Most cases of depression are caused because there is something or things in that person's life which is, consciously or subconsciously, causing that person stress, unhappiness or otherwise negatively affecting their mood. It's not being able to deal with that thing that depression can arise.
Anti-depressants work by essentially making you not care about the thing that was getting you down - short term, they "improve" your mood because you aren't bothered by it anymore. Long term, they allow you to confront the thing that was depressing you because you aren't anxious about it anymore, thereby removing the need to be on the drugs.
That said, anti-depressants are NOT fun to be on. The fact that they make you not case affects everything, not just the thing that was depressing you. My sister was on them for a while, and she said that while they helped, she was much happier when she came off them, because everything in life had flavour again, which she lost on the drugs. Suicidal tendencies can occur for that exact reason - if you don't case anymore, and you have a certain type of personality, you wouldn't care enough about your life not to die.
Note: I'm not saying that they don't work - I know at least two people who have had positive experiences with them, but they were only positive experiences because they were on the drugs short term, and they both had problems which the drugs allowed them to deal with. Being on them long term, or if the thing depressing that person wasn't something the drugs allowed them to confront, I can't imagine that kind of thing would end well.
\rant
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