Usually, for me it has been gradual changes, sometimes I haven't even noticed much difference but people around have noticed a change in my body language, so I look at people instead of the floor, also I will start to smile at people. One drug I was on I did just wake up "happy" about 3 weeks after starting to take it. That was wierd, but amazing too. Sadly the drug stopped working, not sure why, and after that all I got was side effects - I hadn't minded the side effects while the drug worked but once it stopped working I loathed the drug and the side effects.

As depression usually presents as a range of symptoms all with differing intensities, meds rarely offer a complete "fix", so they might help a lot with mood, but do nothing for poor sleep or they may be great for anxiety but cause emotional numbing. Given that, it is hard to know when a drug has worked, but I've found that most symptoms will subside (just some are slower than others) if the drug is going to work.

Generally, if none of your symptoms have improved after 8 to 12 weeks then it is fair to say the drug is probably not going to work. I'd also say that if your symptoms continue to get worse after about 4 to 6 weeks then the drug might be the wrong choice (although upping the dose could help).

One thing I've noticed is that the drugs are slower to work than the drug companies claim but also your doc will probably be on the slow side when saying that a med isn't doing it for you.

There are an awful lot of meds out there and even though I'm having huge problems finding the right one, I hope that meds will fix things eventually.