Meds Withdrawal: Can It Be That Bad?

[felix]

Hey you all,
I'm not sure I'm a PTSD sufferer, I 've had some traumatic events on my life but they were basically due to my internal state, not about external events. One of these terrible moments I've had, maybe the worst, took place on the end of 2003 when I quit Paxil. I did it gradually, started taking half a dosage for months, and then taking half a dosage every other day also for some months. When I finally quit, my life became a nightmare. I had never felt so desperated and so anxious. I had constant feeling of depersonalization, couldn't sleep, and after some more weeks I became suicidal. I never knew if I had a severe withdrawal crisis or if I just was feeling the way I should with the med's help. I found a great deal of information about how terrible the paxil withdrawal can be and I wonder if that's what happened to me. It lasted for months, and I'm not sure a withdrawal crisis can last that long. Does anyone have experience or knowledge about it?

 

[anthony]

Yes, a withdrawal can last 6 months, easy, before your system stabilises and gains some balance again.

 

[Iam]

Anthony is right Felix. I had and maybe still am having withdrawals from weaning slowly off celexa. Thankfully Anthony told me about the withdawal side effects and that they can last for so long. It has helped me hang on. I have had extreme anxiety at times and have been suicidal. It is hard to pick out how much of it is side effects and how much of it is due to confronting past traumas in therapy or even current situations. I am quite sure from what Anthony told me that at minimum my reactions have been so extreme as a result of weaning off celexa.

Meds can be very helpful, but they aren't without side effects while on them or after going off.

 

[a3a2]

I've watched my husband go through it...he went cold turkey off a very high dose....it really sucked...for a long time!

 

[felix]

that is amazing, no one ever believed me when I would say I was going through all of that due to withdrawal. I spent some weeks denying to be back on meds and when I did I started with zyprexa which wasn't very helpfull. If I only knew I could just be back on Paxil and things would be normal again..

 

[Nishkaa]

All I can say is I'm scared to go off my meds. If I miss a few days of my Zoloft, I get weepy-- no thoughts connected to the tears, it's purely physiological I think? My brain must need it, I guess. It also helps my concentration, so that I can actually read better now. I think I might be lucky that these meds are a good fit for me.

 

[This Ends Now]

Yes, antidepressant withdraw can be horrible. How bad depends on which medication, how high your dose, how long you have been on it, and how your body reacts to it. I recently had horrible withdraw from Effexor XR just from timing my dose wrong. Keeping track of your symptoms and talking about them with your doctor are very important. Hope you feel better soon

 

[cherryblossom]

Yep, It took me more than 6 months to come off sertraline.

I'm now taking paroxetine and mirtazepine. I know within a few hours, if a have missed a dose of either, because I get these wierd 'shock' type feeling through me whole body. After the nightmare of quitting sertraline, I swore I wouldn't take an SSRI / anti-deppressant again. But I got to suicidal state (and tried, which landed me in hospital, and on long term sick-leave) that I am now back on antidepressants. I know I will feel like crap when I try to quit them. But on the plus side, I'm still alive..

 

[felix]

I also tried to commit suicide on this period of withdrawal and ended up on the ER for a week. I may have to take these meds for life. I've been on effexor for years now, and When I miss a dose I feel some bad simptoms, like the brain zaps, nightmares, etc..
I just don't know if I'm on meds beacause I need it or because I can't handle the withdrawal. I 'm not aware of the side effects I'm having taking it because it's been so long.. I've been on ADs since I was 17, 10 years ago.

 

[Aj]

felix: I've been using Zoloft for quite some time but in a period where I felt my best I began to get fed up with the side effects and decided to taper off. I didn't alert my psychiatrist (but did tell my psychologist as I see him regularly for CBT) and thought this would be a good time to let my brain readjust to life without meds. This, I would learn later, was a big mistake. The idea that you are feeling "fine" or "better than you did" on the meds is a result of, you guessed it, the meds. The problem comes when you stop taking them and hit the wall. Not only do you have a condition but your body, after years of dependence on a drug to maintain its sense of stasis, is suddenly taken aback and you begin to basically put your whole body in shock. There is an idea of homeostasis, that your body maintains a balance. In many cases, those of us with PTSD have had our balance basically redefined (and that is the crux of our condition). When we take something to redefine our balance yet again, our body tries to keep up. I don't care what anyone says, these pills do not bring a natural balance and so it makes your body play catch up much like a person trying to juggle. If you suddenly throw too many things into the mix, everything falls down. I'm like all of you here, desperate to be in a place where I was or where I wish I could be. If there was a pill that would make me "better" truly, without sacrifice I would take it until my last day on Earth. But there isn't. There's something that can "sort of" get me close and for now, I have to take that. There's other options coming around (see my post on the SGB which might actually cure PTSD), new drugs every day, and if we're miraculously lucky someone will finally invent that damn time machine. ;) But in all seriousness, the body is a complicated, finely tuned organism and while I think after a long time you might recover from the effect of not being on meds, chances are you will wind up having to go back on something. There are so many worse things to suffer than just having to take a pill that makes the day slightly more tolerable.