Can't stop crying

[BodaciousTatas]

Was put back on prozac a couple of weeks ago.

It isn't working, I am a fucking mess. Sittig outside chain smoking and feeling sorry for myself.

Dont know anything about prozac.
Would it be a good idea to revisit the GP?

I think I am beyond help

Two weeks isn't very long, it can take longer to feel the effects unfortunately. You're not beyond help as there are other things you can try if this doesn't work for you. Have you tried other ADs, or therapy before?

I am waiting for CBT, the prozac did work last time, just need patience I guess

Two weeks isn't long for Prozac and if your in the middle of a dip then you may not be feeling much benefit. Be kind to yourself, you will get there with lots of support and time

Got a bit of sleep and feel slightly better, I think I was expecting them to work faster as I only had 8 weeks off of them.

Prozac is out of your system within 24-36 hours so unfortunately you do have to start from the beginning with building it up again. Hope you will see some benefits soon.

I agree with what others are saying - you cannot expect Prozac to kick in in 2 weeks. It can take 2, 3 or even 4 weeks. When you say put back on Prozac a couple of weeks ago, how long had you been off them. I have to say that I am always a bit surprised at people coming on and off ADs to be honest. I suppose that is because of my own experience. I am on them for life now - definitely - but I am 68. I think people worry too much about ADs and that they will become addicted, and this isn't possible, but you can become dependent which of course is different. I do wonder if some MNs come off them too early and then get a relapse and have to start over again.

Anyway I'm sure you will start feeling the benefit soon, and don't be in a hurry to come off them! Incidentally many GPs don't know how to wean people from ADs in a safe way in my experience, and it may be that coming off them was done too quickly.

You will need to give it about a month for the effects to become apparent.

Sorry BT I have just noticed you were 8 weeks off them. The trouble is you can be having withdrawal symptoms which present the same symptoms as the depression. This happened to me several times, when I had been trying to come off them with the "help" of a GP (or 3 different GPs in my case) who all told me something different. Each time I went straight back on the ADs and was better within a short time.

I then stayed on them for 14 years (no side effects at all) and decided I had better come off them and did so with the help of a psychologist, and it was a very gradual reduction - it took 10 months in all and I was so pleased to be off them. Three months later I suffered another major depressive episode and was 3 months on a psych ward. That was 2 years ago and I am mostly ok again, though get a patch of bad days now and again, so for me I will not be coming off them again.

I feel slightly calmer, my appetite is still crap though.

Yes we spoke before I think Bodacious Tatas because I am tapering off Prozac and it's taken me 5 years, Prozac has a much longer half life than the other AD's which means it takes a lot longer to wash out, so when I make a reduction in my dose a nasty withdrawal can hit a few weeks later, so I suspect the opposite is true that when you start them up they take a few weeks to fully take effect, and also your body is probably still a bit confused and not knowing if you're still in withdrawal or not. Give it a bit more time and hopefully you will settle into it again. AD's are extremely tough to get off for many people, the withdrawals can be quite brutal mentally and physically and so I guess the opposite is true as well until you settle in on them. I've made a bit of a study of these drugs, guess I need to get a life

no strawberry you have some great information, keep it up.

That's a really interesting post Strawberry but Canoe has says Prozac is "out of your system" in 24 - 36 hours, but you seem to be very knowledgeable about this "half life" thing that I have heard others mention on MH thread.

I think the major difficulty is that all these ADs can react differently on different people (what suits one doesn't suit another) and I am fairly sure that a lot of GPs (especially the older ones) don't have a great deal of knowledge about the SSRIs as they wouldn't have been available when they did their training. I think there is more training for medics now on Mental Health but I know it used to be very "covered" relatively quickly.

There is so little known about brain disorder and pyschiatrists don't know exactly HOW ADs work, and why they are so individualised. I am on imipramine (one of the old tryclics) and I tried to come off them myself, and with the help of 3 different GPs and each time I had withdrawal symptoms, ranging from 24 hours, to 2 weeks to 4 weeks, relative to how much I was reducing. Each time this happened I went back to various GPs and each one told me that it was a return of the depression and to go back on the full dose, which of course I did and would pick up rapidly. None of the GPs mentioned withdrawal symptoms, which looking back shocks me, because I once forgot to take my ADs to my friend's house and missed 3 doses and was in a heap within hours, again with a rapid pick up once I had gone back on the ADs.

This is why I do not intent to stop them again ever.

Sorry BT you might not find this helpful, but I am sure you will be feeling better soon and it seems like you already are, so it doesn't really matter does it whether you are having withdrawal symptoms or a return of the depression, so long as you get better, but I think strawberry is right, I'm sure our neuro transmitters in the brain get very mixed up when we start and stop drugs, and takes time to level out.

Yes we all respond differently to these drugs, and some can come on and off with ease, but most people suffer dreadfully. Yes I saw a couple of psychiatrists and they had no clue how to get me off AD's. This led me to loads of reading on the subject and my blog about my own experience and taper off Prozac. I believe I am right in saying Prozac does take a lot longer than the other AD's to wash in and out. Wthdrawals both mental and physical can be brutal with all these drugs for many people. Most peope mistake this for relapse but it can be withdrawal or maybe a mix of withdrawal and relapse.

