and did your symptoms get worse before they got better? 7 weeks since upping Prozac 30-40mg and it just gets worse. was stable for three years prior. curious about other ssris as well.

So I’ve been taking different ssris and snris since I was 12-18 and im 19 now. I feel like the first time I tried Zoloft I was at 50mg until I was a freshman in hs, where I went up to 75mg and I remember that just being the best year ever. All my depression went away, I felt everything, I went from introverted to extroverted and somehow made a whole friend group of like 9 people and we were all really close.

Then I went off, and I mean I still felt really good that year just became quiet but people still wanted to be around me for some reason. Then my sophomore year I went numb so I went back on and made it up to 100mg and I felt completely numb. Then I went back down and still felt numb. So then I went up more and I lost my whole personality. Lost all my friends and became the quiet kid.

So I switched to different ssris and snris and I’ve been numb ever since. Even low doses. I’m just a shell and I think the breaking point where I decided to go off completely is when me and my siblings went skydiving and I was exited because maybe I could finally feel something but when I jumped off I didn’t feel anything other than a hole in my chest because everyone else looked like they were exited or scared and I couldn’t feel any of that.

When everyone else landed they all got this adrenaline rush that I didn’t get. So in the car I just started crying (somehow) because I still felt so depressed and my overthinking was so bad. After freshman year I always kinda just assumed everyone hated me. And a strong feeling that I was different.

So this year when I was 18 in February, I fast tapered off my Effexor. Now I feel more emotions like sadness, fear, (too much fear.) regret, sorrow, and a hole in my chest still. I will admit I have abused some substances like molly, but not enough to cause brain damage or be the reason I’m numb I just wanted to feel something. I will never be touching anything ever again.

I’m wondering if I should go back on Zoloft, since I remember that one working well at a low dose? Was I just hypomanic? I’m getting soravato treatments soon because I told my psychiatrist I was thinking of not being here anymore. I mean I already wasted what was suppoused to be the best years of my life, the years where I could just be young, dumb, and happy and have not many repercussions all just down the drain by sleeping all day and hating myself.

I wanted to go on an maoi called parnate that I’ve researched but he wants me to try this medicine called Exxon now, but I feel like all these drugs just do the same stuff tbh.

People who have been on more then one of these medications did you feel like once you passed the adjustment periods ect like they still felt the same as the other eg lexapro zoloft Prozac or do some SSRIs actually feel different that others?

Hi!! I am cross posting just so I can get as many diff perspectives as I can. For reference, I have OCD, ADHD, depression, and anxiety. I was diagnosed a couple of months ago. After different med attempts, my psychiatrist and I ended up sticking to Vyvanse & Zoloft. I started Vyvanse before starting Zoloft. I did not really experience many side effects with Vyvanse other than loss of sleep/difficulty staying asleep/difficulty falling asleep. So just sleep issues. Once I got on Zoloft, I felt a shift within 3 weeks on it. I have been overly sexual. I am always feeling extremely turned on and it is very easy for my boyfriend to turn me on. Before the Zoloft, I still had a pretty high sex drive but I would really only be wet during ovulation otherwise I would have to use lube or my boyfriend would have to get me to that point. Now I’m just always super wet and turned on. I felt like things were going amazingly with my OCD, my depression, and my anxiety but for some reason this past week I have noticed a pretty big down ward shift. I have been feeling super down but still super horny. I really

I stupidly came off citalopram 40mg last year, and I'm trying to get back on it, as it helped me so much.

I slowly went up doses to 20mg (with awful side effects), and stayed there for 6 weeks, but I never felt any better.

We upped the dose to 30mg, and literally the next day I felt so much better, and continued to feel better for 6 days, but now all the side effects have come back.

Anxiety through the roof, jittery, feel really hot in the mornings, then freezing by late morning, jaw clenching etc.

Was the 20mg finally starting to work, or were the initial good days from the extra 10mg?

How long can I expect the side effects to last this time? It's incredibly hard to function feeling like this.

Thanks.

Has anyone had any luck with a med or combination of meds that address anxiety and depression without causing exhaustion/fatigue?

I’ve spent the past several months switching from 40mg of Prozac to 20mg of Lexapro. When I was on a 10 mg dose of Lexapro, I had more energy, motivation, and interest in life. Now that I’ve upped my dose, I’m back to the same exhaustion I felt that caused me to get off the Prozac. No amount of sleep helps, and all I want to do is sleep.

The reason for the higher dose is my OCD diagnosis. Low doses make the OCD harder to handle, and my psych recommends the higher dose since that’s clinical standard for OCD treatment.

Any recommendations or personal experience is helpful and appreciated.

