I know this is probably a late post to this thread but I wanted to share my experiences with anti- depressants:
In late 2013 I suffered greatly from depression, I had been going to counselling and then was referred to a local CAMHS about 6 months before this. All through my life i have suffered from anxiety (and still do) but when I started college it got so much worse. By the time I was going to CAHMS i was suicidal and just generally down. I was first perscribed 10ml of fluoxetine (prozac) in liquid form then moved onto 20mg in tablet form. And I seriously cannot believe how much it helped me! I was in such a state back then, when i think about it I feel like such a different person now. If you feel like you cant do anything else in order to help how you're feeling with your depression I would say try it out, but I would say to try other forms of help before hand like counselling or therapy. Anti depressants should only be used if other methods havent worked. Good luck with everything! remember that it does and will get better!
PS: as for side effects, I didnt really feel anything, just slight anxiety if I had forgotten to taken my pill that day or something (but that could just be me and my own anxiety issues) but apart from that nothing