Search the Community

ADMIN NOTE: Read this entire topic before attempting a switch to fluoxetine. Be sure to read details and cautions below . Consult a knowledgeable medical practitioner before changing medications. Also see Tips for tapering off fluoxetine (Prozac) Switching or bridging with another related drug, usually of a longer half-life, is a medically recognized way to get off psychiatric drugs, particularly if you find tapering your original drug to be intolerable. Many people with failed tapers from venlafaxine (Effexor), desvenlafaxine (Pristiq), paroxetine (Paxil), and duloxetine (Cymbalta) find they need to bridge in order to go off the drug. For many doctors, a switch to Prozac to go off a different antidepressant is routine. Because of the risks of switching drugs -- see below -- we recommend attempting a very gradual direct taper from your drug, with bridging with a different drug only a last resort. There are a lot of unknowns in bridging. You will need to consider whether taking the risks of substituting another drug are worth possibly alleviating your current withdrawal syndrome. Fluoxetine (Prozac) has the longest half-life of any of the modern antidepressants. Because it takes more than a week for a dose to be metabolized completely, a careful taper off fluoxetine is easier for many people -- see information about Tapering off Prozac. And, at least fluoxetine comes in a liquid. (Do not assume fluoxetine is "self-tapering"! We have many people here with Prozac withdrawal syndrome. While going off fluoxetine usually has less risk, one might still develop withdrawal symptoms going off fluoxetine. No bridging strategy is risk-free.) Citalopram (Celexa )and its sibling escilatopram (Lexapro) have half-lives of about 35 hours, a relatively long half-life among SSRIs, and are other candidates for a bridging strategy. They also come in a liquid form. Citalopram has a half-life longer than other SSRIs but shorter than fluoxetine, so you may wish to bridge with citalopram instead, since if it causes adverse effects of its own, they will not last as long as they would with fluoxetine. There's very little documentation about the success rate for the Prozac switch. It may be best to reserve it as a last resort, if you cannot taper an antidepressant by any other means. To switch to Prozac for tapering, consult a doctor knowledgeable about this technique. You must find a knowledgeable doctor to help you to with a bridging strategy. The cross-taper method discussed below is probably the safest way to make a change in drugs. You might wish to print this post out to discuss it with your doctor. For most people the switch goes smoothly but for some it doesn't. The drawbacks of switching to another drug to get off the first drug, described below, apply to ALL bridging strategies for ALL drugs, including benzodiazepines (where people often want to bridge with diazepam per the Ashton method). Risks of bridging A bridging strategy has the following drawbacks: Dropping the first antidepressant in the switch may cause withdrawal symptoms even though you're taking a bridge drug. Adverse reaction to the bridge drug, such as Prozac. Serotonin toxicity or adverse effects of a drug combination. If withdrawal symptoms are already underway, switching to a bridge drug may not help. A cross-taper requires a number of careful steps. Difficulty tapering off the bridge drug. All of the bridge drugs can be difficult to taper themselves. So, like anything else, a drug switch is not guaranteed to work. When to switch or bridge "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know". A direct taper from the drug to which your nervous system is accustomed carries less risk than a switch to a new drug. You may have a bad reaction to the substitute drug, or the substitution may not work to forestall withdrawal symptoms. The risk of a switch is justified if you find a taper from the original drug is simply too difficult. Usually people will do a switch when they find reducing the original antidepressant by even a small amount -- 10% or even 5% -- causes intolerable withdrawal symptoms. (I have heard doctors say they don't even try tapering off paroxetine (Paxil) or venlafaxine (Effexor ), they switch to Prozac at the beginning of the tapering process.) If you are having intolerable withdrawal or adverse effects from an antidepressant, it may be worth risking the worst case, which is that a switch to a bridge drug doesn't help and you have withdrawal syndrome anyway. If you're thinking of switching simply as a matter of convenience, you need to weigh the risks against the amount of convenience you would gain. Generally, switching for convenience is a bad idea. CAUTION: A switch to a bridge drug is not guaranteed to work. It's safer to slow down a taper than count on a switch. A switch really should be used only when a taper becomes unbearable or there are other serious adverse effects from the medication. You must work with a doctor who is familiar with bridging, in case you develop severe symptoms. Overview of cross-tapering method For drug switches, many doctors prefer cross-tapering, where a low dose of one drug is added and gradually increased while the first drug is reduced. For a period, both drugs are taken at the same time. Here is a graphic representation of cross-tapering: If you are making a switch to Prozac, the second antidepressant is fluoxetine (Prozac). Given fluoxetine's long half-life, it will take a couple of weeks to reach full effect ("steady-state"). You will not be able to tell if your fluoxetine dose is enough in a day or a few days. The effect of your initial dose of fluoxetine will build throughout the process of cross-tapering. It's best to avoid increasing fluoxetine throughout the cross-taper, you could end up with an adverse reaction or even serotonin toxicity from too much fluoxetine (see below). (Unlike fluoxetine, you will be able to assess the effect of citalopram as a bridge within 5 days. Due to its shorter half-life, it takes a shorter time to reach a steady state level in your bloodstream.) Also see this discussion about cross-tapering with Prozac: Serotonin toxicity and serotonin syndrome You run the risk of serotonin toxicity if you are taking too much serotonergic. Most antidepressants (and some other drugs, such as triptans and MDMA) are serotonergics. Serotonergic effects of antidepressants are added when you take more than one of them, particularly if you add an SSRI (such as Prozac, Celexa, or Lexapro) to an SNRI (such as desvenlafaxine (Pristiq), duloxetine (Cymbalta), venlafaxine (Effexor), venlafaxine XR (Effexor XR), milnacipran (Savella), and levomilnacipran (Fetzima)). (Other types of antidepressants should not be combined with tricyclics or MAOIs.) Symptoms of too much serotonergic can be: Nervousness, anxiety, akathisia, sleeplessness, fast heartbeat. Symptoms of serotonin toxicity can be these plus disorientation, sweating, and others. Serotonin syndrome is even more serious. See Serotonin Syndrome or Serotonin Toxicity Reduction of the drug dose should resolve serotonin toxicity. Note that if you cross-taper, you will be taking 2 drugs at once for part of the time. Because of the potential of serotonin toxicity by overdosing SSRIs as well as in combination with SNRIs, it's safest to err on the lower side of a Prozac dose "equivalent" -- such as 5mg -- to your original drug. This is why doctors familiar with the Prozac switch will cross-taper by adding an initial LOW DOSE of Prozac to another antidepressant. Start low, the effect of fluoxetine will increase over at least a couple of weeks. Another concern: Escilatopram (Lexapro) is several times stronger, milligram for milligram, than the other SSRIs. If you add 10mg escilatopram to the high dose of 60mg duloxetine (Cymbalta), for example, you run the risk of serotonergic toxicity -- 10mg escilatopram is equal to approximately 20mg-30mg duloxetine. How much fluoxetine (Prozac) to substitute for my drug? Since fluoxetine's half-life is so much longer than those of other antdepressants, its effect is a little different. It's not a stronger antidepressant, but the effect of each dose lasts much longer. This may be the reason a lower dose of fluoxetine often seems to adequately substitute for other antidepressants. For an idea of equivalent doses of your medication to fluoxetine (Prozac) read this post (January 7, 2018) in this topic. It compares fluoxetine 40mg/day (a fairly high dose of Prozac) to other antidepressants. Source of that data: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25911132 If you have tapered to a lower dose of an antidepressant, an even lower dose of Prozac may be more tolerable. If you have decreased your antidepressant dose by a half or more, you may wish to try 5mg Prozac. If you have substituted fluoxetine for your drug and after two weeks, you feel you have withdrawal symptoms, you may wish to gradually the fluoxetine dosage. After each change in fluoxetine, wait at least 2 weeks to see the effect before deciding on another increase. More is not better for nervous systems sensitized by withdrawal. EXAMPLES OF THE PROZAC SWITCH Below is information I've gathered from doctors about how to do the Prozac switch. You will see there is no standard protocol. Healy 2009 method for the Prozac switch From Healy 2009 Halting SSRIs withdrawal guidelines: Phelps-Kelly 2010 method for Prozac switch From Clinicians share information about slow tapering (2010) Jim Phelps, one of the authors of the above, posted in 2005 in some detail about the so-called "Prozac bridging" strategy. He said it is described in Joseph Glenmullen's book, Prozac Backlash, maybe in the chapter titled of "Held Hostage." The technique Dr. Phelps described in this post skips doses and finishes with alternating dosages, which we do not recommend for people who are sensitive to withdrawal symptoms. Given that fluoxetine liquid is available, this is completely unnecessary. Foster 2012 method for Prozac switch Dr. Mark Foster, a GP whose mission is to get people safely off psychiatric drugs includes this in a presentation he gives to doctors. http://www.gobhi.org/spring_conference_powerpoints/safewithdrawal_of_psychotropics%5Bautosaved%5D.ppt. His method involves overlapping Prozac with the other antidepressant -- cross-tapering. Prey 2012 method for Prozac switch Another knowledgeable doctor (whom I trust) explained his technique to me (this is the technique I personally would prefer if I had to do it, it seems much gentler) For a "normal" dose of Effexor (150mg per day or more) or Paxil (20mg) or Cymbalta (20mg), he would switch to 10mg Prozac with a week of overlap. In other words, take both medications for a week and then drop the Effexor. Lower doses of Effexor or other antidepressant require lower doses of Prozac as a "bridge." The lower dose of Prozac reduces the risk of excessive serotonergic stimulation (serotonin toxicity) from the combination of the two antidepressants during the overlap period. Do not stay on the combination of the first antidepressant and Prozac for more than 2 weeks, or you run the risk of your nervous system accommodating to the combination and having difficulty tapering off both antidepressants. Later, taper off Prozac. He acknowledged Prozac can have its withdrawal problems, but given Prozac's long half-life, gradual tapering should be easier than tapering off Effexor. Smoothing out a transition to fluoxetine Even with a cross-taper, your system might feel a jolt after you finally drop the initial antidepressant, particularly if it is an SNRI, such as Effexor, Pristiq, or Cymbalta, or other drug that is not an SSRI like fluoxetine. (Other SSRIs include Paxil, Zoloft, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro). If you go through a rough patch after the transition, patients find they can take a tiny chip of the original drug (or a bead or two, if it's a capsule containing beads) for a week or two to smooth out the transition. Eventually, you'd take a chip as needed only when you feel a wave of withdrawal from the original drug, and then finally leave the original drug entirely behind. (A gelatin capsule might make a tablet fragment easier to get down, but it is not necessary if you can wash it down with a good swallow of water. The gelatin capsule quickly dissolves in your stomach.) Here's an example. There is no shame in doing this. Whatever works, works.

