Will I ever feel consistently normal?

[Falacience]

Looking for some reassurance/guidance 🙂.

I’ve been on 20mg Prozac/fluoxetine for a little over a month now (33 days!) and for a brief few days I started to feel more like myself, depression and anxiety greatly reduced. I even found myself randomly singing around the house again!

I’ve had all of the side effects across the weeks (increased anxiety, shakiness, dizziness, nausea and random spasms/jerks), but I felt the depression was at bay.

The last couple of days I’ve started to get the horrible black feelings of depression back again and heightened anxiety. My anxiety/depression isn’t really triggered by anything, so it’s scaring me a little that I’m feeling like this again.

I met with my doctor a few days ago and agreed to stay on 20mg as it seemed to be working. I’m really happy to ride out the side effects if I’m going to feel better and I’m reluctant to increase my dose prematurely, but I’m not sure if I should be getting these feelings after having a good few days and taking the medication for 1 full month?

Can anyone reassure me that it’s normal to feel reasonably strong anxiety/depression at this stage, and will it level out and give me a consistent feeling of being normal?

[BlueAgave]

Medications can be so tricky with the side effects and length of time it takes to feel better. We all react so differently from medication to medication. It's such a positive that you have had some relief and I believe you will reach that consistency. It just takes time. If not you know to contact your doctor. ❤️

[cashew78]

Hello, to answer your question based on my own experience with prozac and antidepressants in general; YES, it's normal to feel depressed and anxious and out of sorts at this stage. What I was told consistently, and then had to re-learn again and again is that the antidepressants stabilize your mood. Your mood, however, fluctuates over weeks and days like any other 'normal' person. The antidepressants -any antidepressants- should help reduce the peaks and valleys of these moods over time, making them a little less precipitous and sheer. And, over time, because the body feels less of the stressors it once had it eases and relaxes, allowing you to get on with your day.

For me it took some time; I was on some form of fluoxetine for near a decade before I decided to go off it. I'm back on an antidepressant now (again), but a few years later and after giving my body a rest from it. Keep being vigilant; it's good to evaluate and question what you're going through on medication because you are the best person to decide if the medication is working for you and/or the side effects are manageable. If not, your doctor can help you navigate to something more helpful.

As for feeling normal? I'm biased. Normal is overrated. I wish I cared less about 'normal' when I was on prozac; I would like to think I would have found 'functional' faster, then found what was 'normal' for me without assuming my version of normal was to be put under constant scrutiny.

I feel ya, people have been there too. Good luck.

[UnBaked_Cake]

It is normal but if it persists or gets worse definitely ween yourself off and talk to your doctor!

[Astro_potato]

My panic/anxiety is also not triggered by anything, and you are correct, it's terrifying to be having a conversation with someone, laughing, and feel 100% fine, then the next second you're sick to your stomach with fear and shaking. I also started prozac/fluoxetine about three weeks ago. Sometimes it feels like one baby step forward and then ten steps backward. I'm also (probably) making myself worse by wondering: are these side effects? Will they go away eventually? Should I take a higher dose? Is this just not the right medicine for me altogether? Alot of people on this forum so far have told me this is journey, and it's not quick, but we will eventually find our way back to normal. I'm walking alongside you.