 yesterday I went to my doctor and I wanted to follow up with her about the anti-depression anti-anxiety medication I was on called Lexapro and I wanted to talk to her about new medications and she decided to put me on Prozac and I just took it. So I want to talk about that experience today. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about helping you to improve your mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that kind of stuff and you want to live an amazing life make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So yeah my doctor switched me from Lexapro to Prozac and I wanted to talk about it. So I'll dive into that story and one thing that just kind of popped up into my head like literally after I hit record was I've had people tell me like how you know like how it's it's crazy that I'm so open and honest and all this other stuff and like I don't know like that's interesting to me because one of the reasons I have this channel is because like there's such a stigma around mental illness and people like oh don't talk about that don't talk about this stuff like I was legitimately in a job interview the other day and I was talking about anti like the anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication I'm on like whatever like it's nothing like I want my one of my visions for like where I want the world to be and one of the reasons I have this channel is I want it to be the same that if you're taking mental health medication as if you were taking like antibiotics you know what I mean like it's just something that we got to do to you know manage our health but it's our mental health rather than our physical health but the mind and body are connected in a lot of ways and that's something for another video but anyways like open up talk about this stuff be honest like I don't know I don't know I got to a very comfortable place where I just legitimately it's like who cares let's talk about this stuff anyways getting back to the story just a little bit about my history with depression and anxiety um I'll tell you I like the the cliff notes but I have a ton of videos on here I talk a lot about getting diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder and all that so anyways basically what happened was six years ago I got sober from drugs and alcohol right and what what happened was the reason uh I got diagnosed or looked for a diagnosis was after I got sober after almost a decade of abusing substances I started to feel the same way I did before I started using alcohol and drugs and what I realized was like I always had depression and anxiety and I was self-medicating and that's one of the main reasons why people start abusing substances so I went to the doctor my mom's a psychologist she told me to go to the doctor I go to the doctor do some tests and stuff like that I get diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder as well as like minor depression or dysthymia if you will which is like high functioning depression right and I've been on lexapro for six years so anyways to catch you up to where I am today um I was laid off from my job a couple weeks ago I have insurance until the end of the month and like I I went to the doctor like so lexapro is something I've been on for a while like for six years and what's interesting is the company I was working for I went out to their corporate office like I would go out there a couple times a year and we we had a genetics testing lab and basically like it's really cool stuff I recommend all of you guys ask your doctors about this or your health insurance company basically they take a genetic test they take a little spit swab and they test it and they see what medications you are good for you or which medications you might have a reaction to and when I got this list back I'm looking and like I'm fine with like every medication and then I get to lexapro and it basically said like it has a scale and I was you know in like the high the high end of having a lot of side effects from it I'm like I've been on this stuff for like six years and I've had side effects from it um sometimes it's just like I feel I feel like I'm not I don't have as many emotions like the full range of emotions and stuff like that which is a weird subject because when I'm off of it the emotions get too much or the sadness or depression or the numbness you know what I mean so that's weird um there's some other issues that I've just had as a result of lexapro so anyways my insurance was up um it's at the end of the month I went to the doctor I wanted to talk to a brother and by the way I have the best doctor in the world I need to do a video because I used to hate doctors in all shapes and forms and like the trick is to finding a good doctor and keep looking until you find a good one this is the best doctor I've ever had like she is just amazing and I don't know if you're watching this doctor but if you are I love you but I love her because she'll sit down and talk with me like when I go there like for example my appointment was at 1045 and I was there until 1145 until I saw her and I just don't even care you know why I don't care is because I know she's spending time with people who have questions and want to talk to her about stuff so like I don't get upset when you know she's running late like she apologizes to me and I'm just like you're good because then she sat down and we talked for like I don't know like 30 minutes like most doctors I've had just like kind of shuffled me in and out so anyways I told her about you know the lexapro and I'm worried about some of the side effects and like now that you know and I wanted to talk to her about switching and it's cool because we we went back and forth and we talked about different medications she mentioned like you know and she's very well educated about medications and like she knew a lot of stuff that I did I'm like me and her talk because she knows I worked in a treatment center so like she doesn't like try to I don't know go over my head with stuff like she knows she can communicate with me about medications and mental health and stuff like that but anyways she was saying that one of the side effects because obviously weights an issue and I don't know if you've seen me but she was saying one of the side effects for lexapro is weight gain and she knows my struggles with weight loss like I told her like I was like yo I just went to the gym and did two miles yesterday you know what I mean I go to the gym three four five times a week depending on what's going on or my motivation or whatever and and like she gets it she gets how discouraging it can be I was telling I was like it's discouraging because I I'm like I'm I've been vegetarian for over a year now and like I just do a lot of things healthier than most people do but I still have all of this weight you know what I mean and she gets it but one of the things she mentioned was that prozac one of the side effects is weight loss so I'm like okay well prozac is not addictive it can have weight loss and lexapro can have weight gain I'm like let's go with the prozac so she was like well what I'm