can i ask about people's experiences of prozac please?

[bebbeau]

am 29 weeks preg and have been on 20mg a day for 3 weeks for antenatal depression. and I feel so rubbish. I don't know if its just being this late on in my pregnancy or if its a side effect of the prozac. I am just so shattered all the time and feel like a zombie. I feel like you do when you are about to get flu iyswim. and I still feel pretty depressed and anxious so basically I don't think they are working :( (yet at least) I am also having disturbed sleep despite being constantly exhausted.

I am going to go to gp for a review next week so will obviously mention it then but just wondered if anyone else has taken it, whilst pg or not, and what side effects you got if any?

thank you for reading x

Hi bebbeau sorry to hear you're having a tough time at the moment. I'm on fluoxetine (generic Prozac). I do seem to be quite sensitive to meds. I'd say I had side effects for three weeks - nausea, headache, spaced out 45 mins after they'd got into my system, quite zombie-like (tho hard to tell if that was the depression tbh!) Anyhow I don't think I noticed many benefits on the 20mg dose - really kicked in once I'd been upped to 40mg. I think actually for many of these ADs, you don't get the full benefit til you've been on them for 6 weeks at a therapeutic dose for you. They sometimes make your symptoms worse before they make them better I'm afraid too - definitely for me on the anxiety front.

However I've now been on them a while and they have definitely helped me a lot, and combined with counselling I am soooo much better.

Just be honest with your GP. Sometimes people need their dose adjusting, sometimes switching to a different one.

Anyhow really hope you feel some benefit soon. Take care.

Hi bebbeau, I've taken various doses of Prozac for 20 years - including through 2 healthy pregnancies and breast feeding. I remember when starting it I felt sick, and when I've upped dose I tend to feel a bit queasy for a while but otherwise I think its marvellous. Side effects last 2 weeks ish and then the world is in colour again!

Agree with the dosage issue - I felt much better on 40 or 60 than 20 xxx

thank you all for replying

well I am going to stick with them I think but today I am going to try taking one late evening instead of morning like I have been doing as I wonder if that has been what has made me so dopey during the day

am glad to hear it helped you both :)

Hi bebbeau if I remember correctly Prozac is actually more of a stimulating AD rather than a sedating one so I think it might interfere with your sleep if you do? But worth searching on here for fluoxetine and sleep.

thank you

well the last two nights I have taken it around 6pm and slept better. in fact I slept for 10 hours last night which was Just Amazing. I am wondering if how I was feeling was simply exhaustion rather than the side effects of prozac as I just feel 100% better today for sleeping ok last night.