Hi my name is Marty and I am a 33 year old husband and father. No, I didnt take prozac, but my wife Kara did and I would like to share some of my experiences that I have gone through watching my wife for the last year and half. It is not a very fun thing to watch someone you love go through this; it got so bad at times I wasnt sure if either of us were going to make it.

It all started after my wife had our second child. She was really having a lot of problems. She began having a lot of anxiety and she was very restless at night, not sleeping very well.

Then came the big mistake when she went to the doctor's to find out what was wrong and this is when the living hell started. Some of the effects that I began noticing :

1).Karie had major weight loss to the point I thought she was anorexic. This started before she began taking the prozac and continued rapidly after. I tried making her eat but she was eating a lot and not gaining any weight.
2)Agitation and anxiety became worse.
3)She began having a fear of dying and constantly wanted me to admit her to the bsu unit at the local hospital.
4).Karie walked around the house like a mindless zombie not knowing or caring about anything or anyone around her.

Then came the bigger mistake, her doctor took her off the prozac cold turkey after only eight weeks of use because it had done nothing for her but worsen her condition.This is when the real fun started. Karie began having crying spells that lasted for hours at a time; sometimes it would last the whole day.

This began to worry me and I started to become nervous a lot. Before I had to leave for work, many a time I would ask her if she wanted me to stay home from work and she would say, "No I will be fine." It is not fun having to go to work wondering what was going on at home and not being able to concentrate on your own work. Thank God for my mother-law and her good friend being around to help when I was at work.

Some other highlights we had were the up all night sessions. Many times Karie had a lot of anxiety and would not sleep and would go downstairs and sit or watch tv.

The biggest problem was her wanting to kill herself. On several occasions she had told me please take all the knives out of the drawers and lock them up because she wanted to stick herself in the head with it. So I was constantly watching her when she was in the kitchen, not knowing what she might be doing. It was horrible because I was afraid even to go to the store sometimes just for ten minutes not knowing if she was going to do something.

This became very stressful to me also because here I was, a healthy adult, and I could do absolutely nothing to help her except watch and make sure she didnt hurt herself. There were times I just wanted to grab her and shake the hell out of her, but I knew that wouldn't help. It became very frustrating because I work a very hard job in a correctional facility and I would come home at 11pm and have to clean the house and do the laundry because Karie would spend days either on the couch or in bed and not do anything. This went on for almost ten months off of the drug.

Things have gotten a lot better and she is getting to the end of it and is returning to her old self more and more each day. It has been one year she has been off and she still isnt 100% yet, but she is getting there. If you are going through this and have any questions please feel free to e-mail me. I know how you are feeling watching a loved one have to suffer with this.

You can write to Marty at: Martypro@aol.com