r/prozac

have consulted my doctor about this but didnt recieve much guidance, i am finding that despite eating regular or less meals etc, i have gained about 15 pounds in the past few months and have not been able to lose any, im about 1 year in on prozac and found that i was consistently the same weight no matter what, and now had the sudden gain, which was weird idk... is this a normal thing or something others have experienced? and would this go away on other medication or if i came off prozac? any help appreciated, thanks :)

Hello everyone! I've been on Prozac before and it's worked very well in the past. I went on Escitalopram due to pregnancy and I've been on it a couple years and had 2 babies. My last baby was just weaned and my anxiety was never 100% controlled on Escitalopram, and has gotten worse, so my provider and me decided I should go back on Prozac. I did 10mg of each medication for 1 week and I've been on 20mg of prozac only for about a week and a half. I'm having horrible side effects. Jittery, slight headache, nausea but the anxiety is the worst. It is not presenting like my typical anxiety, it is worse.I feel it right under my sternum. I thought at first I was having withdrawals but no brain zaps and I have gotten off SSRIs several times and I always have those brain zaps, but besides that the feeling is very similar to withdrawals. Then it occurred to me that Im probably having initial side effects from the prozac. I dont remember if I had them before(its been years), but I did have them when starting Escitalopram but not this bad. I thought since I am coming off another SSRI, initial side effects wouldn't be this severe. But maybe this is a sign it will eventually work better? Do I keep toughing it out? Anyone else switch from another SSRI and still have rough initial side effects?

even when it goes down i just gag it back up and i can’t mix it in food because the taste is unbelievably strong and makes me wanna puke. help

I started Prozac 4 months ago, and ever since I have felt extremely tired all morning. Getting up in the morning feels almost impossible, even though I get 7-9 hours sleep most nights.

If I had the choice, I could sleep most of the day, get up for a few hours, and still be able to get a full night's sleep afterwards.

I also find the entire morning I am in a sleepy daze, which takes about 4-5 hours to wear off, then I am usually fine by the afternoon.

I don't drink tea or coffee as it gives me depersonalisation.

Has anyone else found this or have any advice? I am struggling to get up for work, and it is affecting my ability to socialise, work or generally get anything done before the late afternoon.

Thanks xx

Hey everyone,

I’m a 40 year old female, been on Fluoxetine for about 14 years, and about 8 years ago got bumped up to 60mg. I think this maybe helped for a little bit, but I’m starting to feel incredibly depressed lately: difficulty getting out of bed, difficulty doing a good job at work, irritable with others a lot, angry all the time, tearful most days…I thought that 60mg was a high dosage, so I’m just confused what the hell is going on. Has anyone else experienced this before? Can it just stop working?

I’m dealing with my second major flare in about 10 days of what feels like sensorimotor OCD or hyperawareness OCD.

The obsession is saliva/swallowing awareness. I’m not producing too much saliva. I just become hyperaware of normal saliva and swallowing, and once I notice it, I can’t stop noticing it. During a flare, it feels like every conscious moment is affected by the awareness.

The fear is not really about saliva itself. It’s more existential. I’m scared that I won’t be able to live in the moment or feel normal because my attention keeps locking onto saliva generation. When I’m not in a flare, it can go away completely, but during a flare it feels impossible to believe that will happen again.

I’m considering asking my doctor about Prozac because I know SSRIs are commonly used for OCD, but I’m nervous about side effects and the adjustment period. I’m especially worried about increased anxiety at the beginning, insomnia, emotional blunting, sexual side effects, or feeling mentally “off.”

For anyone who has taken Prozac for OCD, especially sensorimotor OCD, somatic obsessions, hyperawareness, rumination, or intrusive thought loops:

Did Prozac actually help reduce the stickiness of the obsession?

How long did it take before you noticed improvement?

Did it make anxiety or OCD worse at first?

What dose ended up helping you?

Did it help with the fear/panic around the obsession, the actual awareness itself, or both?

Were the side effects tolerable?

I’m not looking for medical advice and I know everyone reacts differently. I’m mostly looking for personal experiences so I have a better idea of what to ask my doctor.

