Anti-depressants divide the opinions - for some they area miracle drug, for others the work of the devil. I thought I might add my personal take on them.
The good: the right anti-depressant taken for the right reasons is simply fabulous. You go from a terrible state spending your days crying to normal life in 3 weeks or less.
The bad: if you're not very lucky, the wonderful effect of making your brain functional again comes with annoying to bad side-effects - from nausea and diarrhoea to migraines, headaches and/or a complete disappearance of your libido. Those side-effects may be temporary, the time your body adapts to the anti-depressant, or permanent for the whole time you're taking them.
The ugly: if you're very unlucky, your anti-depressant will have the opposite effect. It will take you from a bad place to a worse place, increase the despair, push you to suicide.
So why take them at all? Especially when the onset of depression has an identified trigger like grief?
In my experience, depression can be so debilitating that no psychotherapy is possible, simply because you are stuck in such a fog of awfulness, that you cannot think rationally.
Then, if you are lucky and get the right chemical for you (no anti-depressant works for everyone unfortunately) you can regain enough brain power to start processing whatever it is you want/need to change in your life.
Please reach out and talk to your friends, your GP and/or therapist if you think you may be experiencing depression.
Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, nor in any way affiliated to the pharmaceutical industry, I am only describing what I learnt from my personal and professional experience...