8thwonder

[8thwonder]

12 years ago, my GP said I was depressed and put me on 20 mg Prozac as i was having strange back pain and had gotten to the point I was freaking out about it. It worked, and after 6 months I stopped cold turkey without any issues.  

 

Fast forward 10 years, and i convince myself I have tonsil cancer due to changes I notice in my tonsil. ENT continually reassured me that it wasn't, but it didn't help. I started having anxiety all the time. fast heart rate, losing weight, IBS type symptoms. I thought it was my thyroid as I never had anxiety before. most tests on thyroid came out fine. anxiety got so bad I stopped being able to sleep. I felt so sick and even considered suicide once.  

 

My GP didn't know what to do. he prescribed me  buspirone  and beta blocker to slow my heart rate which stayed over 100 at rest when  it was normally 60.  I'm 5'10 and was 180 when it started, and dropped to 168 lbs through all of this.  I was not functioning due to not sleeping.  

 

GP prescribed Trazadone to sleep on my suggestion from my mom's friend who uses it on occasion. Mom suggested I try a psychiatrist as she had an episode in her past and it helped her out of it with Klonopin.  I found one with her help(she works at a children's hospital).  I was put on 20 mg Prozac and I forget the dosage of Klonopin (clonazepam)...maybe 1 mg twice a day. still had issues, so upped to 40 mg of Prozac.  

 

I returned to normal over time.  I tapered myself off of clonazepam cutting .5 mg all the way down to 1/4 tablets. I had to due this or I had a weird tongue burning symptom that would return. I eventually was successful and was only on 40 mg of Fluoxetine.

 

After maybe a year I was doing well, and asked to drop to 20 mg.  She let me, and short time after started getting anxiety again for maybe a week, but then it went away.  I stayed on 20 mg for maybe 6-8 months, and was doing well.

 

I asked to drop again and she said the next smaller dose is 10 mg so I dropped to it about a month ago.  within a week, my mother in law died, and then I woke up in the middle of the night with stabbing burning pain in center chest all the way through to my back. I thought it was crazy heartburn as I used to take prilosec for years, but had been off of them for a year after tapering.  That night I found my xyphoid process due to the pain, but thought it was a tumor. It sent me into a panic attack.

 

GP did chest x-rays and put me back on Prilosec for 6 weeks (2 more weeks left) to heal.  Now I have really loose / and frequently floating stools and ever since that night my anxiety is back... even though I know what the lump is.  I went to GP and told him my stool is floating or diarrhea and he now thinks a problem with my Gall bladder. Ultrasound was good and now scheduled for a HIDA test next week.

 

I'm currently on 10 mg of Fluoxetine, but the anxiety is almost constant and now I'm unable to sleep for the last week.  I'm here because I don't know what to do and hoping to find out what I should do to get in control again.

Edited April 1, 2017 by scallywag
add paragraph breaks, higlight drugs and doses

[scallywag]

8thwonder -- Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA)

I'm sorry you've been having such a difficult time since your reduction in Prozac from 20 mg to 10 mg a month ago. A 50% dose drop sets off uncomfortable and painful symptoms for many, many people. It's *possible* that an increasing dose will ease your anxiety and physical symptoms. You will need to talk to your doctor about that because an updose would cause you to run out before the prescription is due to be refilled/renewed.
 
In your situation, I'd consider trying 15 mg first instead of jumping all the way back to 20 mg. Costwise, it's probably better to get 20 mg tablets/capsules and take 75% of it than to take 1½ 10 mg caps/tabs. Are you open to asking your doctor for a 20 mg scrip again? Do you think your doctor would be open to prescribing that for you?
How do you talk to your doctor about tapering and withdrawal.
What to expect from your doctor about withdrawal symptoms.


A request: Would you summarize your history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly?

• Any drugs prior to 24 months ago can just be listed with start and stop years.
• Please use actual dates or approximate dates (mid-June, Late October) rather than relative time frames (last week, 3 months ago)
• Spell out months, e.g. "October" or "Oct."; 9/1/2016 can be interpreted as Jan. 9, 2016 or Sept. 1, 2016.
• Please leave out symptoms and diagnoses.
• A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs.
• You can find instructions in this topic: Please put your withdrawal history in signature
• If you are using a phone or mobile device, you need to switch to the "full" or desktop version of the site. Instructions are in Post 9 and Post 10

The 50% drop was a dramatic one. We suggest decreasing by no more than 10% every 4 weeks. Here's some more information about that:
Before you begin tapering -- what you need to know.
Why taper by 10% of my dosage?.
Tips for tapering off Prozac (fluoxetine).
 

