Prozac outgoing | | Needy Rehabilitated Cat Drop-in Visits during Travel

I’m pretty sure this is a “good” problem, but it’s starting to worry me all the same. I adopted a cat who I used to pet sit for, taking him out of a very stressful situation where he was so anxious he started peeing in the house, was taking Prozac, & hiding under the couch.
After a few months being spoiled rotten over here, he’s relaxed, affectionate, playful, & outgoing. He howls like someone is choking him when I’m upstairs working, and if I go check on him, this 13-year-old cat scurries into his tunnel (his way of saying “I want to play now”), or demands pets.
While this sounds equal-parts adorable and annoying, now that he’s so needy, I’m worried about a 5wk trip coming up. He gets really stressed outside of his territory, so I’m weighing boarding at someone’s home vs. loneliness & boredom from 5 wks of daily drop-in visits. One of the things that scrambled his brain originally was being left alone too much.
Am I overthinking this, and 5 weeks of that will be just fine? I hate to think he might regress.

I will make daily updates in here. It's been quite a journey for me. Will post my history prior to effexor below.. So far am on day 3.
Day 1 - 5/13/2024
Took at 10:00
Anxiety was sky high when I took but settled some 45 minutes after taking.
12:00 feeling jittery and kinda spaced out?
14:00 extreme anxiety
17:00 nausea / dry heave
18:00 headache
Stomach rumbling at night which was kinda funny listening too tbh.
Day 2 - 5/14/2024
Took at 10:10
Really bad anxiety after taking.
Felt really weird before noon
At noon stated reading a book called Hope and Hell for your Nerves by Dr. Claire Weeks.
From 12:30 - 13:45 I felt an overwhelming calmness that freaked me out kinda. I felt at peace, really strange.
16:00 nausea when I yawn
Increased jitters and burning chest (anxiety) at night while settling down for bed.
My story and history :
since December I have been suffering with anxiety which has progressively gotten worse to the point where it has made me depressed as well. As of this post I am at an all time low and am in desperate need of relief. If you make it to the end I will explain what I am going through.
I am a male in my late 30s and have had two bouts of anxiety / depression in my life both of which lasted 3 months (2015 and 2020), and were cured with therapy. This time seems different..
I have a very stressful job which requires me to work 7 days a week with the only break being when I take vacation or slow times in the industry. It pays really well and helps me provide my wife and two young kids a good life so I put up with it in the hopes I can manage the stress better in time. I mention the above because I truly believe it has alot to do with the state I am in now.
I have always been caring, outgoing, light natured, and humerous throughout my life and also pretty sensative. I really want to go back to that and hope treatment will help.
I also realize I am my own worst enemy in getting treatment as you will see in the paragraphs below.
When I was a teenager into my early twenties I was carefree and would try most drugs to fit in. Extacy, lsd, mushrooms, pills, etc.. Never touched the extremely hard stuff. Marijuana was my best friend and I smoked a ton of it. Hello panic attack! I remember the first time I got one after smoking Marijuana in my early twenties. It was horrible! I couldn't smoke Marijuana anymore afterwards because it would induce a panic attack. I told myself it was God's sign telling me to stop so I did. I haven't smoke Marijuana since.
Fast forward a few years from then I was introduced to a medical condition called gout. It is very painful and the first time I was treated for it I was given narcotic pain medication and an anti inflammatory. I took both when I got home and it provided relief. Being this was my first experience, I wanted to research gout a little more and I did just that on the internet. Here comes the part where my life changed for the worse..
For some reason, I also asked google if you could overdose on the pain medication I was currently taking. No clue why I wanted to know but as soon as I read you could, I instantly had the worst panic attack I ever experienced.
Ever since that point in my life I have refused to take medication in fear of another panic attack. From that point forward, my mind associated taking medication with panic. For the years afterwards I always had a panic attack when I tried to take anything including something as simple as advil.
Anytime I would be prescribed something I would obsessively research it, watch videos on it, read reviews, etc.. I would psych myself out and not take it.
Fast forward to 2015 when I finally moved out of my parents house. I won't go too much into it but I had my first bout of extreme anxiety and depression from it. It was a big change for me and it took a few months to pull myself out of it with the help of a therapist.
Life was absolutely WONDERFUL after that. I was on my own, found the love of my life, got married in 2018, and was the happiest I had ever been.
2020 was my second episode of anxiety and depression. In a matter of 6 months I lost my grandmother, godmother, my one year old boxer puppy, and my father in law. I also had my first child. Not to mention it was covid time...After everything settled down from the chaos it hit me like a ton of bricks. Bam!..anxiety and depression. It was awful and I knew I needed help. I started therapy and it helped tremendously. It was suggested that I also see a pyschiatrist. I did and he prescribed me prozac to take along with therapy. I was not going to take it. We all know how I am with my phobia of medication.
One day I said screw it and out of nowhere threw it in my mouth and swallowed. I expected the worse. Nothing happened...I continued to take it for 4 days and didn't notice anything bad happening to me. I was happy about that.
The 5th day I had a panic attack because I started to feel really strange. I don't remember exactly how I felt but I remember calling my sister and telling her I feel really weird. She assured me it is normal and to keep on which I did.
The 6th day I took my pill in the AM and all was well. I was tired so I stayed in bed. Out of nowhere I felt a rush of bad bad bad energy take over my body. It is hard to explain. It was like a rush of anxiety but with it was a sense of hopelessness and dread. I had experienced in my first bout back in 2015 but not this severe. I was scared and called my psychiatrist and left a message. I immediately went to my mother's and cried cried cried. The feeling subsided. My psychiatrist called me back very quickly and when I explained what I felt he told me to stop taking it and to take the ativan he prescribed if needed.
I stopped the medication and never took an ativan. I got better over the next couple months through therapy and all was well.
I did have a tiny breakthrough and convinced myself to take a medication to stop my reoccurring gout attacks. It is called allopurinol and is regarded as one of the safest medications out there. It took alot of courage and of coarse I read every review there is on it but I eventually just threw it in my mouth and fell asleep. Have been taking it daily for two years now.
Fast forward to December of last year 2023. The stress from work and medical issues throughout 2023 must have built up and I had a breakdown. I started to get anxiety and small feelings of the hopelessness I mentioned above. December into January into February I dealt with it and kept telling myself it will pass like the other times. It didn't and kept getting worse. I finally sought help from a psychologist in late February / early March. After the first few sessions I would immediately get a high from the previous hours talk. It was fantastic but eventually wore off a few hours later.
The anxiety I was experiencing / am experiencing is absolutely horrible. Non stop jaw clenching, chest pains, tension, blurred vision, lack of good sleep, extremely heightened senses, etc. I am good at telling myself it is anxiety and will go away. I don't freak out over it into full blown panic but I feel like I am always borderline panic while also being exhausted. It's very uncomfortable. I have had multiple health checkups and all is fine.
I decided to call my old psychiatrist because it had been 3 months with minimal relief. I was told he was retiring and he referred me to someone else who I am now seeing.
He prescribed me Paxil and klonopin in marxh and of coarse my phobia stopped me from taking it. We did a gene test to see which medicine would work for me and paxil was a good fit. I just couldn't do it. For the next few weeks I seemed to be getting better by getting out and doing things. I even started fishing again which was a huge passion of mine. Things were looking up!
Anxiety was going from an all day thing to maybe a couple hours type of thing! I was hopeful...
Let me introduce you to my buddy kidney stones...
Middle of April I woke up to EXCRUCIATING pain. I eventually went to the ER that day after hours of suffering and they told me I had 2 kidney stones. They sent me home with the same narcotic pain medication that started my panic attack journey when I was younger and also some other medication. From that Tuesday to Thursday I was in crippling pain and refused the pain medication. It got to a point where I almost blacked out from the pain so I had no choice but to take it. I popped it and finally got some sleep. I think I didn't freak out after taking it because my body was in shock from the pain. I woke up 30 minutes later to the excruciating pain again and said enough was enough. I went back to the ER and they did an emergency surgery and put a Stent in me to stop the pain. It worked and was a huge relief.
After catching up on sleep and recovering, I started to get my anxiety back. The next two weeks while waiting on my second surgery my anxiety, which was on the right path prior to this stone, came back to it's previous 10/10 levels. Jaw clenching, blurred vision, etc..
I toughened it out AND not to mention, completed a full 14 day coarse of a strong antibiotic due to a kidney infection! I was so proud of myself. With my newfound proudness, I called my Pyschiatrist and set up an appointment for the following week after my second surgery to discuss some things.
I had my second surgery last Friday the 3rd and they removed both stones. I went home Friday night with another stent in me which I was told to remove from home on Monday by pulling a string that was hanging out of my penis head (sorry for TMI) which in turn pulls the stent from my kidney down and out through my penis. I did that on Monday and it wasn't bad at all.
The Saturday after my surgery went fine. I'm sure I felt good because I was still coming off anesthesia but boy o boy that Sunday I woke up after sleeping 12 hours to a horrible panic attack. Imagine waking up from a dead sleep to the biggest adrenaline dump you could imagine. It was awful and lasted ALL day! I experienced derealization and every symptom you can think off. I should have taken a klonopin but my phobia told me it would make it worse so I didn't. It settled down into the evening and I was absolutely exhausted.
Monday I woke up to another panic attack but not as severe and Tuesday another panic attach which was even less severe. Wednesday the same and this morning has been the first morning I haven't woken up to an adrenalin dump. With that being said, this whole week has been absolutely horrible with 10/10 anxiety. I rarely get breaks from it. At night it calms down and I feel normal. Because of that, I chase that normal feeling and stay up way too late lol.
Anyway, leading up to my psychiatry appointment today, the last few weeks I have been obsessively looking up the 2 ssris and 1 snri my gene test said I was compatible with. Prozac (go figure), paxil, and effexor. I was also compatible with welbutrin.
Paxil I am terrified of because it is supposedly the dirtiest and worst for weight gain (I am a 240lb male).
Prozac I tried previously and I think I didn't give it enough time. I am not 100% sure that dread / hopeless feeling was suicide ideation but the feeling is in a class of its own compared to my normal anxiety.
Effexor I am scared of because of the withdrawel and alot of YouTube reviewers said it made them feel high and wired for the beginning. The horror stories of coming off it scares me too.
Welbutrin I hear great things about but heard it is bad for anxiety which is my main concern.
My overall fear is that any of these will make me lose control and make me not myself. I am also scared that I don't remember what normal feels like and feeling normal will scare me. Crazy to say that. Ultimately he prescribed me Effexor 37.5 for 2 weeks and then upping it to 75mg. He said to take the klonopin if I need it starting up. I have 15 of them.
I know I need to do something because I can't live like this. My wife, my 4 yr old, and my 2 yr old need their father and husband back. It's not fair to them. I'm tired of staying in bed all day. I'm tired of not caring if I wake up. I'm tired of not being the best employee I can be, I'm tired of not being in contact with my friends anymore, I'm tired of not caring about my hobbies, Im tired of being tired, and most importantly I'm tired of feeling like this.
I will start the effexor and update this thread with my progress.

