Hello. I have decided to join in the hope of gaining advice and support. I've been on Fluoxetine for 6 or 7 years. My 21 year old daughter also suffers from depression (she is still at home) and my 16 year old has OCD and dyslexia. My husband has dyslexia and a mother with a personality disorder - so we're all a bit mad. My mother was depressive and my aunt paranoid schizophrenic. I have had undiagnosed depressive bouts since my teens and suffered postnatally but had no treatment. I finally cracked when we lost our home due to financial disaster in our small business, went to bed for 2 weeks having started on fluoxetine - before getting up and fighting on. Now all these years later I find myself wanting to find out if I can cope without the drugs, as they make me so distant and apathetic and not myself - and I feel I owe it to myself and my daughters to wake up and take more control rather than drifting along. I always said I would never be the same after the breakdown - but I think part of that is now true because I'm still on medication. I did stop taking them just over a year after I started, but I couldn't cope. Now I want to try. I did attend a group therapy session the year before last - which helped me believe in my ability to change and cope. I have now cut down from 40mg to 20mg and am now taking 20mg every other day. I am seeing my doctor tomorrow morning - as I haven't spoken to her since I started cutting back. I've been a bit dizzy and irritable, and I'm scared about what I will be like without medication. So, that's where I'm at - I will post again soon.