I hope you'll find the information in the SA forums helpful for your situation. I'm sorry that you are in the position that you need the information, but am glad that you found us.

[mammaP]

Hi 8th wonder, welcome from me too. I had very similar gut symptoms  for weeks and my GP was going to send me for tests. I then realised it was the prilosec she had given me to replace the ppi that I had been taking! I realised only when I tried to go without and my stools went back to normal. It had been so bad I couldn't leave the house. Your nervous system is unstable because of prozac withdrawal, and what you took before could cause a reaction now. Diarrhoea is also a withdrawal symptom. You should still get checked for gallstones though! 

[8thwonder]

I didn't have gallstones. he now is checking me for low functioning gall bladder.  I called my Psychiatrist today and left her message about my problems sleeping. She called back...on a Saturday... said to go back up to 20 mg since I did so well on it. She also said to take trazadone again as needed at same mg as before to sleep.  I haven't been taking the clonazepam regularly. I was put on the clonazepam and fluoxetine at the same time before. It took time, but felt good. only had one side effect. 

 

Since I have only been on 10 mg for one month, do others feel I will get back to where I was? I have been reading on here and am really scared I won't go back to where I was.  Is it more common for the anxiety and insomnia to go away than it is for it to stay?

 

I asked her about 15 mg, but she said 20 mg is not that large of a dose and I had been tapering slow enough... She said the options re 20 or 10mg. like she didn't even know about tablets.  It was a little strange since she let me cut the clonazepam as small as I wanted... and I needed that to get off it.

[scallywag]

It's great that your pDoc got back to you so quickly.

 

Is your current 10 mg a tablet or a capsule?

 

You could go with either your doctor's suggestion of 20 mg or what I posted about 15 mg (take 1½ tablets). Each has potential risks and benefits, either dose could

• be exactly the right thing
  OR
• make no observable change to your symptoms for quite a while
  OR
• worsen your symptoms.

The effects of any change in dosage often don't show up right away -- with Prozac it takes 6-7 days for the new dose to reach steady state and then it takes at least another week for any improvements to appear for most people. Some lucky few get symptom relief within days.
 
There's no way of knowing whether 15 mg is not enough or 20 mg is too much except for trying it for a week. We tend to offer more conservative suggestions because overshooting can be harder to deal with than carefully sneaking up from below to an effective dose.
 
Some people find it helpful to view the explanations and analogies at these two links to understand what's happening to the brain and the rest of the CNS (central nervous system) during withdrawal:
How your brain responds to psychiatric drugs - aka "Brain remodeling"
Youtube video, 4 minutes: Healing from antidepressants

[8thwonder]

it is a capsule, and I couldn't get it open for some reason. I tried 2 different capsules. I think it is powder inside. so not sure how I'd be able to cut them down like that. I need to stabilize for a bit.. as it is I am taking 20 mg Fluoxetine. I took .25 mg clonazepam and .25 mg Trazadone yesterday, and I think I slept some last night.  not great sleep, not uninterrupted, but better than none.  She said I can take up to .5 mg clonazepam 2x/day and 50-100 mg of trazadone. I took smaller amounts of those as they are tablets I can cut.

[scallywag]

Ok, stabilizing on 20 mg has the advantage of being exactly what your doctor advised.
 

Form of medication: tablets, capsules and liquid

 

When you're ready to taper, please consider using a liquid which allows for small and accurate dose adjustments. Fluoxetine (Prozac) is available as a liquid commercially from pharmacies. It is more expensive than capsules or tablets so some health insurers require special paperwork before they'll cover it.

 

Many, many people have tapered medications by making their own liquids/solutions from solid medication. I suggest that you read about that during your stabilization period and consider what you'd need to make it work.
Making a liquid from a tablet or capsules .

