Feel a bit snappy

[pretoria]

Ok so it's my 5th day on Fluoxetine 10mg I am posting this as not sure about this drug and need some people with similar views.

I am a bit suspicious of Prozac just because I have taken Sertraline and Paroxatine (not at the same time lol) before and within 8 hours/first night of starting the first dose that's when the horrible side effects started, freaking out anxiety and feeling weird in my head. This would last for a couple of weeks then subside, after a month I would feel pretty good.

On Fluoxetine, I don't feel too bad, a few people have said that's a good thing I'm not feeling bad SE's but I'm concerned now that it is either going to hit me in week 2/3 badly or it's an early sign this drug isn't going to work.

Sounds backward but if I felt bad with crappy SE's I knew the drug was working. The only thing I feel is a bit agitated and I have snapped at few people. This worries me more than when I felt timid and anxious on Sertraline, I'd rather feel shy and a bit scared than agitated and angry as I fear I may lash out at someone :/

Reading this just makes me worry more as it says it's quite common for Fluoxetine users to feel snappy and in extreme cases lash out physically :/

http://www.sntp.net/prozac/wesbecker.htm

Thoughts anyone?

NB: Also has anyone felt quite drowsy taking this?

Nathan x

[pretoria]

Think I spoke to soon lol I had the most weirdest episode in the shower my mind started to race and I felt so odd like I was going insane and then panicked and trembling, also noticed a hand tremor this morning.

Anyone else get weird thoughts/feelings in their head? :/

[littlemissjo]

Yep started for me on day four, just too many thoughts and not able to step outside my head! Spent last Fri/Sat feeling like I was totally broken. It's up and down at the moment on day eleven and I'm still feeling shaky in the mornings, the thoughts come and go.

[pretoria]

Thank littlemissjo

I'm a rational person normally but jeepers you just can't escape the weird racing mind I had to hold my head in my hands till it passed which then brought on a minio panick attack, soon I'll be rocking :/ lol Even at the minute at work I have the weird feeling niggling away in my head, sound like I'm going nuts lol

Need to keep telling myself it's just the meds and wait till week 4 :(

[littlemissjo]

I know right, but that's what it feels like- crazy. It's just the worst at work as well when you're trying to concentrate. Sometimes I feel like I can't cope with it, but I know I am I've not had time off because of panic I just muddle through! Like you said soon we'll be rockin, I just keep reminding myself that it's SE not a relapse, and that six weeks isn't a long time in the grand scheme

[Janine]

I am now on week 10 of Fluxotiene and am feeling really good most days and apart from a couple of little blips I started to feel me again at five and half weeks and loads better, up until then I was very up and down, hit rock bottom a few times as different waves of side effects hit me, I literally had to take it minute by minute and it was not easy, you would have a few better days and then the side effects would hit again, what you guys are feeling is how I felt, there was lots of help on here and I was so thankful that I found this when I was 4 weeks as 4-5 was one of my worst. All i can say is it is worth it, I now think back and think that the bad side effects was the drug working. I did have diazapan to take as and when i needed it and I am on propanalol 160mg slow release which was upped from 80mg because of the side effects and has really helped me.

Hope this helps a bit

Janine

[pretoria]

Good to hear you are starting to emerge from the other side Janine. Just I read somewhere if you start to have weird head feelings maybe this drug isn't for you but I also had some similar mind messy ones with Sertraline and Seroxat, maybe I have just forgotten how it feels. It's strange like half in a dream like I feel like I am going insane, when an attack of it calms down I am still left with a residual odd/weird feeling/thoughts in my head.

Maybe I just need to be strong and push through :/

[Janine]

I had weird head feelings, I could not rest, eat, concentrate on anything on my bad days, some days the only way I could get through was by rocking on all fours, then laying down for a couple of minutes and this was how I got through hours until I could take a sleeping pill or diazapan and go to sleep, looking back I should have used the diazapan more but I only took it when I was desperate. It is not easy and is so so hard but then it has been worth it.

