Coming Off fluoxetine!

Hi John B

Am so pleased to hear that you're doing OK coming off them, please keep in touch amd let us know how it goes, it'll help us when we get off them.

Im so pleased for you and wish you all the luck in the world :D

Hi John B

Like you John i didn't want to be on the medication long term (i have been on them for a year )I started to taper them of on the 28th Feb 1 every other day,and i felt okay,but a bit worried so i went to see the pharmacy and explained to them what i was doing,they told me to stop altogether before i started taking St johns wart and that i had to leave it for 4-6 weeks to give my body time to get back to some normality.

Well this is my 4th day prozac free and the night before last i had my best nights sleep for a long time although i didnt sleep through i slept better and again last night i had a better sleep,am also feeling more awake during the day,maybe it is all in the mind but i do feel better and like they say everyone is differant and maybe it is a bit early to say how it will affect me but i am determined to fight this and get my health and mind back it has been a long road back but i think i am getting there fingers crossed.I am also doing lots of walks every chance i get and breathing in all those negative irons,which are good for you.

My poor dog is fitter now than ever before.

Good luck to you and hope you can manage to stay off them and that your health gets better and better.

Hi Guys update on me coming off Fluoxtine after only been on them 5 weeks at 20mg a day. well its been over a week and let me tell u guys coming off these things is like starting them, I have felt anger for a good few days, just pissed at anything, some mad dreams and you do feel like you shouldn't come off them but I wasn't given up. You just feel crap, so any one on these for longer then me and you are wondering or wanting to come off, you will feel crap - you will hit a big low and its not funny, so my advice if you coming off, very slowly over a long period of time just weine your self off them.

Your head will fxxk with you, they give this tabs to us but they dont tell what happenes when you stop and its not fun, so be warned but as time goes on i can feel things are getting easy and its not so bad.

update later if anything else happens!

John B

John B

God it sounds awful coming off them. I've just come back from the Dr and feel I have such a long way to go. I just got another month's supply of 40mg per day. But I just broke down in his office. He was very supportive though, and I know I have to pull my emotions together. Sometimes I'm happy (cos I just met a wonderful man who is so supportive) but then soon as I see Mum, and how bad she's getting, I feel like my world is ending. The Dr said I shouldnt go and see Mum so much - but I love her, how am I supposed to do that? I'm not leaving her to rot in a home, it's bad enough she is in there.

He wants me to take time off work - but I cant do that. I need to work to pay my mortgage, or the kids'll lose their home.

I'm exhausted, and the last week have had really burning heart burn (like indigestion in my chest / throat) It's horrible.

Im still not sleeping through the night. I've noticed I look really terrible, especially around my eyes. I look like sh**. Im getting loads of stress spots too, and always had perfect skin.

I've been on fluoxetine since February 11th - I checked today. I felt awful for a bit, then I felt ok, AND MUCH BETTER, but now I feel so down, and wonder if I should just stop t\\king them really?

John, please let me know how you're doing now?

Thanks

Suz

Hi Suz, I was just coming on the site to see how your appointment went today as I remembered it was today, then I saw your posting here :lol:

You are allowed to break down, you are allowed to feel down. What you need to remember is you know you can rebuild and you know that this crappy feeling is only temporary. Pete is there for you and you experienced good feelings on these pills, that will return.

I've been on them a week longer, started 4th Feb and they can take about 8 weeks to get into our systems so this is my 8th week and your 7th. I had a shitty week last week and the week before. Felt like I just went backwards. Headaches, crappy sleep, I was snappy, irritated, moody and so so tired. Week 8 and I'm starting to feel a tad better again so weeks 6 & 7 weren't my best!

I've read your posts from when you first came to this site to the posts you now leave for other people. Your confidence has grown aswell as your strength. You can do this and woman, heed some of the advice you give out! Please don't look at coming off these. It may work for John B but everyone is individual. If you really want to come off them, seek medical help and wean off them properly, perhaps look at the herbal alternative which is St Johns Wart. I know you can do for example, 6 days Fluoxetine, 1 day SJW, then next week do 5 weeks in the Flu and 2 days on the SJW. This info was supplied to me by a food health expert last night when I told her I was on Fluoxetine. Obviously, speak to your doc about this as I'm only Ang, not Dr.Ang ha ha!!

