Starting Prozac/antidepressants during withdrawal, opinions and experiences

Pretext: I’ve taken Prozac and Zoloft in the past and had no issues, had an unpleasant but short C/T w/d from Zoloft in Jan 2020 that lasted a month or more. I’m now 2 months out from Benzos and I’m suffering severe depression, dread and anhedonia.

 

I called my G.P. today and I’m going for an assessment to get me back on them. Ashton manual says it can help.

 

What I’d like to know is, and this isn’t something I’ve seen covered in previous threads, is what happens if you’ve had a paradoxical reaction to benzos? Does this mean I may just have a paradoxical reaction to ADs now? I’m asking benzobuddies as no doubt my doctor won’t know.

 

I just don’t want to ruin the minuscule progress I’ve made by frying my brain further, if you have a paradoxical reaction to one medication, is that you done for good?

 

I don’t know, as I say I’ve been on these drugs before and they helped, was on them during my last major benzo cold turkey already and I think they helped. I understand they take 4-6 weeks to take effect and in the meantime things might not be hunky dory, particularly when already suffering pretty badly.

 

I’ve only really seen one other person on benzo buddies a few years ago who started 40mg of prozac 2 months into Valium w/d like me, within a week and a half their depression had lifted somewhat.

 

 

I really wanted to take Prozac. I started at 1mg and when I increased to 2mg I had rage and restlessness after 2 days. I had to stop. I really like this one though, it increases brain neurosteroids and has some other nice features. I take tianpetine supplements at prescribed doses. I like it but it's weak compared to SSRIs. No side-effects though.

I’ve started 20mg Prozac (Fluoxetine), into my second day, no major issues from that - I had quit smoking 10 days ago and started again last night, so it’s hard to decipher if any negative/bad symptoms are from me picking up smoking again 

No major increase in anxiety or depression so far though, I was concerned my symptoms would rev up tenfold, so far my eye pressure has gotten annoying, but I put that down to having been looking at my phone way too much yesterday and just suffering with eye strain a lot more during withdrawal.

I’m going to stop smoking again and I’ll report back here in a week with how the ADs are doing.

Update: Feeling really anxious today, started soon after taking Prozac, feels like I’m in a wave again now, my eye strain is getting worse too - I don’t think I’ll continue with the Prozac...

Prozac was activating for me even at 2mg. You might try a less activating SSRI. I just started Zoloft at 2.5mg, increasing every 3-7 days by 2.5mg and found it so much less activating.

 

Everyone is different. 20mg is a huge dose to start with. If you wanted to continue, 2-5mg might be a lot less anxiety provoking. Prozac is an interesting one in that it does address serotonin receptors that deal with anxiety (forgive me, I cannot remember the exact details but can look up the paper - HT2C?).

 

That is why I really wanted to love it myself. That said, an SSRI that increases neurosteroids is going to give you better benefits - those are prozac, zoloft, paxil and fluvoxetine. Ones like lexapro and celexa do not have this feature.

Thanks fluffernutter - I didn’t realise 20mg was such a high amount, I think I’ll just leave ADs for now, I’d rather deal with the depression than feel what I’m feeling right now, I was in a bit of a window for a week and now I’ve set myself right back, I’ve been getting progressively worse throughout the day - I’m even experiencing Paresthesia for the first time

 

Regretting this so much, think I’ve just given myself a major setback.

kojack, you are in the early stages, I imagine this is not going to set you back much as you only took it 2 days. I did the same (took it 2 days), and was fine after a couple of days. Hang in there.

Thank you for the encouragement fluffernutter! Peace and love

I want to tell you that I think it's a good thing you felt unwell after starting the AD and it has caused you to decide to stop taking it. I think that the more you go on and off these meds, our nervous system becomes more and more sensitised and after a while that goes past breaking point, perhaps before you know it. It's just my opinion that you are damaged, which means that you are best off avoiding chemicals except what are naturally occurring in unprocessed natural foods. Detoxify. As long as it doesn't get dangerous, you can get through this period because you know that it isn't going to be like this forever. If you are good to yourself, you will repair. It's basically brain damage and that isn't something that can be fixed by a drug. Of course, it is possible they will make your life better than now, but at an unknown cost. I think people do better when they realise that now is the time to do it, even though it is tough. Science says if you do that and focus on your good health i.e. take the best care of yourself that you can, then you will have a better quality of life and live longer.

