Consultant: I was diagnosed XXX in XXX hospital psychosomatic medicine department (or psychiatry or psychology department), and the doctor suggested me to take antidepressants, but I have been hesitating, worrying that the drugs are addictive and I can’t stop and need to take these drugs all the time, so I would like to ask if antidepressants can be addictive. In response to the above concerns of patients, I would like to say: The reason why people have concerns in this area is mainly due to the lack of understanding of this piece of medication. To give a simple example: Is it due to drug dependence that hypertension and diabetes medications need to be used for life? Because people know a lot about these common chronic diseases, they are able to understand them correctly and do not associate lifelong medication with drug dependence. The reason why people think that this type of drug dependence is mainly due to the fact that most of these diseases are chronic, prolonged or relapsing diseases, where the duration of drug use is long, which brings misunderstanding and illusion to patients. In fact, except for benzodiazepines and central nervous system stimulants, psychiatric drugs (antipsychotics, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, etc.) do not have addiction problems and do not lead to dependence. The following is the definition of drug dependence: Drug dependence: A mental and somatic pathological state characterized by a strong craving and repeated application to obtain pleasure or avoid unpleasant feelings, as proposed by WHO in 1974. It is a group of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological symptoms in which individuals continue to use addictive substances (chemical substances that can affect the human mind, mood, behavior, alter the state of consciousness, and cause dependence, and are used to obtain or maintain certain specific psychological and physiological states) even though they understand the obvious problems associated with their use, and self-medication results in increased tolerance (drug users must The result of self-medication is increased tolerance (the drug user must increase the dose to obtain the desired effect, or use at the previous dose will not achieve the effect sought by the user), withdrawal symptoms (a specific group of psychophysiological symptoms that occur when the drug is discontinued or the dose is reduced or the receptor is occupied with an antagonist), and impulsive drug-seeking behavior.