Prozac & zoloft... differences for you?

[mom0810]

Hi,

I've been on zoloft in the past for OCD & anxiety. It helped a lot. But I gained weight on it, so I went off and have been trying to deal with OCD through therapy alone, and some nutritional support.

I'm tired.

It's SO hard to fight this without meds. I CAN do it, of course. I have proven that to myself. But it gets worse with my period, it is better up till I ovulate, and then I am downhill again. The rollercoaster is exhausting and I want to level things out.

I AM looking in to having my hormones tested, and if there is an imbalance, I will treat that with bioidentical hormones and if that does the trick, then great. But if not, I am looking in to Prozac, which is the ssri that my pdoc wants me to try.

Has anyone been on prozac AND zoloft (obviously not at the same time)? And what did you find was the difference for *you*? Obviously I know ssri's are different for every person that takes them. But in your experience, what was the difference between the two?

My pdoc says prozac is better for OCD. She also said it's better in my case because it has less weight gain associated with it. What are your thoughts?

[Surfacing]

Hi Mom0810, you have been working really hard without the meds for a long time! I think it's only wise to know when you need some additional support again.

Haven't been on both Prozac and Zoloft, so I can't help you there... just wanted to give a and my support and say keep us posted with the results of your hormone test. I will say that my pdoc did a protocol with me for PMDD whereby we upped my meds during the last two weeks of my cycle (from ovulation until menstruation) based on recommendations supported by current research. Just putting that out there.

Must run and nurse baby!

[jillmamma]

I tried Zoloft in the past, and it did not work for me; Prozac is what I am on now and it is working better.
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[mommahhh]

I was on Zoloft for years and it really helped my mood. However, I gained a lot of weight (like around 60 lbs in 8 years) and I had a lot of daytime fatigue (needing to nap). It stopped working for me after I had my daughter. I took Prozac for 2 years. It worked well too, but I still had the fatigue. I didn't gain any weight on Prozac, but I didn't lose anything either. It wasn't until I stopped all meds that I quit needing a nap in the afternoon and I lost weight.

[sweetpea333]

I tried both for ocd,  I found that zoloft made me very tired and did give me weight gain and i stayed on it for only about 2 months.  Prozac definitely helped and I found that it made me more awake and a little bit hyper and it did help with the ocd and also i actually lost alot of weight on it because i had more energy.  The down side about prozac is that i had a hard time falling asleep at nite and would have to take ativan to help me get to sleep.  And another thing about prozac is on higher doses like 40mg and up  I wasn't myself, it made me manic and I would do things i wouldn't normally do (like fight with my husband and want to divorce him) and the worst thing about it is for the year that I was on a high dose  I barely have any memories of it and can barely remember those stages of my daughter's life.  I know it sounds bad, but the bad times are because my doctor kept upping my dosage until I was taking 80 mgs. But I found it very helpful and low on negative side effects when i was on 20 mg.  I have restarted prozac about 4-5 times in the past 10 years.  Hope this helps a bit :)

[L J]

I'm on 20mg of Prozac right now. It seems to be working fairly well; it makes me a bit of a zombie, but that was kind of the effect I was going for. At least I'm no longer daydreaming about dying in a fiery car crash. My biggest problem with the Prozac is I cannot sleep at night. My doc has me on a tricyclic antidepressant to help me sleep, Amitriptyline, but I haven't noticed that it works yet. I am taking it as a sleeping pill, right before bed, but I still lay there for hours wishing for sleep unless I get up and take a Xanax.

I have mild OCD and Tourettes. I am not trying to treat either with the Prozac, but unlike a lot of other meds, the Prozac does not make my tics worse. It does make me a little tense when I first take it - tight jaw, weird eye pressure, stuff like that, but after an hour it wears off.

I took Zoloft many years ago, and it made me very tired. I could sleep all the time on it. I may have to switch back to it soon, if I can't start sleeping on the Prozac. I did gain weight on Zoloft; Prozac I have not gained any weight. Nothing tastes good - I have a horrible metallic taste in my mouth all the time, and even water tastes bad. Not complaining, though, because at least I won't gain on it. I am overweight anyway, so I really cannot afford to gain any more.