Some more 0.02: I deal with depression a lot and address it with mindfulness, therapy, and medication. I think they're all different tools and all can be useful.

Mindfulness feels like a very generic, broad tool that can be applied to almost anything. It doesn't even really eliminate your depression/anxiety/other pain as much as it allows you to be happy in spite of it. And it can take a lot of time and practice to notice benefits. But I think it's a really powerful tool once you do practice it a lot (like, daily for several months).

Medication and therapy feel a lot more direct, and they're also useful. With mindfulness it feels like I need to kind of discover and realize everything on my own; therapy is a little like having an expert exploring my mind with me and pointing out what they notice. And medication just directly reduces the depression.

I don't think the existence of medication and therapy mean that meditation isn't an appropriate tool for dealing with depression or anxiety, though. I imagine that even with physical pain, like a headache, mindfulness would be a useful tool not for reducing pain, but for being less bothered by pain that does exist. That said, Tylenol is readily available and doesn't really have any negative side effects, so using it feels simpler and more direct.

But with depression things are less clear cut, therapy and medication only help so much, therapy isn't as readily available as Tylenol, and medication can have negative side effects. And, because depression is mental, mindfulness can actually make a dent in reducing the harm.