Prozac Ruined My Life
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I was on Prozac (fluoxetine) for about 8-9 years starting when I was about 14 years old. I'm 23 now and for about the last two-three years I started getting weird side effects and feelings that I never had before. I would feel spaced out, disoriented, out of body, dizzy, angry, light/visual disturbances and really wishhy washy, like bi polar feelings and suicidal feelings. I had never had these ever before. I was on the Prozac for severe anxiety and panic attacks. I never had depression or bi polar feeling ever in my life. And I always would get dizzy spells and just feel SOOO spaced out and out of body literally so freaking weird. So when these symptoms started happening I went to numerous docs and they all found nothing wrong physically. Blood tests, check up all normal. So I decided that I needed to get off the Prozac. It was the only med I was taking nothing else. Previously perfectly healthy.I felt it was starting to "kill me" or hurt my body or brain. I felt not right mentally and physically. I just wasn't feeling right at all. So I slowly started to taper off as the doctor told me I could. I was on Fluoxetine liquid 10 ML at first.( which equals about 40 mg) So I tapered off 2ml( 5 mg) every two weeks. It was horrible. I got the worst throat infection and was coughing up weird gunk. Strep was negative and again blood tests normal. But I felt so sick like the flu.. And I kept tapering and it was horrible. Anyhow its been 2-3 years later now and I'm finally off of the medicine. After tapering then getting so sick and having to go back on. And getting sick and going back on again numerous times. I would feel so sick and then take the Prozac again and feel a little better and then sick again. Like my body/brain was used to it and needed it. Every time I would try to taper I would get sick and feel out of it so spaced out. Then take it and feel a little better. So after 2-3 years I'm finally off of it. It's been about one week of no Prozac after 9 years. And Im starting to DIE.. Literally D.I.E.. My blood pressure is abnormally low really low like 80/40. My heart rate is very low. I'm freezing cold.. Cannot get warm. Im SOOO spaced out can like hear my voice outside myself. Really dizzy head feels so pressurized. Shivers wont stop. Random pains all over my body. I have been to my doctor and the E.R multiple times over the last like couple months with these symptoms.. and all tests come back fine. Blood normal. Heart EKG fine. They say oh its anxiety go back on med or take another ssri. I'm so scared to take anything else. This medicine has ruined my body and brain. It is not right! I'm having trouble doing simple tasks. And I'm shivering and my blood pressure is so low and I'm so spaced out. I was a functioning member of society and was doing great. The Prozac ruined my life. I feel like my body/brain like I need the Prozac to live. But when I take it, it kills me and makes me spaced out and dizzy and sick, and when I don't take it, it kills me too. I can't live while on it and I cant live while off of it. I'm scared and I'm basically dying because of this horrible evil medicine. And also my lymph nodes are huge over the last 2 months of tapering and won't go down from being swollen. Their not protruding just really swollen. I keep getting weird things happening to my body. Shivers one day, lymph nodes one day, random pains one day, throat sore one day. Been to docs and E.R. numerous times. Again all blood tests are normal strep and mono negative. Please help anybody with their ideas remarks or opinions. Please help me. This medicine has ruined my life. It is the most evil drug. It has absolutely ruined my life. Please help. I'm at the end of my ropes physically and mentally. I'm losing the battle. This medicine has ruined my brain and body. I don't know what to do. If I take it I feel spaced out and sick with numerous problems. If I don't take it I'm spaced out and sick with numerous problems. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Re: Victim (# 2)

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Re: VinnyD (# 5)

Yes me Prozac, detached my head from my heart I made terrible dessisions left my family and fell into a very bad relationship I made an attempt of suicde.
This was yearsa ago. But the effect of this on my daughter lives on to this day. Thank God I am now sorted and have a wonderfully supportive husband.

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This is exactly what's happening to me now. Been off the stuff for 4 years, and have since been diagnosed bi-polar by several doctors. I feel like my anxiety has become unmanageable to a point I can't come back from. Not to mention, I now have a serious problem with benzodiazepines (particularly Xanax). I can never remember a time prior to Prozac that I really NEEDED other drugs. Don't get me wrong, I'm no stranger to substance. But it seems the worst mistake so far was taking the drugs that were supposed to help me. I quit cold turkey after 2 years on them, and I feel like I haven't had a day of peace or rest since. I just feel like s*** all the time now.

