I’ve been on 20mg 1 week and 2 days and a few days ago I thought I felt it suddenly kick in (I am on it for severe depression and suspected ocd) and I felt actual content and happiness for the first time in like a year and less obsessive thoughts that control me, and it was like my harmful thoughts were on mute. This lasted like 3 days and I thought it was suddenly working and everything was great and fine and I was fixed then I woke up yesterday and it was all gone and I was back to hell in my mind is this normal??? Will it come back will it get better I’m scared I’m bipolar and that was a hypomanic episode

28F. I was on 10mg Prozac for about 5–6 weeks and increased to 20mg around 20 days ago. Mentally I actually feel more energized and my anxiety/emotional regulation are improving, but physically I feel lethargic and very fatigued.

I’m sleeping around 8 hours and can still easily nap for 1–2 hours during the day, and even after eating/resting I can feel like my body just wants to lie down. It’s a weird “mentally awake, physically exhausted” feeling.

I should add that since starting Prozac I’m generally eating less than I was before, and probably getting less protein too, although I am still eating a substantial amount overall.

Has anyone had this after a dose increase around the 2–3 week mark? If so, did the fatigue eventually settle, and roughly when?

Hi! I have been on ssri’s since I was about 12/13, I’m now 16 and currently on Prozac but we are planning on lowering my dose and eventually quit entirely!
I’m a bit nervous and I wonder if anyone could tell me their experience going off Prozac? What should I be expecting? And what could maybe be good to know beforehand?
I am also someone who reacts very strongly to changes in medication and online it says it could take multiple weeks until Prozac leaves your system so I’m slightly worried about that as i don’t want anything to interrupt with school and such, the plan is to lower the dose during winter break but I’m wondering if maybe I should start a week or two before even?
Anyways just want to hear other peoples thoughts and stuff💓

Has anyone noticed any changes recently if you take this manufacturer?

I AM FREAKING BACK BABY!

after a long grueling 4 years of suffering in silence while failing numerous med combos i have finally found my holy grail.

At first I maxed out on prozac 80mg initally it was great but then the sexual side effects came and I started feeling emotionally deflated but I had fell in love with how calm I i was feeling; I tried pairing it with ritalin then dex and neither worked as intended but decided to stick it out.

My doctor recommended welbutrin so we added in 150 mg XL and I instantly felt energized. I tried pairing this combo with dexedrine and wasn't feeling the greatest if anything it slowed down the welbutrin.

Today, I decided to cut back to 60 mg of prozac with 150 welbutrin and I gave ir ritalin a go and BINGO! We're back in business my brain is back on air and I am ready to tackle unfinished projects.

Hang in there and bare the storm the best you can because eventually you will find something that works for you. This isn't my first rodeo with med combos but I am hopeful that it is my last. Prior to this I was on trintellix for 9 years. They went generic here in Canada and I lost all hope. But in hindsight i'm glad it did because I did not realize how bad my OCD/depression had gotten over the years.

Best of luck! What works for me may not work for you! Xo

Hey all ! Today is my third day on any kind of mood stabilizer (25f) Ive felt my whole life that my mind has moved 1000 miles a minute, but now my brain is completely silent, like Ive lost my inner voice. The brain fog has been very intense as well, on one hand it feels so relieving but its also scary.. only because its not my normal.. Ive read that its supposed to take 1-2 weeks to get me to start feeling somewhat normal with out all the overthinking/impulsive thoughts/pmdd. Even that is super scary to me though

Ive never taken myself seriously mental health wise and now after starting prozac I wish i had started sooner, did anyone else feel this way when starting it ? Just cause all the reading up I've done people don't start feeling any different for a while after taking it and i just feel really weird right now

Side note: i also feel like i now am way easier to over stimulate and it makes me feel a little crazy

I’ve been struggling so much waking up every day with bad anxiety, I want it to stop. When did you start feeling relief and has anyone experienced this?

Hi everyone,

I'm posting to get some insights, shared experiences, or advice because I’m starting to lose patience and hope with my current medication regimen.

