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Hello everyone! First of all, I'd like to share my story. My introduction to psychiatry happened due to a ridiculous misunderstanding. I'm a programmer, and in 2021, I worked quite a lot for several months without proper rest. I stayed up late, and as a result, I experienced severe fatigue. I was concerned about dizziness, poor sleep, cold hands, and sometimes increased anxiety with a feeling of shortness of breath (oh, how trivial they were in reality). These symptoms made me turn to the first neurologist, who prescribed Cinnarizine, presenting it as a means of improving cerebral circulation. After taking this Cinnarizine for a month and a half, my condition worsened, and I felt mild apathy. It became difficult to work, and concentration was also affected. As I later found out, Cinnarizine acts similarly to neuroleptics on dopamine receptors and calcium channels. Then I had the misfortune of turning to a second neurologist, who diagnosed me with an anxiety disorder and prescribed the antidepressant Trazodone and the neuroleptic Sulpiride (all of this happened in March 2022). From that moment on, my life turned into a nightmare. And despite the fact that I only took Trazodone for two weeks at a dose of 100-150 mg and Sulpiride for two weeks at a dose of 100 mg. The number of symptoms has expanded from the initial 4-5 to... up to 200 terrible symptoms. Here is just a part of this list: there was muscle rigidity and drooling (parkinsonism) couldn't take a full breath, was constantly suffocating for several months called an ambulance multiple times a day had episodes of breathing cessation swallowing was disrupted, food got stuck in the throat (dysphagia) felt like I had lost myself, like I wasn't me developed akathisia, constantly pacing around the house constantly complained and asked for help couldn't understand text and video, didn't understand people's conversations couldn't continue working as a programmer, lost income for several months went into a huge debt felt like I was between worlds, as if I wasn't entirely myself (derealization) weakness appeared, couldn't do sports anymore started sitting at home all the time double vision appeared had constipation and bloating, dryness in the mouth and some red spots on the tongue In general, the entire list would be too long to publish. At that time, I didn't understand what was happening at all, because I had never taken any medication in my life, and I rarely got sick with a cold. Therefore, I started undergoing a large number of different tests and consulting with various doctors, mainly neurologists and psychiatrists, because regular therapists couldn't find anything and didn't know what was wrong with me. Due to constant suffocation, I couldn't sleep and somehow managed to fall asleep only on my stomach for 1-3 hours. Therefore, the next doctor prescribed me... Quetiapine for sleep. I took it for two weeks in a dosage of 25 mg. It's clear that it didn't improve my condition. The next step was to visit a private clinic, where they gave me vitamins, cleaned my blood from toxins, but also for some reason gave me... Risperidone. I took this medication for a week in a dosage of 3-4 mg and for about two weeks in a dosage of 2 mg. In addition, I took Escitalopram for one month in a dosage of 10-20 mg, Mianserin for one week, and Agomelatine for two weeks as a sleep aid, one tablet, I don't remember the exact dosage. Then, on Risperidone, I gained more than 10 kg of excess weight in just a couple of weeks, walked slowly like a turtle, and looked like a zombie. Eventually, I realized that doctors wouldn't help me and started to investigate the situation on my own. I reconstructed the timeline of events and saw that things started to worsen from the moment I started taking medication. It was in August 2021 when I was still taking Agomelatine. I decided to quit all medication immediately and only use natural and safe remedies for my recovery. At first, I deeply researched the topic of neuroleptics and antidepressants and for a couple of months was horrified by the realization of the situation I was in. Very few people reported a complete and successful recovery even after discontinuing these medications. However, although rare, there were stories of people who got better. I started my journey to recovery and decided to apply everything possible. At first, I learned about all types of damage that these drugs can cause. They include: loss of nerve tissue due to neurotoxic action (that's why neurogenesis stimulation is needed in any case) receptor blocking disturbance of neurotransmitter balance severe avitaminosis (the body neutralizes toxins by binding them to vitamins) disturbance in the functioning of the genetic apparatus (which is why the side effects are so difficult to correct) mitochondrial dysfunction (it is precisely for this reason that there are strong asthenia, type 2 diabetes, heart problems, and many other side effects of neuroleptics) accumulation of psychotropics in the body tissues (metabolites can be detected in urine even a year after intake) worst of all, psychotropics also disrupt the functioning of stem cells, DNA repair systems, and