I know, I know, it's an oversimplification.  A media-spawned buzzword.

But that's not all it is.  It contributes to the stigma of the mentally ill as lazy or weak to call anti-depressants "happy pills" like that's all we need to be happy.

I can't tell how it works for everybody, but for me, the antidepressants shut out that vile, evil little voice which isn't really so little. It overtalks by sheer volume everything else that may be happening in my head, and when things aren't going well, it may as well have a megaphone.

Unless I'm on one of my medications.  The medication makes it so that even though the vile, evil little voice never stops talking -- its volume is turned down so low I can't hear it anymore.  I can have silence inside my head, and if you have ever had a head full of noise become blessedly silent, you know what a relief it is.  If you can have total peaceful silence in your mind without medication, then you know how lucky you are.

It is not a matter of being happy. It is a matter of silencing the noise that hurts so I can function at all.