thecowisback: wondering why I'm giving up Prozac

[thecowisback]

notes for yesterday. i haven't made any notes over the past week as the kids were on holiday from school and it's all been a bit hectic. 

 

5/03/2019

7 am took candesartan 4mg, prozac 2.5 mg. woke up very anxious after waking at 4 am. 

8.30 took kids to school. very high anxiety. was supposed to stop for groceries on the way home but couldn't face even the small corner shop. 

1.30 extremely tired. had a short nap. woke up feeling more anxious. 

5.00 cooked dinner. very tearful. 

7.00 tried to watch tv while kids were out but my mind was consumed with obsessive thoughts. 

11.30 took  Levothyroxine 75 mcg Magnesium citrate 200mg, went to bed. took a long time to get to sleep. awake again at just after 3 am with obsessive thoughts. 

[Altostrata]

We need to know if this is a consistent symptom pattern over 4 days or so.

[thecowisback]

this is pretty much how it's been for the past few days. last saturday when i took the wrong dose of prozac was a fairly calm day with only minor spells of fear and no tearfulness. sunday wasn't as good but i put that down to having had a really busy day on saturday so i was very tired. monday onwards has been the same as yesterday really. i haven't been crying as much as usual but my ocd is very bad at the moment. i'll post yesterdays notes after i've taken the kids to school.

[thecowisback]

6/03/2019

7 am got up, took candesartan and prozac.  very bad ocd. 

11 am went to hospital appointement. feeling calmer. went for a long walk around the hospital grounds in the rain. 

3.30 picked kids up from school. very bad ocd. feeling very anxious. 

5.00 cooked dinner. much calmer than usual ( dinnertime seems to be a low point in my day for some reason.) 

9.00 pm kids were in bed. sat down to watch tv. feeling a little calmer. 

11. 30 took levothyroxine, magnesium and sage. went to bed. had trouble getting to sleep but not too bad. slept until 5 am. intrusive thoughts tried to push into my mind and scare me. practiced the 'cognitive shuffle' and managed to fall asleep again around 6am. 

 

[thecowisback]

7/03

7 am got up, took candesartan and prozac. not too panicky this morning

8.50 feel a little 'high'. nice feeling but later in the morning this turned into fear, then into depression all afternoon. cried for a while. 

7.00 itching on left leg started to get annoying. carried on itching throughout the night. 

 

[thecowisback]

9/03

7 am got up, took candesartan and prozac. scared on waking. fear lasted all morning. 

2.00 pm nearly missed hospital appointment because of bad traffic. got very panicky and angry. calmed down in the hospital. 

left leg is still very itchy and annoying. i used to get this for a year or so before i stopped the prozac and it's reappeared since reinstating so i think it might be a prozac side effect. 

7.00 pm went to the theatre. very good night, only slight fear and ocd. calmest evening out i've had in a long long time!! 

12.00 took took levothyroxine, magnesium and sage (forgot to put these down on yesterdays notes). had trouble winding down and falling asleep but didn't take too long. 

 

 

[Steve61]

8 hours ago, thecowisback said:

9/03

7 am got up, took candesartan and prozac. scared on waking. fear lasted all morning. 

2.00 pm nearly missed hospital appointment because of bad traffic. got very panicky and angry. calmed down in the hospital. 

left leg is still very itchy and annoying. i used to get this for a year or so before i stopped the prozac and it's reappeared since reinstating so i think it might be a prozac side effect. 

7.00 pm went to the theatre. very good night, only slight fear and ocd. calmest evening out i've had in a long long time!! 

12.00 took took levothyroxine, magnesium and sage (forgot to put these down on yesterdays notes). had trouble winding down and falling asleep but didn't take too long. 

 

 

Things look as if they are improving TCIB 👍👍 Hope it continues.

[thecowisback]

i'm almost scared to think they might be. i've been out all day today and things have been a lot better 😊

[Steve61]

42 minutes ago, thecowisback said:

i'm almost scared to think they might be. i've been out all day today and things have been a lot better 😊

That’s brilliant !! Just enjoy it. Try to keep it in the day. It’s all we have anyway. So pleased  for you TCIB🤗🤗

[Altostrata]

On 2/17/2019 at 1:38 AM, thecowisback said:

one thing i noticed today is the skin on my inner thigh has been itching like crazy. it used to do this in the last year or so of me taking prozac but i can't remember when it stopped.  not sure if this is related to upping the dose to 2.5 mg or just a coincidence. 