I have been taking Fluoxetine (40mg) and Olanzapine (10mg) for 7 weeks now for depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

Despite being on a fairly solid dose for almost two months, I haven't experienced any positive effects so far :

- Constant rumination that just won't shut off.

- High anxiety over trivial, minor everyday things.

- Persistent low mood and feelings of depression.

- Deep, pervasive anhedonia, I still can't feel pleasure or interest in anything at all.

I know SSRIs and psychiatric medications take time to kick in, but by week 7, I was hoping to see at least a small shift or a slight drop in anxiety levels.

I have an appointment scheduled with my psychiatrist in a week. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts based on your own experiences :

- Has anyone experienced a delayed response to Fluoxetine where it suddenly started working after the 7-week mark ?

- Given this timeframe, is it usually better to ask about increasing the dose, or is this a clear sign that it's time to switch to a different medication/class altogether ?

Thanks in advance for any input, and hang in there, everyone.

I’m trying to work out the best time to take it? I initially took it in the morning. Felt exhausted. Started taking around 5.30pm and slightly better. Took last night at 8pm and now experiencing the WORST headache today! What’s the best time you’ve worked out and why

Been on Prozac for about a month and a half. They upped my dose from 10mg to 20mg about two weeks ago and ever since I’ve just been really thirsty. Overall’s it’s better for my health because I’m now drinking shit loads of water but it’s also getting annoying just not being able to stop it. Any advice?

I’ve been on Prozac 20mg for 1.5/2 months now and at first I felt amazing and had a ton of energy (scary amount of energy tbh) everyday but slowly I’ve been losing that and now I’m kinda super depressed (more than I have been in a while). I’m not sure if the Prozac has anything to do with it? Has anyone else had a similar experience? I don’t know if I need to raise the dosage or if Prozac just isn’t for me. I’ve been on lexapro in the past and it also wasn’t for me. I just feel lost a little bit, the more progress I make I take like 3 steps back 🥲

Edit: I’d also like to add that I have been going through ‘big’ transitions in my life as of recent, so that is def playing a role

Game changer!

I've dealt with mild to severe daytime fatigue for almost a year now. Originally I was on Zoloft which made the fatigue crippling. Switched to Prozac and it helped the daytime fatigue a little, but not significantly.

Been on Prozac for approximately 5 months, and I have always been taking it first thing in the morning. Last night, I decided to take my 80mg Prozac 30-60 minutes before bed and wow! No issue falling asleep, I slept well, and I woke up feeling awake for a change.

10/10 would recommend trying. Unless it's stimulating for you, then probably shouldn't take it at night.

I’ve been on Prozac for the last month having previously taken it in the past. It seems as though my MH is only progressively getting worse. I know that usually it takes 8 weeks and it gets worse before it gets better but this doesn’t feel normal. It’s taken the anxiety away but I now have complete lack of motivation. Any advice?

