Prozac Withdrawal & Gi Issues

So I made the mistake of going from being on 40mg of prozac for a year to 0 mg cold turkey around Nov. 24. Withdrawal symptoms didn't kick in until about 3 weeks later when I had terrible diarrhea in the morning. Since then, I've had daily GI upsets including diarrhea, painful trapped wind at night, indigestion, abdominal cramps, etc. Along with this (or maybe caused by these symptoms) my anxiety has come back with a vengeance and I've had tons of crying spells and constant flu like symptoms. About 7 weeks through being off, I couldn't take it and went back to the doctor who prescribed me on 20mg of Prozac which i've been taking for 3 days now. I know it's relatively soon to tell any difference, but my GI upsets have been continuing and I read that withdrawal symptoms should go away within 1-3 days of reinstating the drug. Could I have messed up my body permanently and given myself IBS? Or do I just need to be patient? Has anyone else had issues like this that they can give me advice on? I'm very healthy, generally work out 3-4 times a week, normal BMI, lactose-free diet. I got all types of diagnostics and everything has come out normal so could this be because of the prozac? I never had any of these IBS-like symptoms before taking prozac or while on it.

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Hello, Lor! How are you feeling? I'm very sorry about the problems that you're having.

If your tests haven't shown anything, then yes, it is most likely from stopping the Prozac and you'll just have to be patient.

You've really thrown your body into turmoil and it's going to take time for things to settle back down. By stopping cold turkey, you put yourself into withdrawal and caused rebound effects, which so why your anxiety and depression were so severe, then you started, again, so you tossed some new side effects on top, but it's a lower dose. Your body is going to need time to adjust.

The FDA lists this medication as being an SSRI and typical side effects are listed as possibly including nausea, dizziness, headache, dry mouth and weight changes.

If they don't improve soon, then you should see your doctor, again.

Is there anything else I can help with?

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