Posted by Racer on May 19, 2000, at 22:30:24
In reply to Prozac - any experience/info you can share?, posted by Greg on May 19, 2000, at 22:02:39
I heard those stories too. I love my Prozac, you can't take it away from me!!!
OK, now for some actual experience, rather than the "Hey, works for me..." genera...
I've taken Prozac twice. The first time, I wasn't on it for a long enough time, because I was uninsured and trying to pay full retail price for it -- at a time I was living with a terrible man who didn't see any reason for me to spend any money on it when it was only my bad character that it was supposed to help. I think it was starting to work, or would have been if I'd had some support at home.
The second time was about a year ago. At the time, I'd had a terrible depression, a worse experience with Serzone and with the doctor who prescribed it, and then started Effexor XR. The Effexor XR worked on the anxiety, did away with the active despair, but left the lethargic depression. The next doctor was willing to listen to me, as I told her that I was usually responsive to SSRIs, but only at very high doses and that I had a lot of side effects. As an experiment, we tried adding Prozac to the Effexor. Yippee! It worked. The depression lifted almost immediately, but the dosages were low enough to avoid side effects.
As a result, I'm healthy and happy. I hope you have a similar result.
Now for some theorizing:
First of all, since Prozac does do away with the inhibitions of depression pretty quickly, it's been suggested that suicidal thoughts/actions may be linked to someone feeling better enough to act on the feelings they've had for a while. (Damn, not very articulate tonight, am I?) Another thought from my own little brain: ever met one of those people who insist that they can't do anything about depression, because nothing has worked, will ever work, against it? "Nothing at all works for me, so why waste my time trying? I'm destined to be this miserable forever." You know the sort of thing I mean, right? I think a lot of those types blame the drug, rather than admitting it could be a case of it not being the right drug for them. Someone who finds comfort in the disfunction might not want to move on from it, and might use the drug as an excuse. Since one aspect of depression is not expressing anger, maybe the drug is working and allows the anger to be expressed, leaving the person scared by having to admit the anger was always there?
Those are just some random musings. They're probably meaningless, but they're offered for what they're worth. This is worth more, I hope: My best wishes to you that you find relief with Prozac, as I have, or with another drug. Live well, and don't give up hope.
poster:Racer
thread:34071
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000517/msgs/34074.html