Aspergers and Prozac.

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I never had any special interests to begin with. I'm not one of those people that like something and get to know "everything" about it. But I did, as some of you have seen, have a tendency to focus on one person or thing, and I'm wondering if it's thanks to Prozac enabling me to think more clearly. I've read that SSRI's help with obsessions and overwhelming interests, but I'm wondering if the Prozac is finally completely working.

I'm on the Prozac for depressive tendencies and it has helped for the most part alleviate those, but I noticed that since July or August, I've stopped obsessing over things for the most part. I used to constantly look at pictures of male celebrities and wish I looked like them (despite not even hating my appearance) and I basically watched the same two shows over and over again (Seinfeld and X-Files) despite seeing every episode at least once. Now I'm watching Frasier, and as most people know I have a crush on Roz and Daphne. Both are my dream women, and despite that, I'm pacing the show. I bought Season 4 sometime last winter or in the spring and have only watched 6 episodes so far, not out of disinterest, but more like, "What's the hurry, watch this show and have nothing else to watch?"

And also up until very recently, I spent my time fantasizing about meeting a woman like Roz or Daphne, but I'm more willing to go for a less than ideal woman if she's pretty and a nice person, even if she has typical NT interests that usually annoy me.

I'm not sure how much of this is the Prozac and how much of it is just me growing up and improving on my own?

Of course. I don't even tell people about the Aspergers. It's a need to know basis. Not that I'm ashamed about Aspergers, but I think it's not like I'm hiding that I have a criminal record or something. No need to know that I have high-functioning autism.

As for the Prozac...I just think it's helping the degree of intensity of things, and wonder if others have experienced the same?

When I was much younger I was medicated (not with prozac) for 'OCD' symptoms. What you have described seems very similar to the obsessive decreases I experienced. Perhaps it has relaxed your obsessive compulsive behaviours (and therefore anxiety).

Well, you had a better reaction to prozac than i did. I was on it for all of 2 weeks: Increased heart rate, and continuous fatigue (would be getting 16 hours of sleep a day).

I have found Prozac to be helpful for my obsessive thinking. I used to have a lot of trouble with thoughts I didn't want bothering me a lot, whether they were disturbing thoughts, distracting, guilty (cringing at a small mistake I made 15 years ago) or just pointless (having to count everything I did).

The change is strangely subtle. It's not that I never have those kind of thoughts anymore, but it's like I have a new ability to step away from them and say "I don't have to think about that, and it doesn't have to bother me." I can move on, which was always what people told me to do and what I had tried to do, but I know now that it was harder for me than it was for other people.

I have found that I have been able to express how I was feeling to my parents much better than I could before. I used to freeze up whenever I tried to describe what I was feeling because I was unsure I was choosing the right words. Now I feel like I can speak my mind even if I'm only 90% right; I don't have to be 100% sure. My parents say that they've learned all kinds of things about me that they never knew, and it really helped them to understand me.

There was a major negative to taking Prozac, which is that it caused me great fatigue all day. It didn't matter how much sleep I got; the entire day, I was low on energy to the point that I would almost fall asleep in the middle of a conversation. It also made it dangerous to drive. Now I am taking Wellbutrin in addition to Prozac; they are both supposed to do the same thing, but Wellbutrin's side-effects are mostly the opposite of Prozac's-- Wellbutrin causes tremors (shaky hands). The two together hopefully leave me somewhere near "normal." : )

I used to rock back and forth until my early 40's. When I was put on prozac I no longer had any need to rock, so the prozac did help my AS.

I didn't have any fatigue with prozac - on the contrary, it gave me more energy than I'd had before.

Asperger's AND Prozac;

The intense focus, attention to detail and a brain unclouded with anxiety and all the other fun stuff.............we would be unstoppable..........

No wonder the NTs have it on prescription.

Yeah, I'm still battling the fatigue. Sleeping up to 12 hours a day, and then having low energy during the day and feeling like I have to crash. But I'm prone to suicidal depression without being treated in some way, and Prozac has been the only thing to alleviate depression and obsessive thoughts. So it's a trade-off.

I'm taking Prozac for depression as well and have noticed that my intrusive thoughts about things have decreased but not my special interests.

I was forced to take this as a child but it did nothing but give me migranes. The only way one could put a hault on my special intrests would be to kill me. I'm not giving them up for anyone.

I have started Prozac yesterday, prescribed by my GP, because I tild him about my lifelong anxiety and the stress it causes. I have to take a half every day, but when I read about the contra indications, I freak out.
What about medical marijuana, is that no safer? Unfortunately in the UK it is still illegal.

I had an averse reaction to prozac (and to several other drugs as well) it made the depression even worse.