u/koowe

Hi all,

I’ve never posted here before, but I’ve been on Prozac since 2017 for MDD/GAD. I was young when I started (19), and I was on Citalopram for a few years before that. So I have been on antidepressants my entire adolescence and adult life. When I was 19, I also was late diagnosed with ADHD, and started treatment for that. Over the past decade or so, I’ve done lots of therapy and although I had hard times, I worked hard and built the life I wanted.

Earlier this year, after a few years of no depressive episodes, I decided it was time to see what life was like without an SSRI. I started tapering my dosage (under supervision). I took my last pill near the end of March.

The withdrawal wasn’t fun, but I made it through. And I felt pretty decent after and was doing regular therapy during the process. I was even training for a marathon which was helping my mental health a lot. My psychologist told me I am still showing depressive symptoms, but I didn’t feel like they were impacting me severely so I continued forward.

Around July/August I had a lot of life changes. I also took on more responsibility at work at this time. This is when things started to go downhill for me, but I figured I just needed time to adjust.

However, I don’t think that’s the case. I have developed OCD-like symptoms. I am having intrusive thoughts about accidentally harming others (I work in healthcare- so this is really distressing). It’s consuming hours of my day (constantly checking things and rechecking) and really impacting me. I’ve lost weight, stopped exercising, sleep is impacted, and I basically feel like I’m on the verge of a mental break.

I am really upset, because I have put in so much work to my mental health. The doctors told me to take time off work and go back on my Prozac. I started taking it again today.

Have any of you experienced something like this? I am wondering if the Prozac was masking OCD or if this is just part of the withdrawal process.

Hi all,

My partner and I have a rescue dog(been with me for about 5 weeks now) who I need advice about. She’s likely about 1-2 years old and is a husky/GSD mix, very smart and medium/high energy.

I understand it is still VERY early in the process and she is still decompressing/adjusting to new life. And we are still learning new things about her every day!

We have started training classes about 3 weeks ago which she is doing well in them. She has separation anxiety, which is typical for rescues. We have been working on that doing “drills” where we leave and doing all the things there. From the advice of our trainer, we are working slowly to crate train her. She eats all her meals in the crate, and recently has started to go in a rest in there (which was a big win).

But we have not left her home alone in the crate yet. She is very well mannered at home- fully house trained, doesn’t destroy much (we know to hide shoes and the laundry hamper), and she has been left alone for 2 hours max up to this point outside the crate. The reason she was left outside the crate during that time is because my partner needed to bring me to the doctor and we didn’t want to reverse the positive association with the crate when she wouldn’t go in there.

Here is where I need advice. My partner is away until Sunday (usually working from home- so the dog is used to having someone always around), and I need to go to work the next two days. We are unable to have someone come to our home to watch her (we had a break in and there are issues there trusting someone unknown).

My only option is bringing her to my parent’s house, and staying there the next few days and commuting to work. I feel like it’s still so soon in the process to “relocate” her like this. Even though I will be gone 12 hours and return each day.

If you have a rescue, how did you deal with leaving them alone for the first time? What can I do to ease the anxiety for this process (for my dog… and myself lol). I don’t want her to feel distressed, but I also need to go to work. My parents are unable to come to my place so this is my only option. Do I bother bringing the crate if she is not actually crate trained at this point?

Any advice is welcome, thanks in advance!

Hi all,

I recently adopted a sweet female rescue. She was an abandoned stray in a remote community. She was rescued about 1 month ago and was spayed/fostered during that time. The fosters said she had very good house manners and got along great with their cats. She wasn’t crate trained for this reason.

I picked her up on Sunday this week to adopt her. She is fully house trained and is amazing in that regard. She also has been extremely patient with my cats (I have a baby gate separating them but she has already gained the trust of my male cat).

The issue is, she is unable to be left alone. The first few days I left her briefly and she did well. But as the week goes on she is developing more anxiety about being left alone. This morning we did our usual routine of a 45 minute walk, after I wrapped hot dogs (the only treat she likes) in a towel from some distraction as I tried to leave. I make sure not to make a big deal about leaving/returning to not further her separation anxiety. This morning though, she completely freaked out. I was watching her on the pet cam as I walked around the block (didn’t want to go too far in case I needed to come home). She was in full blown distress and trying to break down the front door (she’s about 50lbs). She was crying and howling as well, we live in a townhome so I don’t want neighbours to complain. By the time I looped back around to our house (maybe 3-5 mins after I left), I could see the front door visibly shaking from her efforts to get through.

I don’t know what to do. I had to call out of work today because I am so upset about her being in distress. I am having someone come watch her tmrw when I work. I know it’s only the first week but I want to correct this behaviour ASAP. She’s signed up for training classes already starting in August.

I know this is separation anxiety- and I have dealt with it in previous dogs, but I have never had a rescue before and need help navigating this and helping her adjust. I understand the 3-3-3 rule, but I also need to go to work. I am worried crate training at this point would worsen her howling.

Thanks in advance for any advice

Hi all,

Today I went out for a 14km run. I had coffee, protein powder, 2 slices of bread with turkey for breakfast around 11am, then a liquid IV electrolyte in about 750mL of water with 2 apple sauce cups ~60ish mins before the run. Started running around 1:30pm (normally I run in the morning… maybe this was my mistake). I didn’t bring any fuel since I anticipated the run to be <90 minutes.

I brought water on my run since it’s a nice day (~23C and sunny). I ended up drinking about 1L total on this run… way more than I usually do. I felt pretty decent until the last 2km then I was feeling fatigued.

I immediately made a smoothie when I came home, but the nausea is starting to creep up on me. I had another liquid IV but I’m still feeling it. I also feel like I’m having a hard time regulating my temp. Had a hot shower because I am getting some chills.

Is this a fuelling issue? Do any of you bring gels on runs under 90 minutes? The only time I’ve fuelled is for runs +15km. Would fuelling in the workout likely solve this? Or would increasing overall caloric intake be a better approach?

Feeling discouraged because I am training for my first full marathon and this is a short run in comparison lol. Just curious if any of you have experienced this, and what worked for you to fix it

Hi all,

I’ve signed up for my first full marathon in Oct this year. I’m a 27F. I’ve been an off/on again runner over the past few years, I’ve completed 2 half’s, and several 10k’s.

My last half was Oct 2025 and my time was 1:54 after ~3 months of training (running 2-3x a week). After that, I dropped off running but was still consistently strength training 3x a week.

From Feb-March, I was running VERY seldom but just trying to get back into the groove. April/May I’ve averaged 90-95km per month as I built up my base. My easy runs have been around 6:05/km. My faster runs ~5:20-5:35/km.

This week I ran a 10k in 50:40 which was a PB, last Oct I did it in 53 mins. So I know I’m making improvements just training regularly (previously I was very flakey with training)

Right now I’m trying to run 4x a week, my current longest run has been 13km.

Now that I’m about 4 months out I am going to lock into a training plan.

I know lots of people say not to set a time goal for your first marathon, but I really want to do a sub 4 hour. I know my half marathon times were a bit slow in the past to translate to a sub 4, but if I really commit to training, is it likely to happen? I want to know if I am being delusional in this goal lol.

Any tips appreciated!! Thanks in advance