No, the meds are more like you calling the fire department to help put out the u201cfire in your brainu201d so you can get to the safe place where you can then make the changes needed to prevent that u201cfireu201d from happening again. Your question shows a common misconception. Depression is NOT caused by outside influences like an abusive spouse or a bad job situation. (Though those issues will make the depressed person feel even worse, so getting away from those situations IS also part of the treatment, if possible)Depression is a chemical imbalance within the brain that makes the proper use of serotonin within the brain much harder. Instead of staying and helping you feel u201cgoodu201d and focused/happy, it simply gets absorbed and drained away before it can u201cworku201d. Antidepressants work by allowing the serotonin to stay IN the brain where it belongs. So, you take the anti depressants (Most are SSRIs Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors) to help normalize the brain function. (Put out the fire) and then use talk therapy to help the person to either find a way to change the issues in their life that are making their brain issues harder to deal with (u201cchange their lifeu201d), OR they learn coping mechanisms so those issues arenu2019t as damaging. Which the person needs depends on what their life is like. My husband has battled depression. Talk therapy made him realize that the things/people he THOUGHT were needing to change were NOT the other persons/things but things within himself and issues from his childhood. He couldnu2019t have learned this without FIRST getting the chemical imbalances in his brain fixed. It took years, but thankfully with medication and therapy he was able to make it through that horrible situation. He is now off the meds, but says they were a literal lifesaver.