These pills are just about in your system now Suz, keep strong, keep focused, keep that goal in site.

And yes, it's easier said than done about not visiting your mum as much but that alone is your decision. You need to do what is right for you and your mum. You will know what to do as your common sense and heart will tell you. As for taking time off work, I don't get paid for being off either on sick, only holidays so do you not have any lui time due? Can you not take a few Fridays and Mondays and grab a few long weekends?

You are not invincible and not bionic. You do need time to recoup and time for you so perhaps a few liu days is what you need. How about Pete, does he have a few days free also and you could pop in a couple of day trips like York, the Lakes, or anywhere closer to you that you can get to in about an hour.

Well, I've babbled on again but hope this has helped you Suz. I'm at the docs on Friday and raring to go for week 9!!! Not!!!

Take care Suz and take care everyone.

John, I hope the coming off these pills is the right thing for you and you're okay - take care of yourself and keep us posted of how you are.

Ang.

Hi suziesue and John B.

I wasn't going to post the reason i had my breakdown and ended up on the prozac but it seems it is the only way people can understand what we go through.

I have been married for 40yrs and out of that 40yrs i had been a full time carer for my mother-in-law who is a paronoid schitzophrenic and needed 24hr care she also lived with me all this time, otherwise they were going to put her in mental health block because she was a danger to herself and others,because if left alone she would self harm due to voices telling her what to do she had lived with me for 35yrs,and eventually i could cope no more so she has had to go into a home for elderly mentally ill she is now 87 and i feel so guilty as if i have failed her i thought i would be able to do the impossible by looking after her making sure she took medication regular and eating regular healthy meals taking her everywere i went,even took her abroad on holiday and pushed her all around spain in a wheelchair,i love her but couldn't look after her anymore,she treated me like dirt but i just had to let it go over my head because off her mental state of mind,lots more over the years have happened, too much to go into and don't want to bore you all.

Anyway the doctor put me on tranquilizers because when i finally decided that she would have to go into the home i couldn't stop shaking and i needed something to calm me untill the prozac started doing its job.

I was on them nearly a year and have eventually come off them don't know how it will effect me it is now into the second week off pill free,the first two weeks i only took them every other day and the last couple of weeks i haven't taken any at all, i have had a couple of nightmares but nothing to be scared off, still got the anxious feeling and insomnia, i only hope when they are out of my system completly that i will be okay they say it takes four to six week to be out altogether.

I do feel more alert than i have done in weeks,so i hope if any of you are trying to come off them that you do not have to suffer to much and i wish you luck if i can give any words off support please feel free to ask i would do anything to help anyone who is going through bad times.

goodluck to you all.

Hi Guys just sot of giving you an update on me coming off Fluoxetine, its almost 4 weeks since I stoped taking them. The first few weeks I did feel odd - I would Snap at anything, but as time went on it is nice to feel the real me and more in controll of my self. I can say taking Fluoxetine helped me at the time I needed them, it took the Edge off things. I just didn't like the fact tha people can be on these for a long time but some people do need to be on them long term. I take my hat off to you all and my heart goes out to you as I know what you are all going through.

A huge chunk of us are going thorugh crap in our lives, things that happened in pur past and trying to make sence of it all and what the future holds for us? I wish you all the best of luck, I will keep ye all updated on how I'm doing and I know if things get dam to hard for me again I know there is something I can have to get me through it and there is an end to this dark tunnel.

take care all !

