My mum has just told me she is on prozac...

[girlylala0807]

I knew she was unhappy, I had no idea she was this bad. She has been signed off work. I asked her what was wrong and never gor a proper answer. She said she was just fed up with life in general.

I dont know what to do or how to support her.

Any ideas?

Bump

Sometimes girly, life just gets on top of us. I am on a prozac type of drug and it really helps me - it is for anxiety in my case.

There is no shame in having to take anti-depressants. It seems like such a big deal - i haven't told my mum, she would be horrified, althoguh i think she may have guessed. You have to look upon it as a positive.

What you can do to support her is, just be there and don't be hurt if she doesn't choose to confide in you. A really important thing though is to see if she is getting any counselling - all too often people are put on ADs and just left to get on with it. They only really work with counselling alongside, this can often be hard to come by on the NHS, but if you stamp hard enough, its forthcoming.

The average amount of time people are on ADs is six months. Prozac and similar drugs are not antidepressants per se, not like the older drugs like valium etc. They simply help to restore the balance of seratonin in the brain. Seratonin is often called the feel good chemical - it is released during times of stress and helps promote calm. Prozac drugs help our bodies to utilise it better, it is non addictive and generally the results are extremely positive.

I hope your mum feels better soon - do push for the counselling though, thats what she will need at the end of the day. It helps to have someone non biased to listen sometimes.