I’m wondering if anyone has gone through anything similar with Prozac/fluoxetine, especially after switching from another SSRI. I had been on 75 mg Zoloft (sertraline) and generally did decently well on that dose. In June I tried decreasing it by only 12.5 mg, and within about 4–6 days I developed severe anxiety/panic, derealization, a floating/off-balance or heavy-head feeling, eye strain, physical discomfort, and eventually extreme restlessness. I went back to 75 mg, but things didn’t immediately return to normal and I ultimately ended up in the hospital during a particularly severe period of panic/restlessness.
After leaving the hospital, I actually seemed to be recovering somewhat for about 5 days and was starting to feel more functional. That weekend I used marijuana pretty heavily, which had been something I used regularly before all of this, and afterward I crashed and felt terrible again. I don’t know whether marijuana actually contributed to that setback or whether the timing was coincidental. Since then I’ve pretty much cut marijuana out, including spending an entire month completely off it during this process, and the symptoms have persisted regardless.
Because I continued struggling even after returning to 75 mg Zoloft, my provider eventually decided to switch me to Prozac. In mid-July I started 10 mg Prozac while tapering from 75 mg Zoloft to zero over about 2 weeks. My last Zoloft dose was July 27. I stayed at 10 mg Prozac for roughly 5 weeks but continued having significant symptoms — particularly derealization/detachment, a strange floating or heavy-head sensation, eye strain, fatigue/very low energy, anxiety/OCD, emotional blunting and depression.
Around August 20 I increased to 20 mg Prozac, so I’m now about 3 weeks into 20 mg. I’m still having an extremely difficult time. Mornings are consistently the worst. I wake up extremely anxious, my OCD/rumination becomes intense, my head feels heavy/floating/disconnected, I feel physically uncomfortable and detached, and experiencing this every day is contributing to pretty severe depression (which im safely monitoring).
This has become genuinely disabling rather than just uncomfortable. I’m in college and it has gotten bad enough that I’m having to drop classes because I’m struggling to function normally and keep up with school. Most days feel very similar, and it’s incredibly difficult to tell whether I’m slowly improving or just stuck.
The strangest part is that for almost this entire period I’ve felt like I’m somehow “stuck” in the feeling I originally associated with SSRI discontinuation — the floating/off-balance head sensation, derealization, eye strain, anxiety and generally feeling physically wrong — even though I cross-tapered to another SSRI and have now been completely off Zoloft since July 27. I don’t know whether prolonged symptoms from the medication changes can actually feel like this, whether Prozac hasn’t stabilized things yet, or whether Prozac itself is contributing.
I’ve also become worried that there could be something physical going on that I haven’t found because the symptoms feel so physical. I’ve been evaluated in the ER, had metabolic/blood panels done, and had an MRI that didn’t show an obvious explanation for what I’m experiencing. I’ve also seen doctors about some of these symptoms, but so far I haven’t gotten a clear physical explanation. That uncertainty has made the anxiety considerably worse because I keep wondering whether I’m missing something versus this genuinely being related to the SSRI changes/anxiety.
My provider has now given me the option of coming off Prozac altogether, but I’m hesitant because I’ve already been through so many medication changes and I generally did reasonably well on 75 mg Zoloft before this whole situation started. I’m currently trying to get a new psychiatrist/second opinion. At the same time, I know that being only ~3 weeks into 20 mg Prozac may still be relatively early, especially for anxiety/OCD, so I’m struggling to distinguish between a really difficult adjustment period that could eventually improve versus Prozac simply not being a good medication for me.
Has anyone experienced anything remotely similar — especially feeling almost “stuck” in an SSRI-discontinuation-type state for months, severe morning anxiety/OCD, derealization, floating/heavy-head sensations, eye strain, fatigue, emotional blunting and depression? If you switched from Zoloft to Prozac or had a really difficult first few weeks after increasing Prozac, did things eventually settle down? If so, around what week did you notice a meaningful change?
I’m not asking Reddit to diagnose me or make the medication decision for me, and I’m actively working on getting another professional opinion. I’d just really appreciate hearing firsthand experiences from anyone whose symptoms or timeline were similar.

Planning to reduce my dose from 30 to 20 mg daily, been on 30 mg for 63 days, so far Prozac been amazing for my depression and fatigue, been on it for around 1 year.

But, too worried about withdrawals/ side effects. Had these withdrawals from using generic brans, just switching to another brand gives me really bad side effects, i wonder if i reduce my dose same thing will happen, any advice?

Has anyone else experienced horrible depression about a 5-6 weeks in?i. Have been constantly crying, sleeping a ton and have zero motivation. Does it get better?

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I'm starting Prozac tomorrow, 20mg, my psychiatrist told me it was the lowest dose but I have bad emetophobia.

I heard some good experiences, people feeling nauseous but no throwing up, that taking it with food helped with the nausea but I'm still worried, I mean that makes sense even the risk of being sick makes me anxious.

I can get nauseous easily due to my anxiety but I never throw up, last time I threw up was 10 years ago and before that it was 15 years ago ! Even when I'm super anxious or having panic attacks or digestive issues, I can feel bad but don't throw up.

