Soda/Sugar Addiction and Prozac Dosage

[Gamma V]

I'm still dealing with the soda/sugar addiction I posted about several months ago, and I had to put up with another lecture from my mother yesterday about how, if I gain more weight and outgrow my clothes, I can't afford new ones. The night before, I actually had a dream in which someone recommended I talk to my doctor about increasing my Prozac dosage. When I brought it up to my mother, she questioned why I would want a medication to control my behavior when I was so opposed to it for the longest time. She was actually the one who had me put on the Prozac for that exact purpose to begin with. Now I'm beginning to wonder if the sugar cravings mean that I should actually consider having it reduced, but not withdrawn. Last time I tried to convince one of my parents to let me go off the meds, my mother said that if I did so, I wouldn't be allowed to go out with them anymore. This would result in near-total isolation because I can't drive, which is why I would to go with them to leave the house at all. I believe I generally had better control of the sugar cravings and soda consumption when NOT taking the medication, as that is when I dropped down to 100lbs, which is an ideal weight for a 4'11" woman.

 

[Suzanne]

I feel for you, Gamma V, because in fact, my husband is like your parents. Even though I am an adult, the amount of rows I have had in order to take care of MY body.

What I have to resort to is cunning, sadly. So, I have given the impression of taking something, when, in fact I have not and this happened with medicine for overactive thyroid. I did not want to take the medicine but my husband said that if I did not, he would not even entertain the thought of taking me to a homopathic dr; close to where we live. In that situation, I was not cunning. I did take the medicine and infact, it worked. Within a DAY of taking it, I found I was a lot less weak. I went to each appointment diligently, but my thyroid then went UNDER active and the worst part was this was NORMAL; so they were playing with me, basically and I got fed up of it, so I decided that I would stop taking the medicine and any sign of that weakness returning, I would take it and it has not returned. I had to explain to the dr, but happily, I had worked out that she would ask and so, had formulated my answer and she accepted it. My husband was vastly surprised when I "confessed" that I had not taken the thyroid medicine for months.

Now, I was on prozac for 16 year's and my dose was constantly being elevated. I suffered terrible depression and migrains that reduced me to bed for 2 days and severe vomiting. I gained a lot of weight, because of that and hormonal tablets. My dr NOT ONCE talked to me about it ie change to something else etc. I had a feeling something was not right and so, had tried to stop a few times, but the horrible whirling in my head, coupled with the sensation that my eyes kept freezing into place, panicked me, and, so, I started up again.

Not sure what it was that caused me to take the brave step of cold turkey, but I did and I suffered a month from up to 5 panic attacks a day and my goodness me, the whirling sensation was frightening. However, my husband took the information away from me, in case I would over read and each "symptom" that came along, he would confirm it was the withdrawl effects.

A month later: absolute calm and the depression lifted and the headaches disappeared. I lost a bit of weight and not as tired as I had been and that told me, that it was the prozac.

There are two types of depression. Clinical and social. I had social and still have social, but rather call it meloncholy, because it is NOTHING to what it used to be.

Getting that explaination out of the way. I know this is not going to be seen as good advice, because it means going against your parents, but sadly, sometimes one has to and so, I would PRETEND you are taking the medicine. I know this is hard for an aspie, but desparation can make us rise above a situation.

If your parents do not demand to see you take your medicine, you have a better chance at "keeping up appearances".

 

[LogicalMind]

Willpower...tell yourself...I will reduce my sugar intake for the next week starting right now...and rather drink water instead...and just be more calmer...focus on calm thoughts

 

[WereBear]

Prozac can mess with your metabolism and has been implicated in people getting diabetes. That's the problem with your sugar cravings, perhaps?

Quit letting people give you impossible demands and trying to meet them. That's enough to stress you out and make you melt down or shut down.

This isn't something you can just stop taking, either. Who is prescribing it and can they help with a taper schedule?

Your mother seems to be constantly giving you two choices, both of which are bad. That is what I see as the real problem.

 

[Gritches]

I'm on 80mg of Prozac daily, 6'2" 220 pound male.

Prozac and other medications are pills, not magic beans. What I mean by that is that you're going to find yourself frustrated and disappointed if you're relying on pills alone to do stuff to you, or hoping that if you stop with the pills things will stop happening. You have to change your own behaviors and manage your own addictions.

Better is to cut/replace the sugar. I've lost 30 pounds in the last 3 months by cutting sugar, mostly. I was horribly addicted to sugar, soda was also my problem, so I treated it like any other addiction and cut down gradually. I started by drinking Coca Cola Life (the green cans), exclusively; it's half sugar, half sugar substitute.

Once I was accustomed to that reduced level of sugar, I cut down further to diet soda. I know, I know. Lots of people have lots of bad things to say about artificial sweeteners and diet soda and how it'll give you turbo-cancer and make you grow three heads. I don't know, I don't care; I got results, and too much sugar is probably worse for you anyway. But again, don't know, don't care.

The point of a sugar substitute is to satisfy your sweet tooth without the harmful effects of sugar. Using the above method, as well as being mindful of sugar from other sources, my tolerance for sugar is so low that I bought a bag of Skittles a few hours ago to treat myself and I wasn't able to finish half of it, whereas I used to be able to eat a pound bag of them in one sitting.