I was on 20mg for 5 days. On the 4th day I was completely hyper,bad dreams,sweating,uncontrollable shaking which ended in an awful panic attack which I had never had before. 2 days later after another attack I ended up in A&E and apparently its a bad reaction.
Anyway I've been off them 6 days now and not feeling much better-nausea,dreams,anxiety,sweating. After taking them for such a short time shouldn't these side effects have stopped now? Thank you
Hi Claire
Yours is an awful story!
I hear that you went to A&E but don't read that you have been back to your GP. Surely that has to be your next step? I think even after five days you have to taper off Flu - but I don't know. Your GP will.
Hope it stops soon!
Hi yes I stopped it after the 5 days. A&E just said it needs time to get out of my system but my last dose was Friday night so I thought I'd be feeling better by now.I start feeling better for a couple of hours then it all comes back again,beginning to feel like I am going mad.
Hi Claire,
I found this on wiki: "The extremely slow elimination of fluoxetine and its active metabolite norfluoxetine from the body distinguishes it from other antidepressants. With time, fluoxetine and norfluoxetine inhibit their own metabolism, so fluoxetine elimination half-life changes from 1 to 3 days, after a single dose, to 4 to 6 days, after long-term use. Similarly, the half-life of norfluoxetine is longer (16 days) after long-term use."
In what regards the side-effects you experienced, I must say that I also had a really bad week due to small/moderate panic attacks coming all the time. In think in those cases we should be able to take anxiolytic to calm down. Unfortunately I didn't have one, and so I had to stay at home, not working most of the time, until the bad anxiety attacks went away.
Talk to your GP. Starting with a lower dose and with the help of an anxiolytic, you can handle the initial phase.
Best,
Danilo
Thank you. Don't really understand the half life business! Does that just mean 5 doses will take 4-6 days to pass through?
A&E gave me diazapam which if I'm honest didn't have much effect except minimising the shaking a bit.
I see the doc in 10 days but don't want any more medication,it was for chronic fatigue rather than depression and without sounding flippant,I'd take the fatigue any day! Just want this to stop now
Hi Claire. Found your post and realize it is some months ago I am hoping u are feeling better. I am going thru the same problem. Was on only 10 mg of flu for 5 days and my body went crazy! (Still is) inner shaking, pounding heart, unbelievably anxious. Hard time eating and feeling sick to my stomach and unbelievably dizzy. I went on the drug because I have been dealing with vertigo for the last 6 years. Biggest mistake of mylife! I have never felt so bad. And am now on clonazepam to help calm me down. Haven't been to work in a week. Please tell me you are doing better now ... And how long did it take to feel normal again?
All the best,
Shannon
Hey I'm in the same boat as you. I was on 10mg for 5 days then quit. Been off for 2 weeks exactly. And for some reason I was doing ok until last night where I felt like i did when I was on the meds (waking up often, with a deep fear of nothing specific, depersonalization). How Are you now? And how long did things take?
Hey John. Sorry you are going thru this. It is a drug that is made for a good reason ... But not made for everyone. It actually took me 11 days for my symptoms to subside (rapid heart rate over 110, shaking, muscle spasms, insane anxiety, and I dropped 12 pounds) on the 12th day I got a migraine and everything started to slow down. Still took a few weeks after that for everything to be back to normal. i completely cut out caffeine and ate insanely healthy (and a banana every day ... I read they were good for anxiety ... May sound silly but I do think it helped) in the end my doctor thinks I had a mild case of seritonin syndrome. I have been working with an ENT doctor and have just wrapped up the last of my tests (his thought is I have Ménière's disease ... Which makes more sense for my symptoms) I will find out in a few weeks. So for me coming off the symptoms of fluoxetine it was cutting out everything bad like coffee, alchohol, and making sure I got lots of sleep ... At least for a couple of weeks. I am now back to my morning coffee and evening glass of red!! I hope you are feeling better soon! Let me know how it goes.
All the best,
Shannon
I'm doing good now haven't had any Prozac related symptoms since. I think it's finally out of my system!
John
Hi, I need help...
I have been on a low dose of fluoxetine and I've been taking it for two weeks and I was wondering, should I see my doctor before I stop taking it because it makes me feel not like myself I feel like a robot. I feel like I have no emotions, I keep waking up every night at the same time and my mom thinks it's me getting off of my birth control but this started the day I started taking it. My doctor diagnosed me with general anxiety and I told him I wasn't comfortable taking an anti depressant because the last one I took made me feel sick. I want to take clonazapam because I know it helps a lot better than what I've been getting. How are you getting through this? I don't know what to do...
