171–180 of 382 posts
Only slightly related, but can anyone ELI5 why Bupropion XL is not the universal first line treatment for depression and is hardly used at all in Europe? It has fewer side effects vs. SSRIs, can be safely used as a long term medication (which many people do with SSRIs even though it can have negative effects), and doesn't have the same horrible withdrawal symptoms (although you still need to taper).
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It's been years since, but I too had brain zaps coming off of it. It took a few months for those to go away. I tried to describe it to my doctor and he seemed like he never heard of it before and sort of look at me like I was crazy, or at least that is what I sensed. But I ended up researching online and found it was a thing that happens.
Interesting is your doctor a general practitioner or a psychiatrist? A psychiatrist definitely knows about this stuff. GPs in my experience know almost nothing about anything beyond what seems like a script they operate from.
They were absolutely wrong as I have serious withdrawal reactions to Citalopram. It took me a month of micro-dosing down to safely get off a drug I was on for 15 yrs. And even then I was having constant brain & body zaps, that feel like short circuiting, for a full month after I dosed down to nothing. 6 mos later & I still can't sleep more than 6 hrs.
How did I know this was going to happen? Going cold turkey when my script ran out. I even told my psych about it numerous times but they just brushed it off.
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Interesting; I wasn't aware that 20mg was considered the minimum effective dose for fluoxetine. I tried tapering from 20mg to 15mg (alternating 10/20) after ~4 years and was absolutely fine; I then tried the next step down to 10mg and crashed hard . Probably going to stay on it for life now, which is fine; I never really experienced any negative side effects.
With this chart we now know why stepping down from 15mg to 10mg is a HUGE step.
I’ve been on a SSRI for 5 years and not once have I thought about getting off of it. It literally saved my life. I remember a while life of depression and constant churn of recursive emotions destroying me. I’m worried that too many people are downplaying the benefits that this drug for those of us that it has helped immensely. And it’s extra risky to be downplaying it while RFK jr is actively working to remove the d…
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Last year I started taking buproprion (Wellbutrin) after seeing a private psychiatrist in Romania, and I found it beneficial, but ended up losing more than 10kg, and becoming malnourished to the point of my hair falling out. Again I stopped of my own accord, and buproprion has basically no cessation symptoms.
This spring I saw a psychiatrist through Romania's public health service who prescribed me vortioxetine (Brintellix/Trintellix) after I shared my history and it's been a game changer. I experience basically no side effects besides a slight reduction in libido, with no other effects on sexual function. It's really helped me to find my balance again. And I see a psychiatrist once a month paid for by my public health insurance with the medication fully comped. Vortioxetine has a half-life of 66 hours so the one time I did have to skip a day and a half, the withdrawal was not noticeable.
Just sharing this to say that there are good doctors and good meds out there, and that having low tolerance for one medication doesn't mean that you shouldn't talk to a doctor about it and try others.
To provide one additional anecdote: I came off escitalopram with no taper after taking it for about five years (10mg). I got brain zaps for a while, got very irritated at times, but largely was fine after a few weeks. Not downplaying the withdrawal effects for some people, but they’re not as catastrophic as this article suggests for many (perhaps most). And overall I’m very glad I took it! It got me through a rough p…
It's not right to call it withdrawal. These drugs are not addictive like benzos or alcohol are. If any symptom reappears it's just that the mental disease most usually changed form after so long time. As for the sexual dysfunction, a common known side effect is that they kill (delay or eliminate) the orgasm. Libido and male erection are affected by so many psycho-social, somatic and genetic factors that it's usually difficult to spot the exact relation with these drugs.
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Chronic depression doesn't usually have a "cause" that you can fix without some form of treatment. It happens that these meds often do remove the extreme effects of depression and allow you to focus on other problems.
Is that true or your guess?
I’ve been on a SSRI for 5 years and not once have I thought about getting off of it. It literally saved my life. I remember a while life of depression and constant churn of recursive emotions destroying me. I’m worried that too many people are downplaying the benefits that this drug for those of us that it has helped immensely. And it’s extra risky to be downplaying it while RFK jr is actively working to remove the d…
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Chronic depression doesn't usually have a "cause" that you can fix without some form of treatment. It happens that these meds often do remove the extreme effects of depression and allow you to focus on other problems.
> Chronic depression doesn't usually have a "cause" Is that true or your guess?