Gonna start taking Fluoxetine

Discussion in 'Pharmaceuticals' started by Geneity, Oct 10, 2008.

  1. Geneity

    Geneity self-proclaimed advocate

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    Yeah, so I went to see a psychiatrist today and I'm gonna start taking fluoxetine as my first anti-depressant. Fluoxetine is Prozac for those who don't know.

    Does anyone else have experience with this medication? I'm curious to know what sort of side effects people have gone through and when it really starts to show signs of working (I'm hearing a week or two).

    Also, I'm reading about how the only class of drugs I really care about and want to keep using occasionally, psychedelics, are the only ones I can't take anymore. What a buzzkill. Serotinergic drugs are dangerous now. Like most hallucinogens (affecting the 5-HT receptors). I've heard that DXM could cause serotonin syndrome with SSRI's as well. I hope that's not the case, because I love DXM. Nothing is mentioned of ketamine, which I plan to continue using, and of course weed.

    But hey, who knows. Maybe when the stuff kicks in I won't have the desire to use shit so often anymore. I just hope it works at least decently, because I've been losing this battle for over 3 years now.
     
  2. Feelings Of U4ia

    Feelings Of U4ia Senior Member

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    Prozac, from what I have seen and read about, seems to be one of the anti-depressants people tend to try to avoid, due to the really long list of side-effects, one of the big ones being the fact that it can reduce your sex drive to the point where you just never have the desire. Even though that is a big side-effect people dislike, there are a number of other problems associated with it's use.

    Like all SSRI's, side-effects are rampant, and can be serious. I have battled with depression for about 8 years, and still haven't made that leap to use an anti-depressant, mainly because I don't want to have to rely on a pill to make me feel "normal."

    There is a really big risk of suicidal tendencies with anti-depressants, if you decide to stop taking them, which is one of the main reasons I didn't want to start it, because it really is risky to get off of. Although the Wiki for Prozac states that suicidal ideation and behavior is rare in clinical trials with Prozac. It's much more common in children, but with adults it isn't common.

    You need to have a really good and trustworthy doctor who is really experienced in the field of anti-depressants and can taper you off slowly.

    Prozac usually is the main anti-depressant people start with though, from what I have gathered. It's like the base medication to get people used to the effects that anti-depressants produce, and then they go from there on trying to find the medication that will work well for you.

    I personally know people on Wellbutrin, and Zoloft, and the people on those are generally happy with them.

    As far as how long it will take before you notice any results, from what I have gathered I wouldn't expect a huge difference until about 4-6 weeks.

    Hope this helped a little, if you have any other questions, let me know and I will do what I can to help you.

    As cliche as it sounds, read up the Wiki for Prozac, it has some good information in there, as well as links to other resources about the medication itself.
     
  3. Geneity

    Geneity self-proclaimed advocate

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    I've read plenty on it and SSRI's and whatever. I was just asking for people with experience with this specific anti-depressant. I'm aware of all the horrid side-effects associated with SSRI's. That's why I didn't want to start taking them either.

    I've battled with it for over 3 years and fought people telling me take them. I've fought my mom making appoinments to see someone and the whole shebang. But at this point in my life I don't have time to go to therepy, so I'm trying this out.

    Believe me, the last thing I want is to need pills to feel normal. But I've forgotten what normal feels like. What it feels like to want to do things and not feel like I have to do them. To find motivation to get through things. Depression pretty much controls my life these days. My decisions, my actions, my thoughts. You think you feel normal now, but depression is a complete personality disorder. In the sense that it affects all attributes of who you are.

    The thought of a pill that can magically fix you is silly, but I just can't go on living like this anymore.
     
  4. Feelings Of U4ia

    Feelings Of U4ia Senior Member

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    You don't have time to go to therapy, but you have time to start taking a prescription that can completely change your everyday life and everyday thinking?

    Therapy is an hour a day, a couple days a week....I hardly can believe a 19 year old has that much responsibility that he can't commit to that but is okay taking a chemical that completely changes the makeup of his brain.
     
