"Again, your reasoning is not based on data. Meta-analyses show that cognitive-behavioral therapy is as effective as or more effective than SSRIs for the treatment of depression (Dobson, 1989; Shea, 1992). In fact, changing a person's maladaptive thinking and behavior is a useful, cost-effective therapy with few side effects."
My own experience bears this out. The drug companies push drugs as the cheaper solution, but the truth is that in the long run they are not. My mother has been on anti-psychotics for thirty five years, and she will take them until she dies. That cannot possibly be cheaper than a couple of years of analysis/therapy. Oh, and while this drug regimen has kept her from going over the edge, it has done absolutely nothing for her agoraphobia or her anxiety. The side effects, they are plenty and not pleasant.
I don't think anyone objects to using drugs during the acute phase of "mental illness" so as to enable the patient to work with a therapist...but otherwise, I would not advise any friend to take that route.
Joanna