Here is a link to my blog where I have shared a huge amount of knowledge and if you look at the pages down the right hand side there is lots of info about coming off for anyone interested.

prozacwithdrawal.blogspot.co.uk/

Coo strawberry - I haven't managed to get all through the blog. Did you write all of it.....will look properly later. It seems that others have added to your blog. I did scroll down and the last thing I read was about the chemical inbalance theory not being true. I saw a psychologist for several months and she was firmly of the view that there was no evidence to support the chemical imbalance theory and that people did just as well on placebos.

This made me think I really should start to withdraw from imipramine and I did it very slowly - was taking 100 mg per day and reduced 10mg per month IF I was not having withdrawal symptoms, and if I was, just delay the next reduction until they had gone. I did in fact reduce 10mg per month and it took 10 months, but within 3 months I was having a second major episode.

What is your take on the chemical imbalance theory. I don't really care whether there is or there isn't because ADs have saved my life, but would be interested in your views on this as you are most certainly an expert on the whole business.

I have had 2 stays on psych wards (with 15 years apart) both times for 3 months and I have found psychiatrists can only diagnose and treat and it's the same for them isn't it - all trial and error. Maybe increasing a dose or adding something to it, but that seems to be about the extent of their knowledge. Of course I am only talking about depression/anxiety and I realise there are much more complex mental illnesses.

I'm not an expert, just an ordinary person who suffered with PND, was put on sertraline, hated the side effects, I'm also very tenacious and determined and did a lot of reading about the drugs. I'm in my 5th year of tapering Prozac. I think most people seriously underestimate how disciplined they need to be to get off properly, and of course the drug companies do not give doctors the correct information about tapering, it's in their interests to have people taking the drugs long term/rest of their lives. I am very cynical, I don't believe in the chemical imbalance theory at all, this story was put out there by pharmacuetical companies, it is clever marketing, it appeals to people, you can blame your depression/anxiety on a chemical imbalance, if it's a physical problem like diabetes, it means you can keep taking the tablets safe in the knowledge that it's physical and you don't have to do anything else to help yourself. When you think about it, has anyone ever offered to measure your chemical imbalance? and no mine was never tested or measured.
I don't think anyone really knows how or why these drugs work, but they do work for some people like yourself. I just think people deserve to know the truth about how powerful these drugs are and how to get off them properly.

prozacwithdrawal.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/my-prozac-tapering-timeline-vs-mhra.html

The blog is all my own work.

Whether or not you agree with the chemical imbalance theory, there has been research showing differences between the brains of depressed and non-depressed people.

www.thevisualmd.com/health_centers/neurological_health/depression/depression_changes_the_brain

Brain neurons may decrease in size and density.

The number of glial support cells may lessen. Glial support cells are vital for communication between neurons.

Certain parts of the brain associated with emotion, memory, and learning, particularly the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, can shrink in size. This might explain some of the emotional changes observed in people with depression.

Due to the loss of brain tissue, cavities in the brain called ventricles can become larger.

The corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres of the brain, can become either bigger or smaller in size.

Regions of the brain that may be affected by depression include the hypothalamus, hippocampus, anterior cingulate gyrus, amygdala, and all parts of the limbic system.

Other areas that may be affected include the thalamus, which functions as a sort of gateway for the filtering of sensory information; the prefrontal cortex, which is implicated in personality expression and moderating correct social behavior; and the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres of the brain.

Well done on the blog strawberry, you've obviously done a lot of research. Good luck with continuing tapering the Prozac.

CanoeSlalom you too are knowledgeable about the theory of the debate on changes in brain chemistry v no changes in brain chemistry. Haven't had time to read from your link yet but I certainly will. I honestly think that it is a question that if medics can't agree on, it leaves people like us in a "no mans land." My experience is that psychologists have no time for the medical model and vice versa, but the medical model has made me better, whereas the psychological model made me worse and cost me thousands of pounds. However I do know of therapists who believe that a combination of therapy and drugs are the best route to improvement - hedging their bets I suppose you could say.

I think in future generations, so much more will be known about the function of the brain, and brain disorder. I think it will be imperative because of the large numbers of people over 65 getting alzheimers disease, and apparently a quarter of all hospital beds are occupied by people with this illness, to say nothing of the cost to the NHS (except there won't be an NHS from April 2013!) They will have to find a way of treating this distressing illness to be cost effective, as that is what the new world of privatisation will demand.

Sorry couldn't resist getting a bit of political stuff in as I feel very strongly about the sale of the NHS.

NanaNina, hopefully future generations will look back at how ignorant people (us) were 500 years ago and feel sorry for how little we knew about treating and making people better from emotional and brain disorders.

Hopefully strawberry it will be more like 100 years than 500! Yes I'm sure they will be saying things like "what did they have to do then when they had depression and anxiety" and the response would be "well they just had to keep trying different meds and hoped one of them worked" - they will probably have a laser that can "zap" the brain if there is any problem. Pity we won't be around to see it!!