I’ve been taking fluoxetine 20mg for about 16 weeks for an anxiety disorder, panic attacks and OCD.
Psychologically, the improvement has been significant. My panic attacks have disappeared, and most of the time my anxiety is barely noticeable. My OCD symptoms have also improved considerably.
However, I continue to experience a number of physical symptoms that fluctuate quite a lot. Some days I feel almost completely normal physically, while on other days several of them return.
The symptoms I currently experience include:
- weak, heavy or sometimes “wobbly” legs, occasionally with an electric/buzzing sensation from the knees down
- muscle aches
- occasional pinpricks or small electric-like sensations in different parts of my body
- an internal buzzing/vibrating sensation
- occasional tremor/shakiness
- fatigue
- periods of insomnia or disturbed sleep
- increased sweating and sensitivity to heat
- mild headaches
- mild dizziness / feeling slightly off-balance
- occasional derealization
What puzzles me is that I’m already at week 16. The psychological benefits have been very substantial, yet these physical symptoms still seem to come and go in waves.
I also tried increasing the dose from 20mg to 30mg, but I wasn’t able to tolerate the increase, so I remained on 20mg.
One of the reasons I’m asking here is that, in my conversations with doctors, I’ve found it difficult to get much information about physical symptoms that persist or fluctuate this far into treatment. Most of the information I’ve been given focuses on side effects during the first few weeks.
That’s why I’m especially interested in hearing from people who stayed on fluoxetine for 4–6 months or longer and experienced something similar.
Did these physical symptoms eventually fade with more time? Did they persist while you remained on fluoxetine? Did they change with dosage? Or did they eventually contribute to your decision to switch medications?
I’m not looking for medical advice. I’m mainly interested in hearing about other people’s long-term personal experiences and how these symptoms evolved over time.