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-   -   alcohol and prozac (https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/anxiety-disorders/235731-alcohol-prozac.html)

Lizzy25 09-04-2011 08:31 AM

alcohol and prozac
 
hi, i recently started taking prozac about a month ago. I've been a heavy drinker for about 7 years and have struggled with alcohol addiction. Every time I would drink, I would just have the worst hangovers in the morning, usually filled with gut-wrenching anxiety for no apparent reason. I would also occasionally experience black-outs which would make the anxiety ten times worse. It got to the point where I said I had enough and I was going to quit drinking and start taking anxiety medication. I had been sober for about a month, the same time i started taking prozac. Everything was going OK, alcohol withdrawal symptoms were bad at first but it got better. It seemed as I was slowly getting my life together. I had enrolled in college and have been doing pretty well in all my classes. It was all going pretty well until 2 days ago, I relapsed at my friends get together and drank a lot of beers. Don't really remember a whole lot but I know I didn't really do anything stupid. Waking up the next morning was the worst feeling ever in my life. Worst headache ever, sick to my stomach, HORRIBLE anxiety/depression, feel like giving up and I cant go through this all again. The guilt is so hard because I just feel like I let myself down. I'm now on day 2 and still just feel horrible, cant eat anything, having bad dreams. I have homework to do and cant even begin to think about that. I've quit drinking in the past for a couple weeks to a month and relapsed and didnt feel anywhere near as bad as i do now. I think its the prozac/alcohol mixture. Just wondering if anyone else has had any experiences like this??

TwoHundred 09-04-2011 09:54 AM

IMO, based on personal experiences and research I have done, it's not the combination. It's simply the fact you abused alcohol so much in the past. Withdrawal gets worse every time you go through it and these sensitized effects are permanent.
It's called Kindling. Everytime you get drunk and go through withdrawal, your brain remembers the process and it becomes reinforced. It reacts more aggressively (down regulating GABA, up-regulating Glutamate) to the alcohol next time and once the alcohol clears, you get the effects worse and worse every time.

nandm 09-04-2011 10:11 AM

Welcome to SR

My experience is that each time I went through a period of not drinking and would pick again my bodies reaction to alcohol had not improved. Toward the end of my drinking it did get worse with each unsuccessful attempt to quit drinking. My body reacted like I had not quit drinking at all. I was not being treated with anti-depressants during any of those times.

Unfortunately, I think it is true that the disease of alcoholism is always progressive never regressive. When we stop drinking although we may arrest the symptoms of alcoholism our bodies retain that memory of where we were at in our disease and when we pick back up we don't start at the beginning but where we left off.

That is just my experience though.

Freedom1990 09-04-2011 10:36 AM

I think the most important thing is to have a plan in place for the not drinking.

For me, AA was the answer. When I relapsed after 4 years clean/sober, it was awful, and the anxiety in between drinking binges was damned near unbearable.

When I got sick and tired of being sick and tired, I drug myself back up the steps of AA and started over again.

Find something that works for you in order to stay sober indefinitely.

I understand the shame and guilt of drinking again.

Sending you hugs of support! :hug:

Lizzy25 09-04-2011 12:33 PM

Hey thanks for the advice everybody. Day 2 is starting to get a little better...i was finally able to eat but still not feeling good...just laying around pretty much...feel very foggy...

Sparky47 05-24-2017 05:37 PM

Hi, I have been sober since 14/01/2017 I have taken Prozac for 17 years. The Prozac can not work whilst fighting the alcohol. I have not taken my dose for 4 weeks now, being sober seems to have released me from its grip.


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