Rhi's Introduction topic I want to crow, or at least jabber excitedly, about the improvements I'm finally seeing in my health and mental/emotional wellbeing as a result of my taper. But I'm not "fully recovered from withdrawal" so I was hesitant to post in this area. Then I decided what the heck. Recovery doesn't have to be all or nothing. There are all kinds of success stories. I know people will be encouraged by what I have to say, as I am encouraged by others. So here it is. As you can see from my sig, I'm in the process of a very long taper off five meds, with a long time yet to go. But I am ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED at my improvement so far. Even though I'm still taking low doses of four psychiatric meds--I'm not sure I can find the words to describe how much better I'm doing and how happy I am at these lower doses, relative to how I was when I was taking those so-called "therapeutic" dosages. Neurontin completely savaged my ability to learn and remember things. Benzos and Lamictal are still making that something of a challenge, but the Neurontin was the worst. It also gave me the lack-of-impulse-control of a two-margarita drunk, and you can imagine what that did for my personality and peoples' impressions of me. I did and said stuff even just two years ago that makes me shudder to think now and thank my lucky stars I didn't get in more trouble. After I got down below 100 mg, all of this settled down a lot, especially the cognitive stuff. When I finally came all the way off Neurontin back in April, after about three months of recovery I seemed to stabilize out fully. My point is, though, I got the lion's share of my improvement not when I quit completely, but during the taper itself. Now I'm experiencing something that just makes me want to shout from the rooftops: I've gotten my motivation and enthusiasm back! After 20 years on antidepressants, I had forgotten what it felt like to actually WANT to do stuff! I used to go along with stuff proposed by other people, and I enjoyed it to the extent that I could experience "enjoyment" (something ADs cripple in me), but I usually felt like I would just have soon have stayed home, and left to my own devices that's pretty much what I did. It was hard, because my poor kids wanted to get out there and experience life. Fortunately their dad and some of my friends used to take them places and give them some adventures. I just never really wanted to do much. Which was weird, because before Prozac and Xanax, you couldn't keep me at home. I was always wanting to go out and do things. I was also very social, loved being with other people, got along well with them. Then for 20 years I became the opposite--agoraphobic, uncomfortable and awkward with people, socially anxious. Well--I'm getting myself back! I'm still on 2.7 mg of Celexa, but the zombie effect is lifting. You have NO idea how great it feels, and I don't think words can do it justice. Over about the past six months I've noticed that I'm back to being comfortable in social environments--more than comfortable, I love being with people, and people seem to enjoy me too. It's so much fun being a social human being again! And for the first time in 20 years I want to do stuff! When I have a day off work, instead of hanging around the house, I want to get out and explore the world, get out and try something new, meet people, see things, do things, touch the world, feel alive, explore, have fun! It's GREAT. So I'm here to testify (can I get a witness?--okay, that's a southern US cultural reference, ignore it if you don't get it) that at least for me, it's been possible to get back a lot of myself, a lot of what I lost on the "meds", just by slowly and carefully lowering my doses and getting down to low doses. The lower the doses go, the better I feel. There's a lot of room between "all" and "nothing", and that's the room where slow tapers play out. It was my hope that by tapering extremely slowly like I have been, all the meds together like I have been, that this would happen, that I would gradually and safely emerge from the nightmare miasma of "non-me" that the drugs had trapped me in. And it's happening. After two and a half patient years of tapering, it's definitely happening. For the first time in 20 years, you can't keep me at home, and I delight in social interaction. Just like how I remember myself being before they put me on the drugs. I'm not even going to go into the kind of karma that people earn by stealing 20 years from someone's life just so they can make money. That's not what this is about, although I have to say I feel pretty PO'd about it. I just want to say that you may not have to wait until you get to the end of your taper to enjoy a lot of benefit. And that tapering faster so you can get all the way off faster--it might not be worth the price, since tapering slow enough that you can still maintain a life and good health may turn out to be worth it when you get to a lower dose and you're functioning well enough to actually ENJOY that life and that health. And I want to say that YES, it's worth it. You can get yourself back. I've heard it from others, I've seen others do it, and I'm experiencing it myself. Hang in there! it's worth it!

