I think you are totally right; when you search information on anti-depressors on the net, you inevitably find so many posts of ordinary peaple enduring suffering and difficulties to get off them; many of the new generation (prozac etc...) are terribly addictive, probably more than when you occasionnally take a tablet of exctacy, a glass of whisky, or even a joint. all I read really put me off, so I've always avoided the stuff, even if a - what I would call negligent doctor - prescribed such stuff to me.
I am sceptical about people who are prompt to say "oh, depression is genetic"; I suspect it's also a good way to avoid any kind of responsability, wether you are a parent, or any member of a culture/society;
there is something else I find somewhat confusing: almost all anti-depressors provoke a form of sexual castration - hum rather depressing I find: a drug which happily makes you accept to have no sex life or sexual desire; strange I would say.
The other part of the problem is a more corporate issue: how much pharmaceutical firms are earning on these addictive drugs? logically the more they are addictive, the more they will earn; if they can get ordinary people who are just meddling with ordinary problem to take drugs for all their life - this is a really good deal for them.