I haven't read through the entire thread of posts. I thought I'd give my perspective without that filter first.

Antidepressants or any of the psych meds work differently and at different degrees for different people, and sometimes just don't work at all. First thing, is that it sometimes takes trial and error to find the right combination. Be patient and work with your doctor.

Second of all, I'll say that antidepressants aren't a cure, they aren't a miracle drug and don't fix everything so you can just go on with life and not have to worry about it again. Even temporarily at best they take the edge off the depression and soemtimes they only work temporarily, causing you to have to up the dose (by dr. recommendation of course) or change meds. Any mental illness, whether physically induced or environmentally, I believe requires work on our own to learn to deal with and cope with life differently. Even if at worst, you stay on meds for long term, I think it's only a partial remedy and without therapy or work on our own part, they have only limited results.