Hi all, I started experimenting with antidepressants as an off-label usage to treat a personal condition. I never experimented on my own - I always consulted and followed a doctor's advice, both for starting and for ceasing. Starting Nov 2020, I took 25 mg of Setraline per day. After a month, I increased to 50 mg of Setraline per day. After another month, I decided Setraline was not helping with the condition, and at the same time, I was feeling slightly demotivated at work (although not severe). Thus, I decided to stop using Setraline, and following the doctor's advice, I tapered as follows: I took 25 mg/day for a week. After that, I took 25 mg every other day for a week. Finally, I took 1 last 25 mg tablet after another week and ceased taking Setraline. Throughout and after the tapering of Setraline, I noticed zero withdrawal symptoms. In April 2022, I decided to try again to use antidepressants to treat my condition - this time with Citalopram. Actually, I asked my primary care physician to try Paroxetine, but he recommended Citalopram instead. The dose was 20 mg/day and stayed at that dose throughout the whole period of usage. This time, Citalopram seemed somewhat effective in improving my condition, so I stayed on it for a long time (10 months). I did not experience any adverse reactions from taking Citalopram. However, after about 6-8 months, I felt like the effectiveness of Citalopram for my condition had diminished, and thus I decided to get off of Citalopram. Following my physician's directions, I dropped down to 10 mg/day for 2 weeks, and then ceased altogether after those 2 weeks. The last day I took 10 mg of Citalopram was Feb. 22, 2023. I experienced withdrawal symptoms for the first time on Feb. 25 - tingling sensations, fatigue, brain fog, slight disorientation, and slight breathlessness. These symptoms have become more pronounced progressively since then. (Today is Feb. 28.) I have not yet gotten to the point where I am unable to function in my daily life, but the fatigue and brain fog are certainly interfering with my productivity, and I am concerned that they will get worse and also become prolonged into Protracted Withdrawal Symptoms. After browsing these forums, I went ahead and just took 10 mg of Citalopram. It has only been about an hour, but I feel that the withdrawal symptoms have improved although not completely subsided. I presume that this seeming improvement is only a placebo effect given the short amount of time. Anyways, I hope I am not too late for reinstatement, and hopefully I will be able to get back to tapering - this time only 10% at a time as recommended by this website. On the other hand, I am wondering if I should have attempted reinstatement at a lower dose. The amount of time I have spent reading these forums today, the probable placebo effect after only an hour of attempting reinstatement, and the subsequent possible regret about not having attempted a lower dose reinstatement: all of these indicate to me that I am not in a very normal state of mind. In other words, they seem uncharacteristic of who I know myself to be.

Hi there, New to the forums but been reading through a little bit. I'm not sure if this is the exact right place for me as I'm actually not currently planning any tapers, but I did want to make sense of some symptoms I've been experiencing and get some feedback on whether these could possibly be withdrawal related. More information in my signature (which in itself is just a tiny snippet of all the changing drug combos I've been put on since I first entered the system in 2014), but my primary concern was that this past Oct/Nov 2022, I spent some time on an inpatient psych unit where I was taken off the sertraline (150mg) which I'd been taking at that point for probably around five years, and switched onto citalopram (20mg) with no tapering at all, just a sudden switchover. I've now been on the citalopram for about three months; there were also other meds changes around that time but fortunately quite short lived so I'm not sure my system really got settled with any of them. Starting a few weeks after the switch and continuing over the past few months, I've been experiencing symptoms that feel different from the mental illness that I've struggled with for a long time. Primarily I've been experiencing what feels like depression but without correlating emotions... just a lot of fatigue, sleeping way more than usual, feeling little motivation or energy to do things, but without the intense mental/emotional components that accompany regular depression for me. I know this could be all sorts of things, but after hearing about issues with antidepressant withdrawal I began to wonder if this could be related to being switched so suddenly off something I'd taken for so long, even if it was replaced with another SSRI. Would be curious if anyone here has experienced a similar situation or has any insights based on knowledge of these drugs. I do also know that longer-term I would like to get off any SSRIs, but my life circumstances aren't currently stable enough to mess with more meds changes.

Hi. I live in Cork Ireland. I've been on 40mg citalopram for years as well as other meds which I have reduced to a minimum. On 1st February I reduced my dose to 30mg. So heading to day 3 now...have a few symptoms but nothing I can't handle. I know it will get worse b4 it settles so just want support 🙂

masa998899 Hello. Im new here and my english is not perfect. My story is 11 years of citalopharm 20mg. I didnt have any information or support on this matter so this is what ive tried to do by myself. 2012 CT That caused me total burnout. After that i started again with 10mg. 2015 i started to smaller the dose by cutting the 10mg pill smaller and smaller by month and i stopped taking it completely after 2017 Ive had two times since then that my anxiety was so high that i got desperate and took 5mg dose only for a single day. My question is, has that set back my recovery? 2020 now and i have all kinds of wd symptoms and trying to keep living day by day. If taking that one 5mg pill means i now have CT should i just roll with it. Been 1 year now since that happened.

Hi all! TLDR: Began taking SSRIs for GAD & depression at age 21 (now 42). Made a few terrible and uneducated failed attempts at discontinuing and each time reinstated due to depression symptoms. Now I'm more equipped and tapering again. At the time of this intro writing, I'm two months in. Initial questions for the community: 1) Do discontinuation symptoms get better with lower volume dosage drops? I understand the 10% of previous dosage reasoning but I'm curious/hopeful that once dosage drops are say around .1ml, the symptoms will lessen compared to the current .4 ml. It's daunting to imagine living like this for multiple years. 2) What (if anything) helps alleviate the general symptom of a hyperactive sympathetic nervous system? 3) Do others experience an increase in appetite? I'm often hungrier and eating more since tapering. I am, however, exercising harder as it helps my symptoms so I can't tell for sure but I suspect the hyperactive nervous system is increasing my metabolic rate. This is more out of curiosity, I'm not gaining weight or concerned. Full story and findings along my journey: It began in college with depression. I was prescribed Paxil to help with my anxiety that was causing the depression; or at least that was how my PCP and psychologist explained it to me. It worked, quite well. Fourteen months later I simply decided to stop taking it, cold turkey. Within a couple months, my depression had returned and I couldn't bear it. I reinstated. I attempted again about 18 months later, this time with a taper of about two months. And again, within a few months of stopping, I was soaked in depression. I reinstated and this time with Lexapro due to my doctor saying he felt it treated anxiety better. I went about 9 years on the Lexapro before yet another attempt to discontinue. This time I tapered for four months, cutting tablets and/or skipping doses. I thought I had it all figured out this time, not knowing ****. Big surprise, the depression returned within a couple months of stopping. I tried to push through for a few months before reinstating. I was blown away that within 2 days of reinstating, I went from very depressed to feeling 100% normal, compared the 3+ weeks SSRIs typically need to change mood. It was as if my brain knew exactly what to do with its old friend. On or off the drug, anxiety was still an issue so I worked hard building up my toolset. Exercise, CBT and mindfulness based meditation have become the cornerstones of my mental health journey. By this point, I solidly believed a state of depression was my baseline. I believed I'd be on SSRIs the rest of my life. I'm okay if that's still the case. But I don't love that. I hate the idea that I need a drug to feel "normal". I fear the stigma of using a psych drug and have only told a handful of people over the two decades I've used. I'm ashamed. I also fear the long term effects on my health, or that I'll someday be in a nursing home and someone will simply stop giving me my SSRIs and I'll be totally ***** and nobody will know why. Or maybe that's just anxiety, depression's drinking buddy, talking. I continued honing in my anxiety coping skills over the years, with no plans to discontinue again. Then I started hearing about the research that SSRIs, while great at treating depression, are actually not good at all at treating anxiety. That there's way more to it than serotonin. All along, I believed the pill was just preventing my anxiety from getting so bad I became depressed. What if that security blanket wasn't actually that helpful? Or at all. What if my stronger resilience would give me a shot at success without drugs? Then I heard about people (likely this community) having success with very slow tapers and that there were liquid forms of the drugs. It still took me a few years to get curious and brave enough. I happened to read the book Dopamine Nation and she discussed Tardive Dysphoria, essentially where the ongoing use of SSRIs actually makes you depressed. Even though it's not that common, the evidence and a possible successful route to discontinuation made me to decide to give it another go. And what if what I considered to be depression relapses each time I dropped the drug before, was simply a discontinuation side effect given my insufficient taper?? I CAN DO THIS. This taper: I started out with my spreadsheet and excitement to get off the meds in 12 months. I was stoked. I knew, again from Dopamine Nation, that it takes about four weeks for the brain to balance out after a chemical change, so I had scheduled four-week drops. Then I start googling to be sure and found this site and the research behind the 10% taper. Even though my first drop was only 8%, I switched over to the 10% in the next drop. Now I've dropped twice, currently at 3.7ml/7.4mg or 74% of my original 10mg dose. Admittedly, I'm surprised how strong the discontinuation symptoms are this time around. I really only recall a lot of vertigo and sexual sensitivity when decreasing dosage prior. But I also have much stronger awareness now and mostly experience a hyperactive sympathetic nervous symptom with this taper. Not unlike taking a steroid for a sinus infection or drinking too much coffee. Some irritability and difficulty concentrating. Sound sensitivity. I've also had what I'll call fragmented sleep, I wake up in the middle of the night with my brain seemingly wide awake, yet I fall right back to sleep. I wouldn't call it insomnia albeit very annoying. The nervous system stuff can be really intense but it's not debilitating; I still go on doing whatever it is I would normally do. I believe I can kick this, and most importantly, without depression on the other end. I am a little bummed about the idea of it taking years, but I will not rush this. What makes my symptoms worse: Alcohol - I allow myself to have one drink per day, 3-4 days per week, right now. If I have two or more, it seems to trigger a wave when it wears off. Caffeine - I've always been caffeine-sensitive but it's crazy right now. I usually can't even have a cup of green tea without feeling the nervous system ramp up. The thought of a cup of coffee...well I might as well take speed. Lack of sleep - goes without saying. What makes my symptoms better: Exercise - I can be in a really sh*tty wave and not particularly feel like working out, but go to a 60 minute HIIT class and I'm golden the rest of the day. Intense exercise is amazing right now. They're not evil: I also just want to say for fellow members, SSRIs aren't the devil. If it weren't for them, I may not be here today so I owe a lot of respect to them. They can be immensely helpful. -- Thanks for reading. This community is certainly helping me. Feel free to comment or question any of the above.