  5. Geneity

    Geneity self-proclaimed advocate

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    I'm also aware they're neurotoxic, but so are a lot of other, fun drugs. So eh. I'm certainly only taking them as long as I think I need them. And yeah if you put it that way I do have time on the weekends, but I'd rather sit alone feeling sorry for myself. Heh =(
     
  6. deleted

    deleted Visitor

    OMG GENE... you lost your mind.. :)

    Its ok. youll find it.
     
  7. Geneity

    Geneity self-proclaimed advocate

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    I know :(
     
  8. Feelings Of U4ia

    Feelings Of U4ia Senior Member

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    This is why you need to consider therapy, before anti-depressants.

    EDIT: I just wanted to make it clear that this was in NO way a personal attack, I was just stating that if you feel like that, you really should consider speaking with someone first, before jumping to drugs.

    On a side note: How the FUCK do you handle ANY kind of Psychedelics with depression? I can't even handle mushrooms or a low dose of LSD and I have what I would call mild depression, and you have severe depression and can smoke DMT like it's cool? Doesn't make any sense to me.
     
  9. IllCanabillyVanilly

    IllCanabillyVanilly Senior Member

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    i was prescribed prozac. i hated it. i went to the doctor and told him it wasnt working, hoping he would actually prescribe something that worked. no luck. he recomended me getting tested at the hopsital and putting me through all these tests because i guess he assumed i was drug-seeking. i said ok and just never responded back.
     
  10. s0ma

    s0ma Member

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    They put me on Prozac one time. I took it for about a week and a half and stopped taking it before it was supposed to start working because I went stark raving mad. I couldn't sleep at all, I filled notebooks with the craziest shit (reading them now I don't even remember writing any of it), I had cold sweats, and my pupils got huge.
     
  11. Geneity

    Geneity self-proclaimed advocate

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    Yeah my pupils are pretty much big all the time. Lol serotonin.

    This shit pisses me off. I can't do psychedelics now, I can't even do high, insane doses of DXM because it releases serotonin. I'm stuck with ketamine. While it's fun (and I find it to be quite addictive) the amount of time it lasts makes it expensive.
     
  12. Gormur

    Gormur Member

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  13. prismatism

    prismatism loves you

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    There is no such thing as normal. You should know that. No drug is going to make you "normal"... it'll still be you, on a drug. It's up to you to decide whether you'd rather be You On A Drug or You Not On A Drug. But remember that everything is a drug.

    I don't think therapy is neccessary. I went to therapy for months, and after a certain point it can actually do more harm than good, causing you to focus on the negative and dig up new things to feel bad about. I don't trust the mental health industry, because no matter what an individual doctor's intentions are, it is an industry that is making billions of dollars off of convincing people that if they don't buy their products (or pay for therapy) they'll never be able to be happy. The drugs cause symptoms that are worse than the disease they're meant to treat, and instead of removing the cause, they add more drugs to treat the symptoms, snowballing the problem until you're completely dependent and giving them everything you have. It's disgusting. Take their drugs if you want to, and educate yourself about how to use them if you choose to, but do not buy into their ideas. Don't let them convince you that they know better than you what is going on in your own head.

    Mental illness is real, and for a lot of people, the right drug is a lifesaver. But it is also a business. They don't know the truth any more than anyone else does... but they have a lot to gain from convincing people that they do.

    As far as prozac goes, I took it for a while. It didn't make me any less depressed. It calmed my mind enough that instead of throwing a violent fit because I didn't want to live, I was laying on the floor completely silent, but still not wanting to live. I don't remember any side effects, but if there were any I probably wouldn't have noticed. Prozac has been shown not to have much effect on cases of chronic depression... but it's different for everyone.

    I have been mentally stable, healthy, and happy for a few months now. I stopped taking all pharmaceuticals, switched to a totally raw food diet, made more of an effort to expose myself to beauty in life, and have been exercising a lot more often. I would've said I'm full of shit before, and that none of those things could possibly have an effect on real depression... but that's because I completely bought what they were selling. And it's just not true. All it takes is one thing, one ray of light that you can hold on to, one piece of beauty that can't be argued with or made to disappear... one truth to convince yourself that beauty is real, and you can pull yourself out.

