling depression. That's why standardized guides for psychologists exist. They just don't work every time. Depression is a frustratingly complicated condition, you even see that very clearly on SaSu. You can have person A sruggling immensely with something that person B has no issue with and likewise you can have the same treatment show totally different results for two people that fight the same inner demons. The human brain is a terribly sophisticated mess that even after decades of data-driven research we still don't understand nearly enough to be able to give universal recommendations for mental health.
Every year or so I re-read A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. You know, that futuristic dystopia where newborns get conditioned to perform specific tasks once they get older. I think it's a great world, actually. They have that magic pill that fixes all your mental problems in an instant without notable side-effects. Everyone's a hundred percent happy, all they need to do is pop that pill. Eventually they'll get euthanized peacefully to make room for future generations. I know it's going off-topic now but I just needed to mention that to me this isn't a dystopia. Who cares how exploitative that world is, everyone's sky high 24/7 so why would they mind? It's utopic as hell and reminds me of how our society could start aiming for such a world if we changed the way we look at ethical behavior. We do have the tools but are not allowed to utilize them in a way that would genuinely stop suffering instead of just covering it in a layer of stupid numbness.
I really apologize for this long-ass comment.