Fluoxetine side effects - a message of hope

[littlemissjo]

Have you looked into CBT for health anxiety Polly?

[BellaBella88]

Thank you, Pretoria and Sparkle.

I saw a psychiatrist last night. I really trust his opinion (it cost me £300 lol). He told me what was causing the anxiety, without trying to link it to study stress and my parent's separation (which was ages ago) like the people I've seen before have.

I'm going to begin cognitive behavioural therapy within a week (I don't want to be on a long NHS waiting list). I told him I was too scared to try the fluoxetine. He did recommend another drug to have instead anyway, but said that if I'm worried about taking drugs, I can see how the CBT goes.

I feel so much better after talking to him. He really seemed to know what he was doing and asked so many questions which seemed irrelevant (such as are my brothers identical twins). Within 10 minutes, he found out that I have mild ADD without me telling him lol.

[pretoria]

Good for you

Money is not the issue when you need the help you should take it! That's good that he inspires confidence in you and I agree the NHS are a little slow with waiting lists for services such as CBT, months of waiting is fustrating :/

Well now you have a watchful eye of a qualified psychiatrist and now you can get a proper treatment plan together.

Hope all goes well, let us know how you get on with it

Nathan x

[electrical_stormgirl]

That's great news Bella. Nothing worse than seeing someone who has already made up their mind what's wrong with you. Great when someone actually listens

[Sparkle1984]

Thank you, Pretoria and Sparkle.

I saw a psychiatrist last night. I really trust his opinion (it cost me £300 lol). He told me what was causing the anxiety, without trying to link it to study stress and my parent's separation (which was ages ago) like the people I've seen before have.

I'm going to begin cognitive behavioural therapy within a week (I don't want to be on a long NHS waiting list). I told him I was too scared to try the fluoxetine. He did recommend another drug to have instead anyway, but said that if I'm worried about taking drugs, I can see how the CBT goes.

I feel so much better after talking to him. He really seemed to know what he was doing and asked so many questions which seemed irrelevant (such as are my brothers identical twins). Within 10 minutes, he found out that I have mild ADD without me telling him lol.

I'm glad you're starting to feel better now. It's a shame you have to pay for CBT - the NHS in my area is pretty good but I didn't need 1:1 therapy as I felt a lot better after having group therapy.the waiting isn't so long for group therapy.

Do you have anything to help you if you feel extra anxious or panicky? If you can't tolerate pharmaceuticals you might like herbal/flower remedies such as Rescue Remedy, Kalms or valerian root.

---------- Post added at 13:46 ---------- Previous post was at 13:36 ----------

Just to add, I also have a link to a list of things that help me in my signature below.

[BellaBella88]

Thank you very much. Everyone seems so kind and supportive on here.

I feel better already after seeing him and in response to Sparkle, I have been having Ovaltine for the last couple of nights and a really hot bath. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but after doing those two things and staying up reading a magazine until I can't keep awake anymore, I haven't woken up with a panic attack. The Ovaltine makes me relaxed and makes it harder to keep myself awake so I don't end staying up really late.

He did recommend going through with the NHS referral in case the private CBT gets too expensive. He also reassured me about something else and picked up on a couple of extra (but smaller) psychological problems I have which he said he will let the CBTherapist know about.

I have felt a lot more confidence socially today. I don't know if this will be boring to read, but I decided to write it anyway incase it helps someone else who has had a similar problem.

Up until university, I have always been treated as weird by other people, which has caused me to lack confidence. He told me that I don't have any symptoms of a disorder that could affect me socially and said that people with dyslexia and ADD tend to see things differently or get distracted and seem a bit slow to respond sometimes. If people don't know you have dyslexia and ADD, they may react negatively towards you, which obviously builds up low self esteem.

I felt so better after being told that. Sorry for the sudden ending. Mum's coming in lol

[Supersal1984]

How did you manage to get a psychiatrist. I am interested in doing that, but do not know where to start.

[Hedley]

Just to share my 2 cents. This is my Day 12 of fluoxetine for work stress related depression. It's so helpful to read your comments and advice as it is a real struggle - it's hard to say whether the medication or the depression is causing which effect, but at least I can see that there is hope that this will turn and I just have to soldier on. So thank you for helping.

If it helps anyone to compare, I've had increased bouts of anxiety including muscular tension; increased severity of the effects of diurnal mood variation (I am functional 4am-7am and 4pm-11pm but have to drag myself through the working day, trying to manage anxiety); hypnic headaches (being woken by a jackhammer inside your head at 2-3am); tension headaches (back and top of the head); occasional restlessness; terminal (late) insomnia (partly caused by the hypnic headaches); also find it very difficult to be alone and/or make decisions (increases anxiety). Apart from putting me on Prozac and offering sleeping pills, my GPs have been next to useless - I found out on the internet how to deal with the hypnic headaches (drink coffee before going to bed - yes, I know it's counterintuitive, but it seems to work).

I think this is going to be the longest 4 weeks of my life but I am hanging on in there because it seems that these symptoms are not unusual and should pass. Thanks everyone for that solace.

[STEPHYUNO]

Hi there,
I have had various SSRIs over the years including fluoxetine, I recently went back on them after few years and did have some heightened anxiety and sickly feelings at times, but they do subside after a week or so. I found it really helpful to keep a diary for these first couple weeks, for example I would have day one, split into four periods,like 09.00-13.00, 13.00-17.00, 17.00 -23.00 and 23.00 -09.00 noting when I took my meds and how I felt on a scale of 1-10 for each period and left space for any more detailed additional comments, and the same for day two and so forth.

It just helped me feel more control, gave me an outlet and allowed me to monitor things, I think it would perhaps help you to do that too,

best regards, Stephen

[Kayleigh100]

I'm on day 7 of Fluoxetine and feeling so tired, shakey, head-foggy, some paranoia and anxiousness. I did use this medication about 10 years ago for a while and know, in the end, it was quite good, so I am sticking with it. So difficult when you have so many stressful things around to cope with. Thanks for listening to me.