Hello...I'm new to this website and I'm still not sure how this works. I'm looking for some hope I guess that's what you'd call it. I have been on meds for 15 years. Only an SSRI until probably 3 years ago. I was on Celexa 40mg, Abilify 10mg and Wellbutrin XL. I was so over medicated I felt numb and I couldn't function. I didn't know what was wrong with me & then I thought maybe it's to much medicine. I lost my health insurance on 12-01-16 so I couldn't afford all these meds so I stopped taking the Celexa & Abilify on that day. I'm still on Wellbutrin. The reason I stayed on it was I heard it would cause seizures if I cold turkey off it. I did not know I shouldn't of done that with the other 2. It will be 5 months on May 1st that I stopped other 2 meds. The only reason I went on medicine was because I lost my grandmother and I was stressed. My friend suggested I see a Dr so I did. Stupid mistake! I didn't even know Abilify was an antipsychotic until I googled it looking for answers about what was going on with me after stopping meds. I came across discontinue syndrome and then this website. Most psychical symptoms are gone and insomnia has gotten a tiny bit better but the anxiety and I guess it's depression is awful!! I don't have insurance so I can't afford to go back on the meds & go back to not functioning. I'm just wondering if I'm going to make it through this? I'm really worried. God Bless!

Hello i am a new user And a little scared to post my first post so hear it goes I started sertraline in 2019 after suffering from postpartum depression and anxiety after having my two children and their dad left in 2018 and I went down hill the sertraline seemed to help get me out of that funk for a while in 2021 I cold turkey quit from 100mg I new nothing about withdrawal or tapering I crashed hard a month later I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t sit still , continuous panic attacks couldn’t be alone , I was told this was worsening of my symptoms and put back on 50mg in October 2021 i stabilised after a few weeks in August 2022 I came off 50mg due to feeling unmotivated and sluggish and foggy headed i crashed in November 25th 2022 panic , fear , no sleep, shaking went back on 50mg December 1st had horrific side effects No appetite, suicidal thoughts all day , I wasn’t safe stayed on sertraline until jan 14th 2023 dr moved me to citalopram 5mg Jan 16th Which I am still currently on , a few side effects but doing ok currently I know now switching isn’t always a good idea but I couldn’t carry on with the sertraline and I couldn’t be on nothing at all. I am not planning on switching or adding any other medication if and when I stabilise on the citalopram fully my idea is to do a long hold of a few months then very super slowly come off using the liquid which I would appreciate help with many thanks kitkat

This story is intended to be published elsewhere as a human interest article. The author is an occasional freelance writer. I asked for them. That's the part of my 12-year journey with antidepressants and their fallout that really sticks in my head. I asked for them. The drugs that would have such a devastating effect on my life were something that I asked for. I believe in personal responsibility. But then I have to remind myself. When you walk into a doctor's office with a few issues – in my case a touch of anxiety and mildly obsessive thoughts – there's only one adult in the room and that's the person with the expensive embroidered degree on the wall. In 2011, I was encouraged by a counsellor to ask my general practitioner (GP) for antidepressants. The counsellor informed me I would be facing an uphill battle for life if I didn't use them. A 5-minute consult with my GP followed with a few vague questions. 'Are they addictive?' I ask. 'No, not at all' was the response. I was prescribed a low dose of 10 milligrams of citalopram, an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor variety (SSRI). It stimulates neurotransmitters in the brain to allow serotonin to linger a lot longer. 'Here's your script, the chemist is next door' I was told. Us New Zealanders can be a trusting lot. We live at the bottom of the world, we stick to our own and tend to go with the flow. As an aside, we have major housing issues, social inequalities and a mental heath crisis, but tell us we can't go to the beach for a few weeks due to a pandemic – then we riot! The pills worked for about 6 months, then the old issues cropped up. Fast forward about a year, I'm back in front of my trusted GP, who told me to up the dose to 20 milligrams. It was at this point I was informed that I would likely be on these drugs for life due to my tendency to 'worry'. After this, things settled down for a bit and I sank into my medicated heaven. Now the side effects started creeping in. Some of these were deeply personal (Google it). But the biggest one for me was the jaw clenching or 'bruxism' and to this day I still have the cracks in my teeth from this. Back to the GP. I was told it wasn't bruxism but an ear infection and with a patronising air was given Flixonase nose drops. Yeah, they didn't work. After this, I decided to just accept things and put up with my lot. But by 2018, enough was enough. More side effects were creeping in and I didn't want to be a slave to the jagged little pills anymore. I decided to come off. With only some limited knowledge of tapering and no advice from anyone I reduced dose to 10mg. Big mistake. My world fell apart, my days became nights and I sank into a deep depression. Arguments and confrontations with family and friends became a thing that year. A few weeks later, back to my old friend the GP – you'd think I'd learn by now. I asked about using a different drug with less side effects. Another 5 minute consult. 'Are they addictive!?' I asked 'Nah, not to my knowledge!' I was prescribed Buspirone, a different class of antidepressant. Two days after taking these I was almost housebound with paranoia, agoraphobia (fear of outdoors) and obsessive thoughts. I tossed the latest pills in the bin and reinstated back up to 10mg citalopram, a lower dose than I was originally on. Things improved somewhat and life limped on for a few more years, but still with side effects. 2020 arrived, with all its pandemic issues. My old GP decided to retire. I decided to see my new GP to sound her out about some of my drug side effects. This time I had better luck. She told me the bruxism and other issues were in actual fact a known side effect of antidepressants and she had quite a few patients who experienced it while taking them. Did my old GP not have patients with these effects, or did he not read their notes or listen to the words coming out their mouths? It was at this point I decided I wanted out. No more, never again. I sought advice online about how to taper off SSRIs – I was told by my GP to merely 'take it easy'. I started to take it easy by literally shaving the pill, month to month. Not exactly the most scientific way of doing it. The chemist offered to convert my pills to liquid form to allow for easier dosing – but wanted a 100 dollars a pop to provide this service. Good old New Zealand health system, here's to 30 years of neoliberalism – how's it working out for us? September 2020 arrived and I started experiencing my first withdrawal effects – a visual migraine. Not too bad, I thought. I can deal with that. The tapering and shaving of the pill continued over the next year, all throughout the lockdowns and the world going bonkers. I hit July of 2021 with another lockdown, and my shaving of the pill had got to the point where I couldn't do it anymore. The last crumb was just too small for the knife to go through, so I jumped off. Nuclear level mistake. I didn't know it at the time, but I had just launched a missile a year into the future. These days I know all about how antidepressant withdrawal works. There's an acute phase, where you get a bunch of short-acting symptoms. Then there can be the post-acute phase where new symptoms develop some time later as your brain tries to rebalance itself. That last tiny dose is the one you're supposed to hang around on the longest. Anyway, this next phase of withdrawal crept in, and it was my first experience with chronic pain. Blinding, piercing headaches that wrapped like a band around the base of my skull. Ever had a red wine hangover? This felt like a permanent version of that. This came and went over the next year and seemed to be made worse by certain prescribed drugs, some types of alcohol (hoppy beer) or supplements, but could also pay a wee visit for no apparent reason. Then August of 2022 arrived and all hell broke loose. The missile landed. Sudden widespread chronic pain was delivered to my doorstep. This affected my back and joints. For my sins I also added migraines, exercise intolerance, chronic fatigue, nausea, depression and the intermittent return of bruxism. My first post-pandemic overseas holiday to Sydney happened that month and my wife was dragging a living corpse around with her. No painkiller touches it, you just have to accept it. As of January 2023, after a year and half off the drugs these issues are ongoing. It's important to understand, this is not a relapse of the original diagnosis as many health professionals 'gaslight' this as. This is new, and reflects the experience of tens of thousands of people who are currently withdrawing from antidepressants. These people provide anecdotal evidence and their experiences are supported with a lot of emerging peer-reviewed literature. After discovering a great deal of anecdotal evidence and doing my research my conclusion is this. I got off light. Ironically, thanks to the pandemic, an understanding employer and being able to work from home 4 days a week, I still have my job and can support myself. I came off these drugs because they didn't work as promised and had side effects I wasn't informed of. Staying on them was a bit like a junkie who could no longer get high – staying on heroin just to keep to their version of normal. I've since learned that going back on them may not even be an option as there's no guarantee it will resolve my symptoms due to how the central nervous system has been sensitized. For the record, I believe that antidepressants have their place. If you are actively suicidal or have extreme chronic depression they can be a game-changer. I had none of these issues. I have some of them now, although to reassure everyone I am currently not, nor have I ever been, suicidal. In my other life as I now call it, I was a dedicated martial artist, yogi and rock musician. All this is now gone. I'm now medically retired from everything I love and down to a single 4 kilometer walk per day and I'm only 49 years old. My biggest fear is these issues will now never resolve and I'm stuck with the fallout of bad advice, gaslighting medical health professionals and a hemorrhaging health system. My trust is in ashes. My heart is broken. In January 2023, I discovered this website.