Hi Claire, Hope you're all ok and happy now. Did you take any other medications again, if so, how did you get on? I was on and off flu for around 20years and came off 3-4 years ago. Sadly had a year of hell so went on them again stupidly for a week, well never ever again! Suffered terribly with sickness, gi issues, insomnia, panic, agitation, rapid heart rate, no appetite, no energy whatsoever! Been off for 3 days now and still suffering! How long was it until you felt reasonably ok? Thanks, Nicki, xxx.
Hello Amy,
I have been taking fluoxetine medium dose (40 mg) for more than a year and I feel zero depression symptons and zero side-effects. So don't give up on that prospect of a very good outcome!
Having said that, my second week on Fluoxetine 20 mg was the worst week of my life. I had terrible nights, days, cries, side-effects. In summary, it was nearly unberable.
From the second week on the side-effects subsided very very slowly, but the depression per si took more than a month of Fluoxetine use to diminish. In fact, I reach the point where I could clearly say "I have no depression symptons and not side-effects" after three months on Fluoxetine (40 mg by that time) and on Bupropion together to counter-balance the sleepness that Fluoxetine brought to me.
Another information that will help you a lot in my opinion: there are literally hundreds of medication approach to tackle depression, as there are dozens of medications that have been succesfully tried to fight depression (and anxiety, they are usually treated in very similar ways) and hundreds of combinations of those medications (and dosages) to achieve the best outcome. (For example, only one third of moderate to severe depressed patients will achieve total remission using a single strategy).
Hi Shannon, I know this was a long time ago but I'm experiencing the same exact side effects! I was prescribed Prozac for occasional panic attacks but honestly I'd rather fight through the occasional attack than ever take this again! I took a 20mg Thursday, a 20mg Friday (had the worst panic attack of my life in the middle of the night), took a 10mg Saturday but stopped after that. It's now Tuesday and I still have these horrible side effects. Any advice?
Hi Claire. I know it was over a year ago you posted this. And I hope your ok now. I'm having the exact same problem., I took fluoxetine for 5 days and had such a bad reaction, drowsy,dizzy,headaches,sick feeling. Anxious about nothing, muscle pains, insomnia and I can usually sleep for England. Only having 3 hrs sleep a night, that's been for a week now. I have panic attacks and bad tremors. I didn't have any of this before going on the fluoxetine. I've now been off them 4 days and still having all these problems. Does your body go back to normal or how normal it was before the meds. How long did it take you to recover from these symptoms?n did you recover?
How long did it take for you to feel better after stopping? I stopped on day 4.
Hi. It took about 3 weeks. Still left with a muzzy head and headaches odd days. Doctors won't blame the medication though. They won't when they make multimillion from them. Theres some tablets called 5htp, natural/herbal serotonin and melatonin, I'm gunna give these a whirl, the reviews are good, I'm no doctor but I'm sure a natural source is better for you than chemically made. I'm not advising on taking them, that's just my next step, i'll take a low dose and see how it goes. I hope you get well soon, just shows how many peoples been like this from this medication. Anti d's just don't agree with me had the same problem with citalapram, I suppose tablets aren't for every one.
Well it's been over three days since I stopped feel slightly better but I just want to be able to go to work and not be so dizzy and out of it
hi i was wondering what side effects u had after stopping prozac and how long after u had the syptoms i took prozac for 4 weeks horibble anxiety diarreha vomiting nausea so i stopped now iam having nausea i feel more anxious only been off for 6 days i wanna hear and see what ur outcome wss
Just wanted to add my experience to this thread. I had been on fluoxetine (started at 20mg and tapered up to 40mg) for about 3 or 4 months and decided to stop because I missed a few doses and I had been feeling a lot better. Then the depression came back so after 2 months off i decided to starting medication again and stupidly i went straight back on to 40mg for about 3 days, then thought that's probably not a good idea and I missed a dose so I reduced my dose to 20mg for the next couple of days.
The next day I woke up feeling awfully shaky and dizzy and with the worst anxiety ive had for 7 years and like I couldn't breathe properly. I stopped the medication immediately but this feeling lasted for about a week and a half. It's been two weeks since then and I'm only feeling slightly calmer, I'm still feeling a bit dizzy and very anxious. Like I'm constantly on the verge of passing out. I started cbt yesterday for my anxiety and I hope this won't last much longer
I know these are all old messages but I am going through the symptoms as I write. I started taking fluoxetine 10 days ago and on the 8th day woke up and was sick. I felt terrible for the day and decided I was not going to take them anymore. 3 days later and the symptoms are pretty much as described by others on here. I am still wondering if I actually have a virus as that is what it feels like. It is hard to believe that 8 tablets can have this effect. It is unbelievably awful, to the point of frightening. I have not eaten properly for 3 days, and I mean not properly. Quite honestly I am very scared.