Good afternoon, since December I have been suffering with anxiety which has progressively gotten worse to the point where it has made me depressed as well. As of this post I am at an all time low and am in desperate need of relief. If you make it to the end I will explain what I am going through.
I am a male in my late 30s and have had two bouts of anxiety / depression in my life both of which lasted 3 months (2015 and 2020), and were cured with therapy. This time seems different..
I have a very stressful job which requires me to work 7 days a week with the only break being when I take vacation or slow times in the industry. It pays really well and helps me provide my wife and two young kids a good life so I put up with it in the hopes I can manage the stress better in time. I mention the above because I truly believe it has alot to do with the state I am in now.
I have always been caring, outgoing, light natured, and humerous throughout my life and also pretty sensative. I really want to go back to that and hope treatment will help.
I also realize I am my own worst enemy in getting treatment as you will see in the paragraphs below.
When I was a teenager into my early twenties I was carefree and would try most drugs to fit in. Extacy, lsd, mushrooms, pills, etc.. Never touched the extremely hard stuff. Marijuana was my best friend and I smoked a ton of it. Hello panic attack! I remember the first time I got one after smoking Marijuana in my early twenties. It was horrible! I couldn't smoke Marijuana anymore afterwards because it would induce a panic attack. I told myself it was God's sign telling me to stop so I did. I haven't smoke Marijuana since.
Fast forward a few years from then I was introduced to a medical condition called gout. It is very painful and the first time I was treated for it I was given narcotic pain medication and an anti inflammatory. I took both when I got home and it provided relief. Being this was my first experience, I wanted to research gout a little more and I did just that on the internet. Here comes the part where my life changed for the worse..
For some reason, I also asked google if you could overdose on the pain medication I was currently taking. No clue why I wanted to know but as soon as I read you could, I instantly had the worst panic attack I ever experienced.
Ever since that point in my life I have refused to take medication in fear of another panic attack. From that point forward, my mind associated taking medication with panic. For the years afterwards I always had a panic attack when I tried to take anything including something as simple as advil.
Anytime I would be prescribed something I would obsessively research it, watch videos on it, read reviews, etc.. I would psych myself out and not take it.
Fast forward to 2015 when I finally moved out of my parents house. I won't go too much into it but I had my first bout of extreme anxiety and depression from it. It was a big change for me and it took a few months to pull myself out of it with the help of a therapist.
Life was absolutely WONDERFUL after that. I was on my own, found the love of my life, got married in 2018, and was the happiest I had ever been.
2020 was my second episode of anxiety and depression. In a matter of 6 months I lost my grandmother, godmother, my one year old boxer puppy, and my father in law. I also had my first child. Not to mention it was covid time...After everything settled down from the chaos it hit me like a ton of bricks. Bam!..anxiety and depression. It was awful and I knew I needed help. I started therapy and it helped tremendously. It was suggested that I also see a pyschiatrist. I did and he prescribed me prozac to take along with therapy. I was not going to take it. We all know how I am with my phobia of medication.
One day I said screw it and out of nowhere threw it in my mouth and swallowed. I expected the worse. Nothing happened...I continued to take it for 4 days and didn't notice anything bad happening to me. I was happy about that.
The 5th day I had a panic attack because I started to feel really strange. I don't remember exactly how I felt but I remember calling my sister and telling her I feel really weird. She assured me it is normal and to keep on which I did.
The 6th day I took my pill in the AM and all was well. I was tired so I stayed in bed. Out of nowhere I felt a rush of bad bad bad energy take over my body. It is hard to explain. It was like a rush of anxiety but with it was a sense of hopelessness and dread. I had experienced in my first bout back in 2015 but not this severe. I was scared and called my psychiatrist and left a message. I immediately went to my mother's and cried cried cried. The feeling subsided. My psychiatrist called me back very quickly and when I explained what I felt he told me to stop taking it and to take the ativan he prescribed if needed.
I stopped the medication and never took an ativan. I got better over the next couple months through therapy and all was well.
I did have a tiny breakthrough and convinced myself to take a medication to stop my reoccurring gout attacks. It is called allopurinol and is regarded as one of the safest medications out there. It took alot of courage and of coarse I read every review there is on it but I eventually just threw it in my mouth and fell asleep. Have been taking it daily for two years now.
Fast forward to December of last year 2023. The stress from work and medical issues throughout 2023 must have built up and I had a breakdown. I started to get anxiety and small feelings of the hopelessness I mentioned above. December into January into February I dealt with it and kept telling myself it will pass like the other times. It didn't and kept getting worse. I finally sought help from a psychologist in late February / early March. After the first few sessions I would immediately get a high from the previous hours talk. It was fantastic but eventually wore off a few hours later.
The anxiety I was experiencing / am experiencing is absolutely horrible. Non stop jaw clenching, chest pains, tension, blurred vision, lack of good sleep, extremely heightened senses, etc. Though wise, I am good at telling myself it is anxiety and will go away. I don't freak out over it into full blown panic but I feel like I am always borderline panic while also being exhausted. It's very uncomfortable. I have had multiple health checkups and all is fine.
I decided to call my old psychiatrist because it had been 3 months with minimal relief. I was told he was retiring and he referred me to someone else who I am now seeing.
He prescribed me Paxil and klonopin in match and I my of coarse my phobia stopped me from taking it. We did a gene test to see which medicine would work for me and paxil was a good fit. I just couldn't do it. For the next few weeks I seemed to be getting better by getting out and doing things. I even started fishing again which was a huge passion of mine. Things were looking up!
Anxiety was going from an all day thing to maybe a couple hours type of thing! I was hopeful...
Let me introduce you to my buddy kidney stones...
Middle of April I woke up to EXCRUCIATING pain. I eventually went to the ER that day after hours of suffering and they told me I had 2 kidney stones. They sent me home with the same narcotic pain medication that started my panic attack journey when I was younger and also some other medication. From that Tuesday to Thursday I was in crippling pain and refused the pain medication. It got to a point where I almost blacked out from the pain so I had no choice but to take it. I popped it and finally got some sleep. I think I didn't freak out after taking it because my body was in shock from the pain. I woke up 30 minutes later to the excruciating pain again and said enough was enough. I went back to the ER and they did an emergency surgery and put a Stent in me to stop the pain. It worked and was a huge relief.
After catching up on sleep and recovering, I started to get my anxiety back. The next two weeks while waiting on my second surgery my anxiety, which was on the right path prior to this stone, came back to it's previous 10/10 levels. Jaw clenching, blurred vision, etc..
I toughened it out AND not to mention, completed a full 14 day coarse of a strong antibiotic due to a kidney infection! I was so proud of myself. With my newfound proudness, I called my Pyschiatrist and set up an appointment for the following week after my second surgery to discuss some things.
I had my second surgery last Friday the 3rd and they removed both stones. I went home Friday night with another stent in me which I was told to remove from home on Monday by pulling a string that was hanging out of my penis head (sorry for TMI) which in turn pulls the stent from my kidney down and out through my penis. I did that on Monday and it wasn't bad at all.
The Saturday after my surgery went fine. I'm sure I felt good because I was still coming off anesthesia but boy o boy that Sunday I woke up after sleeping 12 hours to a horrible panic attack. Imagine waking up from a dead sleep to the biggest adrenaline dump you could imagine. It was awful and lasted ALL day! I experienced derealization and every symptom you can think off. I should have taken a klonopin but my phobia told me it would make it worse so I didn't. It settled down into the evening and I was absolutely exhausted.
Monday I woke up to another panic attack but not as severe and Tuesday another panic attach which was even less severe. Wednesday the same and this morning has been the first morning I haven't woken up to an adrenalin dump. With that being said, this whole week has been absolutely horrible with 10/10 anxiety. I rarely get breaks from it. At night it calms down and I feel normal. Because of that, I chase that normal feeling and stay up way too late lol.
Anyway, leading up to my psychiatry appointment today, the last few weeks I have been obsessively looking up the 2 ssris and 1 snri my gene test said I was compatible with. Prozac (go figure), paxil, and effexor. I was also compatible with welbutrin.
Paxil I am terrified of because it is supposedly the dirtiest and worst for weight gain (I am a 240lb male).
Prozac I tried previously and I think I didn't give it enough time. I am not 100% sure that dread / hopeless feeling was suicide ideation but the feeling is in a class of its own compared to my normal anxiety.
Effexor I am scared of because of the withdrawel and alot of YouTube reviewers said it made them feel high and wired for the beginning. The horror stories of coming off it scares me too.
Welbutrin I hear great things about but heard it is bad for anxiety which is my main concern.
My overall fear is that any of these will make me lose control and make me not myself. I am also scared that I don't remember what normal feels like and feeling normal will scare me. Crazy to say that. Ultimately he prescribed me Effexor 37.5 for 2 weeks and then upping it to 75mg. He said to take the klonopin if I need it starting up. I have 15 of them.
I know I need to do something because I can't live like this. My wife, my 4 yr old, and my 2 yr old need their father and husband back. It's not fair to them. I'm tired of staying in bed all day. I'm tired of not caring if I wake up. I'm tired of not being the best employee I can be, I'm tired of not being in contact with my friends anymore, I'm tired of not caring about my hobbies, Im tired of being tired, and most importantly I'm tired of feeling like this.
I will start the effexor tomorrow and update this thread with my progress.