 

Slow tapering

 

Your doctor may be resistant to the idea of slow tapering. Prozac and its main metabolite have long half-lives which combined mean that Prozac levels in your blood don't decrease as fast as many other similar medications. Doctors believe -- note the word "believe" not "have scientifically tested evidence for" -- that this long half-life makes Prozac "self-tapering." Your body has told you that this is not true for you.

 

If your doc dismisses any idea of going slower than 50%, ask her, "What are the medical risks to me of decreasing Prozac dosage slowly?" I hope she responds thoughtfully. Her answer to that question will tell you a great deal.

 

Your medications and doses

 

Are you taking clonazepam and trazodone as needed/"PRN"?

 

At 6 posts, your introduction is getting long enough that we really need you to post a signature so that we can see your medications below all your posts. As I'm sure you understand, we can't remember the drugs and doses for each member and we don't have the time to re-read every post before responding.

 

Please take a few minutes to summarize your history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly:

• Any drugs prior to 24 months ago can just be listed with start and stop years.
• Please use actual dates or approximate dates (mid-June, Late October) rather than relative time frames (last week, 3 months ago)
• Spell out months, e.g. "October" or "Oct."; 9/1/2016 can be interpreted as Jan. 9, 2016 or Sept. 1, 2016.
• Please leave out symptoms and diagnoses.
• A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs.
• You can find instructions in this topic: Please put your withdrawal history in signature
• If you are using a phone or mobile device, you need to switch to the "full" or desktop version of the site. Instructions are in Post 9 and Post 10
• Link to signature settings page.

[8thwonder]

ok I did my signature to best of my memory. Yes the cloazepam and Trazadone are as needed. i don't know what "PRN" means.  I used .25 mg clonazepam yesterday at 1pm and today at 8AM.  I will try to only use .5mg total per day of clonazepam until I stabilize. I had 100 mg Trazadone left over from prior and she said to use 50 mg (what she thought I had based on her memory) or to cut it to 25 mg to try first. I cut the 100 mg trazadone into 4 last night and only used 25 mg.

[scallywag]

PRN is an acronym for the phrase that means as is needed in latin, “pro re nata."

You're in a bit of a hard spot dealing with symptoms from the large decrease in Prozac dose, symptoms that include insomnia. You'll need to be very cautious about taking clonzepam and trazodone.

• If you take clonazepam (Klonopin) for as little as 10 days, you can become physiologically dependent on it and will need to taper off it. Taking clonazepam as needed can also set up a dependency. Please consider taking it only for emergencies.
• Trazodone is a "dirty" medication that interacts negatively with many other medications; taking it for too long will have effects your brain and CNS (central nervous system) that will require gradual tapering to minimize withdrawal symptoms.

When a someone is taking multiple medications even if one or more are "as needed", we ask that that you post an interactions report. Follow the link below to get your report. Just select the text, copy it and paste it in a post here.
Drugs-dot-com Drugs Interactions Checker.

[8thwonder]

Hi everyone. I had to go MIA from here before because I found it too upsetting to read most of the entries here when I was feeling bad. It made me so scared to see how people were suffering.

 

Update:

