I've been on antidepressants for a number of years. Fought my T tooth and nail about them for around a year, because there's so much self medication in the my family I was really wary of getting dependent on a drug. Finally gave in (cause at the time I was in pretty bad shape) and got a script from my GP. At my insurance company's insistance I went to a psychopharmocologist (psych who specializes in meds just in case you haven't heard the term). I started out on Nortripyline which is a really old one at this point and it helped except it had two side effects for me, increased appetite (last thing I needed as I'm morbibly obese (but not for long!!)) and it decreased my libido, which I didn't really clue into until I got off it and suddenly new life returned
(Sorry, if that's TMI). At my doctor's suggestion I moved to Wellbutrin which took a while for me to settle into but I'm doing well on it, and its definitely been better in the food department. I seem to do well on meds because it stabalizes my low point so to speak. There's only so far I go down and no further. I would like to get off them eventually (and I have been doing therapy the whole time I've been on them. I've never viewed them as a solution, simply one more resource to allow me to do the work in therapy to heal) but things are going really well, I'm feeling good and really aren't suffering any side effects so my meds doc and I have decided to leave well enough alone. I will agree with a lot of what you've heard which is different people can have very different reactions to different medications. It takes a little while to see if one works for you and it can take some time to find the right one. All that said, I would have to say on balance that they've helped me. But I do go once every three months to check in with my doctor. And I agree with JM that its important to see a specialist for them. They really do have a lot more knowledge and experience using these types of meds.
AG