Hey everyone. Need some advice. I’m 12-days in to taking Prozac 20mg. The side effects have been rough to say the least. Nausea, tired, and heightened anxiety/stress. Bad!
Question. How do you survive the side effects while maintaining a demanding job?
I’m so messed up, Im at my wits end. What do/did most of you do to get past these 4-8wks (maybe more) of the daily sickness? I feel like crap, and work (or thinking/worrying about it) is making my situation worse.
Any advice would greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Hi tsea, sorry to hear you are going through this, i think these are common side effects and may wear off after a few weeks, try and speak to your GP about it, i will say these are the reasons i cannot take these type of antidepressants, i take Mirtazapine and they seem to me, to have far less side effects apart from eating to much. I would speak to your GP though as there others you can try but it's early days for you yet and you may find these will wear off. The worst side effect i had off Prozac was awful anxiety and i could not cope with that as my anxiety was really bad aswell and find my present meds much better for it, let us know how you get on, best wishes, S...😊
Hi I have a prescription for Prozac that I haven’t started yet for that very reason. How am I to go to work feeling terrible? I have depression but also suffer from anxiety so now I don’t know what to do.
just continue taking the prozac it will take about 8 weeks to take full effect, dont give up. god bless
I forgot to tell you I too was on prozac for about 28 years and it took a while fot it to take full effect once it does you will feel much much better
Hi tsea
im sorry to hear you’re having such an awful time; I had trouble with Prozac and couldn’t stay on it but I’ve had similar experiences with other antidepressants. All the symptoms you describe I’ve been through and nothing much helps to be honest, stay hydrated, eat when you can face it and if you’re able the most beneficial thing I did was go and discuss the way I was feeling with my Dr- she gave me a short term course of diazepam to see me through the initial month of increased anxiety which helped enormously and also I took a sick leave for a few weeks because I simply couldn’t maintain working feeling so ill physically from the antidepressant and mentally exhausted ( I got insomnia as an initial side effect plus my depression always starts with sleep problems) but what I can tell you is it will get better for sure, I know it feels impossible to believe right now but your body will adjust to the drug being in there and many if not all the side effects start to disappear. It’s a good antidepressant if you can tolerate it.
could you consider a couple of weeks sick leave from work?
i do hope you feel better very soon x
Thank you for all the advice and support. I want to see this through, as everyone says they feel so much better after you get past this. I’m leaning toward taking time off, although the timing is bad and I have to “find” an excuse to give.
I hope this clears up. I’m miserable.
Thx,
Tsea
Twelve days in is still very early, even though it probably feels like forever. A lot of people get that spike in nausea and anxiety before things level out. I went through something similar, and what helped most was staying in close contact with my doctor. Sometimes they’ll lower the dose for a bit or suggest something short-term to ease the side effects.
For work, I had to lower my expectations temporarily. I focused on the absolute essentials and broke tasks into small, manageable pieces. Taking the medication with food helped my stomach, and cutting back on caffeine reduced the jittery feeling. Short walks during breaks also took the edge off.
If it feels unbearable, don’t tough it out alone. Call your prescriber. There are options, and you deserve support while your body adjusts.