No improvement

Ive been on flu for about 14wks now on 20mg for depression/anxiety (constant nausea was my worst sympton, plus uncontrollable crying, unable to leave house, etc). Had 8 wks on cit first but didnt suit.

I think the first 6-8 wks of flu I felt physically worse with lots of side effects but my mood had lifted a tiny bit. After that the physical stuff started to ease which brought my mood up more.

However around wk 10 I kinda hit a very flat spot and started to feel very blue with lots of random tearful outbursts again. This has gone on since then but its been mad over xmas n ive had a lot of medical tests/apts so they may be knocked me back.

Im just starting to up the dose to try get over this final hurdle, will see how that goes as the flu has helped me to get to this point which is a huge improvement on where I started. The alternative is try changing again but thats my last choice as I dont fancy weaning off n starting a whole new set of side effects.

Chatting with others on here suggests that many dont feel improvement before 6-8 or more weeks so its worth persevering for a bit longer maybe I you can hack it a few more weeks? Have you had no sign of anything improving? I struggled to tell sometimes as the cross over between side effects and symptoms can confuse the issue.

Hope things improve for you soon.

All the best

Vix

judging by my own limited experience and what I've learned from here I would say that you would'nt, on average, be getting the full benefits until between week 8 and 12 so just maybe you have to persevere that wee bit longer. It's not an easy ride though, I'm testimony to that, 8 weeks of 20mg, and now perhaps 4 weeks of 40mgs, and I've had a couple of spells of feeling truely yuck, as though the world was about to go on a journey without me! But through gritted teeth and the will to get better I am still here. Without doubt you will get excellent advice and encouragement from the lovely people on here I do wish you well Helen and hope you have a wee bit more patience than me

As Vix and David have mentioned, the road to recovery on Fluoxetine can be a long one.  It can be very frustrating at times and you feel as if you are not making any progress.  Stick with it, you will feel an improvement.  6 weeks is too soon to expect proper results.  The advice I have given to other posters is to accept your feelings and not fight them (I realise this is easier said than done), maybe look at relaxation or breathing exercises or possibly meditation.  From my own experience over the last few months on Fluoxetine, I did 6 weeks on 20mg with no real improvement, upped to 30mg for another 6 weeks with a slight improvement, before finally going to 40mg to bring me back to an even keel.  The thing I found hardest were the down days I was getting at around the 10, 11 and 12 week timeline.  You expect / hope that the worst is over by then and any setback you have feels as if you are back to square one.  If this is your 1st time with anxiety or depression, do a bit of research, but don't get bogged down, on what to expect so as symptoms you may encounter do not come totally out of the blue and are more worrying.  Finally if you are new to this forum, you will find plenty of helpful advice and support from people in similar situations or who have gone through what you are experiencing.  All the best, but please be patient with this medication.

Regards,

Chris.