[Alone_and_Afraid]

I started Prozac, Wellbutrin, and Doxepin. How can you tell if the medicine starts working? I know it will take awhile. I just don't know what it's like to be calm and 'normal'. Today at work my anxiety is bad. I keep thinking I'm going to faint in front of everyone. There were a few rude people today. I'm on break right now. Three more long hours...

Sorry for posting so much...I'm weird

[CANDC]

I think you are really fine in asking questions like this. Nothing weird about it. I would ask your pdoc if the meds should be working by now and when they would be concerned.

For first aid at work, one thing I try is a breathing exercise to focus on breath instead of fighting with the thoughts.

Breathing exercise with natural breathing do not force.
If you are feeling very anxious or angry or just want to calm down, you can try a breathing exercise that takes the attention away from the trigger of anxiety to a simple tool of counting breaths.

Find a comfortable position seated or laying down. Begin to relax your breathing. Silently count 1 on the inhale, and two on the exhale. Then silently count 3 on the inhale and 4 on the exhale. Continue up to 10 or until you lose the count then return to one. No judgement. I sometimes end up at 18 then smile and return to 1. The idea is to focus on the breath and the counting and not get sucked into the anxiety or anger trigger. Also works to quiet the mind.

I have to watch what I eat because foods I eat can stabilize my moods or exaggerate them. A high protein low carb diet with snacks or meals every 3-4 hours will over time reduce my swings. I also avoid alcohol and recreational drugs because those can really increase depression.

Other lifestyle changes that help me are doing yoga, exercises, mindfulness, calm music, and being active on Psych Central.

[Alone_and_Afraid]

He said 4-6 weeks. Thanks for the tips!
I know for sure I need to stop caffeine, but it's just hard...

[ChipperMonkey]

Good doctors won't start you on more than one medication at a time.... The chances of having a side effect goes up with more medications......so you're essentially three times more likely to have side effects with three medications as opposed to just one....BUT, the problem is, when you start more than one medication at a time and have a side effect, there is no surefire way of knowing which medication is doing what. So at that point, what do you do? Stop all medications? Guess which one is giving you problems? It becomes complicated VERY fast.

[Alone_and_Afraid]

I was on Wellbutrin for a couple of months. It gave me energy, but didnt help with depression. So he added Prozac. I was on Trazodone for insomnia, but it didnt help. So now I'm on Doxepin. He didn't prescribe them all at once to me.

[Alone_and_Afraid]

So really im just asking about Prozac. Is it a good antidepressant?

[Alone_and_Afraid]

I'm sorry for not including details.

[Keyslost]

No need to be sorry Prozac worked well for my friend. He decided to stop it since he got better and didn't want anymore side effects. As to what those were I will never know. (could even be he didn't have any was just worried hard to remember that far back)