Have I messed up again!!!

[leenalou]

Hey guys, haven't posted in what seems like forever but have been hanging around reading other posts. Well my current situation is been taking fluoxetine 20mg religious for the last 12months (this is not the first time of being on them, been an anxiety and panic sufferer for around 12yrs) anyway around 3weeks ago I ran out of meds and forgot to get another script for them as at the time I was really busy, redecorating the house , having fun with the kids and generally felt good, when things calmed down a bit and I realised I hadn't had any meds I started to worry about the anxiety returning and went straight to the docs for some. I started taking them on Tuesday but the anxiety and panic has reared its head, my question is would the flouxetine have fully left my system after about 3weeks and what I'm feeling are side effects again, or is it me that's set the anxiety off again by worrying when I realized I'd not had the meds???

Any help info as always will be much appreciated

Many thanks selina xx

[neileo]

Its probably a bit of both, or possibly withdrawal effects for stopping suddenly. If it was withdrawal, after a few days back on the fluox all your nasty symptoms should dissipate. I recently stopped fluox cold turkey in favor of another medication and about that 3rd week mark I could feel anxiety and low moods setting in, so perhaps we are experiencing the same thing. Good luck!

[leenalou]

Hi neileo
Thanks for the reply I've been back on them since Tuesday the anxiety seems manageable through the day but at night and early morning is the worst I've learnt my lesson no more missed meds, good luck to u too hun x

[neileo]

I'm just the opposite. The anxiety starts off when I wake up and slowly tapers off and evenings are pretty decent. Hope you feel better soon, I'm sure its just temporary!

[leenalou]

I hope so fingers crossed, I slept slightly better last night and very minimal anxiety this morning so hopefully it's starting to even out, how are you doing? I hope yours does the same very soon x

[MyNameIsTerry]

I started taking them on Tuesday but the anxiety and panic has reared its head, my question is would the flouxetine have fully left my system after about 3weeks and what I'm feeling are side effects again

Hi Selena,

There is little chance the med has left your body at 3 weeks. The active drug has a half life of 1-3 days (acute) and 4-6 days (chronic) so with you being a long term user it will mean the 4-6 days. Working off this if you consider the standard pharmacokinetic calculation (which varies per med so it's only a guide) then 5 half lives would reduce the active drug to <5% (clinically insignificant under this) and 7 half lives gets it to 0%.

So, using even the earliest of 4 days, 4 X 5 = 20 days. The longest half life would add a further 10 days.

I think it's unlikely to be out of your body. However, with each half life the drug will drip 50% e.g. 1 half life = 50%, 2 half lives = 25%, 3 half lives = 12.5% and so on until it hits 0% at the 7th half life. At 3 weeks it is likely it has dropped significantly.

Whilst it may take a couple of days on the shorter half life SSRI's, it may take a bit longer for this one because of it's long half life issue (it takes a month to stabilise in the blood plasma when you start it or adjust your dose, for instance) but with each new half life it is moving towards stability and you are closer to restarting the med than trying to re-stabilise it so see how it goes.

It's possibly it's a bit of withdrawal and this, plus your underlying anxiety could be coming back through as the dose was dropping. Only time will tell and hopefully you will be feeling in better very soon.

[leenalou]

Hi Terry thank for the reply hun

Yeah I think it's more to do with my own anxiety than it being out of my system completely, had a better night last night and noticeably low anxiety this morning
So hopefully it's starting to rectify, that's something I won't be doing again xx