7 hours ago, Chippy said:

am sorry to hear. If the RI didn't really ever help

I have been with @ElaineM since the beginning of her journey on SA. Her reinstatement, in my opinion, definitely helped. When you read over her thread, within a week of RI she was seeing improvement.

The thing with prozac is full WD doesn't show up till much later due to the long half life of norfluoxetine. (the drug fluoxetine metabolized into)

We have no idea how bad the WD might have got because she was at 3 months cold turkey. The RI, in my opinion, lessened the fallout significantly.

For someone on 80 mg of prozac for over 10 years and going CT, and experiencing WD symptoms at 3 months, reinstatement mitigated the damage.

I know you don't agree @ElaineM but you have done a detox and used numerous supplements that affect the CNS and serotonin levels. These too could be affecting your recovery. (This is one example: AI: Valerian root primarily affects the calming neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and interacts with GABA-A receptors in the central nervous system to promote relaxation and sleep (read more at Healthline).Affected NeurotransmittersGABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid): A chemical messenger that lowers brain activity. Valerian root helps increase GABA amounts by stopping the enzymes that break it down.Adenosine: A chemical that helps regulate sleep and tiredness. Valerian compounds interact with adenosine to support sleepiness.Serotonin: A chemical involved in mood and sleep control. Valerian may gently interact with serotonin pathways.Glutamate: An exciting brain chemical. Valerian extracts can selectively bind to glutamatergic receptors.Affected ReceptorsGABA-A Receptors: Active compounds like valerenic acid attach to GABA-A receptors (specifically targeting the beta subunits) to help calm nerve cells.Adenosine A1 Receptors: Valerian binds directly to these receptors, which helps create a sedative or relaxing effect on the body (findings detailed by ScienceDirect).Serotonin Receptors: Plant constituents show a minor affinity for interacting with these mood-regulating receptors.)

Just recently I have realized even how much ginger can negatively impact gut health and cause the symptoms it should alleviate. We are just very complex and everything works so closely together. It always is a gamble.

❤️🙏

Hope your girls are doing great? We're you able to adopt yet?

Edited August 17Aug 17 by LostinCanada

Yes it’s quite possible it helped stuff from getting worse, I just didn’t feel like it really made things better. At least not that I remember. I majorly still struggled with sleep. And I don’t know if gaba made things worse for me then but I know my body doesn’t handle it good now.

@Chippy I actually have two sweet little girls. One is 4 and the other one is 2 (she is the one I was pregnant with during the beginning of withdrawal).

Actually it seems like some herbal supplements have helped me. I am sensitive to certain things for sure. B vitamins (not sure what all ones), gaba, high histamine supplements, antihistamines and supplements that affect detox don’t work great. But some of them like b vitamins only bother me for a couple days and then I feel better. For instance I am taking perilla extract right now and lots of it and doing fine. I think it is helping lower my histamine load.

I don’t know how to rate my withdrawal because based on other people mine really doesn’t seem that bad and I don’t know what is withdrawal and what is me without meds. However since I have histamine intolerance I will rate it an 5.

And yes I do know I have histamine problems and for me I must be on a low histamine diet. I have gotten so bad when not that I feel awful. Like lay on the couch, heart pounding or so anxious awful. I will jerk awake from sleeping from high histamine etc. I can definitely tell it helps me. The other day I decided to be daring and try some steak sauce with tomato in it. Terrible idea🙈

@LostinCanada no we have not adopted yet, but we are on the active list which is where we say yes to different situations and the birth mom chooses from a group of the people that say yes who she wants to adopt her child.

My other girls are doing good! My oldest just started school again for the year and is doing great. My 2 year old is so much fun but also very busy and makes some very creative messes😂😍

15 hours ago, LostinCanada said:

I have been with @ElaineM since the beginning of her journey on SA.

This does not surprise me Lic you are always so kind and supportive of others, thank you! x

15 hours ago, LostinCanada said:

Her reinstatement, in my opinion, definitely helped. When you read over her thread, within a week of RI she was seeing improvement.

That is really useful to know :)

15 hours ago, LostinCanada said:

The thing with prozac is full WD doesn't show up till much later due to the long half life of norfluoxetine. (the drug fluoxetine metabolized into)

We have no idea how bad the WD might have got because she was at 3 months cold turkey. The RI, in my opinion, lessened the fallout significantly.

For someone on 80 mg of prozac for over 10 years and going CT, and experiencing WD symptoms at 3 months, reinstatement mitigated the damage.

I completely agree, this is very likley the case.

15 hours ago, LostinCanada said:

know you don't agree @ElaineM but you have done a detox and used numerous supplements that affect the CNS and serotonin levels. These too could be affecting your recovery.

I am with you lic as you know I am not a big fan of supplements and I suspect they cause a lot of problems for folks. I am not super pushy on my thoughts on this as I know for some they think they can help and even with Magnesium which we do suggest, for some this can be a problem, so it is very hard to say things are good or bad for certain in WD. I am always suspicious though of these things and personally would suggest avoiding.

