Phoebe is a pretty name, I like it!! Glad you are doing so much better!! Did you have OCD too? Xx
Thank you! ☺️ Very severe anxiety, but I believe I was also showing symptoms of OCD because of how I was coping with it! Xx
Ugh, last night was gross. It's been the first night that my head was spinning. I went to bed and fell asleep for 1.5 hours and then woke up and thought it was morning. My head was spinning around in circles!! Not a nice feeling!!
Hi Pipk 
Im so sorry to hear you had a rough night. I remember i had one particularly bad physical symptom day. I woke up woozy and have bad tremors in my hands and arms. It was hideous! Im certain it will pass for you soon. I spent most of that day in bed. Are you feeling any better this morning?
To answer your other questions, im not too certain about if i had more side effects going from 5mg to 7.5mg. I was already in my bad phase then so it's hard to tell because I was already feeling liie my symptoms were worse. And yup my OCD started as a result of my illness. It started as bad health anxiety OCD. i was obsessed thinking i had cancer. Then funnily enough the harm OCD started when i tried lexapro on April. It made me scared of hurting others so i stopped it right away. But the thought continued to haunt me for months after. Then i had the breakdown in July and had a panic attack so bad that i went to the hospital to get assessed because I thought i was going mad. When i got home that day i had the thought of going straight to the knife draw and thats when the self harm thoughts started. It didn't help that i became severely depressed for weeks after that panic attack. It was the worst time ever. I was scared i would lose control and hurt myself. I had counseling and thats when i realised it was OCD and actually quite common to experience scary intrusive thoughts. I have a friend who i met on here (we chat on FB now) and she started meds at the same time as me for exactly the same reason as you - coming off birth control. She's doing soooo much better and still only on 5mg but is about to go up to 7.5mg.
My day was ok yesterday. I literally have minimal anxiety which is a miracle in itself, but i still dont feel "right". I feel on edge a bit in the first half of the day like im still waiting for the next panic attack even though it never comes. I think i have ptsd from my recent breakdown so it will take a while to trust my body not to fall back into that scary place.
Hi xx thanks for the reply. I'm doing okay this morning actually, thank goodness. Better then last night anyway. Oh you poor thing that sounds like a nightmare!!! What a horrible thing to go through! I've had the year from hell coming off birth control! It made me feel really crazy and I was so determined to get through it naturally but then I got put on progesterone cream and it made me much worse!! Yes there seems to be heaps of girls out there who have come off birth control and having the same experience! So is your friend finding even just 5mg helps her?
That's awesome your anxiety has subsided! Let's just hope the rest will follow and you will continue to get better and better.
One of my biggest anxieties is that the medication will change my thinking for the worse, so I think I keep checking myself etc and my thoughts!
Yes I do feel the 5mg is helping this Friday will be 8weeks on the meds. I had my implanon taken out June 1 with in 3 days I started to feel the anxiety and not really knowing what the heck was going on I ended up in ER with what I thought was a heart attack which was only Extream anxiety about two weeks later I was back in the ER cuz I was having horrible thoughts of killing my son. Then myself. After that I got meds that scared the hell out of me. I was trying to get threw it naturally and that's what happened. So today as I sit here I feel relief I still have heart palpitations and get crazy thoughts the week b4 my period and it gets kinda bad about 3 days right b4 I start my period but as soon as I start it it stops. I will be upping to 10mg when I'm ready to hopefully stop that! Having someone to chat with as you go threw this that understands is a huge help! Any questions pls pm me
Hi Pipk! That's my friend Becky feel free to write to me here whenever you need reassurance. I'm more than happy to chat to you. I know how crappy it can be ♡♡
Okay so it's not a good idea to read about the anti anxiety medication! Ugh! Scary! .. x
Do you mean in regards to it's addictive qualities? What type are you on?
Yeah!! Some scary stuff came up xx colozopan. Do you have to take your Xanax very often now?
Happy to say i haven't taken any in 3+ weeks now!
Try not to worry too much about the addictive qualities. Thats more if you take it every day for months/years. You'll just be on a short course and taking a tiny amount. I used to be prescribed xanax for a couple of years and took it semi regularly and actually never felt any sort of dependency! And clonozopam is meant to be less addictive than xanax
Thank you! You always make me feel better and I think you are right! X
How are you feeling today? Have you gone up in dose yet? I'm thinking about going up soon as the only side effect I'm having now is increased anxiety and increased thoughts!!
