I'm on Prozac. Mild side effects? When I started with it, my muscles hurt for weeks. I had to quit coffee (temporarily). I had to stop exercising (temporarily), and I was also very tired for weeks. Slowly all of that became less severe, though it never truly went away. Add to that, when I started my partner was about to bare our first-born. It was a hell of a time in my life, in many ways. A rollercoaster for sure. I still need to be very careful with alcohol (about twice as strong effect). One glass of alcohol at a cocktail party at Friday afternoon on work can rub the wrong way, as it did the other day.

> It’s fuether compounded by the fact that most antidepressants have severe or annoying side effects.

As does Prozac.

Nearly all medicine have side effects. People should be informed about them (it is included with the medicine, at least here).

When depressed or suicidal, the advice of going to your doctor is good. The advice to be open about anti depressants as well (though you didn't give it, one could deduce it from your post). The advice to go for this specific brand because "no severe or annoying side effects? Bad advice.

Honestly, I had less side effects from Zyban/Bupropion and Citalopram.

Full disclosure: I don't use Prozac/Fluoxetine for depression (though one could argue I suffer from depression); I used it so I can better cope with autism.