Not to rain on the parade, but the effects wear off after a while and you need to up the dosage.
YouTube Link of the Song. Great track.
And? If one medication stops working well, you can usually find another one that works. Or just up the dosage. I had to do that (after a few years at the lowest clinical dosage), and it really wasn’t a big deal.
I always want to chuck the gifts received into the Goodwill bin. Prozac, however has made me realize that I can just sell it on Ebay and make money!!!111!! ( I have gift issues.)
I’ve been on prozac for nearly 9 years now and it has changed my life ( and but an invisible sheild up around, protecting me from STUPID REMARKS THAT WERE SAID JUST TO IRRITATE ME yes, me. and make them AMUSING. Dumbasses are everywhere, man. Especially during my period. Holy crap do they FLOCK around me 5 days a month, the bastids!
What Prozac did was lift the curtain of mild grayness that is my life ( wrackspurts) and help me come out of my Generalized Anxiety about People and become the person who is like a dog at a picnic, greeting everyone instead of Don’t Make Eye Contact.
The weirdest side effect for me in the beginning was change of gate. I would be pushing a shopping cart at the store at the standard Shopping Cart Pace and it would feel like a thumb tack was torqing my right buttcheek muscle. Only at that pace and only that buttcheek. Weird, huh.
It not only changed my life, but I can see and diagnose various forms of mental issues ( some at a 100 paces.) and have decided that everyone need medication sooner or later because we are all fucked up in our own special way. And the ones that say they don’t need it and nothing is wrong with them, are the worst. It’s kindof a bizarre little hobby for me.
Welcome to your new life!
Thanks everyone! Your reactions are heartwarming. Hi Faithfool, Shirley **Zoe **and Avarie!
Ivorytowerdenizen, how are you doing?
lissener, I just reupped my prescription. My insurance paid for it, but the price I would otherwise have to pay was on the package: 30 USD dollar for 2 months, on an average (small) dose, 20 mg (or mcrg) a day. I’m currently on 10 mg a day, so 30 USD lasts me 4 months. At 7 dollars a month, seldom was money better spent.
The flyer with the medicine says it is prescibed for both depression and bulimia. I would never have thought of myself as bulemic, but it even affects my “slight to moderate problem eating”, which I will confess to.
MsWhatsit, “So cram it, buddy” aptly describes my feelings on the matter, too. 
I haven’t told too many people IRL, but I got another reaction that also puzzled me: a “Oh you poor thing, now you will have to take those meds for years and be all dependent on them”-attitude. “So?” I thought. If ti works, it works. Try being me, mildly depressed with the occasional bad PMS day from hell, for five years, and then you can call me a poor thing. (Which, come to think of it, no-one did. Lazy, yes. Bitch, too. No fun, as well. But poor thing? No. Hmnn…)
Fun thing is that even my husband, who was initially very sceptical, now, afer two months, admits he sees the Prozac is actually helping me. He says he notices more energy, more social activity, less binging, and the absence of bad PMS like days.“You just seem to be able to stand a lot more and be relaxed about it”, he says.
It is so reassuring to know that I wasn’t really a bitch, after all (well, not that big of a bitch, anyway ) I was just depressed. Woot! (see, that’s the Prozac talking. Having been depressed for five years now is a silver lining. )
Maastricht, I lived with depression for many years (most of it as a ‘functional’ depressive, working, raising a family etc) and tried many different drugs and therapies to no avail. I was hospitalised on a few occasions, and indeed even tried to take my own life: luckily I failed, dismally, just like the rest of my life at the time. 
The last time I was in hospital I underwent 16 treatments of ECT, and even THAT didn’t work for me. :rolleyes:
Seeing my shrink after the hospitalisation, he decided to try Prozac (the only antidepressant I’d never been prescribed funnily enough). I remember the day vividly, just about 2 weeks later and I woke up feeling really good. Normally I’d wake with a sinking nauseous sensation about the day ahead, but this time I FELT OK. So weird.
I revelled in the wonderful feeling, but felt dubious that it would last. I kept taking those pills though, except I few weeks later it got to the point where I was a wee bit manic (at least it was a change from being depressed hehehehe). I can talk about it now, but I went on a massive shoplifting spree…I felt totally invincible and righteous and had not one single qualm about my actions. :eek:
However, I was sane enough to realise that Prozac was probably NOT a good drug for me, and weaned myself off over the next two weeks. Since then (nine years ago) I have not had ONE single day of depression, and I haven’t done anything totally stupid and reckless either. I’ve gotta say it was the very best thing for me, and I hope it does the same for you too.
Good luck **Maastricht. ** Depression really sucks donkey balls, but when you’re finally out of it, the world is an amazing place again.
My usual response to that is:
If you break your arm, you go get it fixed, right? Headache? You medicate it. So if there’s something wrong with your BRAIN, why wouldn’t you fix the situation?
Maastricht- thanks for asking!
My doctor had me go off it until all my headaches went away. I was in a lot of pain that Tylenol barely touched. I’m almost better and we’re going to try again just to make sure it wasn’t a virus, but the drug. I’m going to ask for a lower dose, as she decided to skip teh 10mg week and jumped to the 20mg dose. I’m very sensitive to meds, so that may have been too much.
But I felt so good, mentally! I didn’t have any anxiety attacks and I wasn’t even worried that they would. So, I feel unhappy that I had to go off of them. But we’ll see…
There’s a huge number of available medications, and they all work a little differently. Keep at it til you find the right mix. The annoying part is the two-week titration process you have to go through when switching meds.