Prozac causing more anxiety?

[serinitynow1]

Hello,
I have been on 20mg's Prozac for about 3 1/2 weeks now and my anxiety (especially in the morning) seems to be getting worse.  I also take 15mg's of Remeron (generic) to help me sleep at night.  

My questions are.... could the Prozac be making my anxiety worse?  Would increasing my does help relieve the anxiety or make it worse?

I have a doctor's appointment in a couple of days, but was thinking I would take the 20mgs of Prozac every other day to see if this helps reduce some of my anxiety.

Thank you

[blackcompe]

The side effects your feeling are due to your body adjusting to the medication. Prozac is a re-uptake inhibitor, it stops the serotonin from being recycled back into your nerve cell. Therefore, the serotonin stays outside the cell and hangs out, in hopes of creating stronger cell communication. Eventually, a great amount of serotonin builds up around the nerve cells, signaling the cell to stop producing serotonin. When the cells stop making serotonin, your nerve cell communication becomes even weaker and creates more depression and anxiety than before you took the medicine. This is believed and documented to be the cause of the side effects during the first few weeks of therapy.

Because the nerve cells are sensitize to great amounts of serotonin, they start to loss their signaling proteins, thus, becoming less sensitive and begin to create serotonin again. This is when the therapeutic effects manifest and the side effects disappear.

In a nutshell, it's normal and happens with many anti-depressants. I hope this helps.

[becky808]

I also had more anxiety after taking Prozac for 2-3 weeks. My depression wasn't gone either. Just a little better.  
At my 4 week check up my psychiatrist increased the dose to 40mg a day. It's been almost 1 week on 40mg a day. I'm able to sleep a little better. I'm also able to calm down easier. I still have anxiety. I feel like it's getting much better though.

My appetite is very strange. I just make sure to eat scheduled meals for now. Hopefully that will get better.

I hope that helps you.

[serinitynow1]

Thanks all,

Talk about rubbing salt into an open wound!  It's amazing how these meds work!  They can actually make you feel worse before feeling better?!  Usually by the time somone needs meds (at least in my case) they have "held out" as long as they can.... and then they take the meds and BAM! they get knocked back a step!

Well, my morning anxiety has decresed a little so I'm hoping I will start to feel the therapeutic effects soon.

Thanks again