Thanks Steve, I agree these things are always a balancing act of benefit against side effects.
I have quite a long history with it. When I had my first bad episode 10 years ago, I was given Sertraline. I had a very bad reaction to it (what I now understand to be symptoms similar to serotonin syndrome) and because I mentioned my life long insomnia, I was given dosulepin to help me sleep. I took it for less than a year without any serious side effects. So when I had another episode 2 years ago, I asked for it again seeing as it had seemed to work in the past.
I've been on it for over 2 years now, been constantly gaining weight, and it hasn't stopped several mild episodes and the recent very serious one. As I posted in the depression general forum, my very unhelpful GP has now simply increased the dose. I now feel the addition sedation this has quickly caused will be a barrier to my being able to participate in therapy and address my almost complete anhedonia.
So I will be more insistent about exploring options at my next appointment, I'm sure not all SSRIs will have the same effect?