7 weeks in and still feeling anxious

[AJBOOBY]

Hi everyone - I'm new to this forum and have been reading lots of the supportive post regarding fluoxetine and anxiety so wondered if anyone could give me some advice. In brief I've been on Prozac 20mg for many years but following the birth of my second child 2 and a half years ago I started to get very anxious (general anxiety nothing specific) and my dose was increased to 40mg. Fairly quickly the anxiety subsided and I stayed on the increased dose for a year before reducing it without too many problems. Anyway fast forward a year and awful anxiety started to creep back in - this was 9 weeks ago. My dosage was increased to 30 mg then 2 weeks later 40mg. So I've been on 40 mg for 7 weeks now and though I am without doubt feeling less anxious it has by no means disappeared. I still feel very sick every day and as I say often anxious at times and I'm wondering if I'm still experiencing the side effects from my dosage increase and that perhaps the full theraputic effects haven't had a chance to kick in. I'm due a chat with my GP on Monday and she'll ask whether I want to change my meds. I'm loathed to change to another SSRI if fluoxetine is right for me but I'm just being inpatient. So I guess in short what I'm asking is this. 7 weeks ago I was almost crippled with anxiety...now I'm functioning much better but still feeling anxious quite a bit of the time. Do I stick with fluoxetine for longer before trying something else or try something else?

[BIGMEANPOSSUM]

If it were me I'd give it another month. I've been on 20mg for 101 days and up until the 10th or 11th week I wondered if I'd ever be normal again. As long as you have been progressing, I'd continue a little longer. You could wake up any day feeling close to normal like I did. It just came out of the blue for me, it can do the same for you at any time.

[AJBOOBY]

Hi thanks for your reply Bigmeanpossum. I've actually just read your Prozac journey on this forum - pleased you're feeling so much better now. I think If I'd done a daily journal like you and I looked back on it then it would show that in the 7 weeks since I've upped my dose I've improved massively on the whole - I need to remember that. I guess the 6-8 week rule of feeling better can mean to start feeling better rather than feeling completely better - we all just want to feel completely better naturally. When you're on the journey of recovery sometimes its hard to see how much we are improving day to day isn't it? Yes I think you're right, I shall continue for at least another month and then assess where I'm at then. Thanks.

[OncewasSupergirl]

Therapeutic effect is apparently achieved by 10-12 weeks if its gonna work for you so hang in there! X

[AJBOOBY]

Thanks very much yes I'm going to give it til 12 weeks as I'm still only on 7 and hope that by then the full effects of the drug have kicked in. x