Fluoxetine?

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What's it like to take Prozac for the first time? I finally picked up the prescription for my mild (moderate to my therapist) OCD and it's just been sitting on the counter. I'm scared to take it. I don't want to feel spacey or anything like that? Have you ever taken Prozac(I have the generic version from Wal-Mart)? How did it make you feel? What were the side effects? Thanks for reading.

Prozac effects people differently. Some people say it makes them feel a little wired. You might also get a head rush if you bend over and straighten up to fast. Most of the Prozac family of drugs have relatively few side effects. You probably got a fact sheet with a list of side effects you probably won't experience.

If you experience anything really disturbing, call your doctor. If the effects are mild, they will probably go away within a week or two.

If you are an Aspie, you might be especially sensitive to the drug. If possible, you might start at half the dose prescribed and work your way up.

When meds work, it is absolutely fantastic. When they don't, you'll have the same old problems with a list side effects that will most likely go away as soon as you stop taking it. There are some who had really bad experiences, but they are a small minority.

to be honest i hate that crap as it makes me psychotic.

Have you tried anything else? I don't have personal experience, but I know people who have had their life changed forever by SSRIs. If you don't want bad (potentially very bad) side effects, don't take SSRIs. I can recommend St johns wort. It is supposedly about 2x more effective then Prozac (Too lazy to go look it up, sorry).
I would recommend taking about a 1g-2g a day, and lower it from there.
I can also recommend Kanna. It has the compounds that SSRIs are modeled off of. Kanna is supposed being suppressed by big-pharma.
And, last of all, if you want pharm try MAOIs. They are extremely effective.

Good luck!

My doctor prescribed that for me, not realizing how sensitive I am to this type of medicine (I didn't know this myself, but I sure do now).

I felt dizzy, physically sick, depressed, anxiety levels were sky high. My doctor insisted I stay on it and the symptoms would go away, but four months later I'd had enough and insisted she help me get off it (since you're not suppose to quit it cold turkey) and the withdrawal symptoms were crazy and scary... never felt anything like it before.

I'm not on any meds now as the other meds I've tried also made me sick, but nothing like Fluoxetine (which I only learned was Prozac after I came off it. I'm in New Zealand).

Now, as has been said already, you may be fine with this med and it has helped many. I'm just really sensitive to meds and my body rejects them badly.

This stuff sounds scary. I have to take 20mg each day. I'm not sure I want to do it. I wish I could be sure it would work but I can't. What if I tried it for two days and didn't like it. Would I still have side effects if I stopped taking it.

Try it for a week, if you can't handle it or you really can't handle the side effects you should be able to stop very quickly. It is very low risk if you give it a week, ceasing it will stop any side effects promptly. Any longer than that and you would need to start gradually phasing it out to avoid withdrawal / rebound problems.

Talk to your doctor about your concerns and ask him.

Jason

I think the best I've ever felt was when I was on anti-depressants. I don't remember doing anything that productive but I hardly had any anxiety. I stopped all obsessional (routines/ interests) behaviour. Oh well, I'm a Ritalin girl now. Productive. Productive. Productive.

The best thing to do is not go looking for horror stories of past use by some strangers over the internet. Read the booklet that comes with it to get an idea of side effects. Anti-depressants probably gave me the less amount of side effects compared to any medication I took. The Pill screwed me right up and millions of women take that without an issue. You don't know if you'll be one of those people who get severe side effects or mild, or none.
If I asked people about side effects of Ritalin before taking it they would have directed me to the Ritalin death sites, and well, I wouldn't be able to find out what my full potential can be on this medication.

If I had OCD I'd just run to them. No offence to you but I live with someone with untreated OCD.

Just take a small half dose and monitor your body for any changes. If you think they're doing nothing or really don't like your side effects then you can stop taking them. I don't think a doctor should be able to force you to take anything.

Antidepressants never did anything for me. Except venlafaxine made me throw up a lot both when I started and stopped it. Citalopram and Fluoxetine did nothing as far as I can make out (I was still anxious and depressed) and there were no side effects.

I have been taking lamotrigine (an anticonvulsant used as a mood stabiliser) for a month and occasional amisulpride (an antipsychotic at high doses but at low doses it has a very strong and fast acting (within a few hours) antidepressant effect - very helpful when you are at the bottom of the deep dark pit and seriously suicidal). I have had some side effects from the lamotrigine and although I still depressed and a bit anxious I feel the best I have in years.

Prozac (and all SSRIs) did zip for my OCD. But again, everyone's chemistry is different, and the fluoxetine may do wonders for you. In my case, I'm pretty positive that all I got out of SSRIs was the development of idiopathic hypersomnia. Normal me doesn't need sleep, but ever since I tried Zoloft in 2003, I can't get enough sleep. The only reason I'm able to hold a job is because I now use Daytrana stimulant patches to keep me alert enough to function. Zoloft, Lexapro, and Prozac all had the same effect, and even though I haven't been on an SSRI since 2006, the tiredness has never gone away. We've ruled out that it's my Anafranil, because I didn't take any serotonin meds for my OCD from 2006-2008, and I still was dead tired. Just wanted to alert you to this possibility, because you only ever hear about SSRIs causing insomnia, not hypersomnia.

For people who it works for, there's not really a noticeable feeling. You probably won't notice that you've taken any drugs or anything. After several weeks it should start helping. For me, though, it only exacerbated my suicidality. SSRIs in general just don't do anything beneficial for me.