 

This is the first time you mentioned you had a possible prior allergic reaction to Prozac.

 

Please continue to keep daily notes, including any itching or rash.

[thecowisback]

i never connected it the prozac before but i guess it must be down to that as it's reappeared. 

[thecowisback]

11/02

7 am took prozac and candesartan. 

went for a family day out. very good day with almost no fear, intrusive thoughts or panic.

didn't want the day to end. 

8 pm bad itching on left leg. used some aloe vera gel which helped a bit.

watched films until 1 am. 

took levothyroxine, sage and magnesium and went to bed. 

woken at 5 am by bad gales blowing the bins over outside. 

[Steve61]

5 hours ago, thecowisback said:

11/02

7 am took prozac and candesartan. 

went for a family day out. very good day with almost no fear, intrusive thoughts or panic.

didn't want the day to end. 

8 pm bad itching on left leg. used some aloe vera gel which helped a bit.

watched films until 1 am. 

took levothyroxine, sage and magnesium and went to bed. 

woken at 5 am by bad gales blowing the bins over outside. 

You can’t blame the bins being blown over by the winds on your wd’s. 😂  Ihope the itching goes away now that you are doing so much better. 

[thecowisback]

🤣

[Rachellynn]

8 hours ago, thecowisback said:

went for a family day out. very good day with almost no fear, intrusive thoughts or panic.

didn't want the day to end. 

Amazing! So happy for you❤️❤️❤️

[thecowisback]

thankyou Rachellynn ☺️

[thecowisback]

10/3 

7 am took candesartan and prozac. 

some intrusive thoughts throughout the day but nothing too bothersome. 

3 pm leg itching started again. used aloe vera gel. 

5 pm cooked dinner. feeling pretty good, minimal intrusive thoughts. 

9 pm watched tv. still feeling calm and relaxed. 

11 pm took levothyroxine, sage and magnesium and went to bed. 

 

[thecowisback]

11/03

7 am got up, took candesartan and prozac. 

8..30 took kids to school. fairly calm. 

felt pretty good most of the afternoon. 

8.00 pm got a huge headache from nowhere. drank lots of water and took 2 paracetamol. 

11.00  took levothyroxine, sage and magnesium and went to bed. still got remnants of the headache. restless night, woke often. 

[thecowisback]

12/03

7 am got up. bad night's sleep. very anxious on waking after nightmares. took candesartan and prozac. 

8.30 took kids to school. ended up shouting a lot as i was so anxious. 

rest of the morning i had very high anxiety and ocd. felt very low. 

2.00 went into town to run errands. calmed down a little but still feeling scared. 

3.30 picked up kids, still a little shaky. 

4.00 started crying uncontrollably. this continued until around 6 pm, all through cooking and eating dinner. 

7.00 went out for evening with friends. very anxious at the start of th evening but felt calmer and more confident as the evening wore on. 

12.00 took levothyroxine, sage and magnesium and went to bed

 

 

 

[thecowisback]

13/03

7 am took candesartan and prozac. quite anxious on waking. 

anxious most of the day. tried to distract myself but my mind keeps filling with intrusive thoughts. 

7 pm got a really bad heachache. took ibuprofen which eased it a lot. 

11 pm took levothyroxine, sage and magnesium and went to bed. fell asleep really quickly but woke every couple of hours through the night. 

 

[thecowisback]

14/03

7 am finally got up after being awake from 5 am. took candesartan and prozac. anxious. 

9.40 maddening itch started again on left leg. used aloe vera gel. itched for most of the morning. 

11.30 had to go to town to run errands. fairly anxious. kept feeling dizzy and disoriented. 

5.00 cooked dinner. usual feelings, a mixture of panic and sadness. cried for a while. dinner was late as i took to so long trying to understand a simple recipe. 

lots of intrusive thoughts throughout the evening. 

11.30 took levothyroxine, sage and magnesium and went to bed. kept waking throughout the night. 

[Vonnegutjunky]

Hello Cow, I’m rooting for you. I hope you continue to see little bits of improvement.

[thecowisback]

thankyou☺

[Ather]

Praying for you, you will get better soon, I have hope for you in our Creator, the 1 who has Created us will make you fine very soon.

 

I have one very important question for you: Did you ever went back to the proper adult dosage of Prozac ?

[thecowisback]

no, i started back on 1mg then worked up to 2.5mg. 