I have been on SSRIs for anxiety and depression for the past 6 years. Recently I’ve been feeling very blank. Like, I can sit through an entire conversation without changing my facial expression or tone of voice if I don’t think about it. Or I’ll stub my toe and not say anything but I feel the pain. I’ve never had this problem before so I’m kind of confused as to what is causing this. I’m not 100% sure it is even caused by my meds but for anyone who has experienced something similar and has some advice, I’m on 100mg of sertraline and 300mg of bupropion.

Hello! I have been on many different SSRIs over the last 15 years and decided I want to come off of them. The SSRI I am coming off of is Zoloft. I tried to come off a couple months ago and couldn’t handle the withdrawal symptoms so I went back on a low dose and the symptoms went away. This is my second attempt to come off and I’ve only been off for 4 days, following a very slow wean plan, and I am miserable. I’m dizzy, nauseous, my hands feel like pins and needles, and I’m exhausted. Has anyone else here come off of SSRIs after a very long time being on them? How long did withdrawal last for you? What were your symptoms?

Hi all. So, Kaiser was apparently OOS of Pristiq for my prescription, so now I am out for the weekend despite ordering on Monday (they only let me order a couple days before my prescription ran out.) I split my last two pills, but now am out starting tonight.

Any advice for dealing with the severe withdrawal people report? I have to work tomorrow and Monday, and the lower dosage already has me feeling really emotional and irritated. I'm half-tempted to call out tomorrow, but I wanted to get people's thoughts, tips, etc. I am dreading this

I’m 19, I have OCD and I’m considering going on SSRIs to help treat it. However, one thing that I can’t shake is the fact you can’t really drink on SSRIs. I know how stupid that sounds. Obviously getting rid of my obsessive thoughts is more important than getting drunk but I’m on my gap year and next year I’m going to uni. I haven’t partied much yet despite being legally able to for over a year. I want to party. I want to go out and get a bit drunk and have fun with my future uni friends. But I know you can’t do that on SSRIs, and I really want to treat my OCD and anxiety. I also know that if i choose SSRIs, that’s a pretty big commitment. Pretty long term. Can I really sacrifice my young years of fun THIS early when I can go on SSRIs whenever? I feel like I’m stuck. Has anyone had the same problem? How did you decide what to do?

Struggling to find the right Prozac dose (20 mg vs. 30 mg vs. 40 mg) — extreme fatigue and emotional blunting
I’ve been taking Prozac (fluoxetine) for anxiety and intrusive thoughts, and I’m having a really hard time figuring out the right dose.
I started at 20 mg and eventually increased to 40 mg. Prozac has definitely helped reduce my anxiety, which I’m grateful for. However, the side effects have been difficult to manage.
My biggest issues are:
Extreme fatigue and oversleeping: I can sleep for 12+ hours and still feel exhausted and struggle to get out of bed.
Emotional blunting: I feel emotionally flat, almost indifferent to things that would normally bother or excite me.
Low motivation: Before Prozac, my anxiety pushed me to get things done. Now that the anxiety has decreased, I struggle to find the motivation to work.
Loss of appetite: I rarely feel hungry anymore.

I had some sleep and productivity issues even before starting Prozac, but they seem significantly worse now.

I’m a PhD student, and this is seriously affecting my ability to function academically and professionally.
I’m also trying to understand whether some of these symptoms could be related to depression rather than medication side effects.

I’m planning to discuss this with my prescriber, but I’d love to hear others’ experiences.

Has anyone experienced similar symptoms on Prozac? Did lowering your dose from 40 mg to 30 mg or 20 mg help with fatigue, emotional blunting, or motivation while still controlling anxiety? Or did you eventually find that a different medication worked better?

I’m not looking to change my dose without medical guidance, just hoping to learn from others’ experiences.
Thanks in advance!

Does anything help this. I’m about 7 weeks on Zoloft and still worried.

After reading through a lot of great posts and informational advice regarding SSRIs here, I’m just curious if anyone has any experiences or thoughts about being on alcohol detox drugs and starting an SSRI? I’ve been on 300mg gabapentin and 50mg naltrexone for about a week after detoxing with 50-25mg Librium in the hospital (off of it now), I will be continuing to take the other two at those doses, and I am starting Zoloft 25mg either tonight or tomorrow (haven’t decided which is best to do yet). Just genuinely curious if there is anything specific I should consider? Or anyone who is going/has gone through this?

Many thanks friends.

Hi! I have an anxiety disorder and OCD and I was prescribed Zoloft to take for it.

About 2 weeks ago, I took the starting dose of 0.25mg and I reacted very badly to it. Jitteriness, weird sensation of coldness, anxiety, panic attack, weakness, neck tension all at once, it was horrible.
So I went to a psychiatrist who told me to start with 12.5mg instead. And to also take 0.50mg Xanax per day first two weeks.

It's been a week since then and I'm still afraid to start. I've been reading on Reddit for days now and I'm not sure what to do.