neurogenesis. This greatly complicates recovery in addition, all organs and systems, not just the nervous system, are affected Then I began to search for all existing methods and means to correct each of these disorders and apply them in practice. As a result, it took me about 10 months to alleviate approximately 80% of the symptoms. I lost weight and my libido and erectile function were fully restored, my dreams became vivid and interesting again, it became much easier to breathe and engage in sports, and I could work as a programmer again. In two months, I paid off all my debts and started making a profit. I started to deeply and thoroughly study biochemistry, genetics, and neurobiology. Now I can't find doctors who can tell me something new, they know much less than me and now they should pay me for consultations, not the other way around. Some of them at least honestly admit it. At the moment, I still have some consequences from the psychotropic drugs. The most worrying are a slight stiffness of the neck muscles, a crunch in the throat when swallowing, a slight brain fog that occurs quite rarely (previously it was constant to the level of semi-fainting), and a slight weakness. I continue to work on eliminating the consequences and understand that it will take some more time. What I have learned: there are methods for restoring DNA and it is not CrisprCas9, it's a completely different method it's possible to accelerate neurogenesis by at least 5 times there are many ways to naturally increase dopamine without taking antiparkinsonian drugs in any case, it is necessary to replenish vitamin reserves. In particular, it is necessary to pay attention to vitamin E, vitamin B3, Omega 3, Q10, alpha-lipoic acid, and others. it is necessary to live correctly for a long time in terms of daily routine, nutrition, physical activity, etc. so that regeneration processes proceed as quickly as possible In the end, I decided to deeply and thoroughly study this issue, but it takes time. Anyone who wants to support my research, with the permission of the administration, I can give my contact information. I want to work on research and restoration of the nervous system, and at the moment, there is already a large amount of material that needs to be turned into a book or something similar. In addition, as a programmer, I can create a website with a recovery journal, brain structure tests, publications of restoration methods, and more. I am waiting for your suggestions.

2013 - 50mg Zoloft 2016 - increase to 150mg Zoloft 2016 - Lamictal in addition to Zoloft 2018 - Serequel in addition to Zoloft 2019 - 5mg Abilify in addition to Zoloft 2022 - tapered off Zoloft decrease of 25mg per week over 6 weeks and then tapered off Abilify 5mg over 2 weeks. It has been 4 weeks since my last dose of Zoloft and 2 weeks since last dose of Abilify. I had no withdrawal symptoms until 4 days ago. For the last 4 days, I have had severe anxiety that is constant and will not go away. The anxiety has contributed to difficulty sleeping as well. I tapered under the supervision and guidance of my doctor. Is this anxiety a withdrawal symptom? Is this a relapse? Should I reinstate? Reinstate at a low dose? 25mg or 50mg reinstate? Is there any hope for not reinstating? I don't know what to do...I'm so scared...I had no idea coming off the meds was going to be this hard. Please help!

Hi everyone, I am hoping to help others and find support as I struggle through prolonged effexor withdrawal. Looking back, I can see so clearly how the nightmare roller coaster ride with medications happened to me. While living in the middle of it, however, it took me a long time to connect the dots and jump off that crazy ride!. And unfortunately, I am paying big time with my health. I am a 34 year old previously very healthy woman. It all started in 2006 with xanax and ambien. I was about 3 weeks away from finals week in professional school when my dad passed away. Dealing with the grief from that and the pressure to continue performing well and passing all my finals in professional school led to bad anxiety and insomnia. I saw a doctor at the health clinic on campus and was given xanax and ambien. At the time, I thought these medications were great! Finally I was sleeping and felt calm. I ended up using them off and on throughout the remainder of school until I graduated in 2007. A few months went by, and then I entered the work force in my new career. This, too, was a very stressful time and I developed insomnia again. I saw a doctor and mentioned the medications that had helped in the past, and with no hesitation was given a presciption for xanax and ambien. I continued to take these medications off and on, and over time needed to increase the doses. I started developing rebound anxiety and insomnia, which got really bad in 2011. At the time, I didn't realize what was happening- I thought I just wasn't coping with life well, and couldn't understand why. I went back to my general practitioner, and she said I had a severe anxiety problem and needed an SSRI. I was desperate to feel normal again and trusted my doctor completely, and readily accepted her prescription for Zoloft (after she assured me the medication