So, my three week concerta journey has been a shit show. It made me drowsy and distracted. I went to the doctor on tuesday and he was surprized that it didn't work. He upped my prozac dose to 60 mg, and to be honest, I do feel a difference.
Wednesday was okay, I was still extremely sleepy but I could get things done. Yesterday was even better, I could finish all of my readings, remember the content, and prepare my presentation this morning. Today was the best out of all. I was super focused and productive in the morning, and I absolutely slayed that presentation.
I am shocked. I wonder if this is due to concerta, or my occasionally elevated mood? I can be very emotionally unstable without the medication too, but I felt like this was a bit different. I have been more confident and outgoing. I can't stop talking actually. My MA cohort is probably very confused. I was mute for six months.
I really hope that it is in fact concerta and that I'll get better. They say it takes away your sparkle, but I think this is bringing my spark back because I was so down and depressed due to my failures.
Any thoughts?

My partner and I have been together since we were teenagers, long distance, we met on a message board. I adopted two kitties while we were still long distance, not knowing my partner had cat allergies (she didn't know, either, since she wasn't allowed to have cats growing up). My friend rescued a pregnant stray and I helped their mother birth them. I revived her when she wasn't moving. I adopted her and her brother when she was old enough. Her name was Miracle.
My partner's allergies ended up being a huge issue once we got married and moved in together, and her allergies got SO much worse when our girl cat started peeing outside the boxes due to stress from horrible fights with her brother (who became a bit of a bully when he matured - yes, they were fixed/neutered, had a bunch of litter boxes, etc.). Reintroductions didn't help, he was still being a bully, and he was sixteen pounds while she was only four pounds. The allergies got to the point where my partner was diagnosed with asthma and had to use an inhaler. Her doctor did not recommend allergy shots due to risk of anaphylaxis associated with living with cats while getting them. The one thing we didn't try because it didn't exist back then is Purina LiveClear, but I don't know how well that works when urine is a factor.
Even after several years of fighting allergies, my partner never complained once or asked me to rehome the kitties. But it was not okay for her to live that way, and she was getting worse. So... my parents adopted our male cat, but our girl kitty was still in the habit of peeing everywhere because her pee scent had gotten through the carpets and into the floorboards. Even with all new furniture she hadn't peed on yet, she would still pee on it. She did not like our dog at all and I'm sure that was a factor, too. Pheromones, Prozac, etc. weren't working. So my partner's allergies were still just as bad as before, since she's allergic to the proteins in cat urine.
We started trying to find a new home. In the meantime, we kept her in our second bedroom to try to give my partner's allergies a break and deep cleaned the house. That was NOT a long term situation and we felt so bad. After three weeks, we still hadn't found her a home and she was still in the guest room (we were honest that she had issues with marking and nobody wanted to deal with that, including my parents). So when a spot opened up at the best no-kill rescue in the state, with no guarantees they would have room if we waited, we took the offer. They require all adopted animals to go back to them if they can't be kept anymore, so we knew she would be safe there if her new family failed to fix her peeing habits. She would only be in a cage at night, otherwise she would get to be in a huge sunroom. It was awful to know we would never be able to see her again, but it was a much better situation for her than the guest room, and she would get more attention and enrichment, and they promised to check references thoroughly. They were certain she would find a home quickly as she is really adorable, outgoing, and incredibly affectionate, just needs to be the only cat.
I called the next day, and they said she was a bit nervous. I felt so bad. The next day, they said she was fine and hanging out in the sunroom now. She was adopted just a week later. In her adoption picture, she didn't even need to be kept in a kennel. She sat on her new human's lap and looked so happy. I keep that picture as a comfort. But that's all I really have. The rescue understandably can't tell us much other than that she's doing well last they heard. I check adoption sites daily to make sure her owner didn't move across the country or something and rehome her to an unsafe place where she won't get adopted again. I wonder if she's happy, if she's safe. When I try to talk about what happened, people make horrible comments, like saying I should've divorced my partner and kept the cats. So I don't really talk about it. No one seems to understand.
I hope she's living her best life and fully immersed in it. I heard a cat meowing like her the other night, outside, and ran out to see if she'd found her way back to us. It wasn't her. I have nightmares that she's lost and trying to find us. She was 8 when we rehomed her. So she has been with her new family for what was half her life then. Has it been long enough that she doesn't miss us anymore? I hope it's been long enough that she's forgotten us.
Does it ever get better? I genuinely don't think I'm ever going to stop torturing myself. The guilt is unreal and I miss her so much.

