I share your skepticism. Sadly that wrong idea about the nature of mental illness has impeded the understanding and usefulness of the mental health industry and resulted in many more suicides than necessary in my opinion. That is why it is such a important thing to correct. I think the small chemical changes that a person has when they are facing big challenges in their life are actually the brain adapting to deal with those challenges. So it is not a illness but a healthy adaptation. It actually speeds up the brain so that it can find the solutions that are needed. The drug therapy aimed at reducing brain function then prevents the patient from being able to deal with the real problems in their life. The patient feels their mental acuity drained by the medicine and knows that they will have no hope of resolving their pressing problems. That is when they get desperate to act before their self control is completely taken away by the drugs. That is when the suicides happen in that moment of desperation resulting from the drug therapy. That is when death is seen as better than having the mind virtually killed. The patient on those drug treatments has to then just mark time without any progress so long as they are being medicated. It is very “soul destroying”. (does not actually damage the soul. It makes the heart feel worthless) The improvement of symptoms is largely the effect of aversion therapy. The patient is so averse to the drug treatments that they will do anything they can to convince the doctor that they are “better”. There is seldom any trust of any doctor who would inflict such damage. After a few years of drug treatment life feels completely empty and meaningless. The effect of psychiatric drugs also destroys relationships. Long time loyal friends are eventually worn down by the results of drug therapy on the patient and he is no longer welcome. That is another time when suicide is likely or extremely reckless acts as a result of that complete lack of purpose or meaning. Then maybe years later if they are lucky enough to be allowed to get off the medicine they have to try to pick up the pieces where they were so rudely interrupted only now with brain damage caused by all those medications. The chemical imbalances that do cause mental malfunction are those caused by recreational party drugs that cause serious brain damage. That is real imbalance of a high order completely different from the natural fluctuations experienced by a person facing difficult challenges in their lives. I have no personal experience of those drugs so I have no idea how to treat that kind of damage. The mental health industry may have been trying to help people but they really have been out of their depth for a very long time. The best Doctors know that the best thing they can do for most patients is to get them out of hospital and off of medication as soon as possible. I fear that the pharmaceutical industry has a conflict of interest. The profits from psychiatric drugs are a very powerful motive to alter the evidence to keep as many patients as possible on the highest dosages for as long as possible. Do people realize how much those drugs cost? A very funny thing about all this is that the members of the public see the side effects of the medicine and think it is a mental illness. It is not a illness folks, it is the effects of the medicine. You have to laugh.