Sample Email 15 - Am I immune To My Prozac?

By Jef Gazley, M.S.,LMFT, DCC

Dear D,

I am very sorry to hear about how depressed you have been feeling. Yes it is quite possible to have taken Prozac, have it work for a considerable time and then begin to become less effective over time. At times it is effective to raise the dosage, but often a different anti-depressant is needed.

In general food, vitamins, and herbs turn into hormones, and hormones in turn become neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are the brain chemicals that allow a person to transfer thoughts and feelings from one cell to another. Therefore, if you are not taking enough good food, vitamins, exercise, and sleep all the anti-depressants in the world are not going to be effective.

Methamphetamine causes havoc with all aspects of your body and drains the nutrients out completely. So, any and all anti-depressants will be next to useless while using this drug. In the sixties there was a saying, "speed kills", and it is an accurate statement. It literally saps the body and mind of all the building blocks and rapidly ages the body before its time.

It is imperative to be honest with your doctor so that he can assist. However, this problem is not appropriate to be left to a family physician. I know you have money problems at present, but I will guarantee that you are spending more on the speed and costing yourself money by not being at your best physically and mentally, than treatment would cost in the long run. It is important to be evaluated by a quality chemical dependence hospital and I would also suggest getting involved with NA or Narcotics Anonymous.

In my experience there are several kinds of problems with chemicals. Someone with emotional problems can develop a problem with a chemical in an attempt to hide from the problems. Usually this is a problem of abuse and not addiction. However, abuse can wreak havoc on a person as much as addiction can.

There are two reasons people get addicted. The first is they have a heredity that makes a primary addiction likely. The second is that the addict is often self-medicating for an underlying chemical disorder such as depression or Attention Deficit Disorder, or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Methamphetamine is often the drug of choice for people with ADD. There is even a type of ADD called Over Focused ADD that mimics OCD symptoms. I would suggest that you be evaluated for an underlying chemical disorder.

Your e-mail suggests to me that this might be a large part of the problem. Please treat this seriously and quickly. I wish the best for you.

Good luck.

Jef Gazley, M.S., LMFT, DCC

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