Hi everyone. I’m 12 and a half weeks in, and wanted to share a nutshell version of my story, in the hope that it may help someone out there.
Depression for me didn’t really hit until turning 50, when my life as I knew it began to unravel.
I started taking the medication on advice of a local Doctor - 20mg a day. At first it did nothing at all, as expected. Then the night sweats, shaking hands, raised heart-beat and sweaty palms started. Oh and the body twitches! It got so horrible that I phoned the Doctor twice to check that this was normal! It’s hard to explain just how bad I felt physically!
Since then my life circumstances have worsened considerably. I won’t go into details, but the change in my life has been staggering. But I’m coping. And even with a different family health emergency, the pandemic and my life unravelling, I’m coping far better than I would have believed was possible.
Some of it has certainly been down to other things I’m doing to help myself, but without a doubt this medicine helped me enormously. Ten weeks ago I wanted to die, but couldn’t because of my two young children. Today I can’t believe I felt that bad - despite today’s circumstances being worse.
There isn’t a miracle cure as such, but the medication definitely takes the edge off the pain, and makes it easier to bear and cope with.
I found this forum when I was desperately looking for reassurance. I hope this post helps someone out there looking for the same thing. Hang in there – it gets better.
, also have terrible acid reflux on fluoxetine that worries me. Hope your journey keeps getting better.