Definitely not a last resort. Most people don't have side effects, and of the ones that do most are mild and go away within a few weeks. For me it was night sweats and sexual dysfunciton. The sweats went away in 2 weeks, the other took some months. My pdoc said nausea was the most common.

Keep in mind that with ALL antidepressants, a "high" incidence of side-effects is 10%. It seems higher if you're reading people's personal stories because no one goes on line to write about how they didn't have side-effects.