Lauraf1978: Prozac withdrawal

[Lauraf1978]

I was on 40 mg of Prozac for something like 10 years (I can’t remember exactly when I started it) and made the decision to taper off. My med provider directed me to drop down to 30mg for a week, then 20 for a week, 10 for a week and then stop. This seemed to go very well, I didn’t notice any symptoms and no change in my mood.

Suddenly, I started to feel some brain zaps, I’d say a week after discontinuing the medication. Over the last 2 weeks I’ve had the brain zaps increasing in frequency, plus fatigue, muscle aches, dizziness, almost feeling fluish, plus some low level sadness and irritability. From what I’m reading here, it seems like I tapered off way too quickly. 
Today I felt like such garbage I decided to take 10mg, really out of desperation. I put a call into my med provider to see what she recommends but am open to any other opinions or experience with this! 
Thanks in advance.

[Gridley]

Welcome to SA, Lauraf1978.

 

Unfortunately, doctors know nothing about tapering, withdrawal or reinstatement.  10mg might be an appropriate reinstatement, though if I would have recommended 5mg and worked up from there if 5 didn't work.  Over the three weeks of your rapid taper, your body got somewhat accustomed  to the lower doses, and it's important not to overwhelm your system.  10mg is the maximum I would recommend.

 

How are you feeling?  How many days have you taken 10mg?  Sometimes you'll get a fairly immediate improvement, other times there's a gradual improvement over the following days.  It takes about 4 days for a dose change to get to full state in the blood and a bit longer for it to register in the brain.

 

If you're feeling worse, I would drop down to 5mg.  Please read:

 

About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms. -- at least the first page of the topic

 

It's a good idea to keep daily notes on paper to record how your reinstatement is going.

 

Once you've stabilized on the reinstatement, which can take several months, you could taper off.  We recommend tapering no faster than 10% of current dose every four weeks.

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

Tips for tapering off Prozac (fluoxetine)
 

This is your Introduction topic, where you can answer my questions, ask your own questions and connect with other members.  We're glad you found your way here.

 

[Lauraf1978]

Thanks for the reply! Today is my second dose of taking 10mg and I feel minimal improvement.

I was emailing with the prescriber last night, and she gave me the option of reinstating at 10mg, or she could prescribe an anti nausea medication for the next few weeks.  🤔 I told her I wished nausea was my only symptom! I’m so glad I found this group, because I don’t have much confidence in this persons ability to help me.

I told her I to call in prozac AND anti nausea. I also told her if a tablet exists, that I could cut into smaller pieces for super slow tapering, I would prefer that. I guess I will see what’s waiting for me at the pharmacy.

Thanks again.

[Gridley]

43 minutes ago, Lauraf1978 said:

d I feel minimal improvement.

That is encouraging.  Let's see how things progress over the next week.  If things are tolerable at that point, you would wait several months before beginning a taper.  At that point, we can talk about the methods of tapering in the "tips for tapering Prozac" link I sent you.

 

Gridley

[Altostrata]

Hello, Laura, how are you doing? It takes a week or so for 10mg Prozac to reach full effect.

[Lauraf1978]

Hey thanks for checking in! While I don’t feel “100%” I feel SO MUCH better. Like a functional human being again.

Turns out (if anyone else was wondering) prozac does come in scored 10mg tablets (expensive! with insurance, I paid $20 vs like $2 for the capsules). I’m gonna be hanging out at 10mg for a while, but the tablets will be helpful when I’m ready to step down again.

❤️

[RuthS]

In 2016, I tapered rapidly off of 20 mg of Prozac, 300 mg of Wellbutrin and 100 mg of Trazadone.  I suffered terribly and finally decided to go back on 10 mg of Prozac to relieve the symptoms and stabilize my nervous system.  I felt much better and decided to stay at that dose for a few months and then taper slowly from there.  I ended up staying at 10 mg for a year and then got liquid Prozac so I could taper more slowly with tiny syringes I bought on Amazon.  I tapered 10 mg in 10 months, which is faster than the 10% rule recommended by Peter Breggin and the moderator of this website.  I was not easy, but it was much more doable than the rapid taper.  

 

It has now been 15 months since my last dose of 1/2 a ml of liquid Prozac and I feel better than I ever thought possible.  I have been following the nutritional recommendations  of Chris Masterjohn of chrismasterjohnphd.com for methylation and they have really helped a lot.  I eat liver once a week  (gross but effective), eggs almost every day, and I supplement with glycine (Bulk Supplements) that I get from Amazon.  I also eat 5-10 servings of vegetables every day.  I’m a firm believer in the power of nutrient dense foods to heal our bodies.  

 

Hang in there.  Keep working to figure it out and you will find your recovery.  I hope this helps you.