dose increase

Hi dsrc!

So glad to hear youre feeling better! Hope you stay on that track!

Ive had a pretty decent last few days as well, fluoxetines physical side effects have increased with the higher dose but mood wise im doing better so im quite chuffed.

Let me know how you go!

Hi both of you!

I have just increased back again to 60 - bah!

It has lightened my mood, but I lost a lot of sleep last night.

This is day 2 at 60, lets see where this goes this time - I am limiting myself to only 2 units of alcohol too AND walking a few miles (for no real reason) to lose some of the weight that has undoubetedly made me feel down the last few weeks...

I hope there are more good days to come for you guys... this has been an educational journey so far...lets hope it is truely worth it.

Good to hear richo!

Hope the increase goes smoothly and you start reaping some more good results.

sounds like you are taking all the right steps in limiting alcohol intake and getting some exercise. I find that ive had to change my routines quite a bit and start looking out for myself more often.

But as you say.... massive educational journey and im sure it will all be worth it

X

How is your mood today,dsrc? Hope you are better. I'm kind of up and down lately with a period of flatness, too. Did yours go away?

Hi folks. Im so glad im feeling better and i hope u r too. Went to gp today he advised i continue to take 40mg for a few months then we can think about reducing. Like u ricco i have been exercising quite alot boxing is my thing good for letting of steam lol karen the horrible flat feeling has left and i hope it stays that way. Heres hoping lol This is a horrible condition we have to live with but hopefully one we can all manage. Love to u all i keep u in my prayers.

So glad ur feeling better heres hoping it stays thank way. ☺

Hi, Keke. I'm not sure what CBT is, but 5 weeks is probably not long enough. I am 5 weeks in and am still having anxious days, but like you said, it is getting better. I do feel better after I read my Bible and pray, though.

Hey Karen thanks for responding CBT is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. So you think I should stick it out a little longer?

I'm sure therapy would help. Are you saying that you are going off the medication to try CBT, or trying CBT in addition?

Hi keke,

Cbt can be veery helpful for anxiety and depression too.

Im due starting therapy soon (had the assesment last week) and i have been doing lots of online cbt, check out moodgym and bigwhitewall, theyre really useful websites with guided cbt courses,its always better to have someone personally guiding you (in therapy)if you can, to retrain your brain on how to think, process and react to things but the courses can be very helpful too.

It can definitely help in conjunction with the anti depressants.

X

No not going off the medication. I wanted to know if CBT can treat generalized anxiety or just obsessive compulsive disorder. I AM Doing Straight therapy AND It doesnt Seem To Be helping. Don't know if CBT is better than straight therapy.

Thanks Ana gonna try a CBT instead of just talk therapy then.

Hey Keke

Five weeks is no where near long enough for Flu to take full effect. I suggest you make a six mionth committment to taking it and then assess whether it has worked for you or not.

I'm very interested to learn whether CBT has any effect on depression - I'm not at all sure I understand how it could possibly help but I must admit to a strong bias against CBT. I am a firm beliver in talk therapy - get to the bottom of what causes your depression and anxiety so you can let it go, hopefully. You weren't born depressed so it must be something you learned - I figure, unless your brain chemistry is off a bit.

Please let us know how CBT works out for you. Is it 'just' coping strategies or does it aim to rid you of depression?

I had some talk therapy while I was getting on to Flu and discovered the root cause, why I chose and continued to choose depression. Whether or not that knowledge and emotional connection has 'cured' depression for me or not, only time will tell - and I have Flu to hold me up as well.

Good luck with CBT and Flu!

Thanks Carl I've been on Flu about 2 and a half months now coming from 10mg and now at 60mg for almost 5 weeks. I just really need to start feeling normal again. For me it not so much depression but mostly anxiety for wat I don't know.

I was on paxil for years and I it was amazing until I got pregnant in February and stopped cold turkey because I've read it's not the best drug for a growing fetus. My Obgyn started me on 10mg to combat the withdrawal symptoms of paxil.

I had a miscarriage and been going up on the dose from then and cant get full relief. I've seen progess but I just want to be normal again.

My psychiatrist wants me to go to 80mg but I don't know if I gave the 60mg a far shot. I am also dreading the side effects of increasing the dose.

Thanks guys for u comments I appreciate them.

Hey Keke

Wow! you've been going through the wringer! I'm sorry for your loss. I fully understand and empathise with your desire to feel normal again.

Because I discovered my depression and anxiey were triggered by losses - or my inability to cope adequately with loss - I'm going to ask how well you manage the emotions that accompany loss? How much loss have you had in your life? What and when was the first big loss you experienced? I wonder if, like me, you internalised the pain, turned it against yourself and chose depression - and anxiety - as a way of coping, surviving?

Can CBT really help with that? For me, it took talking with a person centred therapist. It was the first time I'd sought help with depression and looking at the same old story from that perspective - as always, it was so obvious when I saw it. That was a few months ago and I haven't had a loss since so I don't know whether or not it makes a difference to how I cope. I do know how much lighter I feel. Do I still need Flu? Who could tell - all I know is that I'm staying on it for a good while, at least until after the next big loss in my life.

Whatever you choose will be right for you for the time - listen carefully and The Universe will guide you - or continue whacking you ever harder with the velvet covered 2 x 4 until you do listen. That's a way I have for comprehending the seeming randomness of life. (The Universe is a she, by the way.)

Good luck.

Hey Carl, I don't know if CBT can help that's why I'm asking if it had helped anyone with anxiety or talk therapy is the way to go.

I don't think I ever focused on the losses but maybe this is how it's manifesting itself. With flu can u feel up on minute and down the next? In the same day, and then complete flatness at the same?

Thanks for your concern guys.

Hi Keke

As far as I am concerned, CBT is the stock NHS answer to therapy. I'm sure it's good for lots of things but I can't see it helping anxiety beyond coping strategies. I may be very wrong about that. I think anxiety and depression are choices we make - probably carried on into adult life from childhood - in order to cope with emotions we can't otherwise tolerate. There are better ways of doing it! Talking to trusted friends and family, talking to a professional, getting out for some exercise - a walk in the sunshine. Loss is painful - but not insurvivabley so, because here we are!

I am out the other side again, out of the quadmire and into the land of joyous living. I believe Flu helps me see and feel more joy than I used to. So I may have a flat day every now and then  but mainly I feel happy and sometimes joyous. 'Normal' for me has gone up a level on the happiness scale! I think that is also due to having discovered the source of my choice for depression and letting it go as 'not mine' anymore - it was the choice of a five year old boy  in the face of calamity and not being permitted to talk or cry about it.. Come to think of it, that's where I learned it's not good to talk about it and cry - the very things we actually need to do! (See! talking is good therapy!)

Your last paragraph tells me that you have a lot of talking to do! and crying and letting go. We've to get you out of your head and back into the beautiful world we live in. Can youimagine a way bacjk to joyous living? what you might have to drop and leave behind?

I don't know where you are but if it is sunny like here, do one thing for me today. Go out for a walk, at least thirty minutes, and look at the flowers - seek them out and look at them. Will you do that for me?

Ok Carl thanks so much.

Yes, I can definitely relate to feeling up one minute and down the next in the same day, along with an underlying flat feeling. Keep hanging in there, Keke, you sound like you are about where I'm at. We WILL get through this.

God bless.

Thanks so much hun

God bless

Hi, Keke. Just checking on you. How are you doing?