Dd17 and Fluoxetine. I’m so scared!

[ArseInTheCoOpWindow]

She’s ASD with really bad anxiety. She won’t go to school. CAMHS have been useless. I took her to a private psychiatrist in the end as the anxiety was ruining her life.

Shes one day in and I’m feel sick with worry. I don’t want my little girl on meds
but l want her to have a life. She started today and has dozed/slept most of the day.

l feel terrible. She wanted to try them to help herself, but l just can’t help worrying. She’s only just 17.

I take Benlafaxine and have had some awful episodes with anti depressants in the start up period. Although interestingly not Fluoxetine.

When does the worry stop?😭

Why don't you want her on meds? They're not some evil that will ruin her life.

I know for a fact that out of 8 adults that are my children and their partners, I would have lost 3 by now if it wasn't for meds.

I did want her on meds. It was the side effects l was scared of.

Anyway got a pysch appointment for her now.

She might need an increase, personally I plateaud after a while on 20 and went up to 40 which helped

(Then I came off them and cannot handle the no sleep side effect to get back on them!)

Hello, I'm sorry I know this is an old thread. My 15 year DD with ASD and crippling social anxiety. I am so worried about her and the wait for camhs is so long. I'm looking at private psychiatrist to prescribe prozac. I was hoping for an update to see how you daughter is getting on now. I have such mixed feelings about whether we are doing the right thing or not.

Well we had to take her off them as they made her so tired.

She’s not on anything at the moment.

Thanks for responding to my post. I'm sorry to hear that. This is exactly what I'm worried about as well. She's got GCSEs to sit in the spring. She has no motivation now, so not sure if meds would help or hinder that. I just wish there was a magic wand to make all their pain go away. It's awful, I hope you are OK.

If she’s got GCSE’s in spring l would go down the anti depressant route now. It takes about 3 months or more to get the right dose and it can really knock you off.

I’d try hypnosis once a week or so into sje’s past her exams.

Fluoxetine made a huge difference for me, I had no side effects other than for the first few days a bit of a headache and felt a bit tired. Coming off them wasn't bad either. 10mg was fine for me.

@Theordinary 3 years ago DD started taking fluoxetine in Jan of y11, when she wasn't attending school or doing education at all. By April she had just enough oomph to do some assessments at home (covid year).

ArseInTheCoOpWindow, this is what I'm thinking too. I know it takes a while to kick in. How is your daughter getting on now? Did you try any other drugs?

Ejismyf, I've also taken Fluoxetine and found it to be really good with few side effects. The only problem for me was it stopped working so well after 9 months or so. Also I did feel pretty tired on it too and kind of flat.

Teen Divided, that's amazing for your daughter. I'm hoping for the same result. She gets so nervous during exams too,. I wonder if it will help with that?

All this is assuming the Psychiatrist thinks she needs them. Fingers crossed the consultation goes well. I'm also a bit concerned about getting the GP to take over the prescription as its so expensive privately.

Our GP took over the prescription no problem.
Fluoxetine has an anti-anxiety effect too.

She tried melatonin and that made her sleep worse. So steering clear of all drugs atm!

Teen Divided, that's good to hear. I hope ours will do the same.
ArseInTheCoOpWindow, we have similar struggles with my DS and his ADHD meds. We've had to play about with dosages to find a sweet spot. Too much and he's really flat and zombiefied. Too little and it has no effect. It's frustrating. I wonder if there are any natural remedies which might be a help your DD? People rave about Cannabis oil, I've not tried it myself though.

From my dealing with psych, I think there aim is to get you to “ the therapeutic dose” asap

so most of the time they don’t give you
your brain/body enough time for the to settle before they want you on the next dose so
ie. Another lot of side effects on top of the start up effects !!

You need to be settled and No more side effects on the AD before upping to the next dose.

psych & gp’s are in too much of a rush when you don’t get to where you won’t to be. Same when your coming off they do it by each dose
ie 20mg decrease by 10mg, same with increase 10mg to 20mg
A 10mg is huge increase/decrease
you should only decrease by 5/10%, very slowly
otherwise you just set yourself up for bad side effects which can be absolutely crazy symptoms/feelings

Windmill, one of the reasons I stopped taking Fluoxetine myself was that at 20mg it just seemed to stop working as well. I was worried about increasing the dose as I just felt it was a slippery slope. I kind of feel like I need a little something myself now to be honest!

I'd be interested to know.
DD is on 20mg of fluoxetine and from the initial sleeping forever we now have insomnia
The psychiatrist recommended 25mg of promethazine but nothing has worked
Her sleep cycles are completely messed up!
We are on week 9 and see no improvement

I've read on here about a Facebook group parenting mental health where you may find more parents going through similar issues.