John B

Hi Everyone

Thought i would give you a update on how i have managed to keep off the pills i stopped them altogether on the 18th march after 1 yr. for the first 2 weeks i was fine then 3rd and 4th week it was dreadfull, bad nightmares feeling lost with myself not knowing what to do,I feel more alert now than i have for a long time the only thing i can't get out of my head is the thoughts of dying it is awful it makes me feel sick i am constantly thinking what it will be like for my grandchildren when i am not here anymore,I find i am thinking of my brother who died 2 yrs ago also my parents who died over 20 yrs ago,i don't know if this is normal, but i am sure it will pass in time,i also have the anxious feeling in my stomach but not has bad as it was before,I don't seem to get any reply to my post except once from a chap called john b.

Take care everyone.

Lizz and john b, Hi guys. You're both so brave to come off these and not need them anymore.

John your words are lovely, and I wish everyone the same as well. I do really care about people, and just wish we could all be happy guys.

Lizz were you still having the thoughts of death while you were taking the fluoxetine? Or have they returned since you stopped taking them.

What you are describing is how I feel so much. But I think about my children and just know I could never really do something like that, and hurt them so much. Life is so hard, and you miss the ones you're thinking of. Sometimes I think about dying so I can see them again, but death comes to us all soon enough. But I get those feelings and thoughts, although they are diminished considerably from before I went on these pills. We have to grab life dont we? Be there for your little grandchildren.

Please go and see your Dr - talk to her/him. They care more than we think they do.

It's not right for you to have these thoughts, maybe you are still depressed? No one understands what it's like to lose people you truly love, unless they have gone through it themselves. I know you can't help thinking these thoughts.

Please go see your Dr - please, and let us know how you get on?

We all really do care about people on here, as we are all feeling similar aren't we?

Post on here pls, I'll always reply to youxxxxxxx

Hi Suzie and John B

Thank you for replying,I have always been frightened of death but i never thought about it to much,it is only since i nursed my brother who had cancer,also my neighbour who i was close to i stayed with both of them holding their hands both had cancer,i was also looking after my mother in law who is schitzophrenic which i explained in my earlier post,i lost contact with all friends due to taking care of my mother in law,they couldn't understand her illness she could be embarressing.

I am more alert since stopping the pills and i have started to get a bit better sleep.I have tried the ST Johns Wort but up till now i haven't felt any differant it could be that those that are helping me sleep a bit better.

In the end i could no longer cope,and i had to put her into a nursing home due the nervous breakdown,isince then i can't get the thought of dying out my head i worry about my grandchildren how they will be when something happens to me,they are my life at the moment.

I can't stand to be in the house on my own it is so empty after all the yrs of looking after my mother in law and then now she is not there the house feels so empty.

I don't think any of my family can understand how i am feeling they seem to think just because i don't talk about it that it has gone away,but i get sick of my self repeating that i wish it would go away i even say to my husband i am sick of feeling the way i do and his answer is ( i Know it must be awful )He has no idea.

I feel i am just mubbling on so i don't want to bore you all it is just nice to know there is someone at the end of the line that i can talk to so to speak.

I keep telling myself that there is a lot more people worse of and going through a lot more than me.

Thank you all for being there take care.

Lizz678

This is actually suzisue but it says now this user name has been taken, then I try to log in as I joined today, but it said my details were invalid. Sorry about that! Im just at a loss now!!! LOL

Aw darlin listen to me. I also held Dad's hand as he died from the cruelty that is cancer. I also nursed him totally until he died. I know the house must seem empty without your Mother in Law. You just give give give. You have given to all these people, and didnt take anything for yourself and now you are lost.

Look at your Grandchildren. Look at them. How lovely are they, little innocent children who don't know the pain and hurt of life, and neither should they. They look up to you

I understand that what you have been through has been shattering, but you know what I have come to realise - I have to learn from it all, be stronger, I really need help tonight, but it's not depression, it's bloody life, and in a way greed!

Liss now u have to help me

I took my very poorly mother, who can hardly walk, eat or drink, out of her care home tonight (I do loads btw) and met a very old school friend that mum knows well, with her family, for a meal. My childhood friend cried in the evening for Mum, for the fact that this is where life takes you - we all die dont we?

But the secret is having a quality of life while we can. Health is the most important thing in our lives, and we take it for granted.

