To stay on antidepressants or not...

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I went on Fluoxetine (20mg) about three to four months ago for anxiety...

My anxiety levels had gotten FAR worse due to my ex boyfriends ADD behaviour and refusal to accept certain behaviour caused me problems with my ASD. My anxiety has improved - so much so that I was able to travel on my own half way round the world (if not on antidepressants I suspect I'd have had a meltdown before even checking in) and I've been far more social.

BUT I don't like remembering to take pills every day, I'm experiencing occasional headaches, although I don't feel 'like a zombie' it feels like I'm not experiencing emotions as I should be...it's like everything is a little muted, I'm also worried it's potentially lowering my sex drive, and now the ex is an ex I should be able to regulate my own anxiety a little better.

The lowered anxiety has been amazing - I worry about anxiety coming back, causing problems on future trips, but...I want to be able to feel things fully again. Any opinions on what I should do?

When you take meds, there'll always be side effects. The question becomes: Would you rather have the extreme anxiety, or the medication side effects? Which one is easier to handle? And if the side effects are easier to handle, then you take the meds. If not, then not.

There's a third option to consider: Lowering your dosage. Often times, the initial dose you get for acute depression or anxiety is higher than the "maintenance" dose you would take long-term. Talk to your doctor, see if reducing your dosage is something to consider at this point. If your anxiety disorder has gone into remission, that might be something to try. It could trigger a relapse, of course, and you'd have to monitor yourself for that. But if it's possible to reduce that "blunted emotion" side-effect you don't like without also making the medication less effective in general, then it might be worth a try. Do listen to the psychiatrist about whether it's too soon to try something like that, though. It pays to make absolutely sure that you're stable before tinkering with the meds.

I actually found this to be a benefit lol. While I was in a relationship I didn't feel that way but as long as I'm not it's handy to not be distracted by smutty thoughts all the time :p

I would say "amazing" lessening of anxiety is something worth sticking with, in my opinion. Being able to travel is a big plus!

I had worries of not feeling fully on medication (and as an artist and creative person I didn't want to lose my creativity etc), but in my experience, the correct dose (and your dose sounds relatively low) only helps you to stabilize, not to erase everything. Ideally it would just help you to be able to see your reactions and help you realize that you have choices, you aren't stuck because of your anxieties.

I have been advised that bad headaches can be caused by stress and also dehydration. Maybe you can try to combat the headaches with more fluids and working on your relaxation tools, if you have some, or developing some that work for you.

This is true, but after a lot of experience with headaches (I had daily headaches while on birth control) I'm sure this isn't due to dehydration or stress, the meds seem to be the most likely cause - I had headaches when first going on the meds (which I'm told is normal), and of course that adds another disadvantage to the meds....if I miss a dose I get very ill.

That sounds very frustrating. I would still ask your doctor if there are other options or what they would try next with you if you feel the headaches are from that medicine. At such a low dose as you are on my drs barely worried about lowering the dose when switching to another and basically just switched me and let me sweat it out (ew, literally). I don't recommend that, or doing it yourself, but do find out what your options are. I thought that whenever I tried anti-depressants they caused me to grind my teeth which gave me terrible headaches.

There are many kinds of antidepressants, too. Often times you have to tinker with the dosage and the drug before you get something that works for you. Some side effects are acceptable if you take the medication for an acute episode, but not long-term. Now that you are out of the immediate crisis, you have some breathing space to think about that kind of thing--whether you want to risk switching, experiment with different dosages or different types. If it bothers you enough, it would in the long run be safer to do the experimenting, because eventually you'd get fed up with the side effects and then you'd be right back where you started.