Hi everyone (sorry for the misspellings and bad grammar - I'm from Denmark). Started on citalopram in 2010/2011 after a longer period of anxiety, where I was afraid that I was going insane. Checked my self for symptoms that I was about to go insane, had anxiety all the time, could'n sleep and could not relax as I constantly had and "what if"-thoughts. I didn't really share it with anyone - just hoped that it would pass. I can't remember exactly when I started on citalopram, but It was after visiting my parents for Christmas where I just started crying and was doing really bad. year. I went to see a GP, and I was put on citalopram (after my own wish, because I just wanted to get better). I didn't get any sessions with a pshycologist until later, and not until I was on 40 mg. I stayed on that dose for a while and then went to a pshycologist. After that I slowly started to feel better and was able to taper to 30 mg, to 20 mg without any problems. A couple of years ago i went down to 10 mg. This was a little harder, but at that time I didn't know about withdrawal. I have been feeling good these past years (still had some problems with tiredness and I have to watch my wieght). I have been talking with a GP every year at checkups about the possibility of me starting to taper, but I haven't feelt that it was the right time until now. So in may ad the advise of my GP I started to skip doses. That didn't go well. I got irritated at my girlfriend, had inner restlessness, burning sensation in the arms, started to having trouble to sleep and about a week after i started to taper I was just feeling overwhelmed and had a feeling of panick once in a while. Then I upped my dose by switching between 10 and 5 mg every other day. That helped, and I started to sleep better and experiencing the windows. But I was afraid that I would screw up the when to take 10 or 5 mg, so I'm now cutting my 10 mg pill into qaurters to take 7,5 mg a day. It seems like I got hit again with the same problems as when i skipped doses. It's a long time since I started on citalopram, but I'm pretty sure that this i withdrawal and not a relapse, because it feels so different from back then. I'm now 35, and I would like to hear if anybody else has had the same problems with skipping doses and cutting in quarters that I have? And where to go from now? I have an appointment with a psychologist in Denmark who is writing a Phd on withdrawal, and I hope that he will be able to get me in the right direction. Kind regards from Denmark

August 24th, I was still a teenager, and offered a thc (10mg) edible from my mom. Once it set in, I had the scariest experience of my life. The panic was so bad I couldn’t move. My body felt nothing but war, red hot agony burning its way down my throat and scraping against my nerves. I have no other way to describe it other than a “panic attack,” though I’ve never had a panic attack before. The first “attack” lasted for about 4 hours straight, then hourly attacks occurred up to 5 days after. Conveniently I had also upped my Citalopram dose a month prior (from 10mg to 20mg). I can’t pinpoint if this is a “thc overdose” or serotonin syndrome. I told my doctor about what I had experienced but I couldn’t tell her about the thc part because it’s not allowed in my state for underage people. She diagnosed me with serotonin syndrome based on the symptoms I told her, but I’m not sure if that was actually the problem. Symptoms experienced with the attacks were: seizures, huge rush of anxiety and impending doom, throat tightness, trouble breathing, convulsing, burning, shaking/tremor/shivering, sweating/night sweats, paresthesia, numbness, no appetite, mental fog/confusion, heart racing, palpitations, diarrhea, and insomnia. I really wanted to go to the hospital, but I was reassured by my mom I was just having a “bad trip.” After that day, I tried to taper down my Citalopram under the conclusion that it was both the medication and thc. I had also been addicted to caffeine, and using 1 claritin in the morning and 2 benadryl at night. I stopped everything at once. I say it was a “taper” for my Citalopram but it was way too fast. After the first 5 days, I took 20mg. Waited 3 days, took 20mg again. Waited 3 days, split pill in ½ (10mg). Waited 3 days, split pill in ¼ (5mg). Then I went completely off meds by 9/7 (2 weeks after). The reason I was rushing was because the anxiety was crippling. I was scared of everything. Songs, daylight, food, sleep, walking, breathing—any ordinary thing became a trigger for my anxiety. I’d laid in the dark for weeks just trying to breathe. Nothing but breathing. I wanted to stop it and I thought if I changed everything at once it would eventually go away. I was wrong. At the beginning of my withdrawal symptoms (about 1 month later), I got covid so some symptoms are intertwined. Symptoms include: anxiety, hair loss, weight loss, face burning sensation, cramping in hands, night sweats, no appetite, dry mouth, auditory hallucinations (buzzing, staticky or springy sounds), mental fog/confusion/poor memory, dizziness, fatigue, irritability, heart racing, palpitations, diarrhea, insomnia & vivid dreams, throat tightness sensation, brain zaps/electric shock sensations, “sand papery’’ or static sensation in nervous system, feeling like my body is on “backwards,” nausea, bloating, heartburn/acid reflux, irregular menstruation (early, prolonged, & spotting on ovulation), restless legs at night, noise sensitivity/migraines, cold sensitivity, crying spells (when I try to hold back from crying, chest gets heavy & I get a lump in throat feeling). 2 months after, I started having chest pain and my heart rate was in the 110s. I went to the instacare and bloodwork & EKG came back normal (except low potassium). They prescribed me 25mg of Hydroxyzine for anxiety, but it did not work and gave me terrible sleep paralysis. After a few days, the pain got worse and I went to the ER. EKG was normal and they gave me a stomach numbing liquid for heartburn. It did not work. After a few days, the pain went away and I can only suspect it was my anxiety. A week after, I got my blood drawn for a checkup and everything was normal. I also had a brain CT scan. Everything came back normal. The 3 month mark is when I started experiencing weirder physical symptoms. Once or twice a day, I get this prickly sensation in my body. It feels like my brain is shivering and my joints are rusty. I still have this and a strange “flicking” sensation in my brain that comes and goes, usually triggered by moving my head too fast or blinking. Things have been getting back to normal but it is extremely slow. I am 4 months away from that day. I still suffer from crippling anxiety and panic attacks almost daily. I still can’t drink caffeine without panic attacks. Recently I tried birth control but it made my anxiety backpedal and I had to stop after just one week. So I guess now I’m just out of ideas on what to do. I don’t know why I am still having panic attacks when I’d never had them before. I have really bad medical anxiety and I keep telling myself there is something super wrong with me. I had to drop out of college because of my anxiety. Now my parents are pressuring me to get a job and move out but I feel like I can barely function. I can’t explain to anyone what I’m experiencing because I don’t know how to label it. I find it hard to believe all of this was caused by an edible or that I’d STILL be feeling the effects from it. I hope what I’m experiencing now is just withdrawals.

