If you had to try several medications before you found what worked for you...

[Moody]

...how did you get back on the horse?

First of all, it took several years after my diagnosis (Generalized Anxiety Disorder/OCD) for me to get the nerve to talk to my doctor about going on medication. She prescribed me sertraline a couple of weeks ago. It did not agree with me, and after two days of some nasty cognitive side-effects, the doctor told me to stop taking it and drink lots of water to flush it out of my system faster. One of my worries is that I was too dizzy and disoriented to drive when I tried sertraline--not ideal when your weekend job is as a bus driver. I lost a whole weekend's worth of hours, which triggered a great deal of financial anxiety for me.

She asked me if I wanted to try something else, and I said yes, because I am tired of spending such a high percentage of my time feeling anxious. So I have a bottle of Prozac in my bag now. I was going to start it Sunday night, but then I decided to put it off until this morning, and this morning I decided to put it off until tomorrow morning. I've done my homework, and I know the Prozac could have completely different side effects from the sertraline. But I'm still afraid to take it. I'm afraid I'll be unable to work while I'm adjusting, which will be a financial strain (and doesn't exactly look good to the boss). I'm afraid that if I have another bad reaction, the Prozac won't wear off as quickly as the sertraline because it stays in the body longer. I'm afraid the Prozac won't be right for me and I'll have to try yet another SSRI, which might also hit me as hard as the sertraline. I feel like I need to start it this week, so I can report the results to my doctor when I go in for my annual physical in five weeks.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom about the anxieties of trying multiple medications? Or any success stories about Prozac, maybe?

[gypsylee]

Hi there,

All the SSRIs are very similar so if you had bad side-effects from one you'll probably get them from another. Prozac was actually the first med that worked for me but it was the first SSRI I tried. It took about 3 weeks though and it made me worse initially so the doctor prescribed Valium as well. I've always needed benzos to get through those first few weeks of taking SSRIs because they really do tend to knock you around (on top of your existing anxiety!)

All the best,
Gypsy x

[Kirk]

Medicine can work differently for different people. In some instances trial and error is the only way to
determine which medicine will work for you.

[salvator here]

SSRIs just weren't able to make me functional. I've also been on most of them. Buspar was helpful for me and my anxiety. Not as much help with depression though. Just make sure you tell your doctor if you feel things aren't feeling right, you know your own body.

Good luck

[Anne1221]

I've been on many of them, and each one affected me differently. But your case is different because your job is a bus driver.
So I don't know what to advise you. The one I was told is the "newest, cleanest and has the least side effects is escitalopram
(Lexapro) and I have stuck with that one.

[Anne1221]

I think the best bet for you is to start off slow. Tell your doctor to give you the lowest dose possible, so you have the least amount of side effects and don't increase until you feel steady on that particular dose. If it were me, I would ask my doctor for Lexapro instead of Prozac. It's a newer medication with fewer side effects. To get people started they give 5 mg. A therapeutic dose would be 10 mg.

To be honest with you, you really don't feel any side effects from the medication until after 7 days. But at the beginning you will feel everything in the world because it's something new you're putting in your body. It takes time to work so that's why you won't feel the good effects until 3-4 weeks.