I tried to stabilize on the 20 mg of Fluoxetine...I did get better slowly, but at a point I started to feel even worse.  I did not want to increase my fluoxetine dosage, but was considering calling to do just that.   While this was going on, I has going to have blood work in 4-6 weeks (can't remember exactly now) at work, so decided to take my lovastatin consistently to try to get my higher cholesterol lower for the test.  I had taken lovastain for a long time, but would take it inconsistently... even stopping for a month or more at a time. During this time of taking this is when I started to feel worse and worse with the anxiety.  One day I was feeling particularly bad and I got a severe muscle pain in my upper shoulders.  This pain I had had before, but it had been years before.  It was the pain that started my original depression 15 years ago when I was placed on Fluoxetine for the first time.  It immediately hit me that maybe it was the lovastatin that is causing / contributing to how bad I was feeling. Lovastatin was the only drup I was on those years prior when I had the shoulder muscle pains. I stopped the lovastatin, and continued with the 20 mg of fluoxetine.  I felt better every day from there.  On 9/27/2017,  I met with my Psychiatrist while feeling well, and explained all of this to her, and she seemed to think that it was possible that the statin drug was causing/contributing to my anxiety etc.  She knows how I don't want to be on fluoxetine.  In the past I had asked her to switch me to liquid Fluoxetine after my poor results going from 20 mg to 10 mg capsules.  I was feeling good, but there had not been enough time since i had felt bad so I was not planning on asking for a reduction or even switching to the liquid fluoxetine.  However at the end of the appointment she said she was writing me a script for the liquid fluoxetine that comes in a 20 mg / 5mL solution. I was surprised, and hesitant, but didn't say anything.  She started me at 4 mL which is 16 mg (I believe).  This is a 20% drop. More than I wanted, but the bottle only comes in 120 mL(unless there is another bottle size).  If she kept me at the 20 mg, I'm guessing I'd had to have another bottle.  She said she prefers to allow me to have a little extra in case of spillage, but that is how it comes.   I started the liquid on 10/2/2017.  I felt great until 10/19 or 10/20.  Then I started waking up through the night, some anxiety, diarrhea, dizziness.  It is not as bad as i had when I went to 10 mg. So far, I am having about a 2/10 difficulty, compared to the 9/10 the last time. She has me going back at the end of November for my next check in.  I was starting to worry that I will feel like this forever again, but have been reminding myself that other have said it gets better in time. My plan is to just stay at the 16mg until all symptoms go away before dropping 10%.  I don't know if she will allow, but I think she is willing.  The part that scares me is she thinks it was return of symptoms when I dropped form 20mg to 10 mg. I really hope I can get through this. I was wondering is there any drawback to going even slower than the recommended 10% / month taper plan on Prozac?  I am more scared of the withdrawal symptoms than I am of taking a longer time to get off.

 

Thank you to all who responded, and I am sorry I had to stop visiting this site.  I was just getting too upset when reading and I had to take a break until I felt better.  I am back to research if any thing new has been figured out in helping with this process.

 

I recently had extensive bloodwork done at a wellness center.  I was wondering if my body is lacking any nutrients that may be contributing to the anxiety since I didn't have it all my life.  The have given me a supplement plan that has a large amount of various supplements. I started taking them prior to the fluoxetine reduction, but I quickly started getting major hives all over my body (Never had hives before). I will finish this in a few. I have to do something and don't want to lose this i I time out on this website.

[8thwonder]

I stopped taking all the supplements as the hives became uncontrollably itchy.  I developed hives wherever I had pressure such as sitting on a chair... or laying on my side etc.  I stopped all supplements and the hives went away 4 days later.  This increased my anxiety as well, as I started to worry it would be permanent.  I am currently trying to slowly identify which vitamin it was ( I think it might be the Niacin due to my research). I am  a little scared to be doing this and may just hold steady where I am with the vitamins even though I am nowhere near the amounts or the variations they suggest I take to get my bloodwork all in the healthy ranges of the wellness clinic.  My plan is to stay here at 16 mg unless the w/d gets worse. Fluoxetine is the only drug I'm taking currently.  I am also going to get 4 amalgram fillings out in December (2) and January (2) as I tested high in the range on a heavy metal hair test.  I don't want to be changing does during this time especially since she dropped me 20% when she switched me to the liquid Fluoxetine.  From here, I'm planning on dropping 10% every 6-8 weeks dependant upon how I feel.  It seems it takes 3-4 weeks minimum for me to feel the effects the two times I have dropped my dosage.  If I stay at a dose longer, I'm not going to stress about it as the important thing is I'm already taking less than I was, and I don't want the withdrawal to be like it was when I found this website.  For all of those suffering, the only thing that helped for me was to updose from the 10 mg to the 20 mg that I had been stable on.  She wanted me to go to 30 mg, and I am glad now that I did not.  It may have sped up feeling better, but then I'd have even farther to go.  It did take awhile...6-8 weeks to feel anywhere near ok even after the updose. 

 

As I sit here concerned about how I'm feeling at the moment, it is slightly better knowing what I'm dealing with instead of wondering if it is something wrong with my digestive system, or any other problem other than withdrawal.

 

I'd like some advice from the more experienced. I know that symptoms last different for different people, but at what point would you suggest an updose if my symptoms have not started to improve?  I dropped 20% on 10/2/2017, and did not have my 1st negative symptom until about 10/19/2017.  My symptoms are similar to when I dropped from 20mg to 10 mg, but not near that intense so far.