[Ather]

This is coming from a Psychiatrist in my family:

 

Most of the cases the side effects that one is having at low doses subside when one takes the least proper dosage of medication and allow at least 3 to 4 weeks for them to disappear.

 

In my 2015 relapse it took 8 weeks of my SSRI's proper dosage for all the side effects to subside.

 

40 mgs of Prozac for 20 years, left for what reason, may I ask please ?

[JackieDecides]

I am also rooting for you - and I like the new avatar, very pretty. 

[thecowisback]

Thank you 😁 

I stopped the meds because I was feeling so tired all the time. Blood tests showed there was nothing else going on so I thought it was time to try doing without them. There were other reasons but a complete lack of energy was the main one.

 

[Ather]

Which state do you feel is better, feeling tired or feeling like the way you are presently doing ? if you were feeling tired all the time then 40 mg were not for you but maybe only 20 mg.

 

Now do as @Altostrata is telling you but you'll need to take a little more than that, but again, do as Alto is telling you, that way you wont need to take an anti-anxiety along.

 

The goal is to feel better, the sooner the better.

 

 

[Vonnegutjunky]

1 hour ago, thecowisback said:

Thank you 😁 

I stopped the meds because I was feeling so tired all the time. Blood tests showed there was nothing else going on so I thought it was time to try doing without them. There were other reasons but a complete lack of energy was the main one.

 

That is the reason I tried to stop Paxil - after 8 years my exhaustion was incapacitating- then I was tested and found I had a metabolic issue - causing severe fatigue, weight gain and fatty liver disease - It’s horrible - on Paxil I would sleep on the weekends for 14-16 hours straight and still wake up tired - during the week I always slept a minimum 12 hours - and after work I didn’t have the energy to even take a shower or do basic chores - 

[thecowisback]

i tried cutting down to 20mg a couple of  times over the years but did it following the doctors orders, which was to just drop straight down to 20mg. if i'd known about proper tapering i would have done that as dropping straight to 20mg was terrible so each time i just went straight back up to 40mg.

 

[thecowisback]

15/03

7 am woke very early after a rotten night's sleep.got up and  took candesartan and prozac. very anxious and panicky.

10 am went into town to run errands. high anxiety. feeling very scared.

wrestled with intrusive thoughts throughout the day but managed to get a hold on things and engage with reading in the afternoon. had bought some new books in town which cheered me up.

5.00 cooked dinner. feeling scared again.

8 pm watched films with the family. feeling a lot calmer this evening.

still got maddening itch on left leg.

11 pm took levothyroxine, sage and magnesium and went to bed.

[thecowisback]

4 minutes ago, Vonnegutjunky said:

That is the reason I tried to stop Paxil - after 8 years my exhaustion was incapacitating- then I was tested and found I had a metabolic issue - causing severe fatigue, weight gain and fatty liver disease - It’s horrible - on Paxil I would sleep on the weekends for 14-16 hours straight and still wake up tired - during the week I always slept a minimum 12 hours - and after work I didn’t have the energy to even take a shower or do basic chores - 

it's horrible, isn't it? i would eat breakfast then nod off in the chair, then need another nap after lunch and often another after tea-time. i could fall asleep anywhere and everywhere. i worried i was diabetic. the doctor said i was probably menopausal and i just went along with that. apart from the early days of withdrawals i've had a fair bit more energy since stopping the pills. i thought the sleepiness would come back when i reinstated but so far so good.

[thecowisback]

i'm wondering whether it's time to try another rise in the prozac to see if it will help ease the feelings of panic. 

[Ather]

47 minutes ago, thecowisback said:

i tried cutting down to 20mg a couple of  times over the years but did it following the doctors orders, which was to just drop straight down to 20mg. if i'd known about proper tapering i would have done that as dropping straight to 20mg was terrible so each time i just went straight back up to 40mg.

 

 

The doctors are sometimes so very careless it is a disaster for the patient, first he should have cut down the dose to 30 mg and would have monitored your condition, seeing you every 2 weeks, then after 3 to 6 months he should have made another cut only if it was very clear that you were doing very good on 30 mg.

 

Anyhow it is past now, no need to worry about whats gone, you should be celebrating your present today, You have come a long long way !

[Altostrata]

TCIB, please include the DOSAGES of each drug you're taking in your daily notes.

 

Does the aloe vera stop the itching?

 

@Ather we would never tell someone to keep taking a drug through 8 weeks of adverse reaction. That is not a good idea, though psychiatrists advise people to do it all the time.