I think your wariness is warranted. Many anti-depressants come with some unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. These usually are things like dizziness, flu-like symptoms or worse... and ironically, depression. So getting off them can make you think you need them.

I'm generally an advocate of antidepressants. If a pill can improve your mood why the hell would anyone refuse? There are many people and studies which suggest that most of the effect is placebo. My only reaction to that is why nobody has come up with a sugar pill and labelled at as an antidepressant because I love sugar, so it's all good.

I veered off topic for a bit there, but if you are really depressed and have ruled out obvious causation (someone died, SAD, break up, isolation, etc.) then it's worth trying. It is better than being depressed. If it is a localized problem then deal with it in other ways.

Good luck with it, hope you feel better.

I've done it with anti-anxiety medication, with an agenda: to use that time of non-funk to figure out how to live unmedicated. My initial drug use was for social anxiety, so I paid attention to how I interacted with people when I was on the drugs, and when I went off them I could still access those experiences as a model. I went back on the medication later when I was going through a particularly stressful time in my life, and it helped me get everything done without falling apart.

Along the same lines, that psychiatrist who gave me the first prescription said, "One day you're going to want to get some good therapy, so you won't necessarily have to be depending on the drugs." You may find that being medicated makes it harder to access and explain your depression to a therapist, but on the flip side, being able to view your emotions from above instead of being stuck in the muck might make them clearer--easier to explain and analyze.

I don't know a lot about the various, reportedly-awful potential side effects of the current crop of anti-depressants, so I'll let others help you with that, but in theory this could be a very useful time if you're up for some emotional work. And if you're not, it might still make your life better for six months.

I totally understand your wariness & skepticism. In generally, I think our culture is really overmedicated and that sometimes drugs are prescribed when lifestyle changes or other things could do the job.

HOWEVER, and to echo what other people have said, if you're at a point in your mental health that you are too depressed to try to do anything about it, an anti-depressant can lift you out of the funk long enough to make the necessary changes or re-evaluate what you need to re-evaluate. If you're so depressed that you can't do anything but be depressed, taking a pill for a bit can be really, really helpful. When I first started taking an SSRI, I was like: "holy shit. you mean I DON'T have to feel like garbage all the time? you mean I actually CAN get out of bed?!?! Amazing!" Being on medication made me feel MORE like myself. I was still me, just me without constant self-hatred.

Also, I highly highly highly recommend that you see a therapist while on medication. There are some amazing ones in Seattle, including plenty that are on a sliding scale if you're concerned about money.

Good luck! I hope you start feeling better soon.

Anti-depressants are not a cure - they won't make you happy and healthy on their own. But they might help you climb out of despair and get functional enough to make lifestyle changes that will get you out of your funk. Or they might not do anything for you - everyone's different.

I took Wellbutrin for awhile, twice - probably more than six months, but not more than a year at a time. It helped me get up out of bed in the morning and keep my job, deal with paying the bills, etc. The only regret I have is that I didn't see a therapist at the same time. I would not say that I was happy, but was functional and am thankful for that.

The main thing that helps me is being active and getting outside every day. My primary care doc advised going for a walk around noon, even if it's cloudy, because natural light and exercise can really help with mild to moderate chronic depression. I think eating well and on a regular schedule helps too.

If you can, definitely see a therapist or psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse if you start the anti-depressants (if you're not already). I think their more specialized experience would be helpful. If your doctor really "insisted" you take anti-depressants, I'm appalled. They should have given you all the options, including talk therapy.

I like pickled ginger's answer a lot too.

You can stop them whenever you want if you don't like them. Don't go on Effexor XR, that's the worst for withdrawal, but if you taper off the rest of them, following doctors directions, stopping a med really isn't much of a big deal. It's always your choice.

I'm pretty sure the answer is yes. I think the idea here is that it's difficult to figure out why you're depressed while you are depressed. The meds could lift you out of the cloud so you can figure out what the hell is really going on and learn how to cope with it. Assuming this is something you can work through without meds, then a six-month course might be just the thing. The key is to make the most of the six months and figure out what works for you to keep you off of meds in the future, whether it's exercise, therapy, meditation, etc.

Assuming it's not seasonal, post-break up, post-partem, or some other temporary reason that you're depressed, I suspect if you took meds for six months and did nothing else to develop coping tools for yourself, then there's a good chance you'd need/want to continue taking them in the future.

I had a bad experience with anti-depressants so I always try to warn people about taking them. For me I ended up feeling much worse and I experienced severe withdrawals while trying to get off them.

A have a few problems with these drugs. First, there really is no way to measure the effectiveness of them directly. You can't measure serotonin before and after taking the drugs to see if there really is an improvement. Also, for many of the drugs the way they work really isn't understood. That doesn't give me a lot of confidence. When I wasn't feeling better the doctors just kept increasing the dosage and adding other drugs.

I have read some studies that state that 54% of people feel better after taking these drugs. That isn't a very good success rate. Placebos work around 44% of the time. I would rather take the placebo (or not take anything) than deal with the side effects and withdrawal.

The side effects for me were exhaustion, weight gain, sexual dysfunction and constant thirst. I'm not sure how I am supposed to feel better while experiencing all of that. Plus I couldn't concentrate at all.

It sounds like a lot of people here have had good experiences, and that is great. I just want to state that I know a lot of people that have had bad experiences. Even though I am still depressed I would never take any of these drugs again.

Just to throw my hat into the ring, I'm a fan of antidepressants. I was really, really wary of taking any mood-altering drugs, but I finally caved about four years ago.

It took about 3 weeks, but one day, someone told me a joke and I actually laughed! It didn't change ME, it just felt like it flipped the switch in my brain that gave me permission to have feelings when I chose. You still have sad days. You're just not stuck there ALL THE TIME, no matter what.

There's lots of different flavors, so if you try one and have problems with side effects, tell your doctor and they can try another until you find what works for you.

Good luck! They made all the difference in the world to me. Better living through chemistry.

Yes. For me it was closer to a year, but close enough. I was going through a divorce and felt really anxious and depressed all the time. I took bupropion (generic Wellbutrin) in a fairly low dose for a year and it helped to stabilize me. My situation improved with time as well, and about a year later I simply stopped taking the pills. I didn't notice any withdrawal effects, although I was on vacation at the time, which might have helped. :)

Maybe she or he is just looking to give you a seasonal boost until the days get longer and weather gets sunnier?