Anyway, I took Mum back to the home about 9.15 - it was peeing it down with rain. We were standing there, ringing the doorbell, for ages and ages - no one came. Mum was shivering. It was like a cemetry it was so quiet in there

Guess what i had to do in the end? The little side window was open, on the catch, and there was a safety catch (like you have for little children) I had to bloody get in through the window, and unlock the door for my mother. As if this wasnt bad enough, I made it through the home, through the secure door (as my mother is very poorly and needs to be locked in as she wanders) to her bedroom. She was freezing. I got her undressed and took off her soaking wet slippers. Got her in to PJs, wrapped her up all cosy, opened her door - low and behold, there was the carer - I went a little mental at him (This is a private care home, costs more than £500 per week) No one had been around, it was particularly deralict tonight, there were old people sitting in the lounge snoozing still. I am so appalled. But where do I go for help? If I do anything, my Mother could suffer. She could have anything done to her but she would never remember or know what had happened. She is very vulnerable.

On the way out of there, I passed a room with a lady I always say hello to, she obviously needs a lot of care, and at 9.30 at night, she was lying asleep on top of her bed, face down, fully clothed, she wasn't even ready for bed at 9.30

There was no one around, and I left there devastated, not just for Mum's care and safety (anyone could have got in there) but for all those poor vulnerable people. We cant do anything about those that we have lost, but we can still help the vulnerable people who need us, and have no one.

I feel so alone tonight, I dont know where to trun to for help. This is just so unacceptable. This is my Mum, and I am absolutely gutted

Lizz - Mum is slowly dying from vascular demensia, it's really really awful, I promise it is, and I am going through and have been through too, what you have. But I am learning from this, getting stronger. I just feel so helpless, and dont know where to go for help

I know this is me talking, not my depression, anyone would feel as I do right now if it was their Mother.

Lizz come on, get out there, live again babe, please. Dont think about dying, think about living. That's what Im doing, and I need someone to help me with what's happened tonight, it cant be right, can it? It's disgusting.

I have lost a brother too, and friends, but Dad was the one death that des

Hi suziesue

I also had a bad experience with a nursing home 7yrs ago when I had to put my mother in law in the home then she was only in for 7 weeks and in that time she lost 2 stone in weight the doctors were called in every day she was that poorly the doctors said she would not last another week she was just laying on her bed all day,i was going up and bathing her ,changing her,doing her hair cutting her nails taking her washing home in fact everything I was doing when she was with me.

I complained to the head of the home constantly but nothing ever changed she was in the EMI unit for elderly mentally ill, I don’t think any off the staff had a clue about her condition or any of the poor people in the home, to cut this story short I went in one Saturday morning to see two of the carers helping mum out of the toilet because she couldn’t walk by herself,I was so upset at the state off her that I told the carers to get her things ready I was taking her home, it caused a lot off upset.

I took her home that morning and got her bathed pyjamas on and put her to bed it took me three months to get her back on her feet I had to spoon feed her because she didn’t have the strength to do it herself, I reported the home to the head off social services, who said they would send someone in on a spot check they did send someone in but before they went the head was informed so flowers were put out beds were changed residents were bathed it was all put right before they came in, so frustrating for me, There is a lot involved to taking the social services on the only thing I can suggest is that you have a look into changing the care home you have every right to do this, you don’t say how old you mum is mine is 87yrs.

The home that she was in closed down not long after and was reopened by another owner but I never got to know what happened or the outcome of the visit only that everything was okay but a few issues had to be addressed.

I know you say we should enjoy our life but how do we when so much is going on?.

I love my grandchildren so much and my eldest granddaughter who is only 7yrs is always on the phone to me, I worry that if and when something happens to me I know she will be devasted you see she only has me as a grandmother her mums Mum died before she was born and she is always saying that she doesn’t want me to go to heaven yet, I know it sounds silly but I cant help thinking how will she and the other two cope when I am not around I hope it is not for a long time yet.

