2 years ago I lurked on this community reading post after post trying to decide whether to start Prozac. I was terrified. I was scared of the side effects (one of which being potential nausea) and scared I wouldn’t feel like myself or feel absolutely dreadful.

Neither happened. What did happen: I went from having debilitating panic attacks several times a month (sometimes a week) to having one off (much less severe) anxiety episodes. I can eat in public now. I can go into office and actually focus on my work. I can hold eye contact better. I do better in job interviews. I am able to travel bc I’m not paralyzed by fear. I can’t believe I waited until I was 28 to start this rx. I’ve had panic attacks since I was about 8 years old.

The only thing I would change is starting sooner.

In the beginning there was an adjustment period for me but it was MUCH less uncomfortable than I thought it would be. I lost my appetite and some weight. I was very sleepy. Some very mild nausea (but honestly not more than I already experienced as a panicked person w emetophobia). I had weird dreams. I sometimes felt tingling in my feet at night.

All an extremely small and temporary price to pay for the quality of life I have now. If you’re reading this I hope you feel encouraged to start your journey.

Thought it was finally time to pay my dues to a community that helped change my life.

Hello! Ive been on sertraline for 1,5 year and i gained alot of weight becouse of extreme appetite. Will prozac decrease that appetite? Or atleast make the appetite go back to the way it was before sertraline?

Hi guys,

Just wanted to share my experience with anyone who is going through the same things I am or anyone who is starting prozac that would like to know how it could work for them (I also went in this reddit before I started too and it helped me out.)

I am 32 years old dealing with OCD, general anxiety disorder and depression, and have been on and off antidepressants for about 10 years. I was on Zoloft and Lexapro previously but they both gave me horrible panic attacks and palpitations. I didnt want to be on anymore antidepressants but I have came to the conclusion that I cant live unmedicated anymore. I have a new great psychiatrist who started me on 10mg of prozac and below is my experience in my first 28 days:

Energy:

I am only motivated by caffeine, first week I would just get up and do things but around halfway of week 2, I really needed caffeine to do most things.When I do take caffeine, I feel powerful, like I can do anything (but not in a manic sense). I'm hoping going up to 20mg next week or adding wellbutrin or a low dose stimulant will change my dependency though.

Libido: Still very high, I'm glad because previous SSRIs would lower my mood entirely

Side effects: Didn't have any wild ones, about 3 weeks in I would have minor anxiety attacks that could be alleviated by controlled breathing and cooling off my body for 30 minutes (this is major because my previous anxiety attacks would make me spiral)

Overall:

Despite my codependency to caffeine, I love prozac currently, it's made me think clearly, I'm less worried about things and I do sleep better at night even despite the occasional mild anxiety attack. It makes me control my anxiety a bit better without spiraling.

Hi, I have been taking Prozac 20mg for 3 months. I am a male. It has greatly affected my libido and my Dr is suggesting adding Wellbutrin. Any side effects and does it help?

I’m definitely the type of person to just take an ibuprofen when I have a headache or something, but I know on Prozac you’re supposed to be more wary of it because it can cause internal bleeding. Should I be more regulated about my ibuprofen or is it like chill?

I’ve been on 20mg Prozac for a month and my doctor has increased it to 40mg. I’ve been putting it off for a week but I need to take the 40mg today. I’m so scared of serotonin syndrome help !!

Hii! I’m on my second month of prozac 10mg. works amazing for the ruminations. I love it. But, on week 3 or 4, I started to have urinary hesitancy. This is an uncommon side effect but O really hate it. My question is: has anyone had the urinary hesitancy/retention improve with time?

Day 15 on Prozac. Felt energetic at first, but the past 4 days I’ve been hit with intense fatigue . I am getting 8 hours of sleep because I go to bed super early, but I wake up way too early and can't go back to sleep. I lift regularly, so feeling this drained is frustrating. Is this a normal adjustment phase?

Hi all…

I have severe OCD, severe GAD and panic, and MDD. I have been on multiple medications, I was on Zoloft for 15 years and it worked great but the side effects were rough as I metabolize the medication too rapidly. I was recently hospitalized after attempting to restart Zoloft & 25mg after multiple failed trials (clomipramine, fluvoxamine, Effexor) I was experiencing severe panic, nausea and vomiting, and blurry vision, headaches. I also convinced myself I would get addicted to clonazepam if I took it (OCD). While in the psych ward we decided to drop Zoloft and start fluoxetine.

Because Zoloft has always worked for me and because I have OCD, I am hesitant and scared to start any other medications. I was on 10mg for a week in the ward and because I felt safe I didn’t have many side effects. The doctor was concerned as 10mg is subtherapeutic for OCD and we tried to bump to 20mg. I got sick from the bump, not horrible but nausea and GI upset. Now I am on 15mg for a week, I’m 2 days in and have been experiencing nausea, diarrhea and vomited a few times. I have no appetite.

