Prozac fixed all of my problems... for one week
I'm (24F) coming here because I'm at a loss and want to hear other people's stories and experiences to see if anyone can else has experienced anything similar.
I've been on and off different meds for years and have had on and off bouts of depression. I'm diagnosed with MDD and recently suspected of struggling with OCD, so I tried Prozac for the first time.
Within a few days I felt good again. And then, I felt AMAZING. I was so inspired and motivated. I finally wanted to do art again. I didn't hate my job and I wasn't overwhelmed and I wasn't working myself into these constant awful thought spirals. It was early on and I really wasn't trying to get ahead of myself, but how could I not at the same time. I've been dealing with this particular bout of depression for over a year now. I've been seeing two therapists and have seen two different psychiatrists during this bout alone. I was feeling like all of my research and hard work was finally starting to pay off. I had worked so hard to do as much as I could before resorting to meds but it became necessary for me and finally I was seeing real results!
And then it tapered off. I started feeling bad again. I was taking the same meds, but after two weeks of feeling great I just started to feel blah. My psychiatrist recommended that I should up my dose from 20 to 40 mg bc of the potential OCD. That I may need more but it seems like this is the right med for me. We upped my dose, and I got worse. I was holding out hope for a while that my inspiration and motivation would come back, but I was crying more and feeling very overwhelmed over minor things. My partner could see I was getting worse and urged me to stop taking the medicine after I confessed I was researching institutions to check myself into. I was feeling scared of myself and panicked and like I needed more serious help.
When I relayed all of this to my psychiatrist and she seemed so confused. At this point, she was already on her way out of the practice and decided to decrease my dose and set me up with someone else within the practice who may have different recommendations. I have also been given IOP and PHP resources.
Unfortunately, because of the way my prescriber wrote my script, I wasn't able to get the refill I needed to properly taper off my dose before going out of town so I went from 40mg to 20 for less than a week to now nothing. Now I feel maybe the worst I've been yet this round. I'm so fatigued and no amount of caffeine can touch it. I dread doing anything and it's really impacting my daily functioning. I've only been off for about 5 days now, so I know the withdrawals are hitting me, but this is so awful.
I just don't understand what happened. Did I not give the meds enough time to work? Should I have stuck it out? Was my initial benefits some kind of placebo? I feel that if placebo was enough to help me I would have come across that a lot earlier in this journey. Did my extracurricular activities (regular cannabis smoking, one time use of 🍄🟫) ruin the opportunity I had with this drug? I would love to hear if anyone has had similar experiences and what worked for you or any advice you may have.
TL;DR Prozac worked great for me at first but the good effects tapered out and wore off after about 2 weeks. Increasing my dose made me feel even worse. Have you heard of anything like this?