Question:
Well, I ain't them, and just because these things don't happen to them doesn't encourage me that they aren't going to happen to me, it's all a probability thing. Just cos you've come up heads this time doesn't make it any more unlikely
that you'll get tails on the next flip of the coin. And frankly I'd as soon
not take the risk. Irresponsible? Probably. "Well, you've only got
yourself to blame now, you don't WANT to get cured..." But I can't see that
it's good odds, not when some of the side effects are apparently potentially
fatal. On the other hand, I know loads of people DO take this one, so maybe
I'm just overreacting. I do that, periodically. Any thoughts, anyone?
Answer:
Finally managed to persuade myself to go to the doc's today, and to be fair
he was pretty cool about it - I must admit I'd expected more problems than I
got. So that was good. He's prescribed me something called 'fluoxetine
hydrochloride' (which is basically Prozac without the trademark). Trouble
is, it's got a list of side-effects as long as my arm, and some of them are
pretty scary - including bleeding, 'blue-black patches over the skin',
violent behaviour, strokes (I kid you not), and even suicidal tendencies
(which I thought was *particularly* funny, in an entirely humourless sort of
a way). I'm not going to worry about the 'suppression of menses' thing too
much, obviously, but ye gods - I'm not so nuts that I'd want to risk the
stuff on this list! Rang back and spoke to the practice nurse who did all
the reassuring and so on: "oh, don't worry, I know loads of people who take
it and they hardly have any problems at all"... Oh, GOOD. Well, I ain't
them, and just because these things don't happen to them doesn't encourage
me that they aren't going to happen to me, it's all a probability thing.
Just cos you've come up heads this time doesn't make it any more unlikely
that you'll get tails on the next flip of the coin. And frankly I'd as soon
not take the risk. Irresponsible? Probably. "Well, you've only got
yourself to blame now, you don't WANT to get cured..." But I can't see that
it's good odds, not when some of the side effects are apparently potentially
fatal. On the other hand, I know loads of people DO take this one, so maybe
I'm just overreacting. I do that, periodically.
As IOStorm said, every single drug/medication/herbal supplement is bound to
have side affects from minor to major. The only time I would worry much
about any possible side affects is if you've had a bad reaction to other
meds. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, while some of the ones
you mentioned can be pretty serious, a lot of the minor side affects aren't
so bad as to stop taking it. I get dry mouth really bad sometimes on
Zoloft. But I keep taking it anyways. (I need to drink more water anyways.
:op ) Just make sure you do report any unusual problems to your doc. Don't Panic! The drug companies have to put all that stuff in the
leaflet, because otherwise they'd be afraid of being sued if someone
got a side-effect they weren't warned about. Most of those effects
are pretty rare, and even if they happen they aren't as severe as
they sound. The most likely side-effects (according to anecdote and
my own experience) are a dry mouth, a bit more sweat than usual, and
trouble getting an erection. The side-effects usually appear first,
then fade away, before the benefits start to appear - and if they
don't, the doctor can usually suggest more pills to treat the side-
effects (and so on, ad infinitum). If you find that you get side-
effects you cannot tolerate, there are lots of other anti-depressants
around, some of which work in entirely different ways - so there's a
good chance that you'll find something that works well for you.
Fluoxetine has been around for a good while now, and I've never heard
of anything worse than 'it doesn't work'. I took it myself for some
time (up to 60mg/day) and it did help me; just not quite enough, so
now I've moved on to something else - making my sixth anti-depressant
so far.
Think of the possible side-effects of alcohol or double cream - most
people manage to survive the odd beer or rich pudding )