I’ve had a rescue dog for 9 months. Need some advice - am I giving up too early? Am I a lazy wimp? Is this the right or wrong thing?
When I was in the adoption process I was told the dog was very sweet and very shy, and needed a home with an older dog because she was so shy. I have a very well behaved, confident, outgoing 3yo dog that gets along with every dog and human she’s ever met. It was an out of state adoption and there wasn’t an opportunity for the dogs to meet first. (I know!! Now lol)
Once the rescue dog started getting comfortable at the house, her true personality came out. And that personality was anxious and aggressive to my other dog. I’ve tried training and medication - working with our vet. The training and doggy Prozac isn’t working (it’s been about 5 months) and all I keep thinking is I’m just making it worse for both dogs by keeping them both in the same house.
Rescue dog picks fights with my existing dog at least once a day. My other dog tries to not engage but she does get baited into it when rescue starts lunging and biting. My other dog has never bitten back
Rescue also often bites me when I get in between them to separate them. She is a small chihuahua mix so it’s not like her bites are deadly but I’m currently bleeding from a bite.
Rescue dog is, says the two daycares we go to- a joy, adorable, happy to be there, not at all aggressive, and sweet to her sister while there.
She is fine when she comes to my office, rides in cars and public transportation, and she is fine when just she and I are alone at home. At home with my other dog she is a different story.
I feel like a failure for not being able to make it work. I also feel like a failure for not working with the behavioral trainer the vet recommended but that’s $5k!!!! My dogs have high quality food and gear and health insurance but I’m not a millionaire.
I know she must be in so much emotional pain herself to be acting like this. I strongly believe she needs to be the only dog wherever she is. Which is so weird bc the rescue group was adamant she only go to a home that already had a dog.
And I know this sounds so selfish but I worry this is like some kind of mark on my dog owner permanent record and I’ll never be able to get a dog again when the time is right.
But mostly I’m just so sad. I love both of these dogs!! I live in an open concept 1br condo so not like there’s space to keep them permanently separate besides crating.
Rescue dog is legitimately adorable, not quite 2, and under 10lbs so I feel like she’s very adoptable to a no-dogs-yet household. What do you think? Is it time or am I a wimp??

I’ve been taking 20mg for about a month and a half, I noticed myself getting better on the medication, I felt better, was more outgoing. But this past week, I’ve found myself back to being unable to get out of bed, and back to being depressed again.
Has anyone else experienced this on Prozac?

I feel like myself again. After ten years of feeling stuck in my own head, feeling confused, tired, hopeless, I can express myself how I want to again. Please bare with me because I want to cover a LOT in this post. I will also put a TLDR at the end for those who just want a summary! I first want to thank those who posted their victory posts and comments before me. The ones who encouraged me when I was in that 4 week period of being extra anxious before my dosage really settled down for me. The ones that reminded me that the light is at the end of the tunnel. Without you all, I don't know if I would've stuck with this medication to this point, and for that, I am forever grateful.

My Diagnosis:
I'm going to start with some backstory first on why I originally went to see a psychiatrist. If this is something you're not interested in, you're more than welcome to skip this paragraph and go to the next. In fall of 2023, after years of feeling stuck, years of wanting to do something, but not having the energy to do it, I somehow managed to make an appointment with a psychiatrist. Taking this first step was hard, way harder than I'd like to admit. If you've made it past this point, you should already be so incredibly proud of yourself, in no world is that an easy thing to do. I originally went in inquiring about ADHD. I still have some suspicions that I have at least mild ADHD, but Prozac has fixed the parts of my racing thoughts that resulted in anxiety, letting me utilize the creative side of my brain so much more efficiently. I went into this first appointment explaining that my head is like a motor. That no matter how many relaxation techniques I do my absolute best to master, my mind can't stay quiet for longer than a few seconds. This affected everything from my sleep, to being able to work efficiently, to my hobbies. After my initial appointment, I was diagnosed with anxiety. Originally, I was very disappointed with this diagnosis. I never really considered myself to be an anxious, or even a depressed person. I'm someone who is outgoing and social, so I thought my psychiatrist was off the mark. Regardless, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and stick with this medication.

Initial Treatment:
I was originally prescribed a dosage of 10mg. I was given this dosage because I had never been on any medication that affected my mental health before, and we wanted to play it on the safe side. While I was on 10mg, I noticed little to no improvement. I recall having one day where I had brief periods where I feel like I could hear things around me properly. What I mean by this, is that my head finally quieted down for a few minutes and I noticed things around me properly. I noticed sounds of the refrigeration units in a store I frequented for the first time ever. Things like that. During this 4 week period, in general, I was more anxious than I normally was. I was overthinking, making up negative scenarios in my head that would never happen. Some of my main side effects included weight loss, reduced eating, and diarrhea. To say it was a difficult month for me would be putting it lightly. During this time I was frequently searching this subreddit to see why it wasn't working - "why I wasn't immediately feeling better", "why after 4 weeks on 10mg, was I still feeling like garbage." Feeling how I feel now though, I can promise you, it was absolutely worth it for me. After these 4 weeks were up, I regrouped with my psychiatrist and we agreed to bump me up to the 20mg dosage

Increasing My Dosage:
When I found out that increasing my dosage would take another month for my body to become acquired to, I was devastated. The month I was on the 10mg already felt like forever with no benefit whatsoever, and then I had to do it all over for 20mg? It was not something I was looking forward to at all. The first 4 weeks at 20mg were almost as bad for me as they were when I was on the 10mg dosage. Again, I frequented this subreddit, doom scrolling on here and looking for people's experiences with increasing their dosage. When things were looking gloom... everything just... got better. I've seen some people gradually get better day by day, but I was part of the group that woke up one day and just felt amazing. I've felt this way since week 4, and after being at 20mg for about two months now, my quality of life is so much better.

My Personal Benefits From Prozac:
I didn't know how much of a filter I had up. My brain wouldn't let anything through before, and now I'm COMPLIMENTING PEOPLE. I'm actually telling people the things I love about them. I think before, I was subconsciously afraid that I would offend people by anything I said, so I wouldn't comment at all. My filter has drastically reduced (in a good way, it's not getting me into any trouble) and I'm so much more confident. It feels like my steps have so much more weight to them. Bad "What-If" scenarios used to plague me horribly. Thinking of scenarios that would never happen would ruin my entire day. I no longer have these thoughts, or if I do, I can let go of them quickly. My thoughts still race, but I am able to utilize it for my creative needs. After seeing this, my racing head is something I'm so proud of rather than ashamed/crippled by. The holiday season is usually something I dread for months and months because of the work I do. This year? Absolutely stress free. Do I love the holiday tasks I have to do? Not really, but it is just something eh instead of the worst thing in the world for me. I feel even more like myself than I did before medication.

Side Effects:
Now that my body has adjusted to this dosage, my side effects have become much more mild, but I'm definitely still experiencing some. I would still take how I feel mentally and these side effects times 10 if I had to. I still struggle with some constipation, which I've consuming more fiber for. Fiber has helped quite a bit, and has led to me making more healthy life changes anyways. The main side effect I have is that I have to pee a LOT. I think this water is dehydrating me quite a bit, and I have to use the bathroom way more frequently than I usually do. This really only happens on random days at a time.

For Those Struggling:
Everyone's body is different, so this medication isn't for every single person, but if you have been prescribed this, push through. I know you can do this. If I was able to do it, I know you can too. That 4-8 week mark may seem like a lot, but it'll be over before you know it. Just when I was about to give up, my medication started working. My life is so much better now, I feel like everything I've wanted to do I have the energy and capability to do. I feel so much more powerful, I feel like I can help others so much more effectively. I love myself again. I am bettering myself again. I WANT to leave this world better than I found it. Prozac is as close to real magic as I've found on this beautiful planet.

If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. I will do my best to answer them!

TLDR: My life is so much better after taking Prozac. Much more confident, concentration is better, reconnecting with friends, sleep greatly improved, I can laugh much more off, I'm complimenting people again. Some small side effects, but the positives outweigh the negatives times 1000. I don't feel numb, I feel much more like myself than I ever have, in the best way. You can do this, I know you can.

