Geodon and prozac

I am 21yrs old and was just diagnosed with Bipolar 2 disorder. My doc put me on Lamictal,Prozac and Geodon. I take 80mg at night. I feel pretty manic after being on it for only 2 days. I have enough energy for 3 people and my hands shake and my vision is quite blurred which isn't good because I'm legally blind in one eye anyways. The only real side effect that I find troublesome is when I feel like I can't breathe. It only happened when I took it the 2nd time though. It felt like I couldn't get enough oxygen in my body. It was literally hell. My mom finally gave me benadryl thinking that maybe it was allergies and I fell asleep when the benadryl kicked in.

I have been on some different medications since told I was BiPolar. My first Doc prescribed Seroquel, Lexapro and eventually Adderall. The combo worked well seeing that I had no life after leaving home and moving up north with an aunt where I knew no one. I worked and slept. I felt like a robot. With the Seroquel I was falling asleep and barely able to make it up the stairs to go to bed. After moving home my new doctor informed me that a woman at the age of 20 really should have some form of sex drive, which I was completely lacking since taking the medications. He started me on Wellbutrin rather than Lexapro and Geodon rather than Seroquel. Needless to say, my sex drive did come back...but not out of control like before treatment. Things got better and a couple years later my doctor lost his license due to malpractice...long story. Searching for another doctor...I was told I was not BiPolar...just depressed and he took me off of every thing switching the Geodon to PROZAC and changing the Adderall to a low dose Dexedrine (10mg twice daily vs. the 40mg Adderall twice daily!!!). Needless to say...he was a quack and after 4 visits being bullshit...the appt was at 5 and I wasn't seen until after 8PM. He over booked and was a QUACK!!! So...after swearing off medications forever...

Too be continued.

Geodon has definitely proved useful for me, thus far, for the depression side of my bipolar disorder, and compared to Lamictal (which had many and terrible side effects for me, even at a low dose) and Trileptal (to which I discovered I'm quite allergic), it's been a blessing. Took it for three days and it was like throwing a switch to turn off my depression, which had been increasingly bad and getting worse over the past two years. I've been on it for only two weeks, but thus far, I have had minor problems with a rash (easily controlled with a small dose of benedryl, and which will hopefully go away in time), one night of insomnia, and a day of frequent need to urinate. The jury's still out as to whether or not it is affecting my blood pressure. I'm also taking Klonopin, which may be why I have not had much trouble with sleeping, but the need to suddenly run to the bathroom every two hours (or less) is disconcerting and will be watched. I'm taking what most doctors would probably consider an extremely low dose, only 20 mg, but my particular variety of BPD makes me extremely hypersensitive to drugs of any kind. My doctor has suggested that I try increasing the dose in another two weeks, but so long as I'm doing well at this level, I have no intention of doing so, and he knows it. I am seldom able to reach "normal therapeutic levels" for these kinds of drugs, and if I do, it takes years for me to get there. Thank God my doctor understands that if the level I'm taking is effective for me, it doesn't matter that it's half, or less, of what "normal" people take. Because nobody's body chemistry is the same, and one size does not fit all when it comes to drug dosage.

Started on Geodon 40 mg in the evening three days ago. (This is prescribed for bipolar and I also take Prozac.) It knocks me out cold about 1-1/2 hours after taking it and I have a hell of a time waking up in the morning, so knocked out-feeling, brain dead, drowsy. My husband the insomniac says I have started to make VERY strange noises in my sleep (I'm not talking in my sleep anymore, just making strange noises), but when I ask him to describe the noises, he just laughs and won't tell me. I shudder to think. After finally waking up, I feel hyper, am pacing, agitated and I am sweating like crazy. Also, my stomach feels vaguely queasy. The doctor plans to increase this to 80 mg. (Oh for joy.) It's too soon to tell, I know, but I'm so sick of taking endless drugs and combinations that don't work. I feel weird with them, I feel weird without them. What a life.

My husband was given Geodon with Prozac in June 2002 at a Denver hospital. Immediately, he felt horrible--like he was dying--couldn't eat or talk, was anxious, paranoid, and hallucinating. Before the Geodon, he was just depressed. After the Geodon, he felt suicidal and out of his mind. He paced for about eight weeks and had a burning sensation in his brain. His new pyschiatrist gave him lots of drugs to get over the effects of the Geodon. He still felt awful on all these drugs. We found out later he had serotonin toxicity from the Geodon and Prozac. Eventually, he went back to work part-time, but this was too much stress for him as he still felt awful. Then he had ECT. He is still on disability, but is just on Prozac. Geodon was a horrible experience for him and things just escalated. I do not know why it is handed out like candy. We can empathize with anyone who has had a similar reaction to this drug.