Hello,
I’m new to this site but have found reading a lot of the posts on here reassuring.
My prescription of Prozac was increased 7 weeks ago from 20mg to 40mg to try and help with my anxiety and OCD symptoms.
Although I feel it has helped I am still not properly right, and was wanting some reassurance on whether or not things will get better.
I struggle with OCD thoughts and although the anxiety has dulled with the medication I’m still getting triggered by thoughts that I’d struggled with previously.
If anyone has experienced anything similar I would be grateful for your comments!
I don’t have experience with OCD but I did have a hard time finding a SSRI that worked. Took only 20 years and moving to another state but I finally found something that worked. Basically had a Genomics Test done. My primary doctor swabbed the inside of my mouth and the sent my DNA to this company called GeneSight. Anyway they were able to narrow down 3 possible drugs that they felt would work based on my DNA profile. The only that sucked was my insurance company claimed it feel under “exploratory” so they wouldn’t cover it. Think it was around $300.00.
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Thanks for your reply! Sorry to hear about that. I’m lucky as in the UK we have the NHS so at least we don’t have to worry about insurance over here.
How are you feeling now? Did you manage to be prescribed an SSRI and did it help?
I do think my medication is working but very slowly and it’s frustrating having to wait as I start to wonder if it’s having any effect or not.
I do find sites like this very helpful though and have been reassured by other posts on here that it can take time, and to hang on in there!
They prescribed Trintellex. I was diagnosed with Bi-polar depression and Trintellex isn’t a typical SSRI used for Bi-polar. So either the diagnoses was incorrect or the genetic test is just more superior then using a doctors diagnosis as a tool to prescribe the right medication. I can’t really answer that but I can say my life experience happened this way and if other people are struggling it’s worth looking into.
How I feel now? Emotionally in-check is the best word to describe it. When I feel down I’m not in a dark place for weeks to months on end. Instead it may be a moment in time like it should be. I don’t feel high on life but then again I’m pushing 50yr old plus I losing some weight might help. If you’re concerned your medication isn’t working make sure you document how you feel when you unmedicated. I think it helps remind me if I forget. Some medications I’ve tried in the past were so subtle that it was hard to tell the difference. But then again if your depression is subtle then the medication may not have any noticeable effect. It does work slow. They say it takes 1 month to notice a difference but I think that was an average statistic. It takes me around 2 months. Check out GeneSight online if you haven’t already.
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Thanks for your reply and glad your medication seems to be working!
I’ve had moments today where it’s felt like my medication is actually beginning to work which is a relief.
Hope you continue to progress and thanks for taking the time to reply.
Hi Trueblue,
I have suffered from depression, and fibromyalgia. My depression was triggered by chronic stress. I am a normally very tense person. I was treated with SSRIs; I was ok but not great and my libido was non-existent. By chance, a lady mentioned many of her friends seem to spiral into depression and she thought there might be a hormonal connection. When I asked my gynecologist about this, she “yep, 2/3rds of my patients with depression have complete remission when I put them on either HRT or low dose testosterone”. She put me on a low dose testosterone (Taro-testosterone 40 mg per day x 6 days per week). My mood improved substantially and my libido returned. Best of all my fibromyalgia went into remission after 20 yrs of chronic pain.
There are a couple of things I’ve come across recently which may help you. Top of the list is improving your diet. The changes in the western diet to low fat high carbohydrates and processed foods high in sugar, fructose, carbs & industrial seed oils. This diet has caused a global wave of insulin resistance and chronic disease. increased insulin resistance. The brain becomes insulin resistant faster than any other organ so diet is critical for brain health. I lowered sugar consumption, got rid of processed foods and juice (eat the fruit don’t drink it), and kept refined carbs and starches to a minimum. I eat full fat milk & yogurt, grass fed beef, grass fed eggs. Dr. Unwin has rolled out a low carb diet to reverse diabetes in the NHS. Two other really smart guys on this are Dr. Benjamin Bickman (good food guidelines at the back of his book “Why We Get Sick”) and Dr. Jason Fung. We need some glucose for brain energy but the western diet now has about 10x sugar more than our grandparents consumed 100 yrs ago. I eat 2 meals a day and do not eat snacks between meals. I am the weight I was in university 40 yrs ago and have completely reversed pre-diabetes.
On the supplement side, low dose Lithium (5 mg x 2 per day) helps to reduce anxiety, boosts mood, reduces inflammation in the brain and helps to regenerate the Hippocampus responsible for memory and critical thinking. Lithium occurs naturally in soil and water and in communities with good levels of natural lithium, there are lower rates of dementia, depression and suicide. At low levels, it doesn’t have any side effects. Also found magnesium drops make me far less tense.
Have you tried meditation? The stress response (fight or flight) elevates cortisol, a stress hormone in the brain. Anxiety often triggers a stress response. Deep breathing and meditation helps to lower cortisol calming the brain. There are meditation videos on YouTube. The first time I meditated my body felt fully relaxed something I had never experienced before.
Dr. Georgia Ede’s book Change Your Diet Change Your Mind is worth a look. She lays out the latest research on nutrition and the brain.
We all have to find strategies that will work for us. Good luck in your health journey.
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Forgot to mention that my depression was triggered by perimenopause (dropping levels of estrogen lead to lower serotonin production; same thing happens during menopause triggering depression in many women) and chronic stress.
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Hi Sophster078, thanks very much for your reply!
I do feel like the medication is slowly beginning to take effect now, and although I still have similar feelings of anxiety and OCD thoughts, they are not as intense and overwhelming as they once were.
Thanks for the tips! I struggle with the idea of meditation but I suppose you don’t know until you’ve tried it!
The diet advice is interesting and could well be worth pursuing but I think part of my problem is that I don’t like change and tend to stick to things I know in order to feel safe if that makes sense?
I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my post, and also wish you well on your health journey! 
I completely understand. I’m glad your medication is starting to work.
So much in the nutrition area is confusing. On the food, a lot of it comes down to consumer awareness…reading the label and picking foods that have fewer ingredients with names you can pronounce. If your grandmother didn’t make it that way, don’t eat it…is a balanced approach.
Best wishes
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