Hi all. I'm not really a Reddit poster but I am extremely desperate for any advice, ideas, experience, or knowledge you can provide. This might be a long post but I would be so appreciative if you stuck around.
For some background, Bernie was diagnosed with Calicivirus as a kitten. He never had respiratory symptoms, but the lameness in his back legs and general lethargy. He was vaccinated against it and his symptoms stopped flaring up, as far as we could tell.
All the way back in late August, my 4-year-old male (neutered) cat, Bernie, suddenly started acting odd. He had always been a very outgoing and talkative cat, but suddenly, he was hiding, sleeping more, and just acting uninterested. We took him to the emergency vet, who gave him a regimen of antibiotics and Onisor, and Bernie bounced on back within a few days. We never did find out what it was, though.
Then, in early September, my fiance and I went away for about a week on vacation while my sister stayed with Bernie. She reported nothing but normal, playful behavior. He seemed completely normal when we returned.
Then, in mid-October, these symptoms returned, but amplified. He was lethargic, completely stopped playing, seemed to be losing his appetite, and the weirdest symptom of all - he was extremely jumpy. He had never been a "scardey-cat" - in fact, this cat used to sit on the balcony with me during thunderstorms. But suddenly, the sound of me emptying my ice tray into the freezer sent him running with his tail between his legs.
We made a vet appointment for October 26, but I was going to be away for work overnight, so my fiance took him. The vet did bloodwork and prescribed an antibiotic and prednisone in the meantime. However, when my fiance took Bernie home, Bernie explored our apartment for a bit, then after a few hours, he ran under our bed. He hasn't come out of hiding since that day.
The first round of bloodwork came back completely normal. The vet recommended we continue the antibiotic and prednisone, just to be safe, so we did. Nothing. He stayed hiding under the bed.
We decided to go back to the vet from August (they're both an Emergency vet and a regular vet) for a second opinion because we liked him so much. This is the vet I'm talking about from here on out in this story. He takes X-rays of Bernie to see if maybe he is hiding an injury, but we find nothing. He prescribes more prednisone and gabapentin this time, to see if maybe it eases a hidden pain or if maybe Bernie is just anxious. After about a week, we see no improvement, and Bernie is extremely unsteady and wobbly on the gabapentin, so we discontinue it. During this time, Bernie is spending most of his time under the bed, but will come out for pets if called. He won't leave our bedroom, but will still sometimes sleep on the bed instead of under it.
Next, our vet suggests we get Bernie an ultrasound, so that's what we do in late November. He has to stay overnight at the vet which is torture for all of us. The next day, Bernie comes home, sedated but seeming pretty okay. He even hangs out in the living room with us for a while. ...And that's when the urinary issues started. He started avoiding the litter box, crying, etc. I ended up staying up all night with him while he cried and I waited for the vet to open in 3 hours so I could avoid another several-hundred-dollar emergency vet visit. While I waited, assuming he had a UTI, I gave him the tiny bit of leftover antibiotic I'd had from a previous round, and a prednisone. Once they opened, the doctor confirmed that was a good idea and prescribed Bernie some more of both. He had only been at the vet literally a day earlier and had a Urinalysis done, and the vet had seen nothing, but we carry on.
The antibiotics and prednisone seem to help, and he goes back to the litter box with little issue. At this point, it's early December, and Bernie's new hiding spot is our downstairs entryway, which is absolutely freezing. But we can't get him to move from there so I run an extension cord down the stairs so he can have an electric blanket. We have to turn it back on every 4 hours for him which we faithfully do so he has a heat source. I am now spending most of my free time laying on the floor begging him to come out, talking to him, petting him, showing him birds on Youtube on an iPad.
Our next test is a CT scan on the first weekend of December. We also decide to re-run bloodwork, X-Rays, and another Urinalysis. This time he stays overnight for two nights. Every. Single. Test. Is. Normal. The vet prescribes Buspirone for anxiety, because he has a hunch that this could be Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome, but I'm not super convinced. So Bernie comes back home and goes into his freezing little hiding space. And now he stops pooping.
I call the vet again and he suggests Miralax, and we finally find a liquid we can get him to eat it in (Bernie has only ever eaten dry food, he despises all wet food). The Miralax seems to work within a day or so, and he goes in the litter box. Thank goodness. After that, we were able to keep him pretty stable for about a week and a half. He continued eating and drinking semi-normally, coming out of hiding every so often for pets (he always purrs), and using the litter box.
One day last week (early-ish December) he seemed to be feeling brave, so I brought out his leash and harness. He used to love going on the leash to take a little walk outside on the porch, so I hoped it might excite him. It did! In fact, before I could even make it downstairs to his hiding spot, he ran right up the stairs to me! I was floored! So I put him on the leash and he walked around, exploring a bit, and he seemed in good spirits! I let him off the leash and put him on the stairs to go back down to his spot, but instead, he ran to our bedroom. I tried to let him take the lead, thinking the Buspirone might be working. Over the next hours, he did venture out of the room a few times, but that night, he went under our dresser and never came back out. The buspirone ended up making him wobbly too, so the vet recommended we discontinue that as well.
He's now regularly going 2-3 days without peeing or pooping, and when he does, it's not in the litter box. He doesn't seem to be in pain. He does cry occasionally when it seems like it's time for him to have to go, but he doesn't strain or anything. We just went back to the vet 2 days ago because Bernie pooped in our hallway and peed on our tile bathroom floor (walking past several rugs and pillows to do so). We ran another Urinalysis, which of course, came back completely normal. No stones, no crystals, no blockages, no diabetes. At that visit, the vet finally prescribed fluoxetine (Prozac) daily, because depression/anxiety/possibly FHS is all we have left.
Bernie came back from the vet and went back to living under the dresser and now he's not even eating and drinking as much. He also will not come out from under the dresser for anything. He's currently on somewhere around 36 hours without peeing or pooping. I even have a UV light to find it and we only live in about 850 square feet, so it'd be tough to miss. He seems to be in no distress at all. And that's where we are now. Today I went out and got a different litter box and different litter for him to see if that helps.
We are at our wits end. I spend all day laying on the floor petting him so he knows I'm still here, but what kind of life is this for him? I'm genuinely beginning to consider having to put him down eventually if nothing works, because I cannot stand to see my cat live like this. I'm in tears every single day over this and it's making our lives truly hell. We can't leave the house without intense anxiety about leaving Bernie alone, I can't even be out of my bedroom without feeling guilty about living my life without him. I am willing to do (almost) anything (we do have insurance) I can to find answers or help for my sweet boy. I miss him so much. It's like he's not even here anymore.
Next Steps: I asked if an MRI is next, and the vet strongly advised against spending the approximately $5,000 on it. He said judging by the CT scan results and Bernie's lack of neurological symptoms, neither he NOR the radiologist who read the CT think we will find anything. I also asked about Bernie's heart, which he said looked completely normal on the CT, X-Ray, and Ultrasound. I asked about getting another cat, and the vet said a young female could be helpful, but we unfortunately won't be able to do that until late January.
Meds We Have Tried: Antibiotic regimen, prednisone, Buspirone, gabapentin, Onisor (anti-inflammatory), and currently, fluoxetine (Prozac).
TLDR; My 4-year-old cat was always outgoing, friendly, and playful, until he suddenly went into hiding in October. All physical tests have come back normal. Vet cannot find anything. Currently treating with fluoxetine (Prozac).
If you read all this, thank you. Any help, advice, experiences, or truly anything would be helpful. Thank you.

