system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: why do people react differently to anti-depressants, and differently to different kinds of anti-depressants?
gpt
The answer will be a bit unsatisfying because honestly we just don't know. We don't know entirely why or how anti-depressants even work. We don't know entirely why or how depression works. And not all cases of depression have the same chemical reasons behind them.

What we do know is that, X, Y and Z chemicals, in most cases, can help alleviate A, B and C symptoms. And you just have to try them out. If you have a mental illness you can go through dozens of medications and therapies before you find one that works, and might never find one.

And most don't really 'cure' a disease so much as alleviate enough of the symptom to help people manage their life, which is why most drug therapy is ideally coupled with behavior and psychology therapy. They sometimes can only act as a life preserver to help you learn how to swim better, even if other people seem to be born with rafts. Some people will just have a lifetime of working harder ahead of them, and it's not fair, but we just don't know enough yet to fully help them. All we can do is smooth things out as best as we can.

And that isn't to say that most 'neurotypical' people aren't working hard to control and maintain their 'raft' either. It's a learned skill for everybody. They still have to learn to manage stress, social awareness situations, etc. It's just that the disease more or less robs you of an advantage. The medicine and therapy are there to help you get as much of it back as you can, and that's often all it can do.

That's also part of why it's so important to be patient with and respectful of people with 'invisible' illnesses. Not every illness causes visible injuries.