Hi All, I am new here and have been reading your experiences with the tapering of Celexa/Citralopram. I seem to be in a bad phase again at 1,5mg. Six hours of neck pain with muscular spasms. One of you guys wrote you took Epilim - or has anybody a tip on supplements which make you calmer and reduce neuro/muscular spasms. Its driving me nuts. All the best Mole

Hi all, Long story short I was on Lexapro from October 2018 to April 2021 for anxiety (I never had depression). In late February/early March 2021 I noticed it stopped working for my anxiety for whatever reason, as it wasn't working anymore I made the decision to quit cold turkey. I was okay for a few weeks and then the withdrawals hit, I had overwhelming depression and anxiety to a degree I'd never had before, I tried to get back on the medication but it didn't work, I tried sertraline and that didn't work either. I went through a really rough few months and then went to my doctor (I'd been self medicating up until that point, stupid I know) and he prescribed 10mg citalopram (which I know is basically the same as escitalopram), this stabilised me mostly and I feel kind of better. I believe 10mg citalopram is equivalent to 5mg escitalopram and so I'm on a way lower dose than I used to be which is good. I'm currently doing a slow taper (over the course of a year) on the citalopram and I'm currently at 8mg. My depression is almost gone and my anxiety is halved from the peak of withdrawals but I'm struggling with a few symptoms which don't seem to be budging, mainly stomach issues (I need to go to the toilet 3-4 times a day vs. 1 before all of this), sleep issues (I fall asleep fine most of the time but wake up after about 6 hours and can't get back to sleep) and weird muscle twitching (mostly in my legs and arms, this is the strangest one but is actually improved the most). I'm at a loss for the sleep issue as I refuse to use any kind of medication for that and I don't even know what the muscle twitching is, for the stomach issues I've been using super strength probiotics (VSL#3) for a few weeks and they worked at first and then seem to have stopped. Does anyone have any experience with these withdrawals (stomach issues, waking up too early & muscle twitching) and are they likely to go away in time? They're not things I've struggled with before antidepressants. I can take the anxiety on the chin and work on that myself as I've basically always had that but having these things going on that I never had before the drug are frustrating. Thanks all, I've read these forums for a few weeks before signing up and it's been incredibly useful, I really appreciate it all.

So glad I found this page I was on citalopram for 18 years tried to come off 6 years ago and 6 weeks later thought my anxiety had come back now realise it was withdrawal! Fast forward 6 years and it was suggested to me to meet with a psychiatrist to help with my meds as citalopram 40mg had stopped working . She said taper down from 40mg in 2.5 months and start sertraline which I did went into depesssion signed off work for 7 weeks now 11 weeks later and been on 100mg for 8 weeks I am suffering severe withdrawals Bugs crawling in head Tingling on face feel like a cobweb on it Clenching jaw Anxiety Will this ever get better ?

Hi, this site was recommended to me and I'm very grateful to have found a place where people might understand what I'm going through. My story with antidepressants starts 10 years ago, but I've only really had problems with them within the past year. In 2017, I was switched from fluoxetine to citalopram. The citalopram worked for me, and I was quickly upped to a dose of 30mg, which I happily stayed on for 4 years. This takes us to November(ish) 2021. In November I was really struggling with my anxiety, and physical symptoms which were new to me. I had lots of tests done to rule out any physical illness, and nothing abnormal came up so I was just really confused about what was happening. Everyone kept saying it was anxiety but I couldn't really believe it, because the symptoms were so strong and I'd been dealing with anxiety my whole life and it had never presented like this. My doctor suggested that I increase my citalopram to the maximum dose of 40mg. I'd never been on the maximum dose as I'd always been warned off it because I am underweight, but I did it anyway. I tapered up to 40 by January and stayed on it for about 6 weeks. It didn't help whatsoever - in fact I just felt worse, because I had some side effects from the increase that I'd never experienced previously. Skin crawling, tingling and numbness on my left side, etc. It was horrible so I decided to reduce back down to 30mg. I'd achieved this by late February. At this point, my mental and physical health has been feeling awful for about 4 months. I wasn't able to work, socialise, or do anything at all really. I'd developed extreme health anxiety from having all these new symptoms which I was convinced could be a serious medical condition, and I had now started to develop constant nausea (my worst symptom, as an emetophobe). At this point my doctor started to talk about me switching medications altogether. I was open to it, because in 2017 I'd made the switch from one SSRI to another and it went so smoothly that I just thought this would be the same. She suggested Sertraline, so I started to taper down the citalopram in preparation for that. I got down to 20mg by May and it was really difficult. The nausea, foggy headedness and tingling symptoms were constant. But, looking back, in mid May when I'd settled on 20mg I actually felt a bit better for the first time in a while. I was able to do slightly more and felt less sick every day. I think a wise decision at this point may have been to stay on 20mg and just allow my body to calm down and give myself the chance to have a life again. BUT back in April, I'd had my first appointment with a psychiatrist. After telling him everything, he suggested a medication I hadn't really thought about, Mirtazapine. He told me that when I came off citalopram completely, I should start 15mg of mirtazapine then work up to 30. I sort of took this as a better idea than sertraline, I'm not sure why really...I think because I knew that mirtazapine increased appetite, and I wanted desperately to gain weight because anxiety always takes my appetite away. So I ditched the idea of sertraline (which my doctor seemed fine with after hearing the psychiatrists new recommendation) and continued to taper down further. I got to 15mg by the start of June, and tried to drop again to 10mg. Things were just getting awful, I felt I was worse than I was in May, and I couldn't see myself being able to get all the way to 0 without just having no life anymore and becoming a shell of a person. At this point my doctor prescribes me 7.5mg of mirtazapine to take alongside 15mg citalopram, as a sort of crossover, so that I could continue to taper down citalopram but have the mirtazapine to make me feel a bit better. I took the mirtazapine for a total of 5 days - it made me very sleepy, very groggy in the mornings, and very emotional. I did in some ways feel mentally better - my overthinking definitely reduced and I was finally hungry again which was amazing. But when I told the doctor that I'd been very groggy and tired and had felt very off kilter, she told me to stop the mirtazapine immediately and just stick to 15mg citalopram for a while. This brings us to now. I'm at a loss - I stopped the mirtazpine last week (which has given me withdrawal symptoms too, even though I was only on it for 5 days - headaches, pulsatile tinnitus, worse brain zaps and tingling) and now I'm just sitting with being on 15mg of citalopram, half of what I've been on for 4 years and feeling pretty hopeless. The worst part of all this is the physical symptoms which just disrupt everything. After reading on here and on reddit, I think I'd describe them as brain zaps - a sort of constant tingling in my head which makes me nauseous and makes me feel like my head is fuzzy. I also feel sick at the thought of doing anything - its so hard to describe, but I literally cant picture myself doing anything without feeling spaced out and nauseous. I feel like I am just not on the same plane of existence as anybody else - my head is spaced out, I can't enjoy anything, I feel like crying, my thoughts are quite literally racing and my body is just messed up by all these medication changes. I feel such regret for ever trying to withdraw from citalopram in the first place, especially when I was in a bad place to begin with. I can't imagine how to get out of this hole that I've dug for myself. After reading about medication tapering online I realise I've done it at the wrong time, and far far too quickly, and I'm living with the consequences now. As for trying to settle the symptoms, I've of course tried lots of different supplements with limited success. In fact, since stopping mirtazapine, I'd say supplements make it worse. A few days ago I took a vitamin B supplement and the next day my head was pounding and I had pulsatile tinnitus, and last night I tried a magnesium supplement and today my head is pounding again. I'm very lucky that my family is able to look after me during all this, but they are constantly telling me to 'get out and do things', which I think is their reaction to the idea that all of this is just anxiety, and nothing actually physical. Its so hard to get people to understand that it feels like my body and brain are falling apart, and that withdrawing from my medication (something I chose to do which was meant to lead me on the road to recovery) has made things so so much worse, mentally and also physically. I hope that this will be the lowest point for me and that things will improve, but I have no idea. And I don't even know whether my next step will be more withdrawal, or reinstating the citalopram, or just staying at the dose I'm at. But I'm pretty scared for any of those directions because I've just bounced from one bad experience to another, and somehow I'm scared that it could get even worse.