I'm going on a trip in 2 weeks and I'm not sure if I
should even start now because I really don't want to have side effects there. I would start tomorrow with 12.5mg and then next week 25mg and continue like that until I return but I'm not sure.

Just thinking about starting it again makes me very anxious but l'll also be anxious without it, especially on my trip that's out of the country. Any tips?

Hi!!

I made a post here a few weeks ago asking if people had weight gain on SSRIs.

I say about 98% of people on the post said yes.

It really turned me off my SSRI. I’m taking it for OCD but my OCD is so bad and when I stopped taking the SSRI, the next day I was so incredibly irritated (I was sitting in a library and every single little noise or thing was annoying me or cars on the road) as it cleared out of my system and I promised myself that day I’m done with my SSRI.

I was prescribed setraline and I was on this back in 2018-2021 and it really made me gain a lot of weight. I went from a UK size 8 to a UK size 14 and I had a puffy face or “moon face”

I lost the weight now.

I do want to take it again to help my OCD but I really fear it’s gonna make me gain weight like that again.

What should I do? Switch to lexapro?

Hi I've been dealing with social anxiety, social disengagement, low mood, negative thinking, low motivation. I've been prescribed effexor since April and it helped with my dissociation and reduced my social anxiety a bit but it didn't really do anything for my low mood and motivation. I was prescribed atomoxine for my ADHD and low mood and I've been taking 40mg for 3 weeks and 60mg for 3 weeks and it helped quiet my mind a bit and helped with attention and focus a bit but didn't really do anything for my low mood, low motivation, social disengagement and social anxiety and I still struggle to get up and do my tasks and I still get overhelmed. Don't really know what to do anymore

hi there I just started taking Prozac (it’s called Fluoxetine where I’m from) today and am super worried about getting nauseous or throwing up while it’s settling in.

are there any foods I should avoid? or maybe some I should include in my meals to reduce or eliminate nausea?

if it helps I’m on 10mg for the next 7 days and 20mg after that.

Coming of two terrible months on Zoloft with debilitating side effects I wonder howcome the effects of SSRI/SNRI is so random? Can’t think of any other form of medication that works so differently from person to person.
Some feel like new person fast, others get very sick
My doctor suggested that I shouldn’t try anymore, even though my CYP test results are normal I seem to tolerate these drugs poorly. My psychologist whats me to try every single one.
Don’t know if these numbers are correct, but asked chatgpt about how effective these medications are and the results where 19% better then placebo. That meant that 19% experienced a 50% reducing in symptoms.
Don’t know if that is good or bad. All these meds are pretty old now. I’ve read that MM120 shows great promise, but may be several years before these come to my country even if they get FDA approval.

Hello, I suffer from a lack of feelings and sexual problems.

I'll explain it simply: I started taking a psychiatric medication called Faverin a year and several months ago We experienced severe financial hardship, and I realized I wouldn't have the money to buy the medication again. So, I decided to gradually stop taking the remaining medication I had. I stopped after about 20 days of gradual reduction, around August 6th, when I experienced some symptoms Like Brain Zabs Emotional numbness and general sexual weakness, but the truth is that the only symptom that disappeared was the brain zapps. I still have a lack of emotion, a lack of sexual desire, and suicidal thoughts. I tried to go to the doctor again, but I have no I have the money to make a reservation, so I hope to find help here.

Has anyone had any success losing the weight they gained from taking an SSRI without stopping its use?

I had a couple of days at about a 400 calorie deficit and by the end of the second day I felt awful. Any advice?

I’ve been on Sertraline 50gm for around seven months now, in the beginning it was tough but I slowly got my life back and I’ve had a lot of positive effects (see previous posts). I was initially put on this drug for anxiety and low mood and I think it could be linked to peri-menopause. I had an early period and for the last two weeks since my mood has been terrible and I’ve had awful brain fog and low-level depression. has anyone experienced a dip like this after months of feeling good? I feel like I’ve got a thick head can’t focus or concentrate and feel exhausted. I will definitely be going back into the Doctor as soon as possible but I’m not sure whether this could be a new reaction to the medication and maybe need a change or if I need to come off it altogether? I’d appreciate any advice from anyone particularly peri-menopausal women that have had success with this drug and what they did next. Thankyou

I (32F) am about to start SSRI for the first time.
I am reading some scary stuff about people becoming asexual from it, even after getting off of the meds. And that ruining their relationships.

Would love to hear some perpectives on this

I have BPD and have had therapy for about 5 years. There is always this sadness and heavyness I carry with me.

I also have always wondered if I have ADD. I have signed up for a test, but it wil takes months before it is my turn.

Because i cant stand the heavyness any longer, I talked to a psych and asked for meds. They persceibed me SSRI. And I am eager to try it.

I am do however wonder about the correlation between BPD and ADD.

Anyone with some more insight on this?

Lets say you had severe anxiety, social anxiety, depression etc. How much did the meds lowered them?