I probably can't argue with you in any sort of rational way although I don't really think this is a rational topic. Beyond situations where people really need psychiatric treatment in order to keep from being harmful, the arguments largely have to do with people's values.

Personally I don't think there's any method of reporting that could quantify my experiences both on and off antidepressants but I can tell you that there are many times in my life that I have suffered far worse than when my meds were "working" and even in those desperate moments and even more so now, I never would have told you to I preferred to go back on meds. I'm proud of myself for building the sense of self necessary to endure suffering in life and cobble together the sense of peace and practices I use to get through those times. When I was on meds, I was delivered from suffering because I knew about certain concepts. I knew my way out of unhappiness. Now, all I can say is I barely ever felt a thing compared to what I feel now and I know I've cultivated is completely different. With all of that said, if you ask me on any given day what my mood might be, perhaps I may have self reported a better existence. Of course I didn't know at the time I was so "content" that I, for example, was staying with a girl that I didn't love at all for no reason other than lack of self confidence comforted by the fact that I wasn't trying to kill myself.

I've grown so much in the years since and I can only say that I absolutely never would have done it without getting off meds. I am deeply unhappy with the fact that I was ever put on them because they stole a decade or more from my life. I remember saying to myself "I still believe There's no point to life and suicide is okay but..." And my train of thought would encounter a discontinuity that never let me finish the sentence. I was so "content" that I would never have let anyone know I thought that stuff. After all, it wasn't hurting me. I didn't feel it.

That's my experience. Posted non-anonymously.