SSRIs withdrawal is hell!!

[Eren Eeager]

I tappred my medication fast and I am experiencing some hellish symptoms. It started by severe dizziness and fatigue. Now I am experiencing nausea and constant brain zaps. Also headache and fatigue. 

Fuck SSRis, they are not worth it. 

[PurpleTree]

yeah i know those brain zaps, they suuuck

 

ssri's have too many side effects imo

[lmfao]

What SSRI you on? I'm on zoloft. I'm tapering down extremely slowly rn. My journey is far from ending, I'm sure the hard part is to come soon. My dose was 100mg and now I recently changed to 25mg after being on 50 for a very long time. 


In the past, I tried to leave the celexa medication cold turkey and failed. Severe vertigo and dizziness, yes. Brain zaps. And also, my muscles felt unbelievably weak to stand up and walk. So a fatigue there. It was absolutely wretched.
I ended up going back on different anti depressants, zoloft, but now I'm tapering off again since July. Took me 4 months to go from 100mg to just starting 25mg now. 


What's worked for me is very slow decrease. And doing whatever else possible to worm your way through. Exercise, meditation, eating vegetables, these things give a little baby step to make the process a little easier. 


But there is light at the end of the tunnel. There are benefits to quitting, maybe there already are some going on for you. I'm more in touch with my emotions now. 

Edited November 15, 2020 by lmfao

[Eren Eeager]

@lmfao I was on paroxitine 50 mg. I decreased the dose by 10 mg every week for three weeks and then decided to stop taking the last 20 mg all together. I didn't know that withdrawal symptoms would be this severe. 

The shorter the half life of the drug, the worst. Paroxitine has the shortest half life ??

[lmfao]

@Eren Eeager Oh man, that's an even shorter half-life than sertraline ! That's very rough 

---
I don't know what most of the doctors say about how tapering anti-depressants should be done, but I found this guy on YouTube who had interesting opinions on it. Specifically in regard to how tapering should be done when you're down to a low dose.

He essentially recommends that when at a low dose (like you being at 10mg or 20mg), you have to go extra slower at the end when tapering off. He says most doctors are looking at the wrong thing ( I forgot what, but something medical)  for conceptually understanding it.

He claims that at those low doses, small decreases in medication have a large impact on your withdrawal, his justification involving a graph like this. This is citalopram, the maximum dose being 60mg:


 

Quote

The 5-HT transporter (5-HTT) is the main regulator of serotonin and serotonergic energy and is therefore targeted by many antidepressants

^in relation to what the above graph is showing, I don't understand it all myself 

-------------------------
I found this graph for the drug you're taking

I'm guessing that in between 0 and 10 (of your blood concentration, not dose) is a sharp drop there, be careful. I don't know all this though, this is just something I'm guessing.

The graph would be the same shape if you changed the x-axis to dosage. So go slowly when at the end, is my advice. Rather than what you did of dropping the last 20mg all in one go.

Edited November 16, 2020 by lmfao

[Eren Eeager]

@lmfao  I stopped taking the medication at the last 20 mg. That was my mistake, I should have gone extra slowly at the end. I guess I will just push through it. I need to be off the medication to take psychedelics. So I know it is woth it.

I will gave my brain extra 2-3 weeks to reestablish normal neurotransmitters function then it is acid time. 

[lmfao]

Good luck! Just remember you always have the option to go slower. 

[Eren Eeager]

@lmfao thanks, good luck to you too.

[Zigzag Idiot]

1 hour ago, Eren Eeager said:

I tappred my medication fast and I am experiencing some hellish symptoms. It started by severe dizziness and fatigue. Now I am experiencing nausea and constant brain zaps. Also headache and fatigue. 

Fuck SSRis, they are not worth it. 

As someone who was on Paxil for 10 years  and spent 5 of those years trying to get off them. It was good to see the above conversation take place. Not until I had gotten off Paxil did I learn there was a term for what I experienced a lot of - brain zaps. My dose was 20 mg per day. From my experience, the advice given by @lmfao was spot on. I cut my 20mg's in half and then after 10mg per day for a while would then skip every Fourth day etc.,, and slowly I was able to leave them behind. I know there has to be many out there who are thinking about quitting these drugs and seeing this conversation will give them some information and perhaps some inspiration.

[Yarco]

This is probably a highly biased group to ask based on the posts above. But if you could go back in time, would you have never started taking SSRIs and suffered with the alternative instead? Have you guys found any alternatives to SSRIs that help you cope? Maybe some kind of introspection work or meditation instead?

[seeking_brilliance]

Maybe ask your doctor about something supplemental like 5-htp or GABA or melatonin to help ease your symptoms 

[Eren Eeager]

@Yarco From my experiencE SSRIs offer a 20-30 percent symptoms relief only.