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Hi daisies, I appreciate your opinion. My problems with sleep are slightly different. Once I eventually get to sleep I am out for however long my body needs. So I also was given zipiclone to make me sleep but they dont work unless I take two on a night but then they knock me out for too long + destroy my mind. It's said that they work by reducing brain activity which makes sense because its my mind that's restless and heart too pumped up for me to sleep, hands usually sweat regardless of temperature, unsteady hands, but the zoplicone makes my breath taste chemically and leaves my pupils massive the next day. I've tried the fluoxetine but due to the sleeping tabs being so effective I haven't noticed any feelings after taking the fluoxetine. Now I just feel spaced and more socially acceptable than before seeing the doc. Every time I've spoken about it to ppl other than the doc they dont know what to say and look at me like a piece of.... Although that said I strongly feel like there are no words that can change me or my mind state for worse or better. I think my cause is mainly bad childhood + property + introduced to cigarettes before I was ten years old and then cannabis, then coke on my 12th birthday, all my eyes have ever seen is poverty which is cured by drugs. It's all drugs drugs drugs. I'm so sorry for ranting but I just wanted to paint an accurate picture.

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Hi , thanks for the reply but I dont see how frying the brain will lead to anything less than instant dimentia,if anything or anyone made a mistake.

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Hi William, I would strongly beg you not to take the fluoxetine or any other psychiatric medication. I took Prozac for 6 weeks exactly and over a year later, I am still severely damaged without the slightest sign of any improvement. I have not slept for for more than 4 hours of broken sleep (wake up every 30 minutes) in over a year now since taking the Prozac. I experience feelings of high voltage electricity throughout my body causing extreme anxiety, heart pounding, and restless legs. I am miserable. Instead, I would beg you to interview several therapists (a lot of them are not helpful, but when you find a good one, they really can help tremendously). Also force yourself to change your thinking--try reading the Feeling Good Handbook, it's a classic. Force yourself to get into community with others if you are isolated; you may not feel like it at first but in time you will begin to enjoy it. And lastly if course, force yourself to exercise daily and eat nutritious foods. Lots of veggies, fruits, lean meats, fish, gluten free whole grains and nuts, reduce sugar and dairy and gluten. Get plenty of sleep, try taking a good quality magnesium glycinate supplement before bed, it helps sleep and anxiety and depression.

Good luck to you, looking back I know this is all I needed. NOTHING is worth ruining your very delicate brain chemistry, or your ability to sleep at night. Your brain is already healthy and if you feel bad, it's your brain's way of alerting you that something is wrong in your life, not your brain. Please don't take for granted your healthy brain; take good care of yourself.

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Wow, sorry to hear what you're going through. My daughter has been taking prozac for 2 years now. We are hoping she can be off this medication soon too. Have you heard of the NeuroStar TMS? It stands for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. This is treatment uses a highly focused magnetic pulses to stimulate the area of the brain thought to control the mood. I heard this treatment works. Look into this and might help you. My daughter will try this treatment and I'll have her post the result.

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Hi. I've just been prescribed fluoxetine. Should I take it? I haven't touched it because I've read awful info about it. Please get back to me asap.

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In February things were going down hill fast and I thought maybe my paroxetine no longer worked for me. It turned out it was the environment I was living in. Considering I had already started taking Prozac, I'd give it a chance. I tried it for 3 months thinking the bad side effects would eventually wear off. They didn't. I got really sick but figured it was the flu. Then the huge panic attacks started but again I figured they were temporary. They became more frequent and worse. Then the blurry vision started. Then it got to the point where I was considering suicide due to intense thoughts. Then, I got to the point where I didn't want to be around my kids because they irritated me. I had crying outbursts too. 3 months later I had had enough so I went to my doctor in hysterics. He told me to go off the Prozac immediately and put on clonazepam temporary until the Prozac had left my system. I went back yesterday and he said to stop the clonazepam considering I was feeling better and to try going back on the original paroxetine.

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About 10 years ago my doctor told me I had PMDD, and put me on Prozac. MY life has never been the same since I started that drug. I didn't realize it but it was causing me to be really hyper: I woke up at 4 am cleaning my entire house and dancing around my house listening to music and feeling very high on myself. It caused me to be disinterested in my children. This went on for a few weeks until one day I had some kind of weird meltdown while driving the kids to school (was a panic attack I guess, had never had one before). My legs felt numb like I was losing control of my motor function. When I returned back to my house I couldn't stop moving. It was an uncontrollable urge to move and I just kept doing laps around my living room and called my doctor who told me to stop taking it. In the meantime I couldn't stop moving so I would go running. I would run 6 miles, come home, and still not be able to stop moving. So I would go and run it again. Somehow I guess by exhausting myself I could sleep then and the akathasia was starting to go away. But then I started having panic attacks and fear that I was going to hurt someone else. It just went on and on and on until I was pretty much ruined. I was so scared to take any medication again that I couldn't barely take the Ativan that I was given for my panic attacks. I have never experienced such a terrifying feeling of being out of control physically and mentally. After all of this I developed a very deep depression and I still don't know how I survived it. I still suffer from anxiety and depression now and went back on an SSRI after I had no other choice. I was a normal person with some anxiety and my ups and downs before the Prozac, but seriously it made me crazy. I have never been the same. What I learned is that I am really sensitive to SSRIs and was on a huge dose for my body's metabolism. Be careful if you are considering taking an SSRI. Start with a baby dose and go slow. They can really mess you up. Peace.

