Tag: side-effects of Fluoxetin

Side Effects of Fluoxetine (Prozac)

diariolottatore1 Comment

If I dig into my older diary pages, I will find my notes about side effects. I will check later. I thought this morning I would check again on the Internet, because I have two clear changes that I feel to attribute to taking Fluoxetine. I am sort of doing a self diagnosis, based on the fact that I have taken two long repetitions of Fluoxetin, and I notice the same pattern. Nothing major, but to be monitored.

The first time I took Fluoxetin was December 2019 until June 2020, the second time was December 2020 until now (April 2021). in 2019 I starting reducing from June to September, taking 10mg instead of 20mg, then I stopped in September and October, but by November I was feeling depressed again, and I started again December until now. I still take the same dosage, 20mg. In both cases I had no Fluoxetin in the gloomier months of the year for me: October-December, and I had to wait until end of Jan in order to start feeling better. I confirm that it takes 4 to 6 weeks for Fluoxetin (Prozac) to kick in. So, in both cases, I have the same pattern developing: 1. once my mood stabilises and I feel happier, I start dreaming very vividly; 2. I become more cocky, blunt, sometime verbally aggressive in my reactions. As if the social mask that inhibits our very being from expressing itself was taken off.

These are not amongst the common side effects of Fluoxetine. If I look at the NHS in the UK, the side effects that happen in more than 1 in 100 people are:

  • nausea, headaches, being unable to sleep, diarrhoea, feeling tired or weak.

    • I am far from that, I actually sleep like a baby. And I have these vivid dreams, they feel so real that I wake un in the morning remembering them as they really happened. Last night I dreamt something that has been recurring to me: I was missing the plane, and I felt this anxiety and breathlessness because I was stressed, I had to take that plane, and nobody around (my family) was helping me getting there in time. My father, who usually likes to get to airports 2 hours in advance, was telling me to not go until an hour from the flight time, but this was not going to help, as we were on the other side of London (why London I dont know…). I had this dreams in different sauces several times. It is not a happy dream, but it is not a depressive one either. It kind of gives me adrenaline.

    The other thing is feeling cocky. The only common point I can interpret from the NHS list of serious side effects (happens less than 1 in 100 people) is this

    1. headaches, trouble focusing, memory problems, not thinking clearly, weakness, seizures, or losing your balance – these can be signs of low sodium levels

    2. thoughts about harming yourself or ending your life

    3. fits, feelings of euphoria, excessive enthusiasm or excitement, or a feeling of restlessness that means you can’t sit or stand still

    4. vomiting blood or dark vomit, coughing up blood, blood in your pee, black or red poo – these can be signs of bleeding from the gut

    5. bleeding from the gums or bruises that appear without a reason or that get bigger

    NHS article on Fluoxetine

    I feel number 3 is close to what I feel. During the day, when working or doing my own personal projects, I feel I am regaining confidence, and strength, and I tend to cast away everything that threatens that confidence. I don’t feel inhibitors in telling people what I think, and I feel good in what I am doing. Work is going better, I started (yes, finally!) my podcast, it feels good.

    But I need to be careful not to exaggerate. I live in Switzerland, not in Italy, and the direct way of confronting people is not appreciated. I even thought of telling my CEO that he was wrong in doing what he did to one of my clients. But he is the boss, I have no right to tell him what I think, right? And he is not the kind of person who will easily accept a critic. So I need to be careful to not ruin my own happiness by saying too outloud, or being too enthusiastic (euphoric sometimes yes).

    All in all, I am doing well, I feel that the medicine is helping me. Unlike I read in another article, I don’t think it is like a placebo. But I need to prepare my own internal medicine, my own mental weapons to fight depression if it comes back after I am out of Fluoxetine. When will I stop Fluoxetine? I don’t know yet. I am scared of the gloomy depressive winter. I will check with my Congolese psychiatrist.

    Side effects of Fluoxetin

    diariolottatore1 Comment

    The first few weeks, after the effect of Fluoxetin started to stabilise, I noticed that I remembered my dreams after every single night. I remember dreaming all along my previous years, sometimes I recollect very clearly what happened in the dream, sometimes not. Dreams have always been part of my life. But this is a very vivid experience. For about 3-4 weeks, when I was into my 5-6th weeks of taking the pills, I could notice clearly that whatever I had thought during the day, I would dream it at night. Did I think of my parents on day x? I would dream of them on night x. Did I picture a particular memory of my ex boyfriend on day y? I would dream it on night y. The dream was a distorted version of reality, but still very very vivid. That, for me, is the only side effect I can report of Fluoxetin. I don’t know how these medicaments work, but I figure all antidepressants must give a similar reaction. I would love to know if you have had a similar experience.

    One particular thing about this dreaming pattern: I had come to a point, up until a month ago, that I could determine during the day what I was going to dream at night. That was powerful, and awesome! I remember talking to a young friend of mine, whom I am very fond of (as a friend purely) and whom I find very handsome (sweet, good body, young); we chatted on the phone talking about our lives, and catching up (he left Switzerland for a couple of years); I have no particular feelings for this young man, except for some physical attraction maybe; at night I ended up dreaming of him and me in an intimate situation; it felt really good, real and vivid. Haha! I had fund that night. When I woke up, I had a good memory of the dream, and till today (about 45 days later) I think of it smiling. I don’t think I’ll tell JC about the dream. I don’t want our friendship to be jeopardized. I prefer to keep him as a friend for a very very long time. Physical attraction, in my experience, ruins friendships. But that’s tropic for another day.

    Going back to dreams and side-effects of antidepressants, I haven’t been able to sustain this dreaming habit for long. I think it lasted a month or a bit longer. Interesting. What happens now is that dreams still occur, and I still remember more than in the past, and day previous hours before the sleep still affect greatly the content of my dreams, but I don’t seem to have a grip on it. Dream just comes. This morning while meditating, I was thinking about the dream I had last night. I dreamt of going to W.’s wedding to his present girlfriend (who is W? Long story), he invited me. I went with my best friend M., we went with a VW, where I had put a change of clothes to get dressed, cause I was still in my PJ while driving to the venue. W. didn’t look like him, he rather looked like another guy I fancied in the past; his fiancée was not his actual fiancée, but my ex work colleague from the previous firm. When finishing up the meditation (as I was trying not to think…) I reviewed the dream in my mind, and realised that all elements of the dream had been in my mind in the previous 12h hours: W. looked like I guy I had just happened to think about a few hours back; my neighbor friend, whom I see every day for half hout in the public garden during isolation time, told me about our common ex-work colleague and her gift to her little daughter; the clothes were to change my PJ, which is what I have been wearing for the past 5 weeks in isolation (for Zoom or Whatsapp work calls all I need is to look decent from the waist up :-)). And voilà le cake is ready. Many ingredients (WV: not sure why it was in the dream). All make sense. Wow, it’s really great to follow this process as the studying subject and object of this phenomenon called healing from depression.

    As for any other side effects of Fluoxetin, the only other thing I can remember is feeling stomach pains the first few weeks; the medicine was hard on my stomach, even if I was taking it after breakfast. And the heart beat growing faster a few hours after taking it. These effects have passed after 2-3-4 weeks. Sometimes I feel so good actually, that I need to calm down, to not explode of happiness. I want to preserve my emotions and be ready for when I stop the medicines. No intention of stopping as of yet. I am thinking another few months. I’ll for sure wait that Covid isolation is over.