I was wondering if anyone here is using prozac and how it affects you. I’m on day 6 and it feels like I have a little more energy, I was deeply depressed. How long does it usually take it to fully work and how did you feel?
Prozac worked really well for me. I am on something different now. I don’t remember why I dropped Prozac. But I was on it for more then a year and I was happy with it.
My wife who is bi-polar uses both prozac for depression and lithium for her bi-polar disorder, she is at or almost at the max of 80 mg and I would say it has made quite a difference in her depression

I have heard that in some people that it can work quickly and with amazing results, on the other had some people find that after taking it for a couple of years its effects diminish

I am for the past 6 years years my wifes caregiver as she is off work for good, I have said to many people that exercise even walking is VERY important to help with depression

good luck…hope you feel great!
It didn’t work well for me. It made me physically sick the entire 7 weeks I was on it. I went back to celexa and I love it.
I have been on a zillion antidepressants and they all made me worse. I got a new dr who finally gave me a mood stabalizer instead of an antidepressant and it changed my life, I love it. So I am probably not so good to be telling you how it was awful for me.

So the original diagnosis was wrong?
Not to hijack the thread so I will make this one quick.
I was always just feeling miserable so of course they gave me anti-depressants but finally after years of seeing dr’s, the new dr I went to said I had bi-polar like symptoms and gave me something they give to bi-polar people and apparently I am because it changed my life.
I used to get the down feelings for no reason like bi-polar people get but I never got the maina and any good up’s like bi-polar people usually get, so I guess I am not fully bi-polar.

But I can say that on the subject of meds working whether Prozac works for the TA or not, once you find the right combination of drugs they will change your life.

Effexor was one of the roughest pills I ever took but a friend is on it and he loves it. I think it is hard to take a poll and conclude whether you will be helped by one medication because a small sampling of people were. But on the other hand, I do like to reach out to people about things and see what everyone else thought.

To you personally? What makes you say that?

If all you’re interested in is a drug induced comfy zone, then one could say it works. If what you truly want is case resolution, that usually means walking through a wall of fire.

I took anti-depressants for several years in the past. Reflecting on that period, I now understand that they only diminished my awareness of problems that I brought on myself as a result of my own mistaken ideas and actions. They palliated uncomfortable emotions that were perfectly normal and appropriate under the circumstances, emotions that should have served as a strong warning for me to change course, enabling me to continue down a badly misguided path in life that ultimately led to disaster. Based on my experience, I consider the drugs dangerous and don’t condone their use by anyone, although I blame the mental health professionals who push them rather than the people who take them, who simply don’t know better.

Very well put. Meds can induce a false sense of comfort that occludes your natural emotional responses, the veritable handshake with your ‘souf’, which define ethic, character, personality, in many cases for years, even decades; and that most therapists are too chicken-shit to deal with. Saying no to psychiatry, you walk a difficult path. Your audacity is admirable.
One is not oneself but a drug-induced persona on meds; it’s an awful thing to see working in my friends- flattened affect.

Very well put. Meds can induce a false sense of comfort that occludes your natural emotional responses, the veritable handshake with your ‘souf’, which define ethic, character, personality, in many cases for years, even decades; and that most therapists are too chicken-shit to deal with. Saying no to psychiatry, you walk a difficult path, but at least a sane one. Your audacity is admirable.
One is not oneself but a drug-induced persona on meds; it’s an awful thing to see working in my friends- flattened affect.

Very well put. Meds can induce a false sense of comfort that occludes your natural emotional responses, the veritable handshake with your ‘souf’, which define ethic, character, personality, in many cases for years, even decades; and that most therapists are too chicken-shit to deal with. Saying no to psychiatry, you walk a difficult path, but at least a sane one. Your audacity is admirable.
One is not oneself but a drug-induced persona on meds; it’s an awful thing to see working in my friends- flattened affect.

You might this alternative very interesting:

Very good points. For you, they were a bad idea. A friend of mine went on prozac and ended up in the hospital for a drug induced coma (forgot what had been taken, took more, felt the same, forgot, took more).

However, some people do have naturally low levels of serotonin and dopamine. Others have naturally high levels of adrenaline and low levels of GABA (causing anxiety). No amount of problem solving is going to change that. There are two options if it becomes an issue, learn coping mechanisms (that dont always work) or fix it with medicine.

As a side note, has anyone experienced serious libido changes from their antidepressants?

Before I was on medicine for depression my life was like a rollercoaster with no harness. Sometimes I was going up, sometimes down, but no matter what was going on it was all I could do to hold on. To let go was to die.

That was how my life was. I didn’t go to college in my 20′s because I couldn’t handle it. It wasn’t that I wasn’t smart, it was that I was far to busy holding on.
I mean this in an almost literal sense. When I would be (I am trying to think of a better word) ‘high’ (or up, or had energy) I could get so crazed that I had trouble seeing a single thing through. If I got in my car to drive to the store I would drive to a store 60 miles away. Cleaning my apartment would mean mopping the floor – but I wasn’t happy with mopping, I would sit on the floor and mop it with a paper towel and glass cleaner. I once cleaned my rug not by vacuming it, but by picking the dirt out of it piece by piece.
Then I would fall off the edge of that into depression. Depression meant not giving a shit about anything. Bills, studying, anything. I have had my utilities turned off for non-payment. Want to hear the punchline? I had plenty of money. Had money in the checking account the entire time. Writing a check, putting it in an envelope, putting a stamp on it – these things were impossible.

