Help! Worried about taking Fluoxetine after Sertraline

hiya Jacquelyn, and welcome to the fluoxetine blog!

sounds all to familiar your side effects sadly, and the Fluoxetine journey is not without the odd hiccup on your way to health and happiness. Tis not an overnight thing either they reckon on average 8 to 12 weeks for it to begin it's maximum benefits, even then it is possible that you will have the odd days where you feel like you are heading back to square one, but please do'nt let my honesty dishearten you! Better being realistic than pretending, I'm guilty of that in the past- kidding myself about things until it's too late. Hate to say it but I have put weight on during my journey, however the majority are the opposite and complain of weight loss! You are guaranteed brilliant friendly advice on here from fellow "users" without whom I would have been totally lost. I still have lethargy, loss of energy, and did suffer daily headaches but they have gone thankfully. My motivation is sadly lacking at times, but getting better with time. I hope your journey back to your old self is a pleasant one, please feel free to chat anytime and if my ramblings are of any help then wooopee 

Hi jacquelyn

Its so hard I know as it all takes so long n yoy just want to be "normal" again! I ha citalopram for 8wks which slightly improved my mood but left me totally wiped out so changed to fluox around 14wks ago.

It def gave me more energy but did have a fair few side effects to. Before I started ssris I was constantly nauseous which they put down to depression n anxiety and I lost 2 stone very quickly (I needed to but not like that!). Nausea eased wk 6-8 and ive slowly put a bit of weight back on but think thats just due to me having appetite back as its not been drastic. And I normally love my food anyway so it was only to be expected :-)

So no definitive answer im afraid, with this illness and medication it seems to be just a case of suck it n see for each person.

Hope it works out for you n you start to improve soon. Ill keep my fingers crossed for you!

Take care

Vix

Hi David and Vic, and you both for replying and being so welcoming! I have noticed an improvement in my energy levels just by switching my Sertraline to every other day and a slight reduction in th sweet tooth they seemed to haven add men develop and I'm due to take my first Flu tomorrow. Just one other question, I took Sertraline at night as I found it made me less lethargic in the afternoon although dopey in the morning, do you have any advice re what time of day to take the Flu? Thanks again guys, lovely to hear from you both, I hope you both continue to improve with time also, fingers crossed hey! Xx

Hi jacquelyn

I take mine 9-10am not tried any other time. Im a bit forgetful so I figure if I forget at that time ive got the rest of the day to remember! :-$ haha!

Ttfn

Vix

Hi jacquelyn - i guess i've experienced hte opposite - and the main thing I've learned from it is it's totally trial and error - what works and what side effects you may have  - I had been on Prozac several times pretty successfully and uneventfully in terms of side effects (apart from loss of sex drive). This time my anxiety was huge (don't suffer from that as much as depression so that was new for me), couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, felt really incapacitated - didn't know whether to push through it or come off it - I pushed through it for about 6 weeks - but then with help of gp through at least some of symptoms might be negative reactiont o drug - didn't make sense to me as I'd been fine with it before - but I think this is fairly common - and also I am menopausal and apparently that can change the way your body reacts to things. I changed to sertraline - as soon as I stopped prozac - within a few days _ i felt less awful - not good but less awful - kind of back to where i was before I started taking it which was a relief to be honest - sertraline took a while to kick in - one day i work up feeling ok and human and am still broadly in that mode 4 months later! it's so hard to tell what is something to get through and what is an abreaction - thinking of you x

Thank you Helen, you are right, it seems to be such a personal thing with drugs suiting some and not others. A week in with Flux and I'm feeling better than Sertraline, no headaches(hooray) and my jaw is less clenched but I am still lacking motivation and have increased social anxiety. My appetite had reduced, not through any nausea just not got the sweet tooth anymore thank goodness. I've joined a gym and a weight loss programme but am terrified of going and working out for the first time. I know it will probably help but the thought of going into a new place makes me just want to curl up in the sofa and hibernate. Maybe 20mg is not enough for me and I should go back to the docs? I don't know but I want 'me' back. Thank to you all for replying to me, it helps to know you're experiences are 'normal' haha xxx