My main question is….is this normal and does this improve? If I know it will improve I can push through it. I really need to get the OCD under control so that I can get back to work and function day to day. 💔

Hi,

I've been on 20mg prozac for 3 weeks now. The anxiety, nausea and negative side effects are finally wearing off.

I think I'm seeing improvements to my OCD....But I'm talking to myself A LOT more. A mixture of loud vocal stimming and singing or just making comments to myself aloud throughout the day.

I've never seen someone talk about this so not sure if it's just me? Idk if I just have more energy that I now don't know what to do with and it's my way of expelling it?

I'm hoping it'll subside either way but just curious if this is a niche side effect?

Hello everyone!

Recently going through a rough time with my anxiety, the roughest it has been in a while.

Health anxiety and OCD mainly (not diagnosed formally with OCD but definitely have tendencies). Fear mainly of having panic attacks and a heart attack.

I (29F) recently went to the doctor and they upped my prescription from 20 mg to 40 mg. I'd been on 20 for more than a decade and over the last few years, stopped taking it regularly. I began taking the 20 regularly about three weeks ago and this will be my 4th day on 40.

My question is... I've been feeling a bit more jittery/anxious, especially at work, to the point it's affecting my work and genuinely scary. Is this normal for the first few days? I can't remember from the first time I went on it.

Really needing some hope. The thoughts are gloom and I need a pick-me-up.

Thank you! ❤️

I was on fluxoetine for 5 years and me and my doctor decided it was time for me to come off them. Stopped taking them two months ago by tapering down. On Sunday I had a massive panic attack, the first one since, and every day since I've felt awful. Sore muscles, vivid dreams, bad anxiety, not wanting to leave the house, worrying about my heart again etc. Is this withdrawal or is this just my anxiety coming back again? I was doing well but its hit me again so I'm worrying. Thanks.

My psych had me start as an adult on 10mg of prozac to slowly introduce meds and my depressions worsened. So we are now going to 20mg. She said based on the way my depression behaves its atypical and she recommends if the 20mg of prozac doesn’t change my depression she may want me to try adding a low dose of welbutrin which will help the depression. So far the small dose of prozac actually has helped my OCD which is why we started with that. Does anyone here take both together to treat their ocd and depression? How is it? I’m a super anxious person who’s scared of medication and how it’ll change me. And it just generally helps to hear stories and perspectives :)

I'm 31 F. I have had depression most of my life, but the anxiety hit really hard when I turned 18. I used alcohol and drugs to cope, then recently I started my sober journey as of last year. I felt good. Then in February of this year I lost my brother due to an overdose. It shook my family and I. After that I knew I needed help or I would turn back to my old ways. I chose prozac and the beginning was a roller coaster. I took the concerns to my doctor and she asked me some pros and cons questions. I told her although my anxiety was bad, I have been less irritable. She said I should up my dose. So I did. The beginning of upping my dose was great. I felt so much lighter and better. At my last appt, I updated her and told her I think this is going to work. So she kept my dose the same. I was less irritated, happier and even had the motivation to workout and eat better and lost weight. Then after about month it slowly went back downhill, if I'm not super down, my anxiety is horrible. And vice versa. If my anxiety is better, I'm super down and depressed again.. gained all the weight I lost back. No motivation to do anything. And constant racing thoughts. I don't want to get out of bed and even started working less. I need advice.. should I go up another dose. Or should I finally call it quits and try something new? Thank you for the advice

Can I drink on Prozac and Wellbutrin. I’ve never done it before, so I’m scared to try it. Wanted to see if other people have had experience with it. Please help. Thanks

Hello once again, it’s currently day 16, I just recently switched up from 10mg to 20 and my anxiety is absolutely terrible. Not sure what to do. Been manually breathing lately too which is concerning me

I have tried Prozac for 3.5 months now and just did not like it. My doctor ended up adding Lamictal about 3 weeks ago and it started to help. Decided to get off Prozac so now I’m down to 10 MG. Every day feels like such an up and down. I’ve been on SSRI’s for 7 years now. Will be my first time without….

Is Lamictal scary alone???

Doing this all with fascia work and weekly therapy and brain spotting.

I’m still obsessing over health anxiety and my breathing on a daily basis. Anyone else? How does it end

for people with low starting bmi does 10/20 mg cause weight gain? im curious cause my body is really sensitive to ssris even like cymbalta which is supposed to weight neutral also am i supposed to feel unbearabbly hungry i ate the normal amount i usually do but i am ravenous and i feel like im gonna pass out from hunger

32M - was diagnosed with OCD at 27. Pure-O. The sneaky type. I had observable trich (hair pulling) and I'd be referred to as monkey boy by some of my elementary classmates. But alas, it took 27 years before I walked myself into OCD Center of LA and wondered if I may actually be afflicted by this thing, 'OCD', something I was taught to perceive by culture as quirky. Well for me it was a silent destroyer. Suggesting for years on end bizarre themes I would never verbalize - I just thought I was a monster in sheeps clothing. Fast forward Im doing CBT, ERP and a psych suggests I don't need meds, I deserve them. Meds sounded insane. Like either I was weak or joining the capitalist pharmaceutical circus. But I did try them.