worried about is she's like you've been on lexapro for six years like I want to know why you you were on lexapro like why did the doctor give you lexapro and like I love her because she's concerned about those types of things and talks to me and I told her straight up I said basically I've been diagnosed with just about every mental illness that my mom has my mom's been on lexapro it worked for her so the doctor like I told him that and the doctor just gave me lexapro and that's just what I've been on she's like oh whatever so she prescribed me prozac so here's another reason why my doctor is amazing she knows my insurance is running out at the end of the month and I was like hey can we like see if I can get like a three month prescription rather than 30 days because I don't know when I'll be able to have insurance again or afford it she's like oh yeah and she like put it through and boom so now I got three months worse so oh I love her so much now when we were talking about the worries about me switching from lexapro to prozac I asked her this I said okay well here's something that I do and something I try to teach all of you whenever I get off of a medication I try to keep a refill okay so what I asked her was I was like can can you give me a refill for lexapro too obviously I'm not going to take them both but that way if I have like a side effect from prozac I can go back to the lexapro you know just fine without having to like schedule an appointment and go through all that and da da da da she's like good thinking so she she gave me three months of prozac and a month of lexapro and yeah the lexapro is just chilling just in case I need it so anyways real quick side note I talked to her some of you have been around for a while you saw that I took an ADHD test um just because I could relate to a lot of the symptoms and things like that and basically I talked to her and like it kind of surprised me how she was saying how little the diagnosis is she's like yeah like pretty much all of us we just have this questionnaire and if you answer yes to a few of the questions we give you an amphetamine and she's like but I know you're in recovery and I know you will not take an amphetamine so let's not even waste our time I'm like okay cool like I asked her I said are there any non narcotics that really help with you know symptoms of ADHD and she's like no they need to be a stimulant so I'm like okay like and I was talking to a friend earlier like my symptoms if I were to have it I don't even know if I do I could just I just know I have some of the symptoms but I was talking to my friend like it's it's a minor inconvenience like if anything it helps me focus on things I'm passionate about you know what I mean so we just kind of got that off the table so anyways I spent the night at my girlfriend's house last night uh so I could take her nephew no not nephew her cousin to school this morning while she went to she had to go to school early this morning so I went there and I brought the Prozac with me and I took it first thing this morning I asked the pharmacist too and like I'm trying to explain the process of my experience because I'm very careful with medications and like I know a lot of you out there who struggle with mental illness like you know there's dos and don'ts when it comes to medications and I'm very very particular about things I do because I used to be a prescription drug addict so anyways I asked the pharmacist the pharmacist I was like is there going to be any side effects for me taking lexapro today and me taking prozac tomorrow and they said no so am I okay so I took the prozac this morning I was worried because I remember one time I was off of lexapro for like six months and I took it and I just had like the worst stomach pains like all day I was like in bed I had to stay home from work it was madness um but yeah I took the prozac this morning and like no real side effects like it it feels fine I feel the same as I did yesterday after taking my lexapro and things like that so um I don't know like I wanted to make this video to kind of talk about my experience about why I switched lexapro to prozac um I haven't you know haven't gone through a full 24 hour cycle but I'm thinking about like documenting this experience and talk about you know is this weight loss weight gain like something that's real like do I start to notice that I shed more pounds now that I'm going to the gym and eating healthier now that I'm on prozac rather than lexapro you know I want to see how it manages my anxiety and my depression one thing that I was concerned of is like lexapro like I'm primarily somebody who has anxiety but then minor depression so like I'm curious if the prozac is going to help manage my anxiety as well but those two things are very intertwined so I expect it will but I want to document this and talk to you guys so any of you going out there but I do want to kind of end the video with this all of us are different all of our bodies are different some of us react a certain way to medication some of us don't um I've had people in my last video about like uh when I talked about why I hate anxiety meds like uh or my depression meds in the comments you see a lot of people where they have like a bad experience with one so they just don't want to do it anymore like you guys listen to me very carefully you got to prioritize your mental health and like there are so many options for anti-depressants and anti-anxiety just because you had a bad experience with one doesn't mean you'll have a bad experience with another again I will remind you ask your doctor ask your insurance company they have genetic testing to see which medications you will respond better to okay but do not give up on mental health medications just because one of them didn't work out so well you know what I mean so find a good doctor do what you got to do but um prioritize your mental health like this is a big deal it's hard to live any semblance of a happy life when your mental health is struggling but anyways um down in the comments below let's do this or any of you taking pro's act what was your experience good bad like let's see the whole the whole gambit of you know or what anti-depressants are you on you know what I mean like again I want to make this more of a normal conversation like let's talk let's have a discussion let's decrease the stigma and increase awareness you know what I'm saying actually that gives me an idea for the ending of this video check this out if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you are new here I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental health make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and a huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on patreon there's a new name on the list thank you much and if you want to check out the rewired soul merch shop you can click your top on that icon right there and then right over here is a shirt that I designed that says mental health increase awareness decrease the stigma get yourself one let's do this thing together all right thanks so much for watching I'll see you next time