strugglingdaily: fluoxetine 20/40mg

[strugglingdaily]

Hello all!

Relatively new to this forum although I have heard about this site couple of years ago on reddit. I've been lurking without an account for a long time and now thought is the time to create an account, 
because my symptoms of being "addicted" to fluoxetine have gone really bad. 

It all started back when I was around 16 years old and I had my first panic attack out of blue, after which I was put on 20mg of fluoxetine - back then that looked as the best option, because panic attacks were pretty consistent. I didn't really have any issues with depression back then.
Fast forward to where I'm 21 years old, and I am having depression episodes that go worse and worse, anxiety growing and social phobia also growing (all things that I didn't have before - and I'm still on Fluoxetine - 20mg). 

So around that time I tried to drop the meds completely because they had no effect and I realized that Fluoxetine was numbing my emotions constantly, daily - emotionless person 24/7. I started running and feeling alive, feeling so free that I finally have emotions; depression and social phobia and anxiety was all gone. Literally. However here comes a problem: I have periods where I feel absolutely awful (depression and anxiety, social phobia, slight ocd & anhedonia) and you could literally say that Fluoxetine is tricking my brain into taking it, because I feel as if I really have to take it to feel good again. 


The thing is that during these episodes where I feel extremely down, in the back of my mind I know that I shouldn't feel anxiety or depression or any of that at all. I have no reason to be like that.

I absolutely want to get rid of these drugs, because with them, I have a long list of effects like not seeing any dreams, strong tinnitus in ears and losing hair, and so on - I also don't want to feel like a zombie.
It feels as if my brain is on fire during these episodes when I have all these negative symptoms that make me want to go back on antidepressant.


Thank you for reading if you did, and hopefully there is a lot of information about tapering off safely.

p.s - if what I wrote sounds confusing then my apologies because it's pretty late here currently. 

[getofflex]

Hello, and welcome to SA.  We are a volunteer-run community of people who have been or are getting off of psychiatric drugs.  I'm sorry to hear you are having these problems with fluoxetine.  Are you taking it now every day regularly, or only sometimes?  Please do not take it only sometimes, as this will further mess up your nervous system, and make you feel worse and worse.  Please wait until we advise, before doing anything with your fluoxetine.  Thank you. 

 

16 hours ago, strugglingdaily said:

However here comes a problem: I have periods where I feel absolutely awful (depression and anxiety, social phobia, slight ocd & anhedonia)

 

16 hours ago, strugglingdaily said:

It feels as if my brain is on fire during these episodes when I have all these negative symptoms that make me want to go back on antidepressant.

These symptoms are probably from stopping the drug suddenly, without gradually tapering off of it.  We call this cold turkey.  These are symptoms of withdrawal. 

 

Can you please give us specific information in your signature about your drug history for all drugs you are on and have been on, especially for the past 18-24 months?  It would be especially helpful to have the details of your drugs in a concise vertical list (no symptoms), only drug names, specific dates (as best you can say for example early March if you don't recall the day) and dosages of each medication decrease or increase.  Use this format:

 

Drug name: date, dose, date, dose, date, dose…

Drug name: date, dose, date, dose, date, dose…

Etcetera

 

Please read the link below for instructions.  This will allow us to give you the best guidance.  

 

How to List Drug History in Signature

 

Here is some important information about how these drugs actually work.  This explains why we get symptoms from going off of these medications, and why it's so important to taper slowly and carefully, and be very cautious about changing our doses: 

 

How Psychiatric Drugs Remodel Your Brain

 

 

This helps you understand what withdrawal syndrome is: 

 

Video on Recovery from Psych Drugs

 

Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

 

 

Tapering is best done extremely slowly, and we generally taper by 10% of the current dose no more than once every 4 weeks, so that the reduction becomes exponentially smaller.

 

 Why Taper by 10% of my Dosage  

 

 

Here is a link with checklists of common WD symptoms: 

 

Dr Joseph Glenmullen Withdrawal Symptom Checklists

 

 

Here are some techniques to cope with symptoms: 

 

Non Drug Ways to Cope with Withdrawal Symptoms

 

Stability is really important when we are tapering off psych meds.  Please read the link about stability:

 

Keep It Simple, Slow, and Stable

 

 

We don't suggest many supplements, but 2 that many of us find helpful are magnesium and omega-3 fish oil. Here are the links for info about those. It is suggested to add one at a time, and start with a low dose to see how it affects you. 

Magnesium

Omega 3 Fish Oil

 

When we know more about how you are taking your drug now, and the dates when you started and stopped it, we can give you advise on how to help yourself.  

[strugglingdaily]

2 hours ago, getofflex said:

Hello, and welcome to SA.  We are a volunteer-run community of people who have been or are getting off of psychiatric drugs.  I'm sorry to hear you are having these problems with fluoxetine.  Are you taking it now every day regularly, or only sometimes?  Please do not take it only sometimes, as this will further mess up your nervous system, and make you feel worse and worse.  Please wait until we advise, before doing anything with your fluoxetine.  Thank you. 

 

 

These symptoms are probably from stopping the drug suddenly, without gradually tapering off of it.  We call this cold turkey.  These are symptoms of withdrawal. 

 

Hi, I have updated the signature and as of right now, I haven't taken prozac/fluoxetine since January of 2022, there were a lot of waves during these 7 months up to now. 
As of right now (July 2022 5th-8th July) I did take 40mg per day because I felt intense cravings for the prozac and had all these negative symptoms. The thing with waves is that I feel awful at one point, and then feel absolutely amazing the next point - no anxiety, no anhedonia, no social phobia..  They have become more rare however the intense cravings for antidepressant sometimes are what gets me(well this year only once, but the feelings are still there). 

My psychiatrist offers no help with tapering it off correctly, so I had to take matters into my own hands even though I knew, and still know - that going 'cold turkey' is very dangerous,
I should also mention that Prozac version that I am taking comes in a small capsule, so I am not entirely sure how to taper off of it because well, it's liquid.I will however take a look at the information available here and the links you included.
About the 40mg, that is because at the start of taking them at all, I was given 40mg for the first week so I kind of thought I had to do the same. correct me if I'm wrong.

When I initially cut them off in January, my confidence was completely shot down and anxiety was pretty intense, however these got slightly better with time as I managed to not take antidepressant of any kind.