A young woman declare her experience

I'm a sophomore in college. I took Prozac, as well as Zoloft, for about a year my senior year of high school, and then took a break my freshman year of college. After a somewhat disastrous semester academically my second year, I went to the University Health Services and was put back on it. I've been taking 60 mg for almost two months, and I'm not sure if it has done much for me to tell the truth. After the third week on progressively higher doses, I felt MUCH better. Not happy exactly, but logical, freed from my emotions and able to step aside from them, and choose what to do. However, I became so afraid of being "mind-controlled" by an antidepressant that I deliberately tried being depressed again. Sure enough, it worked, and within a few days I was back to my old self. Prozac can have powerful effects, but it works in subtle ways. Ultimately, people will always be stronger than Prozac, so realize that the desire to get better will be CRITICAL for your recovery.

In short, Prozac can help free you from obsessional thinking, emotional "overdoses" and let you logically look at your life. Essentially, I would describe the effect of my third week of Prozac as this: If I really wanted to get over my depression, I could will myself, with a lot of hard work, out of it. Prozac simply does a lot of the willing work for you, because you just don't "naturally" feel that depressed. Somehow, your mood is lifted. Sure, you can still feel sad, but you sort of have the option not to. However, if you are depressed, OC, or bipolar, you still need to combine your medical treatment with some kind of talk therapy. While there are some biochemical causes to depression, if you are depressed it is probably also a function of feeling "out of control" or hopeless with your current life situation. Realize that in order to stop feeling depressed, you will have to deal with these problems as well, and this is something that Prozac cannot do.

Finally, there are a few side effects to Prozac, like people have mentioned, loss of sexual interest is quite common, and I personally noticed some drowsiness. However, unlike the older brand of antidepressants, like the MAOI, the side effects are minimal.