Does Prozac cause anxiety?

Medications
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I was stable on 10 mg of Lexapro but my pdoc wanted me to switch to Prozac. I started taking 10 mg Prozac last Sunday.

I’ve had progressively increased paranoia, and severe anxiety ever since. Needed my klonopin every day. This morning I woke up crying hysterically. Klonopin couldn’t kick in fast enough before I cut myself to calm down.

I am going back to Lexapro, too bad for the pdoc. but I wonder, does Prozac CAUSE anxiety? i thought SSRIs were supposed to help with it! my paranoia is bad enough on a daily basis without a med exacerbating it…

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Antidepressants can be activating and cause anxiety also.
They can easily make someone manic and destabilize moods.

It’s best that you get in touch with your doctor.
Cutting is a sign of destabilization.

Good luck @anon39736208!

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Thank you! I will call her on Monday when her office is open again.

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wow thats a really low dose of prozac for it to be causing that kind of adverse effect. i would be scared to see what a higher dose like im on (80 mg) would do

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maybe its not working yet

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I used to take 80 mg of Prozac with my previous pdoc and I was always jumping out of my skin then too. I never thought it might be the Prozac though. I was always in tears and anxious. He had me on seven diffferent meds so who knew what was causing what, right?

I don’t need a huge dose like I do with my anti-psychotic. The 10 mg was to get me switched over from the Lexapro and then I see my pdoc again on August 1 to follow up on that and other things. All’s I know is that all hell broke loose just this week with my anxiety and there’s only one thing that changed. I went straight from Lexapro to Prozac so it’s not like I had nothing in my system. Cutting is NOT acceptable though, I am not fooling around with this Prozac.

I refilled my Lexapro today and left a message for the pdoc for Monday. Told her she didn’t have to call me back since I’m about to see her anyway, just keeping her posted.

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Just wanted to add a followup to this thread in case anyone ever searches it for answers in their own situation…

My pdoc called me back today even though I said she didn’t need to since I’m seeing her next Wednesday. She said it was definitely the Prozac causing me to have the major panic and paranoia episodes. Apologized profusely that I had that reaction, but I don’t blame her. She was doing what she thought was right. I did the right thing going back to Lexapro.

She offered to bump me up to Thursday of this week since this was the second time I had to call her between appointments, but I didn’t need that. I’m very grateful that I have such a caring pdoc though.

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That’s great to hear, good luck! And yes Prozac is very activating, so it can exacerbate anxiety. Lexapro is more calming and is great for anxiety

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SSRI’s commonly cause anxiety initially, this then goes away over time. Depending on the ssri and how it reacts with you this anxiety may be strong or nonexistent. Zoloft I got not anxiety at all. Lexapro gave me anxiety so horrific I couldn’t make it past the first 2 pills, even though I knew over time it would probably get better. Sometimes diff meds are better fits.