No worries! I totally understand what you're saying though, i felt the same way.
Im still good! This week has bern my best yet. Definitely in recovery but still have a way to go. It's 7 weeks for me today! I'm going to up my dose on monday will keep in touch and let you know how i go. Good luck with your dose increase. I think it'll be fine especially with small increments. What dosage will you go up to?
That's awesome you have had such a good week. Have you ever thought about just staying at 10mg?
Cool look forward to hearing how you are going!
I'm not sure what il go up too next, I might even just go 7mg for a week and then 10. Then stay at 10 for a while!
I've been getting quite bad heartburn which I hope passes!
Hi Aquin,
Your post really do help. I've been put back on fluoxetine. Was on 20mg for 7 weeks I think and started to feel a little better but then got worst, perhaps due to the stress of my new job. So went on to 40mg and it's my 6th day. It's been a scary journey, my depression and anxiety has got worst. I have really scary negative thoughts and even though it's not something I would do, it scares me. I end up feeling awful about it. Also I feel tired all the time and yawn a lot. I've not been able to eat much and sometimes when I try and take my tablets I'm sick. I have noticed though that the afternoon is slightly better for me. I was trying to understand why the thoughts as so bad but now I am just saying to myself yes they are bad thoughts but part of this illness and not who I am. I pray a lot and will keep praying as I find it really comforts me. I hope you're starting to feel better. X
Hi Pipk! Sorry for the slow reply this time. How are you going? Tell me everything! Also digestive problems like heart burn are a really common side effect that im sure will go away for you.
I haven't really considered staying on 10mg just because i know i will need more. I was really at absolute rock bottom a few months ago and although i have improved a lot (able to leave the house and see friends.. much better anxiety etc) i still feel like i have a bit of recovery to go that i will need a higher dose for. Im still quite depressed. I want to get back to normal and I'd say im about 60% recovered so far.
Yesterday was my 27th bday and last night i went out to a dinner party which was a massive step for me. I did really well and had hardly any anxiety.. i just felt a bit socially awkward. Its amazing! Although i woke up anxious this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks but i think thats to be expected when i had such a big challenging day yesterday. ♡
Hi Hopenfaith!
Thanks for your message. Im so glad my posts have been able to help you a bit. The thoughts are just terrible to deal with. If you read my post i made just up there ^ i mention i woke up this morning anxious for the first time in a while. Well if course the thoughts come back whenever im anxious and they SUCK but the fluoxetine makes them so much more manageable for me now. So hiw long have you been on fluoxetine all together now? I hope the 40mg settles down for you asap ♡
Hi 💗 Oh wow! Happy Birthday xo hope you had a nice day, that's awesome you were able to go out and have some fun!! I know what you mean about feeling a bit socially awkward these days, I've never been that way but anxiety has changed things a bit.. that's awesome you are improving so much! I also just turned 27 in September xx
Okay, that's good then. I wasn't sure if heartburn was one of the side effects. I can't find much info on it. I'm actually doing okay. Prettty much feel just my usual depression and anxiety that I've had all year, the main thing is the massive heart burn that makes me anxious.. I'm glad though it could be much worse. I'm thinking about going up to 7mg on Tuesday and then 10mg the following week.. bit nervous though!
You poor thing, I know how bad the OCD and depression can get. That makes sense to keep increasing to 20mg so that you can really feel 100%. Will you go up pretty slowly?
I hope the extra anxiety this morning passes quickly!
Aww thank you! And that's so cool we're the same age!
You're definitely sounding slightly better. That's really exciting. I hope it continues for you! How many days has it been now?
My plan at the moment is to start on 12.5mg tomorrow and stay on that for 1 week and then go up to 15mg and probably stay on that for a month before eventually moving up to 20mg. That's just a rough plan but i'll see how things go. Not sure if i mentioned but i've been getting a few involuntary muscle jerks and twitches. It's not good and i know it's from the meds.. that's partly why i've stuck to 10mg for so long - because i didn't want the twitches to get worse. They've slowed down a bit but still there. Hopefully it doesn't get worse with the dose increase. They're mild, like it's not as if i'm spazzing out, lol.. no one else can see them.. but they are a bit annoying 