Prozac Advice

Hello All,

I am considering trying Prozac, just for a short time, while I look into other treatment methods. I have been really struggling and am hoping for some kind of relief. I only wanna be on this medication for a little bit. Does anyone have any recommendations? I’m not sure if it’ll be beneficial for me long term to take Prozac just for a little bit or if I should just suffer and wait it out.

Are you asking for MAV or are you asking Prozac for anxiety ?

Mostly asking for the dizziness.

I sent you a private message with some additional information.

I have the “Heal Your Headache” book and in one of the little case studies in the book, he says:

“All of what Alice felt was migraine, and it all responded well to a combination of dietary modification and a change in the medication she was taking for depression. We substituted the migraine-preventive antidepressant Nortriptyline for Prozac, which in some people can stimulate migraine.”

Now, that book was published in 2002, so maybe his statement is no longer correct. But I don’t recall seeing Prozac in many of the lists of drugs that are used for prevention of migraine (or MAV).

When I was on it (about 3 years during MAV) I didn’t think it was helping the dizziness at all, but I wasn’t told it was prescribed for that. The doctor who prescribed it said it would help the Xanax last longer, and the Xanax helped my dizziness (I don’t recommend Xanax long term or even more than sporadic use though!) But anyway, the doctor at the Johns Hopkins Vestibular clinic told me to come off of it (I was only on 10 mg a day anyway, couldn’t handle the nausea with any increased dose) because it “wasn’t for vestibular migraine.” About 2-3 weeks after I stopped it (about when my psychiatrist said it would be fully out of my system) I noticed my light and sound sensitivity got A LOT worse. Crinkling tin foil made me almost fall to the floor (pushed down feeling) and I had to lay down in a dark room for an hour which is something that doesn’t usually help me but sounds were reverberating everywhere it was awful.

Anyway, maybe it helped my dizziness some because I have continued to get worse ever since I stopped it, however I still ended up in the ER due to extreme dizziness that I couldn’t stop while on it. So it probably didn’t help that much. However, I’m about to try Amitriptyline again but part of me does wonder if I went back on Prozac if I could at least get back to where I was when I was on it and not be apartment bound anymore…

Hope this helped, just figured I’d share my experience. And maybe a larger dose would have actually helped me, or could help you.

I had no problems stopping 10 mg cold turkey after being on it 3 years (they told me not to taper as it was such a low dose) which surprised me because I have tried to taper Xanax and have had major withdraw issues.

I was on fluoxetine for mental health and had more headaches on it, plus it made me grind my teeth at night which increased my problems due to added tension

Thanks for all of the replies guys! Ok, maybe I won’t try prozac then. I’m thinking either Zoloft or Paxil. I only want to be on something for a few weeks because I’m having a hard time.

I don’t want to disappoint you, but most of those drugs take several weeks to get into the system and start taking effect. I don’t know whether you’d see much benefit if you only plan to take it for a few weeks.

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Would it be wrong to recommend clonazepam for the short term when needed?