Increased anxiety with Prozac - please help!
Posted , 30 users are following.
Hi, I started Prozac 12 days ago for OCD and related anxiety etc'. Started gradually at 10mg, increasing every 4 days by another 10mg. Now on 30mg and tomorrow will reach 40mg. In general, my anxiety has increased. Strangely, I feel that each time I increase the dosage I have 1.5 better days and then deteriorate for the other 2.5. I've been prescribed Clonazepam and propanolol to help with the anxiety in the meantime. Last night I took 0.5 mg of Clonazepam and it rarely did anything (in the past that would cool me down very quickly). I also wake up in the middle of the night and immediately need to go to the bathroom as my stomach seems to be working extra fast. Anyone have similar experiences? I understand this is a known side effect but was wondering if and when it will subside? Am in touch with my psychiatrist and hoping it will pass soon and I will feel better. Anyone who can share experience AND encouragement - please do! Should I try to hang in there and ride the side effects? Will it eventually work??
Thank you for your support :-)
3 likes, 81 replies
Woo3353 violet1975
Posted
Violet
What you describe are all pretty normal side effects of flouextine, I had quite a few including nausea and a 'whirly' tummy, anxiety can also cause these sypmtoms. It took me 8 weeks to really benefit from flouextine so you need to be patient, but I feel absolutely great now, no anxiety or panic attacks..
Try not to anticipate when you will feel better but take everyday as it comes but stick with it
Take care
violet1975 Woo3353
Posted
Thank you so much, Woo, so encouraging and happy for you to hear that you are feeling great - wow!!! I truly hope you will continue feeling good and wish you all the best :-)
May I just ask - did you feel anything at all before 8 weeks, even small changes? I promise I won't anticipate, just wanted to hear how it went for you :-)
violet1975 Woo3353
Posted
Hi Woo, May I ask you what dose you are on, that has helped you with anxiety? I'm currently on 30mg, the doc recommends we increase but I would like to try and see what 30mg does so curious to hear what doses other people are taking for anxiety.
Woo3353 violet1975
Posted
I am on 20mg per day and that has really helped me. Everyone is individual and doctors can only use medical guidelines for dosages, the most important thing is to be patient with recovery don't try and rush getting better that way you will be able to gauge if you are improving on a daily basis. My anxiety is hormone related so my dosecond matches that but I do go back to doctor for regular checks etc, I also know if you have ocd then the dose is higher.
violet1975 Woo3353
Posted
I am trying to stick to the current dose and be patient :-)
deeb35 violet1975
Posted
I completely agree with Woo. When i read ur comment my immediate thought was you need to let the the meds do their thing and you just need to carry on as normal. Your seem to be giving yourself a hard time by scrutinising every last thing in super detail.Give yourself a break.Youll be surprising yourself with improvements in coming weeks. Do things to make u happy in meantime.
violet1975 deeb35
Posted
amanda18061 violet1975
Posted
Hi Violet, sounds all perfectly normal. Flux affects the Serotonin levels in your body, 90% of Serotonin lives in your gut, so your stomach will be very upset for a while. You'll probably lose some weight and have a sore behind if you're like me
. I thought I'd never feel better, I had ALL of the side effects and thought I was going mad....but now on week 9 and feeling much better. I suffer with anxiety and IBS and its all calming down now. When things got really bad, I would listen to a meditation CD I downloaded from iTunes. Really helped me to calm down naturally when the drugs don't work. I found most of my symptoms were heightened by anxiety, and calming with meditation really helped. Stick with it honey, you will come out the other side. It takes different times for different people.
