What's wrong with taking a pill IF it helps you feel better? I haven't been on any mood enhancing medication before, but I swear there were times I would have killed for some normality. I think the idea is to take away the symptoms with medication, so you can finally get to the problem.
This was probably addressed to the OP, but I'll take a stab at answering.
--I have no problem with an adult making their own informed (being the operative word) decision about what to do about their health. If someone knows the real pros and cons about taking a medication and decides to take it, more power to them.
--The problem comes when
1) The patient isn't informed. When the doctor prescribes a medication for a symptom but doesn't tell the patient that a) it's new and there's no way to tell long-term effects, b) that there are proven short-term/long-term effects, c) that there are other, non-prescription drug options for their symptoms, or d) the doctor believes the drug is safe by reading the FDA's approval of it but doesn't realize that the test trials for the drug were somewhat smudged by the pharmaceutical companies to cover up side effects or something else that's wrong so they can make more money (this does happen). When any of these happen, the patient is not fully informed of the potential risks.
2) When the patient has done research on potential side effects of the drug versus non-prescription drug options to treat the symptoms, decides they're not comfortable with taking the drug, and the doctor doesn't accept their right to decide.
--I don't believe that every pharmaceutical drug out there, psychiatric or not, is bad and causes terrible side effects. But there are many that do. And that's why we all need to be careful with what we decide to put into our bodies. If we're feeling bad already, we don't need to feel worse, and that won't help to get to the root of the original problem. Being FDA-approved doesn't mean safety. Look at all the drugs that were approved but ended up being recalled because of the side effects.
If someone is fully informed and decides to take the medication, that's their right.
If someone is fully informed and decides
not to take the medication but looks to alternative therapies, the doctor should respect that that's their right too!