The hardest part is when I go to bed and it is quiet my mind is all over the place I have started to put music on when I go to bed and sing along to the songs so it blanks my mind out, it would be good if there was a drop in centre were people like us could all sit and talk face to face we can all understand how the other is feeling and coping, because ther e is so much I would like to write but I am afraid it would take to long.

You are one hell of a daughter to do what you are doing, and you are right we will all be old one day, do you have any family that could help to take some of the responsibility from you, A problem shared so they say but is not that easyit would be nice to have friends pop in for cups off coffee or tea, or go out with friends socially but at my age I give up I have been married for 40yrs but it seems I have been on my own for the last 10yrs.

I can’t think straight this morning I am going backwards and forwards over things and it doesn’t seem I am making any sense.

Take care suzie I wll post again tomorrow hopefully I will be a bit clearer in my head.

To all the sufferers and cares I wish I could wave a magic wand for all off you .

Hi 'Guest' (Im thinking it's Lizz678) Im pretty sure it must be

Thank you so much for replying to me, Im still in such a state over last night.

I called the home before 9am, spoke to some foreign lady who said she was the Manager, and told me should would call me back - I told her everything that happened, I was so upset on the phone. She hasn't called me back yet!

I am so sorry to hear about your Mum - Mum was sectioned on Jan 4th as she had been wandering for ages and in the end the police called the hospital and Drs were involved etc. I was gutted as Tried so hard to keep her at home.

What you describe is exactly what is happening to Mum. She's lost so much weight now, barely able to walk, eat and hardly drinking. I shower her as she only lets me, she screams if they try to do it. She's 81.

I am so devastated right now, this is all heart breaking enough, without worrying about her care. I cant think, my head's all over the place, got a million and one things on my plate right now, and struggling very much. My 2 kids are a big concern - 17, and 13, and obviously suffering from what's happening to Mum too - all so so close always. I love her so much, I feel so bad inside.

Im at work now - have to to pay the mortgage.

Lizz where about do u live?

I hope that you're Ok darlin, I do care about you too, and wish I also had a magic wand to help you all You've been through so much with your Mum, It's just unbearable isnt it?

I am absolutely shattered. I admire you so much for what you did - I want to do that really, I go every night and try and take her either out or to my home for a meal. I am struggling very much though. I appreciate your care and help. Thank you so much xxxx

Hi Suziesue

This is just a short reply due to i have to go out,i am in the north east were are you?

Hope you are feeling better about your mum and that you managed to sort something out with the home go to the head off the home and explain the situation you were put in,they should off known your mam was out with you so therefore should off been waiting for you to come back with her.

I can understand when you say you are worried for your mam and that she may get the back lash of your actions,i don't think you need worry on that point because all staff will know that you will not let anything pass you and that you are the kind off daughter who will be checking her at all times.So they will be aware of you.

One bit of advice i would like to give you is no matter how much you love and would want to bring your mam back home,please think very carefully because it is not only you that will suffer but also your family,i wish i had been stronger because it effected my relationship with my husband,it also effected my sons my life was set around my mother so all our lives were effected she didnt go into the home untill both my sons were married and my grandchildren came along,my grandchildren could not be left in the same room in case she did them harm.ETC i can't go into detail i wish i could turn back time,it has left me a very insecure person,no-one would be able to tell from the outside it is the inside that churns,i have had plenty of practice at keeping my feeling to myself but sometimes it rears its ugly head.

live for today so they say,live for what another day of worry horrible thoughts and making light off everyday things,( all things bright and beautifull all creatures great and small all things wise and wonderfull the lord god made them all )i must of done something wrong to have all this sh!!!!! thrown at me

have a good day and try to be happy as the song says ( DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY ) easier said than done

One thing that i did do was to find out which carer i could trust to talk to and made a friend off her also another on a seperate shift who helped me enormously when i eventually got the authorities in.

It is suprising what they will tell you when you make a friend off them i know it sounds the wrong way to go about it but it is a good way of watching your mum when you are not there,and whatever they do say, it is kept to yourself and no names are given.