I moved out of my parents house when I was 18. It wasn’t until I turned 30 that I got help.

When I turned 30 and got on medicine for my depression I describe the experience of getting on that medicine as getting a seat belt for the roller coaster. The hills are not as steep, the turns are not as sharp.

For the first time in my life I felt balanced enough that I could accomplish things.

But hey, some people think I shouldn’t be on medicine. What do I know?
I’ll begin by stating that I have a chemical deficiency due to autoimmune attack on the part of my brain that produces orexin. I didn’t, not would I, take antidepressants for depressive reactions based on my experience. I took them in an attempt to diminish atonic/catatonic effects resulting from the brain damage.

The fist time I tried an SSRI I was on 15mg of prozac. Everything started off quite nice. After a couple of weeks I could do things I was previously unable to do as the catatonia was repressed. Several weeks later when the drug was in full effect the insomnia that I had thought to be the result of the stimulant meds I was on were clearly due to the prozac. I am constantly in a state of relatively severe sleep deprivation, but with the prozac in my system I progressed into more & more severe insomnia despite my desperate need to sleep. At the height of it I could sleep for about an hour and have to stay up for two before I could get my body to sleep again. It was a complete tease. An hour does not come even close to cutting it when the deficit is that severe. I tried to wean myself off the prozac but my brain & body were in such distress I finally cut myself off & went through the withdrawals. I was in a completely psychotic state. Starving. Emaciated. I can’t even explain the pain.

The second time I tried SSRIs was with 5 then 10 mg of elavil. It made me into a complete zombie. I can’t say whether it was what the med should have done or if it was the result of more mild disruption of sleep but it was a complete waste of time and effort. I withdrew on elavil if I missed my dose by so much as an hour. Far more suffering than good came of that effort.

I have to agree with the position that SSRIs are frequently prescribed to help people escape from reasonable responses to difficult situations. I know where my negative thoughts & feelings come from. I should feel that way. It is natural to feel that way and a mistake to reject coping. Even though I took SSRIs for other reasons I’ve had the idea of taking them again pushed on me repeatedly since my negative responses DESPITE knowledge of these responses. The insistence that they’re the right course of action is somewhat of a validation that they’re over-prescribed.
They might help for a while if you are not functioning at all.

However being on any type of drug like that is not living. It puts you into a chemical dream, when you are sober you will see that you did not feel anything and were not living. It is the most bizarre thing…

.

Where did you go to school?

100% pure horseshit.

probably the only time I’ve ever agreed with CBFryman but he’s correct here:

Correcting a chemical imbalance through medication won’t put you in a "chemical dream" unless you’re being over medicated or have been prescribed a medication that is not suited to your needs. For those who truly need it, medication improves the quality of their life, not by forcing a false sense of happiness or safety, but by allowing them to function as those with a naturally balanced brain chemistry do.

You say, "when you are sober you will see that you did not feel anything and were not living." I would argue that experiencing chronic depression or continually being in a state of heightened anxiety is not living.

by all means, please, show me what facts you have to back up your claims.

I can see you relate to others well regarding this topic.

Prove that depressions is caused by a chemical imbalance.

That’s an absurd question, how do you think this medication or even drugs work? Magic?

Newfoundland is a country. I want to know where you got your doctorate. What is your degree in?

My doctor seems pretty certain it is.
And seeing as how I have cleaned up my life, I am still alive and *gasp* relatively stable, it sure looks like he might know what he is talking about.

I also know that bad, bad, bad things happen when I go off my medication.

I was working with a friend a couple years back and he asked me, ‘How does it feel to take those pills?’.

I said, ‘You know how you feel just kind of normal? Like, hey I am neither happy or sad. I am just kind of here doing my job. Oh look, 3 more hours left. Nothing is currently going wrong. Things are fine at home. I don’t hate my job normal?’
‘I never had that feeling till after I went on this medication. That right there. That is how I feel now and it is wonderful.’.

I wouldn’t call it a dream, I would call it normal.
Do I get pissed off? Yesterday I thought someone was hitting my car with a baseball bat. That was fucked up.
Do I get happy? My 3 year old has a profound effect on me. Daily.
I have all the same range of emotions that you have. The difference between being on and off medications is now I have them at appropriate times.
I did not know this feeling until I went on medication.

First off. Newfoundland is a province located on the east coast of Canada. It does have a university and I do take psychology courses there.

Secondly, you should mind your own business. Why are you asking me where I live and the university I go to on an Internet forum?

Do they work? Perhaps you should get your arse off the computer once in a while and go for a walk, it has the same efficacy of many of those medications for "depression". Everyone has depression nowadays, something like 1 in 5 people take pills so I heard? Perhaps try going to church or joining a club. People have dealt with this type of thing in the past, pills are like sweeping your personal problems under a rug.

Note: You should definitely stay on the medication if you are not functional without it.

Like stilgar should stay on it. I am assuming that he is taking Risperdal, not Paxil… which is the caliber of stuff we are talking about here.

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