[pretoria]

Thanks for sharing your experience Janine, it's good to know I am not alone in this because sometimes we need reminding/reassuing :) I was in the shower when it struck had my head under the water stream and all of a sudden I had weird thoughts and feelings come over me I couldn't shift then I panicked, still feel off and it's only my 5th day on 10mg eeeek! I felt so odd I gripped my head in my hands. Sitting at work at the moment still feel odd, bit foggy, like half in a dream and weird cold feeling on my skin like an ice wind has hit my legs and crotch!

Not a fan lol

[Janine]

It is good you are at work, I tried to go in as much as possible and I was lucky that I could work from home, go in late come home early etc as there were days when I just could not function. My worst thing was Jelly legs it was my first sympton of anxiety and it was the last one to go from mid August to 23rd October as I wrote the day down, kept waiting for it to come back as I had had it so long but so far so good. Just take a minute at a time, it is going to be hard but you will come through it.

[littlemissjo]

You seem to have come so far Janine, it gives us hope. Do you feel 'up' at all and if you had it does the 'foggy' feeling go?

[Janine]

Yes I do feel up it was as though at 5 and half weeks it all lifted, I have had a couple of little blips when I have felt down for a couple of days but yes the foggy feeling did lift all of a sudden, the last thing to go for me was the Jelly legs which was one of the symtons I had before going on the medication. I do feel like me again and most days I do feel like I did before all this started. So just hang in there it is worth it.

[pretoria]

Thanks Janine :) I did have some pretty bad SE's on Sertraline and they lifted in the 3rd-4th week like all of a sudden I felt quite good.

I almost forgot how weird and unpleasant SSRI's can make you feel in the first few weeks :/

[littlemissjo]

Oh good, I feel like I haven't been me in so long. I'm not even sure I know who I am at the minute. The CBT has made me realise tht I've been suffering from low self esteem for probably all my life! But I am definitely looking forward to week five or six now! Counting the days...

[Emphyrio]

It seems like the main side effects for prozac come later - e.g. by week 5 or 6, but after that things improve dramatically - that's what happened in my case anyway.

[electrical_stormgirl]

I'm thinking of giving up the Fluox- I just feel really lethargic, irritable and seem to be putting on weight ( I don't eat *that* much, honest!!). I know the fluox may not be to blame but I hate not knowing. :unsure: Has anyone else experienced anything similiar? I've been on them for about 3/ 4 months now.

[Emphyrio]

What dosage are you on?

Here is an interesting link. I first came across the idea that low doses of medication could be as effective as higher doses when reading one of my OCD books - it stated that while some people needed 80mg of prozac to combat intrusive thoughts, others needed as little as 2.5mg - in some people, low doses actually worked better than high doses. I then looked further and found that there was more evidence to suggest lower doses can be just as effective as higher ones.

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2003/mar2003_cover_effects_01.html


A study published before Prozac's® approval showed that just 5 mg helped 54% of patients, while 20 mg-the recommended dose-helped 64%.6 In other words, quadrupling the dose only improved efficacy 10%. To me, this meant that 5 mg was a reasonable starting dose, yet doctors were told to start everyone at 20 mg, even the 54% who needed only 5 mg! I was shocked and appalled.

I would chat with your GP - perhaps try something like 10mg (if you're on 20mg) and see if that is any better?

I personally am on 5mg but am still experiencing restless legs and low libido, and on top of that, my intrusive thoughts come and go, so I've decided to come off it for a week or so to see if things improve. I thought my libido had returned around 2 weeks ago then it suddenly left again, and I also feel fatigued and restless at the same time. TBH I don't know what's going on with my body/mind!

[Piano]

Dear electrical stormgirl, do you take the tablet in the morning?

[electrical_stormgirl]

I do, 20mg every morning.

[Piano]

Fluoxetine makes me tired, so I take it at bedtime.