Posted by orbital on November 26, 2010, at 21:17:35
In reply to Re: Prozac + Anxiety? How Can It Work When Stimulating » orbital, posted by Phillipa on November 26, 2010, at 19:29:31
P., your experience is identical to my own first go with Prozac. So my doc knew how nervous I was about trying Prozac again (after my panic-stricken trial ~5 years prior). She cooked up a very weird dosing strategy:
First, she had me take a single 20mg dose, and then wait for a few days - like testing the waters. I was fine.
After that, I took 40mg for 3 days, then dropped down to 20mg and stayed there for a month, taking a double (40mg dose) twice a week.
After that first month, we toyed with the doses, allowing at least 3 weeks before changing - I eventually levelled off at 30mg (any less didn't seem to cut it, any more made sleep impossible).
Fluoxetine levels take forever to reach a steady state; my doc has this theory that having "a little" Prozac hanging out in your system during the first few days is what tends to cause panic, so she used the loading doses to try to bypass the slow initial buildup. It all sounded very sketchy to me, she actually expected me to take 60mg /!!!/
So I'm not sure if her strategy worked, as I doubled my Klonopin for 2-3 weeks anyway. Whatever it was, I didn't feel any increase in anxiety, just very "activated" (but not jittery/panicky/hyper etc). Not unpleasant at all, it was actually a good change: motivated, no blunted emotions and for some reason, my libido rocketed. I'd still be on it, but I just couldn't adjust to the insomnia and poor sleep.
Sorry long-winded post, wanted to let you know what worked for me after my first nightmarish Prozac trial. Hope this helps :)
Currently on Paxil, Klonopin and restarting Valdoxan tonight - sleep is good.
> Thanks Orbital for responding. What dose did you take? And what are you taking now as an ad? Does it allow you to sleep? That one time when prozac first out and only 20mg available I felt great first day, anxiety day two, panic day three. Flushed it and upped xanax for three days to get back to normal as felt great then with small dose of xanax. Interesting. And thanks again. I do have a bottle of it here somewhere. Phillipa
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