    You just have to find something to believe in, and not allow yourself to slip back into a void. Keep bombarding yourself with more and more beauty, to the point of excess. Go to museums and zoos and talk to people and force yourself to see things you can't imagine, because when you're depressed the universe can become unbelievably small and simple, and you can start to believe that that's all there is. But it's bigger than you can conceive of, and the only way to understand that is to get out and experience it.

    There is a point when you'll know you've truly made it through, after you've been happy for a while, when something happens that upsets you. You'll find yourself sad... and suddenly realize, you can have sadness without it being absolute. You can experience things without them overpowering everything. Life isn't scary. You don't have to protect yourself or run away from it.

    Remember that depression is an addiction, like any other. If you want to live without it, you have to give it up. In that process you might realize there are things about your depression that you love... but you have to give those things up too. And it's worth it. It's impossible, while inside of it, to understand just how amazing life is... but it really is worth it. It's possible. Don't believe anyone who tells you depression is something you have to live with. If it's an illness, it can be healed, and you can move on. Depression is death. You have to fight it by living.
     
  14. Geneity

    Geneity self-proclaimed advocate

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    I stopped taking it. All it did was make me dead to the world around me. It made me more apathetic then I was before I started to take it. Well fuck that.

    I like prismatisms answer. I believe that's possible, it's just difficult. I'm gonna start trying it. I've always been afraid of anti-depressants and thingsbecause it's an industry and it's around to make money. I know a drug won't magically make me better, but that's about how desperate I was.

    Thanks =)
     
  15. pedaltopedal

    pedaltopedal Member

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    Geneity, good luck with that :). I tried taking an antidepressant for awhile before, and just like you, I gave up after I realized it wasn't helping... if anything, it was helping me avoid the real problem at hand. I still haven't overcome that problem, but at least I'm not relying on a drug to help me ignore it instead.

    Pristmatism, that post was incredible. Thank you. I won't go into any personal details, but you manage to stir a bit of inspiration (a ray of light, perhaps) in me that I haven't felt in a long time. :)
     
  16. prismatism

    prismatism loves you

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    you're welcome :) and thanks.

    i'm really grateful that we're all making it through <3
     
  17. StonerBill

    StonerBill Learn

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    Yeh Fluoxetine seems to work best for people who want to ease the pain, not people who want to get a life.

    Hope you are doing well Geneity. I say go with the diet+ exercise route. How much exercise do you do?

    On a side note, I wonder what your response to that question: If you are depressed, how can you handle psychedelics?
     
  18. Geneity

    Geneity self-proclaimed advocate

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    Bah. I think that psychedelics and depression thing is a bunch of BS. I'm usually a pretty miserable and whatever person but I greatly enjoy tripping and seeing the world in a different perspective.

    The only time I ever had a bad trip was when I OD'd on DOC and had to go through 30 hours of hard tripping and serotonin syndrome.
     
  19. Djames

    Djames Member

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    I have mostly anxiety/IBS..and mild depression I guess. I was put on zoloft for a while and felt like it didnt help at all. I gave it enough time too. Then my psychiatrist put me on effexor xr...which was a mistake. Took it for a month and was feeling horrible so I went off of it and got rebound anxiety as a result. I had to put my freshman year of college to a hold because of my stomach pains in the morning and procrastination habits, fueled by anxiety. Anyway, therapy has been helping me, combined with lots of exercise and I also realized I needed to find a passion/hobby and stop being unproductive. I also have been getting up alittle earlier naturally, and eating breakfast..which I never did. I try to eat fruits and vegetables etc. I started having a more "do it now, get things done" attitude and I've been feeling much better. I believe I became doubtful in myself subconsciously, and I didn't know how to handle stresses. Anyway, therepy and counciling before meds imo.
     
  20. MeatWagon499

    MeatWagon499 Senior Member

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    prozac is complete garbage. my mom was on it for a while and she started acting fucking crazy, moodswings n shit. she'd be overly happy all the time in lala land then other times yelling and throwing fits having breakdowns. never tried it, never will.
     

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