violet1975 amanda18061
Posted
amanda18061 violet1975
Posted
Hi Violet, I had no reaction to the drug for the first four weeks, just felt good, I think it was the placebo effect. Then at week 5 the sickness and indigestion started, along with chest pain, the runs and anxiety....a week later I started getting severe neck pain and pain in my arms and legs, and very bad dreams. This lasted for two weeks. In week 7 I started to feel a little better, started eating a wider variety of food. When I was ill I could only handle little bits of food, lost 9lbs. At week 8 I really started to feel better. Now in week 9 and feel almost normal again, thank god! It was a tough ride, but think I'm through it now and looking forward to feeling better and better. The meditation was called "Take a mini mental vacation" by Bonnie Groessl. It's fantastic, she has such a smooth, relaxing voice, she just makes you feel so much better. I wish you well honey. X
violet1975 amanda18061
Posted
Thanks again, Amanda. I'm really sorry to hear about what you had to go through but very glad to hear you are now feeling better :-) Thanks for the information about the meditation CD! Wishing you all the best and everything that you wish for!
violet1975 amanda18061
Posted
Hi again Amanda :-)
May I ask you what dose you are on, that has helped you with anxiety? I'm currently on 30mg, the doc recommends we increase but I would like to try and see what 30mg does so curious to hear what doses other people are taking for anxiety.
katecogs violet1975
Posted
Yes, agree with the others.
This will take time to work and in the meantime you need to let the side effects settle. You'll get side effects with each dose increase too so just wait and let each dose settle. Slow down, increase the dose slowly too - you can't hurry recovery whatever you do. A bigger dose won't make it happen any quicker either - you'll find the correct dose for you and recovery will happen in its own time. Everyone is different.
This is not like taking an asprin and your headache will ease off in a few hours or a day. Give it weeks or even months - it works slow - really slow - but its worth the wait.
It will work, but let it do its job for you. Let your body heal in its own time. It will.
K xx
violet1975 katecogs
Posted
Thanks a lot, Kate. It seems you are absolutely right. I spoke to the psychiatrist yesterday and he asked me to stop increasing the dosage until we meet Monday evening. Maybe the dosage I am on (30mg) will be enough eventually, even though they say for OCD you usually need higher doses. We'll see. Thank you so much!!!
violet1975
Posted
Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply to my questions and for your kind, generous and thoughtful support. This is exactly what I need :-)
What I did not mention in my original post, trying to keep it focused, was that I had been on medication for 17 years, the last seven on Anafranil and Mirtazapine. Then I decided I wanted to try to see the world unmedicated and the latter medications were simply too strong, so I gradually weaned off for 1.5 years then have been trying to live without meds since February, which wasn't easy at all. A month ago I realized I just can't do it - for now. So now, after all this, I'm experiencing an additional drawback with the Prozac (in some ways), not even knowing if it will help, since I didn't feel the meds I was on before were making me much happier and stable. On the other hand, even when I was on Anafranil and Mirtazapine I was at least calm, could sleep better etc'. Plus, I believe maybe Prozac will be more subtle and less hard on the body as these two? I believe that maybe this will be better for me since the previous ones pretty much numbed me and this one might just give me a boost and enable me to work on myself better with CBT, doing more things I like, being with the family etc'. What do you think? Thank you so much everyone, these forums are unbelievable, even better than therapy! :-)
katecogs violet1975
Posted
Hi again Violet
Like you, I had been on medication / ill for 16 years. The tricyclics (Anafranil) I was on though didn't really solve my depresson / anxiety and neither did CBT, hypnotherapy etc, and was eventually started on SSRI's (Citalopram) - and within 6 months I'd recovered and have stayed well ever since (now 16 years or so).
I came off my meds 3 years ago but I need something, as I just slide back to being anxious / depressed. During the meds free year I took a natural SSRI called 5-HTP along with l-tyrosine (both over-the-counter meds) and had good results. 5-HTP works as well as Prozac and there are no side effects, no weaning on or off them either. You can start / stop them whenever and they work quicker too.
Sadly though I felt the need to restart my meds 2 years ago due to family illness which began to make me stressed / ill again and once more the meds helped me get back on top. I've since been reducing my meds the last 9 months or so and will come off them completely and go back on 5-HTP and l-tyrosine.
My son had a breakdown a few years ago and was very ill, being unable to work for 4 months. He was put onto Fluoxetine and within 9 months had recovered completely and is now back to being a happy young man again.