I must have gone with psychedelics from the beginning. SSRIs Don't address the root issues for your mental illness which is usually deep dysfunctional thoughts. . Bear in mind that going with psychedelic route will be tricker and more dangerous but If you are wise enough you will know how handle it.

[kag101]

I think psychedelics is a high-risk gamble. I went to ayahuasca ceremonies for about a year. In the beginning, it helped. It was as if life had color once again. But as time goes by, my depression was getting worse after each trip. Not only that, during the trips the following became common: anxiety attacks (which is HELL while you're tripping), paranoia, strong agitation, deep sense of meaninglessness, and sometimes grandiose delusions.  

I also don't adapt well to SRRIs. Fortunately, my doctor has prescribed me an antidepressant that is from a different class. And it worked really well. 

Btw - You should've told your doctor that you wanted to stop taking it. You were very irresponsible. 

[Nivsch]

@Eren Eeager @lmfao

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/1024-why-taper-by-10-of-my-dosage/

I'm on cymbalta and reducing between 2.5% to 5% (% from the last dose!) every 3 weeks as it needs to get slower exponentially. It will take me at least until 2025 but the trend is the important thing.

I was on ssri's for 10 years, so 5 years more to reduce (and be most of them in relatively very low doses in comparison to what i was) is OK to me.

The trend is the real beautiful thing in the process. The destination of dose 0 is secondary. Do it slowly exactly as your body can.

Edited January 17, 2021 by Nivsch

[Nivsch]

This is EXTREMELY fast!

Highly insecure.

X axis has to be months (not weeks) and the curve exponential that will be seen in that resolution almost flat during the last couple of months.

Edited January 17, 2021 by Nivsch

[lmfao]

5 hours ago, Nivsch said:

@Eren Eeager @lmfao

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/1024-why-taper-by-10-of-my-dosage/

I'm on cymbalta and reducing between 2.5% to 5% (% from the last dose!) every 3 weeks as it needs to get slower exponentially. It will take me at least until 2025 but the trend is the important thing.

I was on ssri's for 10 years, so 5 years more to reduce (and be most of them in relatively very low doses in comparison to what i was) is OK to me.

The trend is the real beautiful thing in the process. The destination of dose 0 is secondary. Do it slowly exactly as your body can.

Hmmm, first time I've seen the name of this drug. Cymbalta. [I don't know the names of many drugs]. Looking it up it seems like a strong drug, and the half life is very short. And you've been on it for a while. 

 

Good luck on your journey as well! To update my situation from my posts 2 months ago in November. About 5 weeks ago I stopped SSRIs completely. 

Had serious withdrawal for about 1-2 weeks. Now I'm in the process of learning how to heal and deal with depression generally, in addition to lingering withdrawal of SSRI and living life without it. 

Do whatever you need or have to do, whether that means slow or fast. The only universal I've seen for depression is being proactive.

 

But life's hard, progress doesn't come easy, and it only ever feels like the beginning. It is what it is, I knew for myself what I had to do. I felt incredibly degraded in settling for a passive mentality where I wasn't proactive. Especially when the SSRI had especially negative side effects for me.

And obviously those repressed emotions of shame are still here, I just don't open to it much. 

I went to the funeral recently of one my best friends who commit suicide, so I'm still very stressed out and perturbed. But thankfully I'm still relatively fine. 

Edited January 18, 2021 by lmfao

[Eren Eeager]

@Nivsch what 4 more years to get off a drug??!!. I couldn't have waited this long. the withdrawal symptom were severe for almost a week and then mild for at least a month then nothing. 

[Nivsch]

1 hour ago, Eren Eeager said:

@Nivsch what 4 more years to get off a drug??!!. I couldn't have waited this long. the withdrawal symptom were severe for almost a week and then mild for at least a month then nothing. 

How much time have you been on drug/s in total?

[Eren Eeager]

@Nivsch less than a year.

[Moon]

On 11/16/2020 at 3:29 AM, Yarco said:

This is probably a highly biased group to ask based on the posts above. But if you could go back in time, would you have never started taking SSRIs and suffered with the alternative instead? Have you guys found any alternatives to SSRIs that help you cope? Maybe some kind of introspection work or meditation instead?

I haven't had SSRIs and everyone and their case is different, but for me- pretty much yeah. Consistent meditation and introspection helped me get over depression around 5-10 years ago (as well as other emotional issues over the years).

The most simplest solutions when taken seriously work wonders. Especially when you're in a toxic victim mindset (I'm not saying all depression links to this) it's easy to brush off solutions such as thorough journalling and mindfulness practices.

I just want to say this to anyone struggling: it is VERY POSSIBLE to get over this stuff completely, even more than merely coping with it. Whether that be on your own, with a therapist and CBT or whatever, you have hope!! 

Edit: oops just checked the quoted post is from 2 months ago