(19M) My main problems are self-hatred, derealization, memory loss, an inability to think through words and actions, anxiety, depression, an inner monologue based entirely on self-psychoanalysis, and a need to apologize for everything. I'm overtrusting and often do dumb things because others are because I want to belong, and I am afraid of rejection. I get caught up in the "heat of the moment" if other people are having fun. I make friends very quickly, as there is not enough stability within myself to remain separate or allow myself to be ostracized from a group. I overshare very soon to people. I have no spine. I feel guilty when people give me gifts or do things for me. I struggle with a lot of guilt. I jump into relationships too fast after having a 5-6 hour long conversation with the person, believing they are my soulmate, overanalyzing myself in the context of the relationship often embarrassing myself in front of them, believing myself to be undeserving, and then leaving? I psychoanalyze myself to the point where I can't think of anything else almost every day, and my life is spent trying to piece together bits of childhood I remember being pretty happy and well taken care of to figure out how I got this miserable. I have no hobbies, and little motivation to do anything. I get intrusive thoughts about things that disgust me sometimes too, like why did my mind just go there, like I'm so anxious about possibly having a certain thought that I think it? I believe myself to be evil, terrible, and defective because all of these symptoms. I am so caught up thinking about my own mind that I do not take the present situation into account.
I hate being mean to people and am hypervigilant about that, but often to the point of confusion and word salad. I am afraid of confrontation.
On Depakote right now, and before I started, I had chronic envy, entitlement, loneliness, longing for a relationship whenever I wasn't in one, being concerned with my appearace, and I think I could've been diagnosed with NPD. These things improved after taking the mood stabilizer, but now I am grappling with who I am.
I was a very happy, outgoing, clingy, curious, creative, optimistic, talkative, sensitive, intelligent kid. I memorized what language every country in the world spoke when I was six and had an atlas I lived in. I wrote stories, and my EQ was very high too. I remember being a vegetarian at age 4 for ethical reasons. My IQ was tested when I was young and it came out genius level according to my mom, although my processing speed was very below average. I loved my pets, my friends, and everyone else in my life. I was also bullied in school for being weird and annoying. I can remember being 5 or 6 and being afraid of my parents and my dogs dying, especially my mom. When I was 9ish, I was so terrified she was going to drown when she went swimming in the lake that I used to go out to shore and try and track her splashes. I did theater (I was a natural at acting which I feel like may have been a symptom.) I remember my intrusive thoughts being disturbing back then too. Although I had things like this, my childhood was generally happy. I loved reading, creating things, playing outside, and could often spend a lot of time alone too. I had friends, and I had a lot of fun playing outside, laughing, and pretending with them.
Everything kind of changed during puberty. I became very lonely and sad, and related a lot to Holden Caulfield (yikes, I know). I saw everybody stop being carefree, imaginative, and fun. I wanted a girlfriend, and I wanted people at school to accept me, so I started picking on people behind their backs to fit in. I also tried to dress live everybody else and adopt slang, and I trained myself to "sound dumb" to avoid ostracization. I had no filter, and discovered the edgelord internet, so a lot of things I said about people back then are beyond terrible.
Around 15-16, the lockdown started, my parents commenced a multi-year fight, and this loneliness, envy, FOMO, intense childhood nostalgia, and social anxiety magnified. It moved from situational to all-encompassing. Horrible breakup with a first love around this time too, and I felt very lonely, isolated, anxious, and out of control. There was a pit in my soul, and all I wanted was love and community. This became pathological, and I would post whatever disjointed thought would come into my head because I thought that if the right girl saw it, I would have a soul mate. Sad music, movies, and night hikes became my escape. I started cycling too, wanting to *do the thing*, and around 17-ish, I was put on Prozac which numbed me, Zoloft which made me very very mixed, disassociate, and believe my short stories were nature speaking through me. I came off Zoloft, remained manic and anxious for 6 months.
Around my 18th birthday, I got COVID which obliterated my sense of smell and made me short-circuit mentally. I went on Effexor, started smoking weed a lot, and I generally believe this hypomanic, substance laden mixed episode marked by heavy use of weed, alcohol, energy drinks, benadryl, cigarettes, vapes, and a ritalin here or there, racing thoughts, the beginning of my derealization, anhedonia skipping my meds, wanting to *do the thing* almost every day, and all of the problematic personality traits and anxiety as well. It was smack dab in the middle of this that I went to college and had multiple unstable relationships and couldn't do homework. I don't remember much of anything from college except for the last one lasted a few months, we were both unhealthy, had constant sex, smoked a lot of weed, drank a lot, and didn't really do homework. By the end of the semester, we were going to sleep at 4AM had been kicked out by each other's roommates and were sleeping in our street clothes on couches in the common room so we wouldn't have to be apart.
After dropping out of college and having my ex live at my parents' house for 2 weeks (we literally lived like John and Yoko), we broke up because she told me "to never leave" which scared me because I had already begun losing feelings. I got a job as a car salesman which I quit because I thought I was going on a cross-country road trip I had no money for. I then sunk into a deep, deep depression and got very sick. I was a NEET and there was nothing in life for me. I ditched my phone for a flip and an iPod touch thinking the problem was that I spent too much time online, and started taking Niacin because I had realized the bipolar part of things.
Shortly after my 19th birthday, I moved out of my parents' house and went to live with my grandparents and help with stuff over the summer. I felt as though I was healing. Doing jobs for other people was fun, and I attached myself to a girl who lived right across an international border, but neither of us had our documents together. I was also getting high, paranoid, and borderline delusional, but there were a few times where my consciousness broke through the derealization barrier and I felt my feet on the ground again. This had previously happened after a few movies (Inside and Swiss Army Man lol) but at no other time. I felt truly happy and mature one weekend, but my dad told me how much it hurt my mom that I don't talk to her anymore (I had been taking a step back and assessing it because she has an interesting personality), and it made me so guilty that I "went back to hell" so to speak. Had a few difficult situations with girls at my college and stopped smoking weed because I had a panic attack around one who was a narcissist with an eating disorder who fucked with my head. Then, things got really dark.
A few months ago, my grandfather fell down and the guilt went into overdrive. He is currently in the process of dying, and my grandmother has been by his side, cleaning up poop and pee, and doing everything for him. I didn't know how to respond emotionally at first and was afraid of not feeling the right way. I wanted to help, but she wouldn't ask me for help, and I was too mentally in the toilet to do anything most days. I cooked when I could, took out the trash, did dishes, but I felt like a terrible person for being too depressed and unfeeling to do more. They have also given me a free roof over my head, fed me, paid for college I dropped out of, my grandma venmo's me $100 or so a week, and has bought me weed in the past. I am a leech. I had also recently come off of weed so the cycling between mixed and depressive episodes was terrible, had to drop a college class because I couldn't do the work, was drinking every night, chainsmoking, and I eventually had to check myself into the ER and then the mental hospital.
At the mental hospital, I was diagnosed with this physiological condition where there are small tears in my brain lining which cause my thoughts to bounce around kind of unsupervised, put on Depakote, and immediately things started to get better. I loved myself, felt my feet on the ground, and would lend an ear to other patients. I also went back to being able to read, enjoy music, and hang out on my own.
When I went back to my grandparent's house however, I got deeper into depression, as my grandfather was still sick, and the house was just me, my grandmother, and my dying grandfather. I have no real life friends currently, safe for a couple of friends from school. The narcissistic traits are gone, now I am nothing. The Depakote took away the highs and brought me down. I apologized to exes and shaved my head because I thought I didn't deserve hair.
This morning, my grandfather went to hospice, my grandmother took the dog and cat to the vet, and for the first time, there wasn't sickness, sadness, and death there. I cried for an hour. This is the first time I had cried in years. After I was done crying, I could stand taller and felt like myself again. I wrote down "You're a kid, you've been through so much but you're still a kid and you have time. You are beautiful. Enjoy feeling, loving, remembering, and being you again". I work at a restaurant and got high with my coworkers after work. I drove home and immediately started writing this. I don't want to go back. I just want to love, grow, feel, and not hate myself forever.

For those recovered or are getting better. I broke out of the cycle of posting everyday haha but am back. If any of you remember the cycle of getting better or have recovered is it normal to feel really good then have bad days? I am not on any meds due to them not working for me and I was already on medication when this started. Seems I’m falling back into when it was really bad. So short backstory about me, I I got DPDR 24/7 on October 23, 2021. It started before then with 10 minute intervals then it became 24/7 because I didn’t manage my stress I assume. I also believe my IUD had an interaction with the medication I was on because my first panic attack happened 8 days after I had it placed. I went from being an outgoing happy person who would hop in her car at 9pm and drive to the town my college is in because she was bored to being essentially housebound in 2 months.
It started with getting lightheaded and dizzy, then it was happening in stores and restaurants and I believed it was low iron.. it wasn't. I moved out of my college dorms and moved back home. My body tried to reject my IUD, and I believe that was my first sign, I got it out 3 months after I should have all because I was too scared to go off of the mood stabilizer I was on. Fast forward 3 hospital visits in 2 months that included CT scans, blood work, tests for POTS, vertigo, EKG, blood sugar levels, seeing an ENT, seeing my eye doctor and dentist, they could not find anything.
I stopped working as much at my job as it was in a store but went to school as much as I could (thankfully my course is also held online so if I am not in class I can just hop on and tune in.) I then got off of my medication and went med to med trying to find something to cure me. I saw my therapist who confirmed this is in fact DPDR. I was put on Prozac and FOR ME (do not use my experience to dictate how a med will affect you) was awful. Panic attacks every night when I was sleeping, severe DPDR. I called my doctor crying not being able to catch my breath because I could not recognize where I was (I knew I was home but it was so intense I couldn't handle it.) I was given Ativan after consulting with my psychiatrist who assured me that the bump would pass.
I learned that Ativan didn't do anything for me but make me tired and did nothing for the panic so I scratched that. I went on to do my work placements despite my panic attacks. I got worse. The Prozac wasn't helping. What started with panic attacks turned into intrusive thoughts and suicidal thoughts. I was so sensitive about everything. I joke about my trauma and lived with my best friend for two years who has been with me for a lot of it, and instead of being able to joke with her, I was getting genuinely hurt. I was taken off of Prozac after a month. Med after med after med. I was given 6 meds to try last year. 8 if you include Ativan and Klonopin. After Prozac, I decided no more as I have been on medication since I was 13 and I am now 20 and was way too scared to feel the way I did on Prozac again.
In May of 2022 I became completely housebound. Driving to the mailbox was giving me panic attacks and it was less than a minute away. Walking outside to sit on my deck was a struggle. I stopped taking care of myself, going 13 days without showering or bathing. I knew I needed a change or things weren't going to end well. Throughout the past 2 years I’ve managed to cope like I’ve said, I’ve learned to deal with the constant DPDR and chronic dizziness and just hope in the back of my mind I wake up feeling “normal” again. I also found out recently I have hypothyroidism about 4 months ago and have been on meds to manage that. I did a 12 day trip that I couldn’t have imagined doing a year ago. I haven’t had a panic attack in over a year. The dizziness and anxiety are back and the DPDR just has never left. I was doing so good, I’m not even sure how I got it to be manageable the first time other than being more social and working. I’m still working, I do 12 hour shifts, mostly nights. Whenever I’m in a store my legs feel like jelly again and I have to hold onto stuff. I’m okay to drive usually, but the dizziness is what gets me. It’s even around the house sometimes too. It’s only as of the last week that this started happening again. I pray this is not an anxiety relapse… I can’t do it again. Any advice is helpful.