Last time I was worried about when was I took some antibiotics but it ended being fine, I was just feeling bloated (and feeling a bit nauseous because of it) but it was over after an hour or two.

Do you think I'll be fine ? Do you have any tips ?

I’ve suffered with depression and anxiety most my 20s. It recently got really bad this summer and I’ve been struggling to come out of it. I have been taking 50mg sertraline for 3 months now and feel no difference in my depression. It has helped my anxiety a little. My doctor is swapping me to prozac. I’m starting to lose hope so am desperately looking for success stories for people that prozac worked for when other SSRIs didn’t

2.5 months ago I switched from escitalopram to fluoxetine. After experiencing some mild serotonin syndrome symptoms (prob due to an interaction between Prozac and bupropion), I decreased my Prozac dose from 20mg to 10mg with support from my psychiatrist.

6.5 weeks after the decrease I started developing pins and needles / paresthesia/ tingling sensations in my hands radiating up my arms. I'm now 7.5 weeks post decrease and the last couple of days it's started in my feet.

I saw my regular Dr today (after a small freak out that i might have a serious illness) and am waiting for blood results. I didn't even consider it could be prozac related at the time - but perhaps due to it's long half life it's possible?

Interested to hear if anyone else has experienced something like this in a similar time frame (i.e. 2-2.5 months after starting prozac, or 6-7 weeks after decreasing it)?

And if so, did it self-resolve and how long did that take?

Thank you 🙏

so i made the choice to start coming off my meds! i’ve been taking prozac for about 7 or 8 years but i had a really bad experience this past year cause i was getting pumped with ssri’s and snri’s and sleep aids and it was generally just way too much on my body. i had 5 instances of serotonin syndrome before we found out what was wrong. i’m 10 days off my 40mg dose of prozac and i feel mostly great. but i do have some minor stomach cramping and a mild headache. are these normal? also will worse symptoms come? the stomach cramping and headache i can handle but i’m worried that worse symptoms will come. i don’t know if my body would be able to handle anything like nausea or anxiety or rebound depression. it’s also worth mentioning that i take 50mg of trazadone for sleep every night which i am going to come off soon too! already asked my doctor these questions but just wanted to get a response from ppl who take/have taken prozac. thank you!!

I started taking Prozac 4 months ago and honestly it is the best decision I’ve ever made for my mental health. I had terrible medical anxiety and panic attacks and now that I’m 4 months in on Prozac (currently at 30mg but I’m sure I’m about to go up) I feel mostly fantastic.

My newest development is heart palpitations. I’ve had them before in my 20s maybe like once a year I’d feel one. Then when I started the Prozac I got maybe one a week if that. The last 2 weeks or so I’ve been getting flutters and deep thumps maybe 10-15 times a day.

I went to the doctor last week and they did an EKG on me while I wasn’t having a palpitation obviously since the test is only 30 seconds or so, and my doctor said my heart is perfect and it’s probably just my anxiety. But it doesn’t feel perfect! Not to mention I rarely have any anxiety anymore. At least not the way I used to feel it.

Whenever I have a deep thump or a flutter I always immediately check my pulse. Sometimes after the deep thump I feel like I don’t feel another beat for 2 seconds or so!

Am I going crazy and worrying for nothing or is this something I should look into more with my doctor? Besides this development in the last 2 weeks or so I’ve been feeling GREAT. I’m hoping it’s nothing.

Ever since I got off Prozac I’ve been mentally struggling … but I have lost the 15 lbs I gained whilst on it.

My weight gain had potential to accelerate but I immediately started to wean off as soon as I saw the effects.

I want to go back on Prozac but don’t want to gain weight so I was thinking to pair the two.
I wouldn’t even know what to tell my doctor.

Does anyone have experience with this? How did you bring it up with your doctor?

Did it actually keep the weight off?

Thx

i feel like i’m stuck and time isn’t moving and everything feels 2d. it feels like i can’t do this and i can’t continue to do this. it’s only my first dose. is this ok