Hello! I am in a hell of withdrawal. I have been on many different SSRI’s in the past and they all worked but had intolerable side effects. About a year ago I started sertraline, and when it didn’t work my psych put me on Abilify and lamotrigine. The Abilify seemed to help a bit but gave me crazy anxiety and tardive skenesis. The lamotrigine has never seemed to do anything. Since last March I have been trying to taper. I’ve had two terrible experiences when my doc told me to stop the S and A cold turkey. I’m back on low doses of both. Currently I take 12.5mg sertraline, 2mg Abilify, 200 mg lamotrigine and would like to get off all of them, if possible. I have terrible anxiety and crying spells that I’ve had since starting the sertraline and Abilify. Im wondering which drug I should try to taper first?? Thanks for your help!

Hello and nice to meet everyone. I have been reading as much as I can the past two days and feel like it is time to introduce myself. THANK YOU for everything you all have contributed, this site is a game changer. So many questions answered and a new journey begins. You can see my drug history and four month taper in my signature over the spring/summer (my psychiatrist at the time recommended two weeks, go figure). I had planned on a few crappy months going into this. Oh if I had only found this site first... Withdrawal didn’t kick in for at least two weeks, and slowly at first. I spent all of September and October dodging and weaving through good days and bad days, which I observed simply as “anxiety” (my original diagnosis) but with unusual physical symptoms. I journaled and kept calendar entries, mostly to record when I had to resort to Ativan (usually 0.5mg, occasionally 1mg). Other than for flight anxiety (two trips), I can count 17 times I took it over those two months, and only as a last resort. I had two sudden midnight “surges” (after feeling great) with shivers, out of control heart rate, even some diarrhea, which would last hours. I was convinced it was Serotonin Syndrome. The second one took me to urgent care the next morning for a heart checkup. A few days later a new psychiatrist then put me on Propranolol (beta blocker) as my primary concern was my heart. Propranolol immediately helped me observe and evaluate the “anxiety” I was experiencing which helped a lot. The new psychiatrist also had me stop 5-HTP after only a few weeks which was probably smart. I speak to him again this Friday, not sure what to share/ask given what I am learning here. I am now clear on the fact that I am riding waves of withdrawal symptoms, anxiety responds to the unusual feelings and emotions created by the withdrawal and adds its own icing to the cake, but I am focused on observing and not reacting, and doing my best to “ride it out”. The most unusual part of this “pattern” has been the timing of it all - usually kicking into high gear in the evenings after dark (earlier and earlier in my part of the world). I am nervous about traveling this weekend (short flight) but also realize I need to try and have as “normal” a life as I can stand under these conditions. My wife is awesome, understanding and super supportive. At 12 weeks in, I am not sure reinstatement is an option for me, even though I still have 5mg Trintellix in my drawer, and could try taking microdoses. Leaning toward a no, but I realize I may have run out of time to make that decision? I have read almost all the “required reading” but would still appreciate an opinion on that one. Also considering stopping my multivitamin, turmeric and mulberry leaf extract and taking only my “Super Omega-3 Plus” (Fish Oil) and picking up magnesium pills. I just started the Probiotic so I could drop it too, but not feeling like it would impact all of this either way? I am intrigued by the Reishi 415 blend to get some non-psychedelic mushroom love. Lastly my wife and I are thinking about therapeutic float tanks (she would love to do it again) and I have begun using our hot tub as part of my daily routine, along with many failed attempts at meditating. Anxiety was never something I handled well to begin with, and I realize now I must absolutely be on my game to dance this intricate dance. I will post any new thoughts, findings and curiosities on this thread as appropriate. I appreciate everyone’s support! PS- I opted to not use the appropriate abbreviations as I wanted to easily share this summary with family