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Hi there. I am really sorry to hear about what has happened to you. It might be a bit late but please try taking something called Curcumin. It's available on Amazon.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23832433

That is a study showing the benefits of Curcumin in depression. Try this with 5-HTP if it doesn't do enough on its own, but don't take the 5-htp for more than 6 months. Meditation, prayer, etc, all help. I wish you the best of luck. God bless.

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Omg I've been reading these because I too have been off and on procaz for a couple of years ...I haven't been able to hold a real job in over a year I'm lucky if I can just pull myself out of bed most days and when I have to absolutely attend or go to any kind of public gathering I basically robot my way through it its horrible I feel like I'm slowly dying day by day my family kustvlooks at me like I'm some pathetic stranger because I am and I can't do this anymore I don't know who I am !???!

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Hi, I took 4 days of prozac and it ruined me as well. It made me get anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, lost 15 lbs in two weeks, jittery, and the nerves and tension and stress caused me to to get TMJ, lemme tell you, that's a horrible pain. I've been off it for 24 days and I still struggle daily. I have nerve pains, TMJ, stress, anxiety and I haven't been able to calm down the way I would like too. Prozac along with any antidepressant are evil. I hate the pharmaceutical industry for making it. I heard it's the equivalent of doing coke. It's terrible. I hope we all feel better soon.

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Oh,and hang in there! Once the drug is completely out of your system,the withdrawl symptoms do eventually go away :)

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Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time. I took Prozac for seven years. I made a lot of bad decisions while on this drug, but didn't relate my crazy decisions to the drug until after I was off of it a few years. I normally weigh about 125-135 pounds,it fluctuates. But in 2006 I had reached 175 pounds. The doctor told me that it was a side effect (one of the MANY potential side effects) of Prozac. I immediately stopped taking it. No weaning off of it,just cold turkey. I would not recommend this to anyone as I was going completely psycho for about two weeks.I have been off of the Prozac for 8 years now and feel much better. Prozac made me numb but now I have my feelings and emotions back. I read a book some years back that described taking Prozac as the equivalent of a chemical lobotomy. I do not trust the pharmaceutical industry because their main concern is profit, not our health. So I do my best to stay away from any prescription drugs. I know that it is hard to get off of Prozac but the withdrawl symptoms do eventually go away. Hang in there! I wish you the best of luck!

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Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time. I took Prozac for seven years. I made a lot of bad decisions while on this drug, but didn't relate my crazy decisions to the drug until after I was off of it a few years. I normally weigh about 125-135 pounds,it fluctuates. But in 2006 I had reached 175 pounds. The doctor told me that it was a side effect (one of the MANY potential side effects) of Prozac. I immediately stopped taking it. No weaning off of it,just cold turkey. I would not recommend this to anyone as I was going completely psycho for about two weeks.I have been off of the Prozac for 8 years now and feel much better. Prozac made me numb but now I have my feelings and emotions back. I read a book some years back that described taking Prozac as the equivalent of a chemical lobotomy. I do not trust the pharmaceutical industry because their main concern is profit, not our health. So I do my best to stay away from any prescription drugs. I know that it is hard to get off of Prozac and I wish you the best of luck!

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Check out web site cchr threre is much info on this.you probably need a good withdrawal plan. Check out addiction supplements. A natural practioner. The herb milk thistle/liver detoxification.hope you are OK.

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Are you on any antidressants I am taking fluoxteine for a month and feeling the same way

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I've been taking Prozac for the past month now (first 5 mg/day for a week, then 10 for a week, now 20 mg) and have been experiencing everything you are feeling. The dizzy spells, severe spaced-out/out-of-body feelings, feeling extremely faint at times, and head pressure. I am definitely NOT going to continue this medicine. I wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I can't breathe and that I will faint. I wake up feeling like this as well, only to jump out of bed scared when I see my vision start to tunnel and feel very faint. Hearing your story is comforting to me knowing someone else is experiencing everything I am. But I'm so sorry that you've been on this drug longer and that you are feeling these things as well. Today is my first day off it and I already felt slighty better (besides a cough that came on yesterday). I hope that I've quit early enough and I hope I can get back to my old self how I was before my panic disorder. I'm sorry if this message seems unorganized/all over the place, but I'm just so comforted that there's someone else who feels how I'm feeling. You're not alone! Best of luck and health to you!

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It's sound like maybe you have Depersonalization.Disorder. . . Sounds just like i experienced. Google that and see if you have it? I'm going to start therapy (EMDR) soon to help with it. Maybe you can turn it? I hope this gets better for you soon.

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