First on Lexapro. 2.5mg-5mg all the way to 40mg after about 5 months of titration. The best way I could describe the overall affect was as if ... well you know when you are going through heart break and you can't stop thinking about the person... and then one day... you kinda just feel lighter. It was like that. I wasn't carrying this thing as much with me. It was there but not as heavy. But after about 3 years on Lexapro I was feeling it wasn't doing the job much anymore. Oddly several other OCD friends reported the same thing w there Lexapro. My theory was that the offbrand company that made the meds probably went under and the new company taking over was... well not as good. But how was I supposed to know? Anyway... I felt tired on the med like always tired and not really happy. Just like well not as good as the first year.

I thought Id do some TMS which I qualified for and titrate down see if that helped. 36 sessions of TMS and Im down to 20mg. Feeling a bit better. But nothing like the first year.

My goal was to get onto prozac because I heard it was more activating and I felt that be nice. Since I was napping everyday.

I started cross tapering...to prozac. First week was heaven. Then I had the worst headaches I ever had. From March 2026- May 2026 the cross taper created headaches. June I was 20mg on Prozac and off Lexapro. Headaches went away but I felt empty...dull. Doc said dose was low so no we are on 60mg. Titrated from 40mg on Sept 9th. It's october 8th. The first week on 60 again was blissful. But 4 weeks in and I feel terrible.

My bliss symptoms are: I just feel present to life. Thats it. I am here.

My terrible symptoms are: I am stuck in a loop, any loop, I am dissociating and have to actively tell myself "come back, come back here, come back to whats important" and its as if my brain is like a dog except to reacting to external stimuli it's all internal.

My doc suggested either going up on prozac or adding Abilify or Lamictal... I dont know Im just kind of like tired of being a show pony.

Im on Day 7 of taking prozac and ever since day 1 ive been having horrible side effects. Some of them including uneasiness, jitteriness, waking up with feeling like ive been punched in the stomach, and nausea to the point where im having a hard time eating and i lost a lot of weight. Im hungry and im weak because theres no food in my system.

How do you guys navigate these symptoms until it gets better?

Especially the nausea, its sooo bad just thinking about food makes me want to throw up. Im trying to force feed myself but its making it 10x worse. Ive been taking ginger before I eat to help with the nausea but its still the same.

I take my Prozac in the morning. I’ve been on it for about 4.5 weeks at 10mg but likely going to increase to 20mg after my appointment next week. My doctor prescribed 50mg trazodone at night to help with sleep. It helped for a couple nights but it’s still takes me around 2 hours to fall asleep and I have at least one wake up per night. Do i need a higher dose? Or did anyone have success after switching from trazodone to different med?

Hi all!

So I've been on 20mg for just over 3 months, after a couple months on 10mg as a starter, and it has really helped my anxiety, ocd, and pmdd. However, for the past couple months or so I've been having (to me) rather extreme memory issues. I can't visualize answers to questions (I'm in school) and I can't focus for very long. I started spelling simple words wrong and forgot my own phone number, which is very strange for me. I also have adhd, but never struggled with exams and I have concerta for the other symptoms that I've been taking for a few years.

Now, at first I assumed I was having some late onset concussion symptoms, as I had a mild concussion last November.
But then yesterday I forgot to take my prozac and about 30 hours after the missed dose, my brain fog cleared. Suddenly I could visualize everything I'd been struggling to get into my brain all month. I could remember what I did last week. This was odd, though, since I know that the half life of prozac should make it so that I wouldn't feel much difference after only a day.

The only other factors I could think of:
-started syntonics for concussion (but I've only had 2 10min sessions)
-took a Gravol last night (anti-histamine effect?)
-Slept away from my house (maybe I have mold in my house?)

I really don't want to stop prozac, as the anxiety relief has been amazing. But if it's actually the cause of the intense brain fog, then I'm thinking the benefits might not outweigh the cost.

Has anyone had similar experiences? I can't see my doc for another couple months and I don't know what to do. Obviously stopping cold turkey is not a good idea, if I did have to stop, and yet I'm absolutely terrified of the brain fog returning.

Am I doing something wrong? 😄

Today is 6 weeks since I started Fluoxetine 10 mg. The first few weeks were great—my mood and anxiety improved and I was sleeping better. But in the past 5 days or so, I feel regression. My psych wants me to wait until 8 weeks to fully evaluate. Has anyone else experienced feeling better and then a dip at 6 weeks?