Fluoxetine - bad side effects 3rd time around :(
Hello,
I've taken fluoxetine on three different occasions since 2003.
After experiencing some violent obsessional thoughts concerned with harming others and myself I went on it in 2003 and remained on it until early 2008. It generally worked quite well, reduced the incidence of the 'pure o' thoughts and I tolerated it well with no side effects that I can recall.
Following 8 months off it in 2008 I went back on it again after feeling very low, and remained on it until August last year. I then started feeling tense and fidgety - which I attributed to the fluoxetine - and decided to come off it and try citalopram which didn't work (made me really tense and hyper). Thus for most of the last year I have not been on any medication.
After Christmas I made a concerted effort to start taking care of my health more. I pretty much stopped drinking, did more exercise, improved my diet etc. While I started feeling much more motivated and healthy, gradually the intrusive thoughts started returning. I also started to get periods of occasional tenseness and agitation (I don't know what triggered them) despite having nothing to worry about - whenever I had these experiences, the intrusive thoughts became magnified considerably.
I tried another medication (clomipramine) which made me sick before I decided to go back onto fluoxetine (20mg), which I had lived a comparatively normal life on before. However, after 3 weeks back on it I feel shaky, tense, have had disturbed sleep, have felt pessimistic, on edge, and the intrusive thoughts have remained as well. The question is - why am I having such a reaction to this medication this time around? For those that had a similar reaction, how long did it take before these side effects went away?
Many thanks for listening!
Peter
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