 

For now just keep going. This is just my opinion. I got hurt by these things and it was so much worse than I could ever admit to myself, because I had to delude myself so I could keep going and just wait for an opportunity to shift the odds more in my favour. I was proven right to be worried about stopping these things, they were wrecking me but to reduce them meant that I couldn't keep things together and I had to rely on family and some of them treated me with hostility because of the drug stigma. Their attitude is that I should not have gotten into this mess, rather than recognising that I got hurt by an antidepressant and it made me do things to stop the pain that I would never have otherwise considered. I know that my consciousness was hijacked and that vulnerability was opened up by pharmaceuticals. I try not to feel sorry for myself but the misunderstanding hurts. I would prefer it if people could understand it how I do.

diaz-e-BAM, you are right in so many ways, and your experience is so valuable.

 

I want to offer an alternate opinion, because I think it's important to approach this with some balance on both sides.

 

First, as a scientist, I am always looking at the pros and cons of any added therapy. There are risks either way, there is no doubt. That said, most drugs are massively overdosed (such as giving 20mg of Prozac when, at 5mg, 70% of receptors are already affected - 20mg increases it only another 10% but adds a whole host of side-effects). In fact, at 1mg of Prozac, there is up to 40% binding. These drugs are insanely powerful.

 

However, there are some therapeutic benefits of some SSRIs that deserve consideration. First, prozac, zoloft, paxil and some others in that family increase brain neurosteroids, allopregnanolone in particular. Allopregnanolone helps to balance GABA, increase BDNF and heal the brain. It does this at a fraction of the doses given (in animals, this is 1/10 to 1/50th of the dose required to bind serotonin receptors). Some researchers postulate that the therapeutic dose is more like 2mg of Prozac.

 

In addition, depending on the level of depression, OCD or other symptoms treatment may be wise. In fact, Dr. Ashton recommends treating severe depression when injured from benzos. For me, I had severe and dangerous depression. I had to try something or end up hospitalized. I finally settled on tianeptine because it has few side-effects. It works ok, and may have some long-term benefits such as calming glutamate and repairing mitochondria. I also tried adding an SSRI (prozac) to increase neurosteroids but was unsuccessful. I am trying again now with very low-dose zoloft at 2.5mg (usual dose is 25 - 200mg). So far, better than Prozac but only day 2.

 

Anyway, just be sure that you do what is right for you. I agree with diaz-e-BAM that it is usually not good to add things, and especially in the doses prescribed. But sometimes it is helpful and for some, it is the thing that helped them heal the most (look at success stories - some say added meds ruined their lives, other say it saved them.)

 

Whatever you decide, we are here to help you make the right decision for you and to support you.

Sure thing, I get what you're saying and it's valuable that you share the information about the best way to go if you decide to choose an antidepressant. I didn't appreciate at the time how big of a difference each mg makes. I don't deny that once on meds (not saying this with any sort of judgement) then it is hard to move quickly to med free. I have gotten myself into some tough situations where I made less than perfect choice, because I couldn't see any good options. So I get it if you came off the benzo and hoped to be doing a little better and now you can't really afford to be sick and dysfunctional for perhaps a while longer so you take something else with knowledge of what might not work well, hoping for the best and dealing with any issues that occur. Sometimes you have to try something, I won't pretend I haven't been there.

diaz-e-BAM, I actually agree that you should avoid most times. Like I said, for me, I was not functioning (this week I have started slowly improving and working more - yay!). However, I was suffering with that and waiting, doing very little intervention other than cannabis to sleep.

 

It wasn't until I had serious feelings of self-harm that my husband insisted that I consider it, and I agreed. He was terrified. So if someone is in a serious situation, it's good to understand the options.

We are saying the same thing just in a slightly different way. Because I agree with you. I think these cases are rare but they exist, and I am glad you are sharing information about rational use which perhaps helps someone to avoid painful and life changing withdrawal symptoms by significantly reducing the risk of severe adverse reactions. I value your perspective, sometimes you see it a different way and that can be helpful. I'm glad if you're coping better than before and believe that you're moving towards healing, eventually. You are in a better position than you have been, you got there despite the difficulties. We're all achieving something by conquering benzos. There are different ways to get there, we all do it slightly differently to each other.