14 hours ago, ElaineM said:

@Chippy I actually have two sweet little girls. One is 4 and the other one is 2 (she is the one I was pregnant with during the beginning of withdrawal).

I love this! My sister has two girls too! Im sure they will be your best friends when they are older and I have no doubt they are a real blessing to you now :) x

14 hours ago, ElaineM said:

Actually it seems like some herbal supplements have helped me. I am sensitive to certain things for sure. B vitamins (not sure what all ones), gaba, high histamine supplements, antihistamines and supplements that affect detox don’t work great. But some of them like b vitamins only bother me for a couple days and then I feel better. For instance I am taking perilla extract right now and lots of it and doing fine. I think it is helping lower my histamine load.

I think that it is great you can see these things have helped you and you sound like you are dialled into what is good and isn't for your body. As I said to Lic I am not a fan of supplements for a variety of reasons, however everyone is different and it is impossible to know what will or wont cause problems for an individual.

14 hours ago, ElaineM said:

I don’t know how to rate my withdrawal because based on other people mine really doesn’t seem that bad and I don’t know what is withdrawal and what is me without meds. However since I have histamine intolerance I will rate it an 5.

I appreciate that it can be very hard to rate things some times, it is helpful to know though. So overall you are having a reasonably hard time by the sounds of it. Something to note.

14 hours ago, ElaineM said:

And yes I do know I have histamine problems and for me I must be on a low histamine diet. I have gotten so bad when not that I feel awful. Like lay on the couch, heart pounding or so anxious awful. I will jerk awake from sleeping from high histamine etc. I can definitely tell it helps me. The other day I decided to be daring and try some steak sauce with tomato in it. Terrible idea🙈

Again it is great you are so dialled in to these things. I tried low histimine and didn't see any noticeable improvement, others I know have. Definatley stay away from that steak sauce then!

On 8/15/2026 at 5:53 PM, ElaineM said:

I have a random question which may be a bit confusing. I haven’t lowered my dose for over a year but my histamine problems are still really bad. Is it possible that still being on a tiny bit of these meds are what’s causing the histamine problems. Like maybe our body is sensitive to the very meds that are keeping us from further spiraling into sensitivity? Idk if that makes sense.

Personally I would be really careful here. A lot of the time I think folk are suffering with a WD injury rather than WD itself or adverse effects from their drugs. It can be a mismash of all three too! Recovering from WD injury can take a long time even when still on the drug.

As you are on a low dose and you rate your current symptom levels moderately (5/10) I think I would be very hesitant to taper further as your symptom headroom is quite low. As Lic has said, Prozac has a long half life and WD can be delayed and stack anyway so, this effect is worse for Prozac, WD could turn up 9 months later! So with your symptom headroom quite low you may find if you did experience WD much later and a stacking of WD, it would be quite hard to manage.

If it was me I would suggest keep that low dose of Prozac in place for 6 months and see if things start to settle some more for you. Alternatively if you want to try to taper, make a small reduction 1-2%, you can check for an improvement from making a cut, feel like you are moving forwards, and then hold that dose for 6 months and wait and see if you get any WD. Mitigate a little risk.

Just some thoughts for you xxx

29 minutes ago, Chippy said:

I love this! My sister has two girls too! Im sure they will be your best friends when they are older and I have no doubt they are a real blessing to you now :) x

Yes they definitely are!!

30 minutes ago, Chippy said:

A lot of the time I think folk are suffering with a WD injury rather than WD itself or adverse effects from their drugs. It can be a mismash of all three too! Recovering from WD injury can take a long time even when still on the drug.

That is a really interesting view point to consider it an injury. It does seem like it messed up my nervous system. Looks like I am getting two opinions. One saying to hold longer and another saying to lower dose😅

Only lowering 1-2 percent is such a small amount🙈 I will say that it feels a bit depressing with how many years left I have of getting off of meds. I think I calculated it to be about 2.5-3 years left if I lower 10 percent each month with not breaks. Do some people ever get to a point where they are able to lower faster?

1 minute ago, ElaineM said:

hat is a really interesting view point to consider it an injury. It does seem like it messed up my nervous system. Looks like I am getting two opinions. One saying to hold longer and another saying to lower dose😅

It is good to get different opinons so you can make an informed choice for yourself.

One thing to note is that in WD we are often looking to be in control and find things to help. Often there is nothing but time and trying things can make things worse. It is just a case of identifying if you think the dose is a problem for you or are you wanting it to be so it will ease things for you.

Just now, ElaineM said:

Only lowering 1-2 percent is such a small amount🙈 I will say that it feels a bit depressing with how many years left I have of getting off of meds. I think I calculated it to be about 2.5-3 years left if I lower 10 percent each month with not breaks. Do some people ever get to a point where they are able to lower faster?

I know, I think it is a case of reframing, many want to be off the drug, and I get that, it is however much better to be stable and tapering then destablised, kindled yourself and end up in protracted withdrawal but off the drug.

7 hours ago, ElaineM said:

Do some people ever get to a point where they are able to lower faster?

Yes...read over @AlmostOff thread. 😊