Just been prescribed Fluoxetine (Prozac) - Anyone else taken this?

Been on same for 3 months and they are great using them for PMT doc suggested them as they have shown fantastic results for PMT. They have really taken the edge off things. The only side effect was odd sleep knew i had slepted but the dreams were of being awake in bed !!! strange but it is common they said during the first few weeks, so did feel totally shattered for awhile. Hope you get on ok with them.

Well,Tid,what alot of people are in your club,eh?
I too have taken them and they work great but will take a good few weeks to work and then when they do you'll think "I dont need these" but you will-I probably agree with no less than six months to see a permanent improvement.
Good Luck-don't be scared!!

Reflection - we didn't mean to make you cry .
My GP has told me each time I've seen him that studies have shown that taking them for a period of less than 6 months makes you much more likely to end up back on the ads. (He must be worried I feel so much better I'll take it on myself to stop ).

Maybe you should show your dh this thread to convince him to stay on them.

Reading this tread has nearly made me cry. I am so relieved. My dh suffers with depression and has several episodes in the last couple of years. Every time he starts to feel better he forgets to take them and stops. This was always after a couple of months. He is extreemly hard to live with when he is down. This is the third time that he has gone back on them. before reading these posts I had almost given up hope thinking that prozac could not helphim but now I realise that he must take them properly for longer. Today I feel better. I have hope that our relationship might last. Trying to support and live with someone who is suicidal is the hardest thing and a real test of my love for him. Thank you for sharing your experiences it means a lot to me x

ive been o n prozac for more years then i can remember,manic depression runs in the family,but i just get the depression,ive tried to do with out it every now and then but with in months the depression comes back,so i will be taking it for ever lol,no side affects just keeps that big black cloud away

Mine is definitely prescribed as an anti-depressant. I was diagnosed at 16 with depression but it was there long before I was 16. I will probably be on Prozac or some other SSRI for the rest of my life. Prozac is NOT a "happy pill"... contrary to popular belief, you can't pop a couple from time to time to lift your mood. It makes me when I read this type of nonsense re Fluoxetine in the press.

I was prescrived it many moons ago when I had depression, was an absolute lifesaver. I know the contraindications sound scarey but if you read the leaflet with yoru paracetamol it would say similar. Hope they are the help you need

it's also used to treat anxiety disorders, anorexia as well, not just depression

my dr calls it more of a mood regulator - yes I know the leaflet calls it an anti depressant but I think mood regulator is nicer.

Yes, tid. I've been on Fluoxetine on and off since 1986, about when it first came out. I was on 20mg/day through 2 pgs (!!) I feel like I'm quite the "expert" now... this drug has literally changed my life but not without some side-effects, none of them too bad!

I was on it for a few months, after being sort of medium depressed for abou 5 years (never suicidal, but always there).

It didn't make me happy and bouncy, but it lifted the cloud enough so I could remember how it felt to not be unhappy. I could breathe again, and the pit in my stomach started to fill itself in.

I don't recall any side effects, and they were amazing for me - I was only on them a few months, and for the nearly 3 years since then I have never managed to get back so low as to need to go back on them, thankfully - I seem to be able to remember happy better now, rather than it being completely lost!

I would take them again if I had to.

xxx

I have been on Fluoxetine since June 04 and feel so much better. Had counselling too. I think its great. I feel more like the old me than I have done in that past 12 years.

Hi, I have been taking fluoxetine now for 6 months with no side effects. I was also taking it after the birth of my DD for 2 years and I never had any side effects and I would say that they saved my sanity and my marraige without a doubt. If you are feeling bad go for it and take them!!!!
Oh and remeber they aren't like Prozac as we think of prozac, they are not addictive or sedative in any way and I think they are great!!!!

Sofia you have reminded me of an interesting point. I was always still a little down when on prozac, and that was ok.

So far removed from the overwhelming urge to be dead when I was depressed.

My best friend took it for years (had to stop when she got pregnant) and it was absolutely brilliant for her. She found that it just took the edge of the lows enough so that she could cope. As her best friend, the only changes I found were positive ones. She no longer holed herself off from the world for weeks at a time because she was depressed and couldn't cope. At least with the prozac she had enough control to be able to say "I'm a little down" and let me in enough to give her some emotional support.

Yes. It saved my life.
I took it for severe depression for a couple of years , about ten years ago.

I can only describe the effect as if a black cloud was lifted and I no longer wanted to be
dead. I experienced no unpleasant side effects.

I also went for counselling (cognitive behavioural therapy) at a different time in my life - I was pregnant and could not take drugs. the therapy did help a bit, and I really enjoyed doing it in an intellectual way but the prozac won hands down.

Best of luck. Depression is a killer and should always be addressed by some means or other.

Ummm. It will wear off. I had the opposite problem, I couldn't stay awake and couldn't get out of bed either. My partner had to wake me when he left for work to make me take my tablet so that I could get out of bed.

It does get better, I promise. The fog does lift in the end, and everything becomes a lot clearer.

Sorry, that sounds really trite

I'm taking it as soon as I've fed the boys so around 9am.

gwenick, when are you taking it? Taking it in the morning rather than at night can help with the sleep thing.

colditz - I don't mind that - I'm getting used to not snacking now so I (hopefully) won't feel the need to - besides a lot of my snacking was comfort eating to make myself feel better.

I just hope the sleep thing improves - it seems to have got worse the last few days - really can't be good for me to get around 5hr sleep a night everynight (and DH thinks I've totally lost it sliding into bed at gone 2.30 )

My Dr. told me I'd be on them for 6 months - and although I'd probably 'feel' a lot better before then it helps you to 'relearn' how to 'feel' happy again (not his exact words but you get my drift) and if you don't stay on them the full time the chances are you'll be back on them again.

Hi gwenick, I am glad you saw your GP. Unfotunatly th "appetite suppresant" effect seemed to wear off with the others (after about 3 weeks)!!

I have been on prozac a few times, ankept taking myself off them after 3 months. The last time I went to the gp, he told me that I was causing my depression to come back because I wasn't giving them time to work.

So, the last time I took them, I stayed on them for 7 months, and that was 18 months ago, and I haven't felt the need to go back to the gp yet.

My point being that maybe if you take them for long enough the first time, maybe you will end up needing less off them in the long run.

I swear I owe my sanity to prozac, it helped me bigtime!

I started taking it last Friday (so 1 week ago)

I had a dry mouth the first few days but that's gone now - and my sleeplessness is even worse at the moment (I'm lucky to feel tired before 2.30am at the moment and still takes 1/2hr or more to get to sleep - and then have to be up in the morning with the boys .

I'm not worried about weight loss either - am hoping to shift 2 stone before the end of the summer - although it's not really affected my appetite in a 'big' way I realised the other day I'm not snacking as much and having much smaller portions.

Other than that no other side effects