Please help!

[cyncyn]

Hi I haven't been on this forum for a long time since I was doing what I consider "better". The problem is I have noticed my anxiety increasing gradually to now where I am beside myself with anxiety. I used to never worry about health issues but since three people I know have had heart attacks in the last month, I have become obsessed with worry that it might happen to me. My job is very stressful and I find myself having chest pains & difficulty breathing at times. I just recently within the last 6 weeks have been taking Prozac with my klonopin to help with my anger & stress. I feel very sleepy on 10mg and haven't upped my dose because 10 mg helped right away except very sleepy, but even people around me noticed I'm much better at letting things go. I noticed though around week 3 that I was waking up with anxiety in the morning which has steadily increased to me having severe anxiety this morning. I have taken prozac 20 yrs ago but don't remember this side effect before. Has anyone experienced this before? I was very reluctant to take an SSRI because of side effects I experienced in the past but wasn't fair to my husband to have all this anger & depression. I have a scheduled appointment with my doctor tomorrow just wanted some advice. Thanks

[sarah37]

Not a big fan of Prozac.. too many side affects that conflict with anxiety in my opinion and personal use. I'm not a Dr. but you may try just using one anxiety med. (No depression med.) and trying different ones until you find one that works with you. This is what I did, I was taking all kinds of shit until I realized I just had anxiety. Talk to your Dr. about this. Sometimes Doctors will confuse simply anxiety with depression and vise versa and treat both which is not the answer in my opinion. Too much medications equals zombie mode.

[Dahila]

Sarah is right, my GP is trying to tell me that I am depressed, and I just have anxiety. Sadness is not depression. Doctors do not know much about it, I mean family doctors, but psychiatrist will know what to do, with it:)

[Ricky3]

Hi Cyncyn. It's true that Prozac can cause some anxiety in the first few weeks of taking it. Years ago when I took Prozac and was flying around the room with anxiety I thought...and this stuff is supposed to HELP?... The anxiety almost always subsides. Many people have some trouble sleeping for a while , too. So, as always with these medications, we have to weigh the risks against the benefits. And that's always hard. Good news about Prozac (and a whole lot of people may disagree with this after their own experiences. I totally respect that, of course) is that of all of this type of medications Prozac has the least awful and shortest withdrawl period. I hope you can have a good conversation with your doctor. And Dahlia is right on. Family MDs do care and will try to help but the whole science of psychiatric drugs is so complex that, if you can, seeing a psychiatrist might really make a difference for you. I wish you all the best. Ricky3

[cyncyn]

Thanks for the help everyone. I guess I should have mentioned when I said "doctor" I meant my Psychiatrist. She wanted to put me on Effexor which I know from working in a pharmacy is a bear to withdraw from, I didn't ask the advice from pharmacist I work with because I don't feel comfortable discussing it with co workers. I don't have typical depression if you can call it that, I have lots of moods, rage being one of them and being 45 it's probably hormonal as well, but the prozac is helping me let things roll off where I'd blow up before, just noticed more anxiety:(. Thanks again & I'll go over this with her tonight