Antidepressants are not addictive substances. Drug dependence, also known as drug addiction, refers to the ability of certain drugs to cause mental and somatic changes, such as mental pleasure, euphoria, hallucinations, etc., so that a person is immersed in them, and will somehow feel uncomfortable and irritable after not using the drug, and continues to use the drug periodically and continuously in order to experience the effects brought about by these drugs again, or to avoid the unpleasant feelings that arise without the drug. There are two criteria for drug addiction, one is psychological addiction, that is, a strong psychological desire to use the drug, to the extent of recklessly looking for drugs to eat; the second is physical addiction. It is manifested by the inability to break the drug, and once the drug is broken, there will be physical discomfort, inexplicable difficulty, irritability, etc.; it can also be manifested by the fact that the original dose of the drug has been unable to achieve the original effect. Common drug dependence is dominated by sedative-hypnotics (such as Valium) and narcotic-analgesic drugs (such as heroin and morphine). So, are antidepressants addictive and do they make people drug dependent? The vast majority of doctors and experts have shown that antidepressants are not addictive and do not cause drug dependence. Some of those who are concerned about antidepressants are those who have been taking antidepressants for a period of time and are frightened by the withdrawal reactions that occur when the medication is suddenly stopped. Some patients have severe withdrawal reactions and various adverse reactions, reminiscent of the withdrawal symptoms of drug addicts on TV, and fear that they will become dependent on drugs. After they continue to take the medication, these symptoms are relieved and they feel more and more like they can’t stop taking the medication. In fact, it’s not that you can’t stop the drug, but that you don’t stop the drug in the right way. Whether the withdrawal reaction occurs is related to the half-life and active metabolites of antidepressants, and the degree of withdrawal reaction is different for different antidepressants. In this case, if you feel better and want to stop the medication, please do so under the guidance of your doctor. Do not stop the medication without permission. There is another situation where you gradually reduce your medication and stop taking it according to your doctor’s instructions, but after a while, you feel that your condition has recurred and you are depressed again, so you go to the hospital and your doctor orders you to take the medication again. This is not a case of drug addiction, but the depression is not fundamentally relieved, and the condition fluctuates again. Because the development of science is not enough to solve the mystery of the cause of depression, it is not good enough in clinical practice to lift the cause of the disease and achieve fundamental control of depression. Some depressed patients may then need to take medication for life. As in the case of childhood diabetes, insulin supplementation is required from childhood until the end of life. Depressed patients do not necessarily start in childhood, and the duration of medication is not as long as one might think. Therefore, we still recommend that long-term use of antidepressants, following medical advice and using the lowest effective dose possible, will not only prevent relapse, but may also help protect neurological function and improve somatic conditions.