Quote Originally Posted by KayMK View Post
So it's 14 weeks for me on Monday and I can honestly say I'm feeling great.
I'm mostly back to my old self.
That is very good news!!

ADs can be truly awful meds at the beginning, but when they work they can almost miraculously change lives.

It was pretty much spot on 12 weeks that I noticed the proper improvement.
Because of its very long half-life fluoxetine often takes quite a while to kick-in and that is even more the case if it has been taken before.

I don't intend to stop taking the medication for a VERY long time!

I'm OK with that.
Probably a very good idea. Provided any ongoing side-effects don't affect life too much there are few downsides to taking ADs long term. I've been on my current one for nearly 25 years, and on ADs almost continually since early 1987. So far they haven't yet caused my brain to dissolv...Oh!

I felt at the beginning like I had failed and gone backwards but that's the illness talking.
Anxiety (also depression) are the emotional symptoms of a physical brain disorder caused by what is arguably a form of auto immune response. Taking ADs for them is no more a failure than taking meds for Type 1 diabetes or arthritis.