Has anyone else experienced this? It’s been a little over a month on Prozac for me, and I know it usually takes like 6 weeks to start working, and sometimes in between it can get worse. Idk. I’m not being metaphorical, I think I’m turning into a (human sized) grasshopper. I also think I’m (not on purpose) traveling dimensions and I don’t think it’s possible to get back to my original or how I would even do that. Is this common, has anyone else felt this way? I’m holding onto what I know to be true for reality but I feels like a balloon that could slip out of my hands at any moment instead of a brick

I just started taking prozac and I’m on day 4 (5 tomorrow) of 20mg, I used to take 60mg a few years ago and had no issues but eventually quit. Anyways I’ve started again, this time I am extremely nauseous, and I have been bed ridden for almost 24 hours now, the room is spinning so badly I can’t sleep and it feels like my house is a space ship floating in space. Idk what to do, this intensity of side effects isn’t normal, I feel awful. Should I not take my next dose? I have bad anxiety. When I close my eyes it feels like I’m spinning

So let me start off by saying im taking prozac for my depression and PTSD, but im being monitored for bipolar,

Anyways

Ive been on 20 mg for about 3 or 4 months now and its been working until a week ago. I just got really anxious out of no where, I dont know what's causing it but it feels like the type of panic attacks id get before I started taking the prozac, maybe worse, but it just has not gone away, why is this happening. I hate being anxious I cant breathe, my chest hurts, I feel nauseous, I just cant, I cant be anxious anymore I am trying everything to get away from this feeling I hate it and now that I had some semblance of peace its back, what do I do?

I am male (18) who took fluoxetine (30-20mg) at age of 16years and 4 months old to 17years and 6 months old and out of curiosity I googled side effects of fluoxetine (one of the biggest mistakes of my life) I didn't knew any side effects or atleast wasn't aware of side effects till I googled about it and there were literally NO positive reviews about ssris almost 70-80 percent of reviews were horrific and scary which made me doubt if it did damage my bodies natural anatomy i get extremly anxious and sad when I think about this. Why is this the case?(sorry for improper english)

Hi everyone,

I tapered off from fluoxitine and took my final dose about 40 days ago. I thought I tapered slowly enough but after reading a lot of people's comments I probably should have done it slower.

I was on 20mg for 5 years.

I have had trouble with aches and pains that appeared about 3-4 weeks after the final dose. They seem to be getting a little better but very slowly.

I have also had what I think must be brain zaps. It's a weird feeling that's hard to explain. It's like if I move my head a certain way then I lose focus slightly for a split second or it feels like a light buzz/vibration near the back of the head.

Has anyone had these and did they eventually go away? They were quite disturbing to start with.

I have had a lot of blood tests done to rule other health issues out and nothing was really found to be wrong.

Brain zaps only really seem to be related to anti depressant withdrawal so it has to be it.

hi! i've (21F, in college) been on prozac for about 8 months now. before that i tried zoloft and lexapro but zoloft REALLY didn't work for me... lexapro i would be willing to try again. prozac worked amazingly for a few months, but lately ive been feeling like my depression is coming back and my anxiety is worsening again and i just feel numb (it's hard to feel positive emotions too) and my family thinks ive been sleeping an unhealthy amount (12ish hours a day sometimes). i just don't know what to do now, but these are the options ive considered:

- my family thinks (and i kind of agree) that i should start tapering off prozac because i don't want to go up a dose or add anymore meds into the mix, but im scared my anxiety will come back full force.

- i could also go down some dosage?

- i could add smt like wellbutrin

- i could try a different med

i'm just having a really hard time figuring out what to do next and the pressure from my family is starting to get to me and i need to make a decision soon. any advice or anything would be very helpful !!

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after 4 weeks on 50mg i was JUST starting to feel like i was balancing out, my anxiety was still really bad but i was making small progress. I went up to 60mg 2 days ago and i feel like i just reset all progress i made. I feel fragile, panicky and jittery again.

I know i needed a higher dose but now is it going to be another month of hell before I feel decent?

