YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Prozac was the worst medication I've been on. I started it brcause I was so suicidal. I had been on citalopram but IMO that didn't change a thing. Anyway Prozac took away the suicidality, but took everything else with it. For months I felt nothing. I lost interest in friends and family, I stopped going to college... I started doing whatever I could to feel again. I slept with a couple of people I shouldn't have, had a one night stand with a stranger which is not in my nature at all. I started binge drinking and self harming but I still felt numb. Like I couldn't even feel pain when I cut. Then I cut too deep. I had a massive slice down my arm and had to go for stitches and all.

After that I was taken off it and moved straight onto venlafaxine and then added lamotrigine.

Yeah I wasn't a fan of Prozac at all. Anyone else had bad or good experience with it?

I tried it when I was an undergraduate. It made no difference in my emotions or moods at all - I suspect I didn't take it long enough, but at that time it wasn't available in a generic prescription so I couldn't afford to continue it.


For many of us, medication helps alleviate the intense emotions in our heads. When we go on medication the emotions subside and it seems like we're empty, numb - BUT, in reality it's that the emotions are not as intense as they once were. They become more manageable, more....stable, I guess....and suddenly we don't know what to do with ourselves. It's like we lose a piece of our identity.


The second time I tried antidepressants, I had a tricyclic antidepressant (mirtazapine). I was lucky enough to be with a shrink who helped me cope with the sudden changes within myself and find ways to make the transition.

I just got off Prozac because I'm taking exams for my diploma. It worked okay, took away the worst of the depression but it was still there but It makes me really dim and dumb. I used to be smart and I become just incoherent, unable to focus and string thoughts together really well. When I got off it my grades skyrocketed I can truly see the difference in my cognitive ability but I started to feel depressed again. Has anyone had this with Prozac? Does it happens with other medication too? Because I think I need to take something again.

heart --
The only time I tried Prozac was while I was in the psych ward, so I don't remember how I was on that, but I haven't noticed any cognitive differences on any other anti-depressants. I did feel really slow and inarticulate when I tried upping my dosage of Lamictal, which isn't technically an anti-depressant if I understand correctly but rather an anti-seizure medication?

I take Prozac and love it. I don't think anyone really understands how different SSRI's effect different ppl so differently... it's crazy considering they do the same thing even if in different ways. I think the only side effect I get is constipation, and I clench my jaw really bad at night (bruxism) and that is real pain because my neck gets so tight and that makes me lethargic. Cheldoll, Lamictal is a seizure med that has been found to help also as a mood stablizer so it's both but it's a different drug than the SSRI's (Prozac, zoloft, Lexapro, etc.)

Prozac sucks ass. It made me hypomanic or manic. whatever after STUPID STUPID sexual decisions I ended up moving to a different country to become a famous actress. . . then just stopped taking my meds abruptly because i was FIIIINEE tyvm. About 3 weeks later I just crashed into a big depression and just ate everything. I was staying with relatives who placed structure to my life and I stayed there some months till I left for a quick trip back home and never came back. I hate prozac.