Restarting fluoxetine after being off 4 months

[Lawstudentxx]

My worst symptom is DPDR brought about by panic attacks. I started Zoloft around 5 years ago for 3 months and it took away basically all my symptoms. I then switched to fluoxetine which I was steady on for around 5 more years. 4 month ago I decided to come off my fluoxetine due to how stable I was. This led to me having a large increase in anxiety and a panic attack that sent me into DPDR again. I decide to restart fluoxetine. I took 5 mg for 3 days and I'm currently on day 4 of 10 mg. I am having a lot of sweating and feeling super shaky. I don't remember this happening previously and I am wondering if anyone has experiences restarting. I am a law student and I absolutely need to be functional.

[lauz_lea]

I'm not on fluoxetine but have stopped and restarted SSRIs in the past and each time the side effects hit me differently, dont know why.

It took some perseverance but did kick in eventually, it just felt like it took longer but I put that down to how bad I had been on previous occassions versus trying to act promptly when restarting my meds and probably forgetting how long it actually took for my DPDR to go away on previous occassions.

DPDR is a horrible effect of anxiety which I fully empathise with as I'm currently coming out of it, it feels like an eternity when you're in a DPDR episode even if its been a relatively short time.

[Scissel]

I struggle with DPDR and its rough. I've also restarted SSRI's but I always return to Sertraline and I'm now on 150MG per day and I'm holding steady I guess. I've tried other meds and they made me suicidal so they were history.

I hope you can get your medication straightened out.

All the best,

Sal

[panic_down_under]

4 month ago I decided to come off my fluoxetine due to how stable I was.

How did you come off?

This led to me having a large increase in anxiety and a panic attack that sent me into DPDR again.

Did the anxiety and panic attacks begin while you were tapering off fluoxetine, or only in the past week or two?

I decide to restart fluoxetine. I took 5 mg for 3 days and I'm currently on day 4 of 10 mg. I am having a lot of sweating and feeling super shaky. I don't remember this happening previously and I am wondering if anyone has experiences restarting.

Fluoxetine takes a long time to build up in plasma taking about 30 days to settle to a steady-state, and that of its active metabolite even longer, up to 80 days. Ideally, doses should only be increased at 30 day intervals, but that's unrealistic so aiming for 2-3 weeks between increases is a reasonable compromise. Upping the dose every fourth day is not much better than starting on 20 mg.