Hi everyone. I started prozac 6 weeks ago yesterday for GAD and MDD.

First 10 days were ok , next 2 weeks were very rough , nausea , heightened anxiety, fluey. I then had a good week but week 5 the side effects returned , particularly anxiety, nausea , night sweats and feeling yuck!

Is this normal ? Can anybody rest my mind that this is normal or should i stop.

Thanks for any help.

To counteract the weight gain from being on SSRI. My doctor prescribed the wegovy pill. It comes next week. Anyone have success losing weight on it while still on Prozac?

Hi, I’ve been on 10mg of Prozac for over a year now. It’s really helped stop my panic attacks, but I’ve recently started seeing a psychiatrist and she says it sounds like I’m having breakthrough anxiety, so she decided to up my dose to 20mg. The adjustment period to 10mg was extremely hard, and I considered quitting, but I pushed through. I start my 20mg today and I am so scared that it will be like the very first time I took it, any advice?

I’m at 60mg Prozac been here for a year. idk if they expire, the white ones don’t work or what…. but I just ran outta my blue ones of 60mg and started taking the white ones which are also 60mg and I kinda see a difference?? or it’s mental.

I can say I been on Prozac since November or 2023 and it’s changed my life I went through the worse of the worse and I feel like Prozac just allows me to process those things without feeling like life is over or i wanna end it lol I just feel like.. regular ppl depressed the kind that motivates you to clean lol so I love Prozac but I’m feeling it not working anymore :(

generally I’d take a prescribed hydroxizine or whatever it’s cled if I’m so pissed I need to knock out. or a few times a year I’ll take a xan or kpin responsibly if I’m so mad beyond the pill. lately I’ve been feeling the urge to get one from a friends script . I have a list and timeline they want me to follow and kpin is on the list of things to try as I go fwd. but as needed .

my question is what will they prescribe me next? I’m new to ssris in life and had no clue 60mg is a lot fr and 80 is pretty max.

will they taper me off and put me on another med? I tried mirrrizopine back a few years ago and didn’t like it. what do they generally add on? any suggestions ? I requested Prozac cause I seen it’s worked for many older women and it’s worked for me so I wanna trust more of yall opinions and what to watch for

f29

I was prescribed Prozac for PMDD, and I’m currently on day 4. I’m curious if anyone else has had a similar experience, especially if you started a new job while adjusting to it.

Day 1: I barely slept at all, but I felt surprisingly calm, positive, and almost euphoric.

Day 2: Still couldn’t sleep much. I had some stomach issues (I’ll spare the details 😅), but I was also very talkative, social, and outgoing.

Day 3: The stomach issues went away. I felt very energetic, happy, giggly, and motivated throughout the day. However, around 8 PM, I suddenly felt very down. I’ve also noticed some blurry vision, forgetfulness, and occasional difficulty articulating my thoughts or finding the right words. It’s not severe, but it’s noticeable.

Day 4: I felt more down for most of the day.

Overall, though, I actually feel pretty good. I feel more motivated, more positive, and much more social than usual. I’ve been wanting to talk to people, work on projects around the house, and even dance again, which I haven’t wanted to do in a long time.

My biggest concern is that I start a new job soon. Sometimes I feel mentally slow, my speech feels slower, and I occasionally forget what I was trying to say in the middle of a sentence. About 6 hours after taking the pill, I also get pretty fatigued, although I’m still able to push through and stay productive. I’ve also had some anxiety on and off.

Has anyone here started working immediately after starting Prozac? How did you manage the adjustment period? I’ll be working at the front desk of a clinic, and I have no prior experience, so I’m honestly worried about being perceived as dumb or incapable 😅. Any advice or similar experiences would be really appreciated.

Since starting 10mg of Prozac 4 weeks ago for my pretty severe anxiety, I feel as though symptoms may be little worse. I get more anxiety/panic attacks daily and I keep getting this sense of feeling that I cant breath deep enough snd that makes me lightheaded and more anxious. Anyone have similar effects in this time frame in this dose? Wondering if I need to stick it out longer or may have to go to 20mg and hope for no new side effects.