For me, SSRI's have been a miracle. I didn't think I'd ever see the day when I was normal again, to be free of the wretched depression and anxiety that plagued me, so was really surprised when it started to happen for me. It was like being reborn again
These meds are really slow to work and they can be tough to start with as the side effects can be quite harsh, but these side effects do wear off and gradually you'll begin to notice a difference. But do slow it down, let each dose settle and the side effects ease off before increasing. You might not need a huge dose either to help you recover, as a smaller dose can do the trick too for many people.
Give the meds a go. Be prepared to be patient and have lots of perseverance. Accept all the unpleasant side effects and weirdness - they really do wear off. I'm certain it will help you. For me, it was worth all the unpleasant side effects, worth the long wait .......... I got my life back.
K xx
deeb35 katecogs
Posted
violet1975 katecogs
Posted
Thanks again, Kate, for your wonderful words and encourgaement. It is so nice to hear how you and your son have been able to recover and truly feel better :-) Over the last 6 months I have actually tried many different natural supplements, including different vitamins/formulas that were recommended, L-theanine, Inositol etc'. Towards the end I also started L-tryptophan for a few weeks but it made me quite tired and my situation was already pretty bad so I had to go the psychiatrist and when he recommended prozac I just decided to give it a go, because I couldn't afford any more experiments. BTW, are you familiar with L-tryptophan? From what I hear it may even be more effective and easier to regulate/control than 5-htp. I learned this from a relative of mine who is a world expert on nutritionnal medicine and has treated people with L-tryptohpan.
Thank you so much, Kate, I really appreciate your help :-)
katecogs violet1975
Posted
Thanks
We all think we won't recover from this wretched illness, because once you're deeply entrenched in it, you can never see a way out. Even when you start taking Fluoxetine or other SSRI's you won't feel it working for a long time, won't believe it'll work for you ..... but it will.
5-HTP is better than l-tryptophan because is cuts out one more process. L-tryptophan converts into 5-HTP which then converts to serotonin (our happy hormone) - therefore 5-HTP is a direct precursor to serotonin and better for raising levels of it. L-tryptophan is also utilised in the production of other bio-chemicals whereas 5-HTP is solely committed to the synthesis of serotonin.
You must not however, take 5-HTP or similar whilst you're taking Fluoxetine or any other SSRI medication, as both do the same job.
But, you will find Fluoxetine will help you. Be patient with it though - really patient.
K xx
Emis Moderator comment: I have removed product/company names as we do not allow repeated posting of these in the forums. If users wish to exchange these details please use the Private Message service.
katecogs violet1975
Posted
K x
violet1975 katecogs
Posted
violet1975 katecogs
Posted
katecogs
Posted
Its just a help book - I didn't write the title, only the author. Its not as if I'm promoting my own material or anything - just merely passing on some help.
violet1975 katecogs
Posted
Hi again Kate :-)
May I ask you what dose you were on, that has helped you with anxiety? I'm currently on 30mg, the doc recommends we increase but I would like to try and see what 30mg does so curious to hear what doses other people are taking for anxiety.
katecogs violet1975
Posted
I was on Citalopram 20mg. My son took Fluoxetine 40mg and Mirtazapine.
K xx
violet1975 katecogs
Posted
Tess1951 katecogs
Posted
So glad I found this website .
Thank you for the information and how you bare doing .
I am weak 2 just increased Prozac to 20 mg .
Whirly stomach and nervousness !
Not crying this week . Praying things asettle down .
Going to try to hang in there .
Again , thank you !
katecogs Tess1951
Posted
Hi Tess
2 weeks is very early on these meds still - things often get worse before they get better, so don't be too surprised if you feel anxiety etc increasing at the moment - its perfectly normal. Symptoms do ease off one by one and it can take a long time, often months, but don't be put off by that. Just keep going. Along the way the anxiety will ease and peak, ease and peak sometimes for days or weeks - people often think they're ill again and increase their meds. You're not - this is completely normal when recovering, so don't be too surprised if you feel you're slipping back ever so often.
Yes do hang on in there - it really does get better.
K x