Fluoxetine (Prozac)

I started taking Fluoxetine, or Prozac for people in the states, and I'm through the 1st 4 weeks of it. The doctor started me on 20mg a day for social anxiety and severe but not suicidal depression. I have my first check up in 2 more weeks and I just got my 1st refill, problem is I don't find they do a damn thing. I want to explain that to my therapist on the check up but I'm not sure if they're supposed to be doing anything. Has anyone had experience with this med? Did you get anything more than an initial placebo effect?

I don't really want to switch to a different med because then I have another month before I can expect any results and I feel like going to get help will result in a pointless twenty trial runs of different pills and doses.

 

You won't "feel" anything like a buzz or whatever.

 

I know that.. It just doesn't help at all with anxiety or depression.. Not better or worse

 

It could just be the wrong drug for you or you could be resistant to SSRI's as many are.

 

So really I just have to wait and see what the doctor says... I'm just wondering what changes others have noticed with it

 

I was on it for a number of years. I got to the point where I didn't feel like I would really be depressed anymore if I stopped taking it, so I quit taking it on my own (I do NOT recommend this...) Within a week or two after I stopped taking them, I got really depressed and very irritable. I was basically a bitch that hated my life. I wasn't suicidal or anything, I was just always crabby and miserable. And then my grandma died (nice timing, grams :l ) So I went to my doc and got on Welbutrin, (budeprion) and I like it a lot better. The reason I got tired of prozac was because it limited my sex drive quite a bit, which didn't matter for a while but then I met my now husband. The welbutrin doesn't affect my libido at all.

Also, within days of getting off prozac, I noticed I would tear up at EVERYTHING. Not just sad shit, but really sappy shit too, things I would never normally get that emotional about. One line of a really annoying pop song and I would choke up...And now that I'm on welbutrin, I still get like that, but to be honest, I don't really see it as a bad thing. It feels like I'm supposed to be this emotional and that when I was on prozac I was just numbed to normal feelings of empathy a bit.

If you haven't noticed a change by the time you see your doc, you can talk about changing it to another type.

 

About 25+ years ago, when Prozac was "still young" here, I asked my doctor for some anti-depression meds. We tried Prozac.

GODALMIGHTY!!!! My ears were ringing, I slept about 2 minutes a night...it was like I was doing some strange speed. And this was the first week. I continued into the 2nd week, but ceased and desisted with that med during the 2nd week. During that time, I did call my doc and tell him these symptoms and he told me I should quit taking them then. Duh, huh? We did wind up with atavan and maybe something else helping...but NOT prozac.

Beyond a doubt, the effects of these types of meds are different for each person's body chemistry.

 

Thanks, great last 2 posts.. so changes are noticeable (whether pleasant or terrible). I just didn't know if I should be expecting to actually have any symptoms. I know it may not be the right med for me, chances of the first script being the correct one are slim, but I've just heard a lot about this med being basically a placebo effect. It's reassuring to know it actually might help with a little more time.

 

Prozac is evil, don't take that shit!

 

What makes you say that?

 

It's been a long time, back when Prozac was newly released, but it did help with the agitation I was feeling; to the point that my mother told me I'd become too complacent.

I had to go off it because it gave me terrible headaches which went un-diagnosed for almost a year until a brilliant team of pain doctors finally told me what was causing them.

 

Ok so it did help, possibly too much for you.. did you become a doormat to others?

It seems a lot of people have side effects from it, I haven't experienced any but then again, no positive effects either because it's a small dose.

 

I took that for 3 and 1/2 weeks and it just about made me totally psychotic...so I threw the rest of those psycho pills away and decided I'd continue self medicating with marijuana and alcohol when i really need my mind numbed.


So it could be you need a higher dosage, or maybe that particular medication does not work for you......at least they haven't done that to you.

 

I dont know if this is a side effect but sometimes i get restless from prozac

 

No, I didn't become a doormat but I became immune people's attempts to push my buttons. I let things roll off of me instead of re-acting to bullshit.

I loved it.

 

See, that would have been the OPPOSITE effect for me, in taking prozac.
Truly, only xanax or valium - or of those ...azepams, are actually able to "do" anything for me. The doctors are also very hesitant, I've discovered, to prescribe this...over the internet the prices for say, diazepam is damn unbelieveable. :mickey:

I've actually had some success in plain letting it all roll off...going with the flow, etc...when I use some herbs like St. John's Wort and Valerian Root.

If you have access to a good doctor that is willing to work with you, y'all can some up with something. By the time the meds and medication was able to just help me "be chill, etc"...I decided I wanted EMOTION....but letting all the stupid bullshit etc roll off and etc definitely has it's good points. :2thumbsup:

 

One of my sisters suicide attempts happened while she was on prozac

 

yeah i've been on Fluoxetine for a couple of years (and zoloft for sometime before that) and for a while felt the same way - like it wasn't doing anything for me.. but once i stopped taking it, i realized that it helps me feel NORMAL and w/o it i feel 10000x worse.

 

& yeah, all these posts just prove the fact that all kinds of medications/drugs effect people differently! it just depends on you! but i think that if you're not experiencing anything negative from prozac, it's most likely just doin it's job.

 

You make a good point. I find I still get depressed pretty severely, and my anxiety comes and goes as it always has. Maybe I have forgotten how bad it was before? I really don't remember what it was like before I started taking the meds.. And it's only been a month and a bit. I don't want to switch to something else if my pills are working.. I just can't tell if they are because I don't feel any better. I should start a journal or something.