You should respect your judgment about keeping your opinions to yourself until you know what you are talking about. Many SSRI's are as non-addictive as any drug available. The great foolishness of talking about these medications as a class is that they are wildly different. This is not a good place for generalizations and especially not especially ignorant generalizations.
Long term, one should NOT mess with serotonin reuptake at all. If at all possible, avoid these drugs. But there may be some short term usefulness in certain situations with mentally healthy people going through a crisis.
It is my guess that you are not even a semi-professional from this bizarre comment.
It sounds like to me that you have had one or more bad experiences with anti-depressant medications. Some of the newer meds being pushed are bad news and you only need to read the literature to see the mountains of negative side effects reported, but all medications have the possibility of side effects. But so do foods, one taste of mango and my daughter needs to go to the Hospital. I can swim in them. Generalizations are the great enemy of understanding in this. Meds like Xanax, not an SSRI, are to be avoided and only taken for a very short term much like you describe for the "short term relief scenario, but in most situations Xanax should just plain be avoided because it is primarily an addictive depressant (anti-anxiety med) rather than an anti-depressant.
Physicians are now looking more to anti-histamines as anti-anxiety meds because they don't have the addictive properties of the prior anti-anxiety meds such as Xanax and Ativan.
But, Doctors still prescribe Oxycontin for pain knowing it is nearly a sentence to addiction and ruin, I don't know why. But, folks have their own agenda with respect to Anti-depressants. First and foremost, many people are not screened for depression mimickers before being treated for psychological depression. Cancer, Vitamin and Mineral deficiencies and many more things cause Depression as a symptom. Anti-depressants are completely ineffective in treating a Vitamin D deficiency.
I personally have suffered what is identified as Seasonal Affective Dysthemia every fall. But, I finally got a Doctor worth their salt and found that I was actually like completely lacking Vitamin D primarily because I live like a Vampire awake at night and sleeping during the day.
My skin could produce quite sufficient Vitamin D if I were to get into the Sunlight daily but I just don't do that enough. A Vitamin D supplement made a big difference.
Still with all of this, anti-depressants have their place. Prozac is one of the very best, but a few percent of folks have extreme side effects. When you first start taking these meds you should be monitored by family and your physician. Also, effective dose is everything with SSRI's. If your dosage is too low, it is completely useless. In my experience 95% of all prescriptions for SSRI's are not accompanied by any confirmation that the dosage is in the effective range, even though these medications are being prescribed in life or death situations.
People who are disposed to Bi-Polar affective mood swings are at the greatest risk when taking any Anti-depressant because they can suffer a period of Mania like the person who was prescribed Paxil. Its not the Paxil so much as their systems dysregulation of mood that is disposed to bi-polar response. For folks like this, many anti-depressants are extremely dangerous. This is why your Doctor or Psychiatrist is involved in making the choice to use these medications.
Competent Doctors are available but as in anything you have to be the judge of who you choose as your Doctor. Ultimately, you and your family are the ones to confront any mental illness. One needs to first understand Mental illness perhaps in terms of software and hardware. A hardware problem such as Bi-polar, Schizophrenic, or Organic illness or hormone, Vitamin, or mineral deficiency based depression requires dealing with the underlying Organic problem and the depression can or cannot be treated with anti-depressants based on whether this will just complicate the situation.
Software problems, such as excessive use of Cognitive distortions, Alcoholism, Drug Dependency, Compulsive-Addictive behaviors, PTSD, and Personality Disorders create depressive symptoms and to the extent that the depression is an attempt to repress or deny reality, anti-depressants are helpful as they force this processing. But, the underlying issues still exist and cause the individual to suffer depression over and over as the consequences of these conditions mount.
Talk therapy helps on some level, but Religion and 12 Step groups have provided much more effective long term solutions for most Human Software problems with the exception that your religious system and teacher matter. Folks who sell insanity in the guise of religion are not that helpful. But, good old praying to God once a week or more is.
I don't think we are talking about "addictive" here. I may not know what I'm talking about, but I can speak from personal experience. Quitting them IS hell. I don't know if they affect everyone the same, but a close friend of mine had the same experience with Paxil. To this day, I am convinced I really didn't need to be taking the stuff, but my doctor insisted at the time. Quitting Paxil was the mos maddening experience of my life. Not to mention, it made me lazy, fat, I couldn't sleep while taking it, the side effects were quite troublesome. But above all and the one thing I will never forget above all is the 2 months of hell going cold turkey. The only escape from it was sleep, and that doesn't work too well when you have a job.
Obviously, I can't critiqu every anti-depressany on the markey, but I think there are really only a couple of classes that have only mildy different formulas among the class itself.
I surely won't sit here and tell someone not to take it if their doctor is insisting, but I can sit here and tell you that getting off of this stuff is not a pleasant experience; it's an outright living nightmare. In my case, 15 years ago I would classify myself as moderately to severely depressed at the time and the medication either helped only in a minor way or I'm giving the drug credit for the natural course of healing... who knows. I decided to quit after sitting down and doing my own research. The placebo results from the drug testing are what prompted me to quit... they were exactly as this article stated, no better than placebo.
But I will say this, personally I'd rather be depressed and drug free if I'm ever in such a position again, that's how bad it was.