was perfectly safe). I picked up the medication, and after reading the side effect list, became very concerned and called my doctor. She said "you shouldn't read that list, now you are sure to develop every side effect on it, because most of those are in peoples heads"). I felt reassured by this and started the medication. Well, I had pretty much every side effect on the list. I won't bother to describe them, we've all been there. I told my doctor what was happening, she said to stick it out. Well, after 2 weeks of pure hell, I stopped the medication. Believe it or not, I then went through withdrawal from that 2 weeks of Zoloft. I developed paresthesia, among many other things, and went to my doctor. She said paresthesia is caused by anxiety, and that this proves I need daily anxiety medication. Of course I believed her, I was so vulvernable and physically sick at the time. She proceeded to put me on and off lexapro, mirtazapine, clonazepam, lorazepam, among others. Every time I started a new med the paresthesia went away within a day or two, but the medication side effects would be unbearable. This is when it started to dawn on me that the paresthesia wasn't anxiety, but was drug withdrawal, as I was recognizing a pattern. My doctor said it wasn't possible, drug withdrawal from these types of meds doesn't exist. I argued that I knew in my heart the paresthesia wasn't caused by anxiety, and that if it's not drug related, it must be an illness of some time. She sent me off to a neurologist which led to about $8000 in tests (blood tests, MRI, ultrasound for the constant nausea, etc etc). All came back normal, at which point the neurologist stated, see- it's anxiety and has been the whole time. I felt very disheartened, accepted my diagnosis, and took her prescription for effexor. I told her that every single medication made me terribly sick, and that I believed the meds and withdrawal from them are what had given me so many problems, and that I was very concerned about taking effexor. She assured me the meds had caused no harm, and that effexor is a wonderful medication, and very safe. She said if I didn't like it, we would stop it, no problem. Silly me started swollowing the pills like a good little sheep. Well, within 2 days the paresthesia was gone. I took the medication for about 2 months and told the neurologist I wanted to discontinue it, as it was causing side effects, and my reason for taking it (paresthesia) had resolved. She told me to take one capsule every other day for a week then discontinue it. I followed her instructions and the withdrawal was out of this world. I had never been so sick in my entire life. After doing some research on line, I stumbled across a web site (probably this one) which explained how to taper effexor slowly. I quickly re-started the medication, and after a week or so, began to slowly wean myself off over 2 months. I had only ever been on the lowest dose of 37.5 mg and thought this would be sufficient. Well, I still experienced withdrawal- slightly more tolerable, but still hellish, and also developed paresthesia again. After about 2 months of dealing with this, I decided to re-instate and taper again over an even longer period. So, I started my third and final taper from effexor in October 2013, and finished in March 2014. Even after such a low dose, and a fairly lengthy taper, I suffered withdrawal. It lasted about 3 months, then I had a period of ~2 months where I was mostly normal, then I got slammed again with severe protracted withdrawal in August/September 2014. So, I have been taking it one day at a time (sometimes one hour at a time), and praying that this all eventually goes away. The most troublesome thing occurring for me right now, is that I feel as though I have fibromyalgia. I wake up each morning with pain at the base of my skull, and basically all over my body. My eyes are constantly burning and painful. My feet cramp up randomly. I also have severe digestive issues.These have been relentless for about 3 months now. These are things I had never experienced before my roller coaster med ride. I am very worried that these things are permanent. From what I have read, fibromyalgia never goes away. I just don't know if I have real fibromyalgia, or withdrawal-induced fibromyalgia. I am scared that I will have to live the rest of my life in pain and with bad tummy troubles. I am currently seeing a GI doctor and will have endoscopy soon (probably another big waste of money, will probably come back normal just like every other test). I just don't know what else to do. I take no meds, eat very healthy, and force myself to exercise almost daily. The weird thing is, when it comes to the pain- the more sleep I get, the worse I feel. Makes no sense to me! Anyhow, that is my story. I wish I had stopped after my first bad reaction to a drug, I would probably be recovered by now. If I had only known then what I know now! Sorry for the lengthy message. Any input or suggestions is much appreciated. Even if someone can just let me know the pain and stomach issues eventually went away for them, that would give me some hope. Thanks all, I appreciate you for taking the time to read this, more than you'll ever know!

