If you're taking other medicines, it's important to consider how an antidepressant will work with the other medicines. Some antidepressants don't work well with some foods. Your doctor will either not give you that kind of antidepressant or you will have to stop eating those foods. These drugs aren't tranquilizers. They aren't addictive.
All antidepressants have some side effects.
But most of the side effects happen in the early weeks of therapy. Most of them go away after a little while. You might have different side effects with different medicines. You have to be careful if you get sleepy or dizzy when you take tricyclic antidepressants. It's not good to drive or operate machines when you take them, because they affect your reflexes and your attention span.