Fluoxetine - No energy at all?

Hello everyone,

I'm not going to go into the background of my depression and anxiety too much but I was put on 20mg of Fluoxetine a day about a year ago and then upped to 40mg. For whatever reason I stopped taking them after a few months, I was never particularly good at taking them anyway as I always forgot to take medication etc. I can't really remember what I felt like on the pills at that point but I recently was told I'd be starting a new job last week and as I haven't worked due to my condition for about a year now I thought it would be wise to start taking the pills again.

This was about 3 weeks ago now (approximately, maybe a little less) and I started my dosage at 40mg a day unaware until Monday that I wasn't supposed to do this. I did two days at my new job last week and managed just about with a little anxiety but nothing I couldn't cope with. On the Monday, my boyfriend (whom I live with), my Dad and my close friend had gone away. I got very close to my workplace after a 40 minute drive, had a panic attack and had to turn around.

I went to the doctors who told me I shouldn't have gone back onto 40mg a day and to reduce it to 20 and that might have been what made me so anxious (even though this has been a MASSIVE problem for about 2 years now).

Work have now told me to take the rest of the week off to see if my symptons calm down. I have lowered my dose but just feel completely lethargic, energyless, lazy, like I really just can't be bothered with anything. I don't want to do anything, I don't want to talk to anyone, I just don't feel anything. I haven't got out of bed for the last 3 days particularly which is behavior I thought I'd gotten over.

I don't know if this is because there's noone around me, the meds or whether it's a set back because I haven't felt like this in ages. I've had really really low moods and cry a lot but I've actually tried to take enjoyment and do proactive things whereas now I just don't want to do anything at all.

Does anyone have any experience/advice with this? I really don't enjoy feeling this way. It's nice not feeling upset and anxious at the moment but I do feel like I'm wasting my time but I just don't have the energy to change it.

Thanks!

TL;DR - Back on fluoxetine after a few months for about 3 weeks, started on 40 mg, advised to reduce to 20. Feel lifeless, energyless, no interest in anything, don't want to talk to anyone, lazy, have been in bed for 3 days. Before I was very emotional, crying a lot, now I don't feel much but I have no motivation either. Has anyone got experience/advice on this?

Anyone?

Original post by Jesseecar123

TL;DR - Back on fluoxetine after a few months for about 3 weeks, started on 40 mg, advised to reduce to 20. Feel lifeless, energyless, no interest in anything, don't want to talk to anyone, lazy, have been in bed for 3 days. Before I was very emotional, crying a lot, now I don't feel much but I have no motivation either. Has anyone got experience/advice on this?

Hello hello,

If you've been on it before and 40mg was your old dose, that's probably why they tried starting at 40mg straight off the bat. Just because you were once on it, though, doesn't really mean that you're good to straight back onto maximum dose if there was an interval when you weren't on it, and it's usually best to start at the 20mg again and build up.

SSRIs like this will drain some energy, particularly for the first 2-4 weeks after starting them. When you're depressed your energy is already low, so it can make you feel like this - you can become initially so low in energy and mood that you actually stop feeling emotional and instead just feel drained and pretty blank.

Dropping it down to 20mg daily is a very good idea, and I'd have thought they'd have started on 20mg in the first place anyway, but they didn't, and we can't really change that now. Dropping to 20mg and gradually building it up to the desired dose is a far better idea than slamming a whole 40mg straight into your system. You'll get used to it without such a big dip that way, and by the time you've built up to the full dosage, you'll probably be over the worst of the energy draining side-effects, so the 40mg won't be as intolerable.

When they start properly working (typically 4-6 weeks into the treatment before you see the proper effect) they'll get to work on the depression itself, which is a biological illness that causes you to be tired, flat and demotivated (amongst its many other symptoms) by the effects it has on your brain, so it should all come together if you persevere! But if you feel like you can't, then you just need to know to talk about it - the doctor isn't going to be annoyed that you feel that you can't continue taking that medicine - he/she may feel that if you persevere the medicine will work properly eventually (because we know that this is how these medicines work), but ultimately, whatever you do, keep in touch so that if you're going to give up on the fluoxetine, something can be done, whether that's convincing you to keep trying, or using a different drug which might suit you better, and just generally making sure you're ok.

ΘΣ

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

username573633

Original post by Friar Chris

Thanks very much for your insight. It wasn't actually the doctors that put me back on that amount, I assumed because I was on that much before and I still had pills left over that was what I should take again which was obviously very naive.
I really hope I can persevere through this feeling as I thought I was over feeling lifeless and I have just started a new job but have already been given the week off due to my anxiety. I really need all the motivation I can get at the moment and I feel like I was better off before I was on these meds despite the constant emotional rollercoaster I was on.
None the less I will take your advice and try to push through! Thanks again.

Reply 4

daniee

Before I was very emotional, crying a lot, now I don't feel much but I have no motivation either. Has anyone got experience/advice on this?

i completely understand how you feel with this. i was started on fluoxetine in May this year because of the same issues; crying almost everyday for no reason, no motivation, complete loss of concentration with anything. can't give you much advice as i'm not really used to it all myself yet, but sometimes it helps if you know people who are/have been in certain situations or had similar emotions. hope this helps somewhat.. :smile:

Reply 5

Flowerii

Original post by daniee

*Twilight Zone Music*
That's pretty much my experience exactly! Strange stuff. High five :hi:

Regarding exhaustion on fluoxetine, I'm not sure I can give a completely straight answer. I'm absolutely shattered for sure, and completely fatigued, but it might not necessarily be solely because of fluoxetine since I rarely sleep through the night due to other issues.
It's certainly not a rare side effect, if you find it's really impacting on your life you could ask your GP to try something else.

Reply 6

juliam

I've had this problem too, and I'm not a big fan of taking meds either, but I found taking vitamin B with it helped stop that... just worked for me but ask your doctor

Reply 7

abigail_shortie

I was on Fluoxetine for 3 months before I decided to stop taking it. I was literally sleeping the majority of the time. If you don't eat well anyway, and have a lot of stress (which you would anyway, having anxiety) it can sap the life out of you. That, and the fact I couldn't keep any food down for 2 months. I started taking Certraline instead and had a much better experience...
But usually, there is a transition period where your body is reacting to it. It should calm down eventually..