Fluoxetine stopped working, weaned off, will it work again if I take again now?

[skysky69]

After being on fluoxetine for about 4.5 years and feeling mostly normal, it started to feel like it wasn't quite working so well, so I went back to the doctors. They changed it over to Citalopram which made me feel awful. My whole body ached and I felt so lethargic and tired. After not being able to get an appointment with my doctor, I reduced the dosage down to every other day for a week and then stopped altogether in about June. I switched from the fluoxetine in late April. I was so determined that I didn't want to have any chemicals in me influencing my personality and I wanted to find out who the real me was.

I have now started to feel the old feelings of hopelessness and despondency returning :-( I feel such resentment towards my OH (no reason why!), cry at the drop of a hat and feel so low. I just want to feel like I did when I was first on the fluoxetine, happy and easy going.

If I started taking the fluoxetine again, would they work again or would they be ineffective having stopped working before?

I feel so sad that the "normal me" without medication is so miserable and gloomy. I really don't want to take tablets for the rest of my life. It is so frustrating as I have NOTHING to be "low" about. No reason for it at all.

Oh NO! I did something similar with very adverse effects on my depression. When you say "I thought it wasn't working so well" - can you say anything more about that. Was your first episode of depression 4.5 years ago? I ask because if we have one depressive episode, we have a 50% chance of a 2nd episode, so it may be that it wasn't the AD not working, but you might have been heading for a relapse.

Did the GP understand the need to taper down the fluoxetine and slowly introduce the citalopram. It's just that many GPs don't know a great deal about mental health in my experience, especially the older ones as they had very little training in those days. Sorry to say I think you did the wrong thing with the citalopram by reducing the dose to alternate days (a psychiatrist told me never reduce ADs on alternate days as it completely messes up your brain." But what's done is done. Am I right in thinking that you aren't on anything now and haven't been since June?

If that's the case it's small wonder that you are having symptoms again and think you need to see the GP again and discuss medication. No one can tell you whether a particular drug will be of benefit because there's no way of knowing without trying it - all trial and error and what works for one person doesn't for another.

I was on an AD that kept me well for 15 years and I decided to come off it - and did it with oversight from a psychologist who had an expertise in helping people come of prescribed drugs - did it very gradually and came off it entirely in 10 months. I was really pleased but 4 months later I relapsed - well crashed really and I haven't made a complete recovery. I did go back on the AD that had kept me well and it kept me well for 80% of the time which was manageable but then I started dipping down and the psychiatrist wanted me to change to an SSRI (as the one I was on was an old fashioned tryclic drug) which I did, and then had something else added to it - I've been struggling for a long time, but we're all different. You might well pick up if you go back on fluoxetine.

I took citalopram successfully for three years and then felt they weren't working anymore so was switched to Venlafaxine (which was successful).

I don't know why the first AD became less effective. I guess trying Prozac again might work but equally trying another AD might work. As Nana says it all all a bit trial and error.

I gave up trying to find a "reason" for my depression - sometimes these things just happen. Better to be medicated than suicidally depressed is my own view. Now though I am reasonably stable on a low AD dose and happy with the balance between my ability to function vs depression. I would go back to your GP asap to discuss.