Was diagnosed a few years ago. On 1200 mg of Trileptal. I started having some bad anxiety this summer. Would wake up with my upper arms feelings numb. My hangovers started to get pretty bad but similar symptoms kept happening in the morning even when I hadn’t drank the night before.
But as I went along with my day I would get distracted and forget about the weird symptoms.
This was out in Tennessee as I’m from California but lived out there for the past year and a half. Just moved back recently back with my folks finishing my last two semesters of community college before I transfer to a state school.
Here where everything took a turn for the worst. I was telling my psychiatrist about the anxiety and how I was interested in possibly adding another medication into the mix. At her advice we started 5mg of Prozac.
And oh my god :( it messed me up bad. Wired my brain in this awful way where I could only be okay if I was taking a full dosage of my Xanax. I smoke weed to help with my tenseness and stomach aches and weed wasn’t helping me and that never happens. I was so tense I’d start shaking it felt like convulsing. Not stop heart rate. Zero appetite. Fatigued to the max. Bowel issues. Felt like the essence of me was trapped somewhere inside of me and I couldn’t access it anymore it was one of the worst weeks of my life. All side effects of the Prozac.
But I think it triggered a depressive episode it did something to me that’s not good. I actually have my first therapy appointment in years later today where I’m gonna discuss a lot of the things I’m dealing with.
It just sucks. I’m so outgoing and I love meeting new people and even if I’m nervous I always fight through it but now when I get the nervous feelings since my body is already on edge i get anxiety in the form of an almost anxiety attack and it doesn’t go away and then my anxiety makes me nauseous so I start to feel sick and that makes me panic. I’m stuck in this awful loop and I can’t get out. And I’ve never been this way my whole life even my anxiety symptoms never manifested this way.
Even seeing my friends who I haven’t seen in a while I get anxious to the point I can’t function or be me. And my stupid ass psychiatrist first didn’t see my emergency email about my meds going wrong then she couldn’t fit me in for an emergency appointment because I had school the only time she was available. and it’s been weeks since that Prozac episode I just want help and I’ll get it it’s just so hard being in my body right now. Thank you for reading if you did.

Hi all. I’ve been a lurker but wanted to share my experience. I have C-Ptsd, social anxiety, depression and severe panic disorder. There was a point where I was having such bad panic attacks that I was passing out from hyperventilating. I couldn’t do mundane things like sit in a restaurant without noticing everyone, the lights, the sounds, and it all feeling like it was closing in on me. I constantly wondered if the world was ending, if a war was coming, if I was going to go into sudden cardiac arrest from stress. I work at a hospital as a medical professional and I love my job dearly but I was having to leave work every day to the point where I ended up going on medical leave because I had a nervous breakdown from constantly wondering when my next panic attack would come/if I was going to lose my job and everything I worked so hard for.
My first two weeks on Prozac were god awful. I had so many panic attacks that I thought I was actually going to die. I couldn’t sleep or function for days at a time. If felt like drinking 30 cups of coffee then trying to sit still. I hated it but I fought through it.
Fast forward to week 5. I can go out with friends, I haven’t left work early at all, I’m 3 weeks panic attack free, I’ve lost weight, I don’t have food cravings, I can sleep through the night, I don’t have to devise an escape plan every time I leave the house. On top of this, everyone in my life says I’m so much happier and outgoing. I laugh, I enjoy the little things and I’m not hoping I go to sleep and never wake up again.
I know it’s hard, and it’s scary, but it gets better.

I apologize for the length of this in advance.
I left a brief comment about this on another post but I figured I’d make a more in depth post of my own.
I have struggled with this since I was 11 (2004). I didn’t even actually choke. I was eating a whopper jr from Burger King in my middle school cafeteria and I suddenly had a panic attack for the first time ever. I had that “lump in my throat” feeling and my guess is my brain computed that as “choking”… I avoided eating so I would never feel that way again.
Most of my life I kept it inside because I was honestly incredibly embarrassed by it. I felt alone and scared and crazy.
I have my ups and downs. I began college (2011) and was at my lowest weight. My anxiety was through the roof, so I avoided eating. I’m not sure if I’m alone in this, but my anxiety is very dissociative. I don’t feel like I’m in real time. Everything is hazy. I then focus on this feeling and work myself up into an anxiety attack. But if I feel even a slight bit of that “haze”, I avoid eating. I felt like that constantly, so I didn’t eat. I also get this confused with the feeling of being tired, so most of the time it gets really bad at night.
It took me years to slowly put on weight. I avoided going out to restaurants like the plague, for some reason I feel better in control of the fear when I’m at my own house. I even finally began to tell my family about my fear of choking. I was afraid I was going to die if I kept this a secret and just lived with it.
Another thing about me is that I am the worst at keeping up with meds… I have a fear of choking so of course I’m unable to take pills. Yes, I can crush some of them but that’s not exactly my favorite thing to do. Because on top of having this fear of choking, I’m a severely depressed person. So I fall out of the rhythm of taking them.
I will say, they do help. A few years after college (2017), I was like “I need help”, so I went to the doctor and was prescribed Zoloft. My fear of choking was pretty much gone at this point. I was even able to swallow the pills like a “normal person” but only if I took it with a carbonated drink. Zoloft made my depression terrible & I also gained a bunch of weight because I was excited I could eat like a “normal person”.
For whatever reason, I quit taking Zoloft instead of going to a doctor to try and get prescribed something else.
Fast forward, I was so used to my anxiety and this disorder that I lived with it for many, many years. Until the pandemic (2020). I lost a bunch of weight again. I really wanted to eat, but I couldn’t. I resorted to yogurt, breakfast essentials, & soup for months. So I knew I had to do something about it. I didn’t have health insurance, but I tried to force myself to eat. It kind of worked, surprisingly, I think because I convinced myself it was life or death.
Fast forward to 2 years later (August 2022). I unexpectedly lost my job and fell into a deep depression. My job consumed most of my life and when my mind is occupied I don’t really think about my anxiety/fear of choking so I think that helped with it a lot. But once I didn’t have that job anymore, my brain got really bad again since I had nothing but free time. So bad that I didn’t leave my bed and I honestly didn’t care if I lived or died.
For fear of losing a bunch of weight and regaining that fear of choking… I wanted to begin a new year right and celebrate my new job that came with health insurance (December 2022). I forced myself to go to the doctor. So I went, I was prescribed Prozac and after a month, it felt amazing. I was more outgoing, I did more things, I could eat in public! That was until I went to Disney world for my 30th birthday (March 2023). I convinced myself it wasn’t working. But in hindsight, I woke up way earlier than I’m used to and stayed up way later than I’m used to and hellllloooo the crowds are INTENSE. I also felt the worst/most anxious at night. So I think I got the feeling of being tired confused with feeling anxious. Anyways, I went back to the doctor and he prescribed me Zoloft. I even told him I wasn’t too keen on it, but alas, he prescribed it to me since I was on it once before? Months go by and I’m on Zoloft. It. Is. Terrible. I have 0 motivation to do anything. I’m depressed. Tired.
So what do I do? I take myself off of it. It’s been about a month and a half without it now (August 2023) and I haven’t felt this badly in years. I’m at the heaviest weight I’ve ever been at but slowly my fear of choking is returning.
I set up another appointment with my doctor and he set me up with a therapist. She’s wonderful. Incredibly knowledgeable and patient. I get through my intake which I HATE because I’m just like “please just help me now!!” and have to wait another month to see her.
So I saw her last week and she enlightened me on some things. The fear of choking can also be referred to as Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). How have I never heard of this!?! It’s technically an “eating disorder” but I encourage you to do something research on it. It made me feel much less alone. She also has put in a referral for me to see a speech pathologist. Something I would have never thought of! She said she spoke with one of her therapist friends in another state and she suggested the speech pathologist. I found this incredibly interesting and she told me that each case is different so this could benefit me or it couldn’t. But I did want to share that because I feel like it could benefit someone in this group.
I also have a psychiatrist appointment in 2 weeks, so I will update you on how that goes.
Hang in there, friends.