I want to tell you that I think it's a good thing you felt unwell after starting the AD and it has caused you to decide to stop taking it. I think that the more you go on and off these meds, our nervous system becomes more and more sensitised and after a while that goes past breaking point, perhaps before you know it. It's just my opinion that you are damaged, which means that you are best off avoiding chemicals except what are naturally occurring in unprocessed natural foods. Detoxify. As long as it doesn't get dangerous, you can get through this period because you know that it isn't going to be like this forever. If you are good to yourself, you will repair. It's basically brain damage and that isn't something that can be fixed by a drug. Of course, it is possible they will make your life better than now, but at an unknown cost. I think people do better when they realise that now is the time to do it, even though it is tough. Science says if you do that and focus on your good health i.e. take the best care of yourself that you can, then you will have a better quality of life and live longer.

 

For now just keep going. This is just my opinion. I got hurt by these things and it was so much worse than I could ever admit to myself, because I had to delude myself so I could keep going and just wait for an opportunity to shift the odds more in my favour. I was proven right to be worried about stopping these things, they were wrecking me but to reduce them meant that I couldn't keep things together and I had to rely on family and some of them treated me with hostility because of the drug stigma. Their attitude is that I should not have gotten into this mess, rather than recognising that I got hurt by an antidepressant and it made me do things to stop the pain that I would never have otherwise considered. I know that my consciousness was hijacked and that vulnerability was opened up by pharmaceuticals. I try not to feel sorry for myself but the misunderstanding hurts. I would prefer it if people could understand it how I do.

 

Thank you - I do wish I’d realised after one day as opposed to three though, it’s made me feel awful, I’m nauseous, have paresthesia (for the first time yesterday) and my anxiety is the worst it’s ever been - I was debating with myself whether to take it, as I was in an 8 day progressively improving window, but I was worried the severe depression would come back and that I might struggle to make it through another severe depression wave, so I took the plunge.

 

I’m absolutely terrified and upset with myself that I could have just reset my w/d progress, which I can’t really assess until it’s out of my system, of course I had to take the SSRI with one of the longest half lifes

 

diaz-e-BAM, you are right in so many ways, and your experience is so valuable.

 

I want to offer an alternate opinion, because I think it's important to approach this with some balance on both sides.

 

First, as a scientist, I am always looking at the pros and cons of any added therapy. There are risks either way, there is no doubt. That said, most drugs are massively overdosed (such as giving 20mg of Prozac when, at 5mg, 70% of receptors are already affected - 20mg increases it only another 10% but adds a whole host of side-effects). In fact, at 1mg of Prozac, there is up to 40% binding. These drugs are insanely powerful.

 

However, there are some therapeutic benefits of some SSRIs that deserve consideration. First, prozac, zoloft, paxil and some others in that family increase brain neurosteroids, allopregnanolone in particular. Allopregnanolone helps to balance GABA, increase BDNF and heal the brain. It does this at a fraction of the doses given (in animals, this is 1/10 to 1/50th of the dose required to bind serotonin receptors). Some researchers postulate that the therapeutic dose is more like 2mg of Prozac.

 

In addition, depending on the level of depression, OCD or other symptoms treatment may be wise. In fact, Dr. Ashton recommends treating severe depression when injured from benzos. For me, I had severe and dangerous depression. I had to try something or end up hospitalized. I finally settled on tianeptine because it has few side-effects. It works ok, and may have some long-term benefits such as calming glutamate and repairing mitochondria. I also tried adding an SSRI (prozac) to increase neurosteroids but was unsuccessful. I am trying again now with very low-dose zoloft at 2.5mg (usual dose is 25 - 200mg). So far, better than Prozac but only day 2.

 

Anyway, just be sure that you do what is right for you. I agree with diaz-e-BAM that it is usually not good to add things, and especially in the doses prescribed. But sometimes it is helpful and for some, it is the thing that helped them heal the most (look at success stories - some say added meds ruined their lives, other say it saved them.)

 

Whatever you decide, we are here to help you make the right decision for you and to support you.

 

Thank you fluffer nutter - for some reason I always thought 20mg was a really low dose, never bothered to double check this, which of course I now regret. I don’t think I could even attempt to continue on a small amount at the moment, this 20mg over 3 days has thrown such a spanner in the works that I just need it out of my system so I can assess how much of a setback this has caused.

 

I’m not sure if I just need more time to heal or to start on a super low dose, but for now I’m not taking it. I’ve been on the verge of vomiting all day and my sleep has reverted back to 4-5 hours from 6.5 eurgh.

kojack, you should be fine and this wave will pass. Prozac is metabolized slowly, but the good news is that it will be increasing your neurosteroid production, which is incredibly healing.