4th Week on fluoxetine - I give up!

[Owaiz]

I'm 24 year old guy. I've depression, panic disorder, and anxiety. Palpitations too.
I have been on numerous medications (lexotanil, escilatopram, propraonlol, Xanax, etc) and all were good but these things always came back after I discontinued, though they did make me better. Since some meds make you weak or sleepy, I asked my doctor for something that doesn't have those side effects and was prescribed prozac. It's been one month today since I've been taking 20m mg fluoxetine daily and now I give up.

All meds I took had side effects but nothing was as bad as this. I feel sick, I can't digest the normal way. Like when I eat or drink, it feels stuck and takes ages to go down (feels like that). I have had insomnia but now I can't sleep till morning and miss my lectures. When I wake up I feel so weak and tired. I feel restless all night and have nightmares. But the worst of all is my joint pain. It hurt so much last night that I decided I can't go on. My elbow and knee joints hurt so much i press pillow between them and compress or turn my legs and stretch. I was on 20mg inderal too and tapering it off now already.


I just want to be normal again. These things have been going about two decades. I remember crying as a child saying someone we know is dead when no one was. I am so tired of these meds and everything. When I'm off meds I get depressed and have killed panic attacks and want to feel normal and go on meds. But now that I am on prozac, I think depression was better. I read about side-effects before and I thought I could do this and when they started I fought them but now I'm done. The only reason I'm writing this is that I needed to rant. And also because I couldn't find any article written by fluoxetine users that told about joint pains.

Edit: Just realized its my second day of 5th week on this.

I have had joint pains since I was a child but whoosh! This will kill me if I don't stop.

---------- Post added at 22:55 ---------- Previous post was at 22:29 ----------

Also my family is very un-supporting. They are very much against me taking anti-depressants. Like when I used to take Xanax along with Cipralex, and slept a lot and was lost in thoughts, they'd get mad. Now I have explained it all to them and told them I don't care for their support but if they try to talk against me taking anti-depressants, I will only get distant from them and that they were never there to support me during my hard times with meds. I can't talk to them now either because they are so against meds. If I say I'm feeling like absolute shit because of prozac, idk they'll be like we told you so. Though I'm going off it anyway, just want to let it all out. God I hate everything. I have 3 exams tomorrow but I just want to say I hate fluoxetine SO MUCH!

[Emphyrio]

I wouldn't give up on it yet. Fluoxetine takes a while to reach a steady state in the body (because of its long half-life) - things will settle down over the next 2-4 weeks. Stick at it.

The alternative is to try one every 2 days. Many people seem to do really well on 10mg, or even 5mg. Last time I was on prozac it was benefiting my depression even at 5mg. There have been studies that have shown that for the majority of people, 5mg of prozac can work just as well as 20mg.

A study published before Prozac's® approval showed that just 5 mg helped 54% of patients, while 20 mg-the recommended dose-helped 64%.6 In other words, quadrupling the dose only improved efficacy 10%.

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2003/...effects_01.htm

As for the joint pains, I've experienced 'clicking' joints when taking prozac in the past, but it tended to go away after a while.

Sorry to hear that you don't have a great relationship with your family regarding this issue - they don't know what you're going through and should respect your decisions. Having said that, medication isn't the solution to depression/anxiety - although it can help us in the initial stages. Have you considered therapy/CBT/relaxation too?

[Owaiz]

I think it doesn't suit me. I have taken anti-depressants before and meds for panic attack and the side-effects were bearable. I can deal with Nausea, heated stomach, indigestion, burping, restlessness, insomnia. But this has taken my insomnia to an extreme and my joints hurt so much. So far I've missed 3 morning classes because of this. I'm usually active or at least manage to drag myself out of bed but I can't anymore.

I content myself with the fact that they just don't get it. Depression is sort of a new illness in Pakistan, not much awareness. Most people shrug it off and the idea of psychiatrist is like going to mental asylum for them.

Haven't tried therapy, don't know any good therapists. And I don't want to talk about what a therapist will want me to talk about. It's a very sad thing but nothing can be done and I ignore it. The only thing that helps sometimes is putting on really loud music in headphones till it takes over my thoughts, then I calm down and fall asleep.

[Emphyrio]

Hmmmm - I still think you should try a lower dosage for a while if you're not prepared to stick at the 20mg for a few more weeks. Prozac is generally quite an 'activating' SSRI so it gives you a bit more energy and doesn't have many impacts on cognition.

What ever you decide though - good luck!

[Owaiz]

Idk, like my doctor said it was supposed to make me active and not weaken me or something.

He just said since I've been on it for only a month, I can even quit it cold turkey. That's what I'll do, and taper off Inderal as well.

[BIGMEANPOSSUM]

If he said quit cold turkey I'd find another doctor. It took 10 weeks for me to get back to somewhat normal feelings. Whatever the meds you decide to take, I'd suggest giving it 90 days going in. Even when you think it won't help and you will never feel right again, take the meds. If you do it WILL get better. Doesn't seem like it, sometimes it feels like you're getting worse, but you will break through within 90 days if you take it properly.

I'd suggest talking to a therapist too. Not because they'll fix your problem, but because it helps to keep you focused and vent to someone.

If you quit meds after a couple weeks it restarts the process and will take longer. It sucks, but you have to go through the bad days. If you push on you WILL break through.

If it doesn't go away in 90 days you can cyberslap me.

[Owaiz]

He told me to taper off Prozac but I asked if I could quit cold turkey and he said okay.

I'm strong, trust me, and have a strong will, but this has pushed me to my breaking point. My nights are agonizing. It's like torture. I can go take the med now but what will happen at night dreads me. Last night was even worse (It has been getting progressively worse every night since my third week) and I only slept 2 hours and then had to go for exams.

Gloomy as it may sound I don't want anyone to be discouraged. I hope others can make it.