Hello fellow fluoxetine users! I've suffered from anxiety for many years, but just started taking fluoxetine (10 mg). (Today is actually my 8th day on it.) I've really liked reading other people's posts about their experiences day-to-day on the medicine, so I thought I'd join in too.
1st day: December 23rd - I finally had scheduled a doctor's appointment for today, but it was a new doctor and I was meeting with him just to establish care, so I wasn't sure if he'd suggest anything for my anxiety. The meeting went great and when I told him about my anxiety and panic attacks he asked me lots of questions. I also told him I previously took propranolol a few years ago for my performance anxiety (before I had to give big presentations in school). He gave me a prescription for 10 mg of fluoxetine and said he should help me feel better and also get to sleep easier. He mentioned it might make me tired or give me energy, so I may want to take it either in the evening or morning. He also said that when I come back for my physical (January 20th) that he'll see how the medicine is working and if I may need a higher dosage. I went and had the prescription filled that evening and even though the doctor suggested that I not take it for a few days (I was just getting over a stomach bug) I felt so bad that I decided to take it that night.
2nd day: December 24th - I felt about the same all day, still anxious, but not worse. That evening around 9:30 I actually started to feel a little better.
3rd & 4th days: December 25th & 26th - Feeling better only lasted for that evening and I was back to feeling anxious on the 25th, but the feeling wasn't overwhelming.
5th day: December 27th - My first day back at work after starting the fluoxetine. I could hardly concentrate and felt even more anxious all day. I thought getting a good night's sleep would help, but I had a horrible night of tossing and turning.
6th day: December 28th - I'm not sure if it was just the lack of sleep, but this was my worst day. I went through three different states all day: extremely anxious, anxious and sad, and tired, which then repeated over and over again. I felt like there was so much nervousness inside of me that I was going to jump out of my skin! I also had a lot of trouble concentrating and hardly got any work done. Later in the day I started to experience small periods of sadness (for no reason) and I felt like I was about to cry. (I don't normally feel this way.) When the anxiety and sadness subsided for short periods of time I felt exhausted. After work I called the doctor (I talked to one on call) who said that maybe I should stop taking the fluoxetine. I cried a little bit when I got home, because I want to get better, but I don't want to feel this way either! However, by about 9:00, after reading other people's experiences on here, I began to feel better. Luckily, I also had a really good night sleep that night.
7th day: December 29th - Even though the doctor said to stop taking the fluoxetine, I woke up feeling much better that morning, so I decided that I would keep taking it. I had a really good day, the best so far. I actually felt normal, happy, and not anxious! There were some small bits of trouble, but nothing compared to the previous day. The only thing that really bothered me was a headache, but that was probably because I've had no appetite so I haven't been eating very much. However, by the evening I had some of my appetite return.
8th day: December 30th - I woke up feeling pretty good today. My appetite seems to be nearly normal and I only have a bit of a headache. I usually take advil, but I'm afraid to mix anything with the fluoxetine in case it has some weird interaction. I haven't even had caffeine since I started! I tried to drink a coke today, but I didn't have much since I'm paranoid that it might cause some feelings of anxiety to come back. Oh, one more side effect I've experience is dry mouth. I've just been drinking a ton of water, which seems to help, and I'm hoping everything will return to normal soon.
Thanks for reading and I hope sharing this will help someone else who's going through something similar!I'll try to update every day.
Reply With Quote
this site is amazing and you will get lots of help.
Originally Posted by mallan82450
My throat had been feeling tight all day, but I'd been able to ignore it because I knew it was just a symptom of anxiety. Then around 10:30 I was sitting on the couch with my fiance, watching TV, when BAM! a panic attack struck. It didn't last very long, maybe a few minutes, but it was very intense. I felt like I couldn't get enough air and my mind immediately jumped to needing to go to the emergency room, because something was really wrong. Usually I try to reason with myself and assure myself that if there was actually something wrong with me that I would know. After a few minutes the worst of the panic had subsided, but I couldn't stop shaking.