I’ve read plenty of posts on here about how caffeine causes anxiety and panic attacks in people who take Prozac but is there anyone else here that it does the opposite? Prozac helps my anxiety tremendously but I still feel pretty blah, tired and a little depressed. When I drink coffee I feel so much more alert, outgoing and happier. It doesn’t cause me extra anxiety or bad side effects. If I dont eat I do end up crashing a little but it’s still not bad.

Before marrying Cassie Howell, Lou was a carefree guy, kleptomaniac hopeless romantic that wanted to enjoy being a werewolf with his squad of rebellious furries.
Cassie landgraab was a smart woman that graduated highschool early and got her physics degree before becoming a young adult, and being the only person in the landgraab family that wasn’t an asshole. She met Lou at the romance festival and they immediately became bf and gf and got married at a shot gun ceremony. She loved his rocker style and wild life, and he just likes her for her. Then they had their daughter Rosemary, but Lou had a problem controlling his anger. While Cassie was pregnant, he would snarl at her while rampaging, distressing her while she was in a vulnerable state.
Anyways, Rosemary grew into a happy little girl who trusted the world and had high self esteem and Lou was overjoyed, however due to his new life as a family guy, and a warrant officer, he was kicked from his gal pal squad and didn’t like being a werewolf anymore.
He and Cassie had a son named Elias, who was wiggly, but one night, while gazing at the stars and ready to visit the alien world the next day, she was hit by an asteroid, dying while enjoying the beautiful night sky. Lou tried to flirt with the Grim Reaper to save his wife, but it failed, and he witnessed his wife’s soul be taken, along with his daughter who walked outside to see what was happening. This death was completely unintentional. I didn’t cause it to add drama, I was planning on having them grow old together.
Lou was now a young single father who failed to control his lycanthropy. He used to be a stay at home dad, but now that the sole bread winner of the family was gone, he decided to get an honest job (even though he wanted to be a thief) and joined the military. His infant son didn’t receive much attention from his father, and his sister would have to watch him and entertain him while Lou “marked his territory” outside. As a result, Elias hated being held and became a fussy toddler. With no wife in his life, and no longer feeling any thrill of stealing, he lost his romantic and kleptomaniac traits and was replaced with gloomy and paranoid.
He was depressed, but desperately kept onto any memories of his wife. Her pink cottage core furniture, her excellence bunny she kept ever since she was a child, her diploma. He would often look at his old marriage certificate and smile sadly as he remembered the beautiful ceremony. He became a grown adult with greying hair and facial hair, and wore flannel everyday. His daughter joined the football team in highschool and would force him to play with her everyday, and he would be hit with the ball everytime because she sucked.
He always cooked his kids great meals and put them before himself, neglecting his needs to help his kids do their homework and keep them happy, while he needed therapy and a nap.
Even then, he refused to remarry and move on, played loud Christmas music everyday because that’s what he and his wife listened to everyday, and cried himself to sleep every night, even though he hated sleeping at night.
Now instead of wanting to become a powerful werewolf, he just wants to get his kids into college and raise them to be decent people. He let go of his kleptomania to set a good example for his kids, and his teenage daughter had the good and proper traits, while his son was a outgoing social butterfly.
Now he isn’t even Lou. He’s just a dad that tries to be cool with the kids and is on Prozac.
And that’s how I ruined Lou Howell’s life. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

I’ve been on Prozac for years and am a daily user of marijuana. For the last few days, my anxiety has been so crippling that I cannot eat, sleep, lay down, or work. I went to the ER and they gave me Ativan, so I’ve been sleeping a lot more. I’ve stopped smoking, finding that the effects make my anxiety worse.
The real kicker is the anhedonia. I’m usually outgoing, positive, and I enjoy my activities that help me relax. Lately….I am scared I’ll never feel joy again. I’ve never felt so scared in my life. My brain gets stuck on negative outcomes, family members passing away, and nostalgia. I’m meeting with my doctor next week to discuss my meds, but I’m scared about the days prior and how I can cope. I feel alone.

Greetings.
Prozac has saved my life after a breakdown in my late teens. It worked wonders and brought out my authentic self. From depressed, anxious and closed off I became social, outgoing, happy.
Recently I had another breakdown while not on Prozac (I had taken a break after many years on it). After trying many other medications and therapy, I found my way back to Prozac, and again - it has been wonderful.
I am 6 weeks into it, having gone from 10mg to 60mg (now a week on 60).
I feel better and better. I used to take 60mg previously, and suffered no side effects really.
I understand that while uncommon, some people take 80mg, and that for some it makes a huge difference. I'm still struggling and wonder whether I should try 80. I don't believe it can do any harm - it is prescribed.

I'm wondering if anyone here has had experience with 80mg. I'd love to know what you think.
Thank you!

I was put on SSRI’s when I was 14 for OCD. Fluoxetine specifically which is Prozac. They helped with the symptoms which were pretty severe at the time. Fearing the return of the symptoms and any sort of change, I stayed on them for almost 11 years. I recently quit them after weening myself off of them over a period of a few years, and now I feel like a completely different person. I’m not very outgoing. Over these last 5 or 6 years I’ve struggled with anxiety & depression, but now I feel its gotten worse. I’ve now been off them for almost 10 months, and it feels like its getting worse, not better. I got off them because I was tired of feeling zombified and not experiencing my full range of emotions. I also feel like I’ve struggled with memory and my Doctor said that’s a common side effect.
I was put on these meds when I was just a kid and I was on them during the most developmental years of my life. In a weird way, it feels like I’ve de-matured. I feel like I’m dumber, have no self confidence, can barely hold any sort of conversation. I have a tougher time joking around or even detecting sarcasm. Doing trivial things like talking to my landlord seems like such a chore. I’m 26 and I feel completely lost and worthless.
And like I said, I felt these things before while on the meds, I just feel like they’ve gotten worse.
I’ve recently been journaling, doing mindfulness, and practicing things like the wim hof breathing . I’ve also quit caffeine over the last few months, I’ve now been a year sober from weed, and run every day. I even have taken up cold showers. Still, nothing seems to help.
I’m just curious if anyone else has quit these kinds of medications after being on them for so long, and if so, what was your recovery process like? How did you feel, and when did things truly get better? Do you have any tips?

I am going to type this as best I can but even as I am now it feels like there is a little monster inside of me telling me not to open up and who is too tired to explain.
I was officially diagnosed with PMDD in early March. I pretty quickly got put on Prozac (20mg) and Elinest. Things really really responded at first and things got so much better in my life, mentally, and with my partner.
I almost think they may have gotten a little too good because I forgot to take care of myself and do the natural things that were helping (Eating whole foods regularly, staying off social media, breathing exercises, etc).
Anyways, I think the birth control regulated my bleeding but I still feel like I'm getting PMDD even if I'm not bleeding and its most weeks out of the month. This is what is making me feel utterly crazy. I can't tell if I'm just getting mad and shutting the world out for no reason or because its PMDD. At least when you can track it you can have some sanity. My anxiety is bad, my depression is bad, my ADHD is bad, its all just bad when I have such a blessed life.
I'm also noticing I'm shutting down. I was once outgoing and loved making connections. I'm shutting out connections, I'm insanely sensitive to perceived rejection (it takes literally nothing for me to put my wall up). Connections from my partner is suffering and I JUST moved in with him.
I'm just tired, and I'm exhausted, and I am tired of fighting. I've fought mental illness and trauma my whole life and this is just a cherry on top.
In summary I'm suffering, I'm tired, and before I admit it to my partner I need to admit it to people with the same diagnosis as me. I could use your comments, thoughts, and encouragement.