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How Do You Differentiate Symptoms?

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Nicolette

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If you have been on medication and want to go off it - or at least determine if it is of any benefit or not.................

How do you differentiate between what is a withdrawal symptom (even if only slightly tapering back) or a sign that you should stay at the medication level you are at? What is the difference - being angry due to withdrawal or now being angry because the medication was helping control it?:confused:

I am sure no one wants to take medication if they don't have to so how do you work out whether you need it or it's a placebo effect or you are genuinely just going through a withdrawal process?:confused:

I get confused as there are medications for symptoms such as depression but then I hear they can cause depression. How in the hell do you work out which box you are in and if you have been on medication how do you define when to go off it if you didn't really want to go on it in the first place? :confused:
 
All the questions that I want to know as well but there probably is no answers! I've been reading around. All the internet stories seem to say that withdrawal is worse than the initial illness. Then research in professional journals shows........NOTHING! I actually can't find any research on anti-depressant withdrawal. It disgusts me. Especially considering I am a mental health professional I wasn't even aware that there was a withdrawal process from anti-depressants. I just thought it was tapered down because sudden withdrawal effected your blood pressure not turn your life topsy turvey again!
 
If Anthony tells me one more time that anti-depressants can cause depression I am probably going to throttle him as without them at the time I couldn't walk out the door to work.......... so they do work for some. And if he tells me going off them makes you depressed or you have withdrawal symptoms like stated, worse than the illness, might as well just keep popping the pills...........argh! Bang head against a brick wall numerous times. :mad:
 
LOL! I am in the exact same boat. Think I am going to sit down later and make a list of positives about reducing/coming off them. Think my biggest positive will be taking control over my moods and thoughts myself rather than letting a substance control them. I need to know that I can do that.
 
My problem is my doctor doesn't think I should come off them yet but I hate taking them......who knows best?! I know I can't work if going off them makes me like I was but I am willing to go through the process of withdrawal if I know I will be better off in the long term. Oh to own a crystal ball which worked. :roflmao:
 
I get confused as there are medications for symptoms such as depression but then I hear they can cause depression. How in the hell do you work out which box you are in and if you have been on medication how do you define when to go off it if you didn't really want to go on it in the first place?

I'm an experienced antideppressant taker. : (I took Zoloft, went off Zoloft, took Aropax, went off Aropax took another one(can't remember name) went off that one and took Aropax,I was on antideppressants for 9 years then have been antideppressant free for the last 5 years. My experience was that each antidpressant effected me differently. Zoloft made me more depressed and anxious and suicidal. Aropax reduced anxiety and flashbacks and depression, the other one had me driving down one way streets the wrong way and didn't effect my anxiety but effected my mechanical and reasoning skills pretty well. I think I had no idea how they effected me at the time I was taking them, it was only in hindsight after I switched I realised how they effected me. I went off antideppressants too early a few times and ended up not being able to function so I went back on them again. Once many years of therapy had reduced my symptoms, I tried to go off the antidepressants again and I coped pretty well.:)

Some Antideppressants can reduce anxiety and depression. Some don't. I have heard individuals vary a lot to with how they effect them. It is very dangerous to make blanket statements about antideppressant usage Anthony:p.
 
I agree with what Maze said, that each anti-depressant (or type) can affect each individual differently. In the case of prescribing psycho-pharmaceuticals, the description of "practicing" medicine is best, as it seems the patient becomes test subject in a trial and error process to determine what medication is most effective.

I have just monitored how I "felt" and kept the line of communication open with my doctor. But I also learned to stand my ground when I felt worse so it wouldn't be dismissed.
 
How about we try go through the ordeal together and be emotional nutbags together?

I'm hoping my G.P. will give me the ok because I will need to get a perscription for the lower dose! He usually lets me make my own decisions about medication. He makes the suggestion but ultimately I have control of the decision. If it is the wrong decision we just chalk it down to learning. It is an important part of recovery that you are at least given the opportunity to make mistakes and to be there to direct you onto the right path when the mistake affects you.
 
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I think that going off medication should be something that a) you want to do and b) you have the coping skills in place to be able to do. In order to tell if the withdrawals are causing symptoms or the meds, that is quite easy but requires patience. You will have to wait the three months of withdrawals and see if your still symptomatic!

Honestly, if you just started a lower dosage because your weaning off of meds the anger is mostly likely withdrawals. It can get really ugly (do you remember when I had to cold turkey off the Zoloft? shudders)

If you want to figure out if the meds are causing symptoms, just increase the dosage (under doctor care please) and see what it does. You'll notice within a few weeks or less what is increasing or decreasing with depression, anger, sleep, anxiety etc.

Anyways, that is what I know from what I have taken and my son has taken. Hope it's helpful!

bec
 
I don't think I have the space or time to fall over right now so I'm going to wait a bit longer until I start weaning myself off them to see the outcome.
 
I understand your difficulties Nicolette. I've never been convinced that anti-depressants have had the desired affect on me, and I've tried plenty. I'm currently on 2 (paroxetine and mirtazepine). But for me withdrawal from anti-depressants (SSRI's) is physical, rather then emotional. I take 40mg of paroxetine every morning. If I forget to take my meds, I know about it due to electric shock type feelings. It's a horrible sensation, which I can't easily describe. Maybe 'electric shock' is too dramatic, more like tingling zaps through my arms and hands. But horrible non-the-less.That makes me wonder if I will ever get off them.

I guess if you gradually reduce your meds really slowly (over months rather than weeks), any emotional withdrawals will become apparent. You can always increase them again gradually, before you get as far as 'falling over', should that happen.
 
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