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Withdrawal from Antidepressants

madinamerica.com

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Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants

#81

Post by guhcampos »

I have experienced discontinuation effects from Paroxetine, Venlafaxine and Fluxoetine in the past, Paroxetine was by far the worst, but absolutely within the boundaries of what the doctor and the tab mentioned. With Paroxetine itself the worst effects would be "blackouts" when I would loose all my senses for a split second, just short enough that I would not fall if walking, but long enough that people would notice during a conversation.

During one specific Venlafaxine withdrawal, however, I have experienced severe depression, and got close to suicide. What saved me, ironically as it sounds, was a huge dose of Clonazepan I rationally decided to take just so I could sleep the withdrawal over. I'm still on Venlafaxine for a couple years now, I take it for Anxiety/Panic and that was the only time I've experienced severe depression in years.

What I've learned from all that is simple: that stuff is messing directly and profoundly with your brain, so take it very seriously: anti-depressants are not your over-the-counter shit. Apart from that, find a doctor you trust and talk to them,every little detail. Never trust a psychiatrist who does not suggest some kind of therapy: the meds won't cure you.

Also, I don't know of a single drug that won't give me some kind of discontinuation syndrome if interrupted after continuous use. From nose sprays and anti-acids to hypnotics, all have some rebound effects to them. I believe the bottom line is to be rational about taking any drugs, yet specially the ones messing with your head.

Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants

#82

Post by auganov »

chris_wot wrote: post #6
dbg31415 wrote: post #3

We think of doctors and medications as being scientific and precise. But it's more like just throwing some food coloring into a black garbage bag full of all sorts of stuff and shaking it up in hopes of getting it to get to a specific color... but not really being able to see the color through the bag. The drugs all have side-effects, different for each person who takes them. And often those side-effects are as bad a…

In Australia (or at least NSW), the health system doesn't know what to do with you. About 7 months ago I had a mental breakdown and experienced thoughts of suicide. When the health system found out, I had finished having the thoughts, and was at home trying to sleep, being supported by my loving family having been awake at the time for over 14 hours. I was ripped out of my bed by ambulance officers with police presen…

How did they find out?

Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants

#83

Post by feld »

My brother was going through a divorce and committed suicide after his doctor refused to refill his prescription for antidepressants.

I've always wondered if it was a windrawl side effect

Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants

#84

Post by ekianjo »

daveguy wrote: post #62
maxxxxx wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My girlfriend has this with Zoloft. The doctors are telling her how to withdraw and if it doesn't work they just don't believe it. It seems they are trained to believe their textbooks to the point of ignoring things right in front of them.

I had this too with Zoloft and the doctors didn't believe I was on a high enough dose to experience the side effect. It was bad for a week and was sporadic for another week or two. I was surprised that the doctor was so skeptical about a known side effect. It's not like I was trying to get more of that sweet sweet Zoloft. Medical devices have an incident reporting database that are required to be updated by companies…

Reporting for drugs is a standard for a long time now. You should report any adverse event to your physiciand and they are under obligation to report it to the pharma company who in turn sends annual reports of adverse events to the authorities. Serious side effects get reported to authorities within 24 hours and can lead to further investigations.

A bunch of drugs were stopped in the past because of post marketing reports.

Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants

#85

Post by JohnnyConatus »

69mlgsniperdad wrote: post #21

I have been on paxil(paroxetine) three separate times. Each was between six months and one year in duration. The first time, I was on a 10mg daily dose. I had quite a few issues when starting the medication the first time; however after a few weeks, I felt great. When I initially discontinued, I had the worst side effects I have ever experienced. Electric shocks in my neck and back of head, depression, mood swings, a…

I watched a loved one suffer the very same withdrawal. It's no joke.

Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants

#87

Post by ekianjo »

rudolf0 wrote: post #28
69mlgsniperdad wrote: post #21

I have been on paxil(paroxetine) three separate times. Each was between six months and one year in duration. The first time, I was on a 10mg daily dose. I had quite a few issues when starting the medication the first time; however after a few weeks, I felt great. When I initially discontinued, I had the worst side effects I have ever experienced. Electric shocks in my neck and back of head, depression, mood swings, a…

Doctors can be notoriously ignorant and contradictory when it comes to mental illness-treating drugs. There's a lot of literature out there and a lot of them don't keep up. I don't know why it is. Not that you shouldn't trust doctors, but I always do some Googling to get a second opinion about all psychoactive drugs I'm prescribed.

You should always seek a second opinion from different specialists. If all of them tell you the very same thing it is probably safe to assume what they recommended is well established. But its far from being always the case. Doctors are not machines and influenced by a number of factors so none of them should be considered infaillible.

Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants

#88

Post by jat850 »

butterfinger wrote: post #41
harshreality wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious... you, and all other commenters who mentioned electric shocks... which I'd previously heard of as "brain zaps"... What difference would it make if the doctor had told you of that side effect before you started the drug? Imagine you have no idea of what brain zaps felt like. Would you have avoided the drug based on such a vague description? Can you describe the sensation? It's not painful, right? The sens…

To me, it felt like the moment after some limb went numb and you start to feel it again, just for the whole body. And I had some visual effects like everything being brighter for a moment. It's not painful per se but very disorienting and irritating and it happens several times per hour. I probably would not have avoided the drugs based on the description, because it doesn't sound as bad as it feels, but I would neve…

This is probably the best way I can put it too - like a waking limb, but brief and intense - and it's the brain instead of a limb. It's really difficult to describe accurately, but this is good.

Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants

#89

Post by lacampbell »

vomitcuddle wrote: post #12

As someone who had to abruptly come off venlafaxine due to side effects, I can tell you that it was complete hell. I experienced vomiting, the weirdest, most horrible nightmares every night, sleep paralysis with hallucinations and a recurring feeling of "electic shocks" inside my head. This lasted about a month. I think it borders on inhumane not to mention possible withdrawal symptoms before prescribing this awful "…

I tried to taper off venlafaxine for about a month. It just extended the agony. I eventually just stopped taking it, had 2 really shit days, and that was that.

IANAD, YMMV

Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants

#90

Post by vacri »

TheOneTrueKyle wrote: post #25
vacri wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having formally studied mental illness and also suffering from mild clinical depression myself, I'm of the opinion that unless you have studied it, have it, or have a close friend or relative with it, the average person just won't understand mental illness at all. It's so counter-intuitive in so many ways.

Then how do the masses get educated on something that has a hipster mentality of, "you won't understand" ? Generally curious. The only solution I see is some empathy machine that allows you empirically experience someone else's experiences (VR perhaps?) along with understanding their feelings while going through those experiences. I guess I'm asking for the ability to read minds...

I genuinely don't know. There's no motivation for the masses to educate themselves about it. And to complicate matters, there are also the occasional faker or malingerer. It's a difficult field for even an expert, let alone someone who doesn't even have a casual interest.
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