40 days in - Fluoxetine 20mg

[Happy Traveller]

Dear all

I have been taking Fluoxetine (20mg) for the last 40 days for depression (marriage breakdown). Within days of taking this tablet my emotional tearfulness stopped and I felt there was light at the end of the tunnel.

I take the tablet first thing in the morning (my choice, I didn't realise there was a best/worst time to take it) and have noticed that my lack of motivation/sleepiness is on the increase and not subsiding as I had hoped.

I saw my GP after my first pack of 30 tablets had been taken and mentioned this to him and he said that the medication hadn't peaked yet and I should continue on the same dosage for at least another month.

I am experiencing general blurred vision but put this down to working on a PC all day but having read various threads this could be a side effect of the drug. I am now questioning if I should come off this drug myself as my spiralling downturn in motivation, to do even the simplest tasks such as washing up, laundry etc. is giving me cause for concern and I am finding that whilst I have no problems sleeping, there is no motivation to get out of bed and I am sleeping in later and later each day to the point of not going into work yesterday. I wake early (around 6am) and I am not tired when I do wake, I just roll over because I can't be bothered to get up and I'm off to sleep again.

I had thought this lack of motivation was down to the Winter months but now the sunshine is here I still have no interest to go outside and do things and the washing up and laundry is piling up, I can see it and know I should do it, but I make no effort to change it.

Should I continue as my GP advises until the drug 'peaks' or should I take action myself and ween myself off it because although I was emotional before I was still carrying out day to day stuff and going to work? I seem to be taking a backward step instead of moving forward and I'm now concerned about the blurred vision.

Thank you in advance for any answers/advice I receive.

[pieball86]

i felt like this on ciprimal i found it hard even gettin out of bed

[MaddyMoo]

Hello Happy,

Why are you trying to wean yourself off it? I agree with your doctor you need to give it more time. I would say i am on around day 50 now and I can say that in the last 4 days I am 99% back to normal. But for the first 46 I was if anything worse - more down, more anxious, more panic and scared feeling. But with most SSRI's you will feel significatnly worse before you are feeling better. If you wean yourself off them you are back to square one. What most people dont realise you are on a course of treatment. The course of treatment usually will last anything from 3-6 months. The medication needs to stabilise your mood and the serotonin levels in your brain. Try and stick it out for longer if you can. Thats just my opinion but I promise that one day probably within the next 3 or 4 weeks you will feel stronger and more positive its really weird its literally over a day or two that something in your brain clicks and your back to you. Maddy x

[mamma3]

hey!!i was put on fluoxetine in august 2008 just after the birth of my 3rd son.
much to my doctors disgust(i saw another doc as mine fully booked)
about 2 weeks into the pills i started feeling very panicky and couldnt seem to get on with my chores round the house,everything felt like it was getting to much and i couldnt cope with the kids or nething.i was totally unfocused and could not concentrate at all.i then rang my sister who is 12 years older and wiser then me,and also begged me not to go on them who said bin them,which is what i had in mind,she was put on them when she suffered with bad migrains and said they drove her near on suicidal to the point of crawling in a corner with fear.The feeling was very frighting for me i would go as far to say as that it was worse then a panick attack,as i felt i had no control of it rushing through my blood if you know what i mean.
when i told my doctor that i had stopped them he said that was absolutly the right thing to do,and i should never have taken them.
so i guess my advice is to stop them,i know you can have side effects when you stop,but i still felt weird for about a week after taking them and i wasnt even on them for long so it will only get harder the longer you leave it,
i also understand that they take a while to peak but it depends what you are prepared to put up with,i didnt want to wait around for them to kick in properly.i just wanted well rid.im not medically qualified but have done a lot of research and also my sister has good knowledge of medications.so based on that and first hand bad experience id say go with your instinct and stop them.
Hope you feel better soon,let me know what you decide xx

[NoPoet]

Hi Happy Traveller, if you look at some of the links in my signature you will see that I went through hell on citalopram 20mg before things started to get getter. The first two weeks were awful, the third week brought some relief, but weeks four through six were horrible as the anxiety and depression increased in strength and I thought that the medication had stopped working.

It wasn't until week 10 that things settled down. Even now I still have bad days. The medication is working but medicine alone will not get rid of our problems, it's just there to shield us from the worst of it while our natural healing process kicks in.

You have been through a very difficult time and it is still close to the time of your breakup. The pain is still fresh. You won't be able to recover from that overnight. The lack of motivation you feel is normal after what you've been through and in my opinion it is too soon to say whether the medication has stopped working. Recovery is a process of ups and downs, especially in the early days. If you're still lying in bed all day by day 80, then there may be a need to reassess your treatment.

I do think the medication may help you if you stick with it, as it appeared to have a positive effect to begin with (in fact I thought this thread was going to be in praise of the medicine). I think after an initial improvement in confidence caused by the medication's effects, your mood has gone back to the way it was before. You are recovering, you are not recovered. Not yet. But keep going, and inevitably you will one day feel better.

[Kerrigan]

I'm back on Fluoxetine, I tried to get Paxil but it wasn't listed in the dictionary that they perscribe from. I took it for a few days and felt smiley but of course it's all or nothing with that drug and I couldn't be arsed, I thought it's unnatural and if I can't help myself then how can pills? when I stopped taking them I was surprised how antsy I felt, I couldn't keep still and was pacing about in a flap.

So I'm a week into taking them again and I haven't noticed any changes in my O.C.D but I have felt nauseous, rumbling tummy but don't 'feel' hungry, smile more readily, more able to reign in negative thoughts.

Pills are just half the story though, doctors say the reduction of seratonin that they're designed to boost could be caused by the depression that results from O.C.D rather than the actual root of O.C.D behaviour so they address the symptoms not the root cause, this is just a theory though.

I don't like medication but with these, I look forward to taking them because for the first time in years it's a source of hope.

[tj0121]

mama3 - i am amazed at your post! how irrisponsible can you get!

[jo61]

Me too, it's really not a good idea to come off any medication without proper medical supervision. You have been given advice by your doctor and I'd take it rather than advice based on anecdotal evidence