I've also noticed family members benefit greatly from SSRIs. The main skeptic point I have is I've also seen them absolutely get wrecked by what appears to them as supply chain failures (usually because they're unable to get a meeting with a physician in time for refills and no physician will grant them a "bridge" to the next appointment). Of course as we saw during COVID, supply chain failures of all sorts are possible even when society has not collapsed.
From the outside one of the biggest concerns I have is one of these supply chain failures will put them in even worse place than had they never taken them, as I've personally seen their withdrawal symptoms look far worse than their unmedicated baseline. It seems to be a "better day to day" with the added risk of extreme withdrawal and associated risks during these few in a lifetime supply failures.