My original post: So, as of right now I am 17 months completely off all medication. I consider myself fully healed and am so happy to be able to write this because I want others to know that full healing IS possible, even in extreme cases. As I spoke about in my original thread, I was put on an SSRI at 5 years old for anxiety. While at first it seemed to 'help', as I got older my psychiatrist kept on raising the dose until I was essentially a zombie from about age 14-18. It caused many problems and I went from being a very social and happy kid to a sullen, antisocial, shell of what I was. I believe it also gave me bouts of depression, as I never had depression before I was on it and my most depressed periods always came after a dosage increase. It was very painful to me to think about how I had my adolescence and happiness taken from me by this drug and the people who kept me on it not seeing what it was doing to me, but I've reached a point in my life now where I can forgive and am too happy about life now and my future to dwell on that. I really want others to know, if you were put on these meds before you were even old enough to consent to being on them, I understand your pain, and assure you that even in a case like this, you CAN heal, and a life without depending on these drugs IS possible. I know there likely aren't many of us but I know others like me do exist and I hope somehow you find this post and my story can help you in some way. The medications I was on during this period were Zoloft and Celexa (I switched to the latter when I was 13), and I was on the highest doses of each (200mg and 40mg, respectively). When I was 18 years old, I had a stressful period and since it was my first time living away from home at college I started to come to some realizations about how crazy the whole thing was that I was taking these medications without even really understanding as to why I was on them still and not feeling like it was in any way my decision to take them. This was in 2014 and because I was young, and felt invincible and naive I essentially just stopped taking it (Celexa 40mg at this point). I'm not sure about how much detail is necessary here about what followed (although I'm more than happy to answer any questions anyone has and am an open book), but basically, I was ok for a couple of months, but then suffered for the next 4 years with intense, excruciating withdrawal symptoms that ranged from extremely painful physical and medical things to hellish mental symptoms. To this day it amazes me what this drug did to my system, as I never imagined that it could affect things that it affected (my blood tests from my first year of withdrawal confounded even the fancy, expensive doctors I went to). I suffered more than any teenager/young adult should ever have to suffer. I spent literally 3 years basically bedridden, in severe physical and mental pain, not knowing what was going on or if it was ever going to end. I felt like my soul was in crisis, and like I had no sense of self or purpose anymore. Growing up on these meds, I had to come to terms with the fact that I hadn't really been myself from age 5 to 18. But instead of starting over, and forming who I really was, I was unable to even do that because of the physical and mental pain I was in and inability to do anything with my life. I could go on and on with more specifics, but I feel it's more important now to explain what I believe really healed me (And I do consider myself healed now-- I went from being bedridden in pain, dysfunction, and chaos, barely even able to stand and walk sometimes, and completely hopeless about life and feeling out of control, to completely healthy, functional, happy, and living my best life). I think all of us who go through this suffer on a level that others can't really comprehend. But some of us may not realize that there is, in fact, an upside to this. When we're immobilized by pain, and crippled with mental symptoms like depression and anxiety, we have no choice but to just sit and be with ourselves. And this is where we find and understand who our true selves are. This might sound strange or "woo woo", but the major catalyst that really jumpstarted my healing was finding the calm within the storm. I highly recommend meditation for everyone going through this because for me it is what helped me access the part of me that was happy and calm independent of all external circumstances. The more I was able to quiet all my thoughts, the quicker I felt my healing process going. I really went through a spiritual journey, especially this past year when my healing really cemented, and I can honestly say that I've emerged not only healed, but a happier and wiser person than before this all started. I made the decision that I was going to heal, I made the decision that I was going to find happiness and joy and the life I wanted, whatever it took. I feel happier and more excited about life than I ever have (and my body and mind feel amazing). When you let go of stress, worrying, sadness, and negative thoughts, even when the situation outside you really is negative, you will be shocked at how things change. This whole journey is a spiritual journey for all of us. Yes, there are physical effects from this drug, but healing really takes place when we harness the light that exists in us even when things are at their worst. It's a highly personal path, but I really believe it is possible for everyone to overcome this. Supplements can help, but the power of the mind is limitless and infinitely more rewarding. Sparknotes version - meditate daily- quiet your mind. This is so beneficial for mental and physical health. - be aware of your thoughts, and as best you can, limit stressful and negative thoughts. For the first few years of withdrawal, my thinking was constantly "Life is so unfair", "I'm in so much pain", "What if this never ends?", "I am in hell", "Life sucks", etc. If this process has taught me anything, it's that your thoughts do matter, more than you know. Once I started changing my thoughts, my body and mind literally started to change. - journal. Writing down your thoughts can be very cathartic and can even help purge negativity that could be holding you back. Also, as counterintuitive as it may sound, you can even "fake" journal, i.e. write as if you have already healed, write as if you are happy and healthy. - Something I didn't mention in the full post, but VERY important-- when it comes to supplements, start one at a time, and start at a low dose. I know this is mentioned on this site many times, but I didn't take it seriously. I can't tell you how many months I literally lost because my SUPPLEMENTS were giving me symptoms that I thought were just part of the withdrawal, but were actually from the supplements I thought were supposed to help my withdrawal! As Altostrata is always saying, our bodies are very sensitized when in withdrawal and we can have seriously adverse reactions to things that seem super benign. Fish oil, for example, gave me heart palpitations. Ashwagandha, a 'gentle herb' that I had only read good things about, gave me major joint pain and digestive issues. PLEASE start supplements one at a time, at a low dose, wait a couple weeks and see how you're reacting to them. Everyone is different, and only you know what works and doesn't work for you. Keep track of what you're taking and don't fall into the trap of thinking "Oh, it's just a natural supplement, that can't be causing anything". That's how I used to think too and I went through even more pain because of it. There were times that I thought because my brain had developed on these drugs and I was on them so long, I'd never heal. But I did, and I'm in an even better place than I think I would have been if I hadn't gone through this. I am a genuinely happy person, I've formed deep connections with people, I have hope for my life and feel so happy and secure on my path, and I have really learned to appreciate the little things. Most importantly, I learned the importance of my thoughts and how they really affect all aspects of my life. I believe we are all meant to have a happy and healthy life, and it's possible to reclaim that right even when things seem utterly hopeless and bleak. Remember that you have more power than you know. We are a greater and more powerful force than these drugs are!

I was taking Cymbalta for around 6 years and with the help of a Psychiatrist, tapered off. I have been completely off for 10 weeks and still have crying spells. Is this just who I am? Or could it possibly still be from cessation of the drug?

I've been on antidepressants for 27 years. I was changed to Lexapro from Citalopram about 7 months or so ago as the Citalopram no longer seemed to be working for me. My depression and anxiety became worse on Lexapro. The solution was that my doctors kept increasing the dose until I was on the maximum. Things became even worse and I reduced the dose myself as I knew it was the medication making things so bad. The anxiety was overwhelming. I am on day 12 off my medication. I tapered down over 2 months, which was slower than my doctor recommended. I am taking supplements that the doctor recommended. Felt ok for the first week, but I'm not feeling great now. Symptoms are: Poor sleep, ringing in my ears, nausea, body aches, very tired, confused, intermittent vertigo, depression. I've found it hard to find success stories, as many people seem to return to medication because of side effects. I would love to hear from people that have come off medication and to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I'll try to keep it short, I've been on zyprexa 15mg and citalopram 20mg for a little over 3 years with a few failed attempts at coming off. I've been cutting them in half for 2 and a half weeks and then I felt like that was just too fast and when to 3/4 of the normal dose. Should I go back to half doses since i've been already doing that for 2 weeks or should I just stay at 3/4 to be safe? Any advice on that/how long my taper should last before going back down in dosage would be appriciated as I feel my current doctor does not have too much knowledge of tapering.

Hi Everyone, I am new here and currently tapering from citalopram. I started taking this med 5 months ago for anxiety. I only went up to 7.5 mg and it made me feel so out of it. I can’t think, I can’t drive, I just can’t function. since it was my first time, I wasn’t sure what I should be feeling like. I finally was able to get a psychiatrist and he confirmed that I should be feeling functional. He wanted to do a quick taper but after reading a lot I felt I should go slower. I am very sensitive to medication and believe my anxiety is hormonal. I did my first taper 11 days ago from 7.5 to about 6 (I am cutting my pill) I am super nervous, because I know my nervous system is still sensitized and the anxiety is still there. I don’t want to do anything to make myself worse. I’ve lost 25 pounds and still don’t have much appetite which scares me. I started taking probiotics, vitamin b, c, omega and magnesium glycinate. any advice is welcome. thank you

Recently my psychiatrist upped Abilify to the max dose 30mg. I am also taking Celexa 40 mg. Have been taking psychiatric drugs for 10 years now. Have tried to withdrawal by myself in the past and schizoaffective symptoms come back worse. Now I am scared of taking the drugs because my tongue keeps moving back and forth in my mouth, and I am afraid of making it worse. Can I just stop the medications and when I start experiencing withdrawal symptoms, just take a smallest dose possible to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms, as I wean off them? I have a family history with lots of schizophrenia, and it seemed to help with somewhat, and people said I seem better on them. But now want to try to go off and try alternative therapies/natural diets.

I am a GAD sufferer, who got onto the path of Zoloft in 2011-12. I took it well and with minor side effects endured to the 200 mg point through December 2014, when I tapered off. By June 2015, I was experiencing severe anxiety, worse than I’d ever experienced before, and relentingly went back to the Zoloft, yet this time, it only made me feel terribly shaky and ill. So at that time, my GP switched me to 20 mg Lexapro. It worked even better for the anxiety, and had little muscle twitching compared to the Zoloft. Until August or September of 2017. I began to feel like I had a nervous system problem, very shaky, very ill. Doc suspected Serotonin syndrome. I quit cold turkey at his direction. By December 2017 I was an emotional wreck, crying, anxiety, depression....ridiculous, and not like me at all. Understand that I had only dealt with anxiety, the depression and crazy emotions were new to me. I went back to 50 mg Zoloft in early December 2017. The side effects were worse than the usual, shaky, vibrating feeling inside, tingling jaw and face, but amplified. One month ago, my doc switched me to 20 mg celexa. The side effects are the same. I am planning to taper, 5mg at a time, for 2 month periods, 15, 10, 5, etc. From what I have read on this site and others, I believe now that my “relapse” moments in the past were really just withdrawal. My doc now wants me to stay the course on the celexa, but to see a neurologist. Why does he not suspect that the symptoms I am referencing are the med, not an undetermined neurological issue? Unfortunately, I think I already know the answer. i appreciate any feedback, thanks W