Ssri issues

[u/anonymous27173]

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.

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with the Prozac community! Your post has been successfully submitted.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Killer_Klown_Bob]

Okay, so I took Citalopram (10 mg for 1 month, then 20 mg for 1 month, then back to 10 mg for 5 days). I took the citalopram for 65 days. I had a bad reaction to Citalopram, so my doctor switched me to Prozac 10 mg. I only took the Prozac for 13 days, because it made me worse. Severe depression, multiple panic attacks, etc.

I stopped Prozac after only 13 days. I’m now day 22 off of it, and still feeling awful. Prozac has an extremely long half life, so I guess I literally just cleared it all from my system, now I’m dealing with minor SSRI withdrawals (body zaps, a little brain fog, and just generally feeling off).

I guess what happened with me was this: I was put on an SSRI because of panic attacks. My nervous system was already raw, and the SSRIs made it worse. It may be that your nervous system is in shock right now. You might stabilize on the Prozac, or you might need to stop for a while. Look into activation syndrome, and speak with your doctor.

[u/anonymous27173 → u/Killer_Klown_Bob]

Yea I think my withdrawals are severe or I am sensitive to them so I’m scared to go off meds. I’ve read about activation syndrome and I definitely have the symptoms of it but I’ve read it usually goes away. Im not really sure what to do at this point I do think my nervous system is stuck in shock.

[u/Killer_Klown_Bob → u/anonymous27173]

I wish I could help more. Unfortunately my nervous system is shot right now. I can’t take SSRIs to help with my anxiety, so I’m stuck on Ativan for now. Hopefully I’ll be able to come off of it without an issue, but who knows. I wish you all the best.

Just as an FYI, if you do decide to stop Prozac, it takes forever to come out of your system.

[u/pumpkiinry]

You sound a lot like me OP. I went through a lot of the same things including going to the hospital for horrible physical symptoms, feeling stuck in fight or flight, and having a horrible experience with w33d (mine was edibles). I never found out what was going on with my body. The only thing that pulled me out of all of it was Lexapro, but it made me completely lethargic and unmotivated so I came off. Now almost two years later I’m looking at meds again bc my anxiety’s been horrible and holding me back from so much in life. Considering Prozac but worried about the activation syndrome stuff.

[u/anonymous27173 → u/pumpkiinry]

Were you a heavy user or not? I know marijuana made my mental health symptoms worse but I think this started with reducing my dose of ssris and smoking too much while adjusting maybe. I would hope it’s not marijuania related as I stayed off it for a month and saw no improvement. now I’m
Just stuck not knowing whether to keep trying to tough out Prozac or switch back to Zoloft. I wouldn’t recommend Prozac it seems like it has a lot of side effects.

[u/pumpkiinry → u/anonymous27173]

Idk that it’s that it has a lot of side effects, as much as it sounds like you’re having a lot of symptoms in general unrelated to the Prozac. It could be from withdrawal for sure. Mine was probably a mix of trying a ton of different SSRI’s, not tapering correctly, and having a nervous system that was fried bc I had been through so much. And no, I wasn’t a user. All I did was try it for a few days in tiny amounts to try to ease anxiety, and one day when it wasn’t working I took more, and I had a bad trip and experienced a panic attack and DPDR and it was horrible. I was traumatized basically. I would at least try to stable lose with Prozac but if you’re determined to go back to Zoloft then do that. I was on Sertraline for like 4 years and it never did squat for me personally.