> My experience with SSRI's has been that taking away that mechanism is taking away creativity, emotional range, and introspective ability.

I'm not talking about SSRI's, I mean a theoretical way of removing only depression and the similar kinds of chronic anxiety. You can be very creative and introspective without being actively depressed.

> Reality distortion is reality distortion.

It's depression that distorts reality, even to the point of making you feel negative emotions that you know aren't true but can't stop.

> I reject procrustean medicine that fits humans to the mold of what is best for society, which is the primary environment in which anxiety/depression originate.

That's great. Me too. But that's really a different issue. You could fix that entirely, and you'd still have people hurt by depression.

That can fall amongst their side-effects, but it doesn't have to be. If you are experiencing them you should absolutely discuss that with your doctor, and whether the side-effects are tolerable at the level they are at. They also don't distort reality, they raise the level of serotonin in your brain. Now on the opposite side we do not have a fundamental understanding of how any of that works. For instance, the serotonin levels in the brain of a healthy person might be lower than those of someone suffering from depression. We simply don't have the knowledge know why things are happening specifically.

Speaking from personal experience, which is all I can really do given that I am not a medical professional, they brought be back to a basic level of functionality. In direct regards to what you had mentioned they didn't take away creativity, emotional range, or introspective ability, quite the opposite in fact. Before I began treatment I was rapidly falling towards not ever leaving my room and hiding from people all the time. I am not saying they are for everyone. I just want to point out that we all need to be careful assigning our experiences to others on this.