DESPERATE: How a normal person lie for antidepressants and was ruined tl;dr: A burned-out normal person thought antidepressants could be performance enhancer so she lied to doc that she was depressed. She was treated as GAD and MDD because she had side effects and reached a point that with drugs she couldn't function. She was eventually honest with her doctor and is in the process of withdrawing. She felt very bad, anxious and sleepless because of the withdrawal symptoms, and deeply desperate and regretful. She has realized that she has made terrible mistakes and is guilty. She needs hope/support/encouragement that taking time she will be back to normal. From 2020 to 2021/05 I was a workaholic and didn't have a schedule at all. I just woke up and drank coffee, forced myself to work, and sleep at the point I could not work anymore, ate at the point I felt hungry. So going to bed in the morning and having lunch at 3 am was normal for me at that year. I feel so regretful, I thought I was young and healthy, so I should work as hard as I could regardless of my health. So after a year self burning, I was completely retarded. I couldn't sleep anymore. My heart was pounding when I tried to sleep, and it took me hours to fall asleep. However, besides the sleep problem, I was functioning normally. I still finished work and hung out with my friends. Just my sleep was completely ruined, which is not surprising given a year's messed up. However, even at that point, I was still thinking about performance enhancements. If I was a little bit reasonable, I should pick an antidepressant that helps with sleep, a calmer one. But I was so crazy, I picked venlafaxine which is known for activating and notorious for increasing heart rate and worsening sleep. I don't know what was wrong with me at that point, maybe I was confused by the devil, I neglected all of the venlafaxine's side effects. I must have read about its side effects somewhere but my mind refused to accept or believe it. So I went to a walk-in clinic, and lie to the doctor that I had venlafaxine before, and I had a generalized anxiety disorder. The doctor believed me and started treating me as GAD. As I said, venlafaxine has notorious side effects that will make heart racing and worsen sleep. I didn't realize that, and the doctor ironically didn't realize that either. After taking venlafaxine, I had more and more frequent heart racing and worse sleep. The doctor thought it was my GAD got worse, and he increased the dosage of A and benzo for sleep, which only made things worse. Eventually he gave me rexulti, the antipsychotic. Ironically my racing heart recovered after having rexulti. I was so happy, I thought I was cured. So I went back to work. However my sleep was so bad that I always felt tired. So I saw a psychiatrist, and told her about the sleep problem and of course the lie about having GAD. She prescripted me mirtazapine 30mg before bedtime. I stopped mirtazapine in November because it made me gain 30 lbs. So from August to December(November) I was on 225mg of venlafaxine and 30mg of mirtazapine. I was so fatigued everyday but forced myself to work because I wanted to achieve something. It was so dark during these months. My neurosystem and brain have already been messed up by so many drugs, but I believed I was fine and cured and stable, and of course, I was not. My only mental support was a promise with my friend that after December we would go on a trip, a long relaxing trip. Every time I felt burned out I told myself, hold onto it; there is a trip waiting for you. And devastating thing happened: My friend went back to her home country in December and January. I didn't realize it until my work was done. I suddenly realized that the trip was gone. I lost the only hope and good thing which kept me going and not falling apart for months. My mental health was totally destroyed at that point. I shouldn't be so desperate and burned out, but after months of abusive use of drugs my brain and neuro system were completely messed up. I would say, if I didn't take these antidepressants for months I wouldn't have that mental meltdown in December. I was sent to the emergency in December. There they gave me more benzos, and the psychiatrist increased my venlafaxine from 225mg to 300mg. He also gave me another antidepressant bupropion. bupropion was another super activating drug, and wasn't helping my mental health at all. My mental health issue got better after spending time with my other friends, and bupropion caused a lot of panic attacks, sleep problems and racing hearts. How do I know they are directly caused by bupropion? because these symptoms went away after I cold turkeyed bupropion. That was a point when I realized psychiatrists are not so reliable: The psychiatrist who gave me bupropion insisted that my anxiety, panic attacks , racing heart and worsen sleep were caused by my worsen GAD, because according to their "guildline", bupropion is supposed to help with anxiety. However this time I know for sure bupropion was causing these problems because they went away after I stopped bupropion for a short amount of days. Also my sleep got worse and worse in 2022. I could only slept for a few hours, and the sleep was bad, it didn't recharge me. I was just a dead body walking. Yea I was working **** hard and that was just by my strong spirit. I was so tired these days and it was abnormal tiredness, more like restlessness. I was so so so tired, but I couldn't nap. My heart was pounding so loudly whenever I tried to nap. And of course my heart was pounding at bedtime, and my doctor just gave me more benzo, what a shame! Remind you that by May 2022 I have been taking venlafaxine for a year on a high dosage, and venlafaxine is a strong activator and is notorious for raising heart beat and causing anxiety even for really depressed ppl. I, a healthy person, have been on it for a year, and by May 2022 I have almost reached my limit. Finally my family doctor suspected that venlafaxine is not suitable for me. So he switched me to escitalopram. So in June, July and August I was taking escitalopram. My sleep was still bad, and I became even more tired during the day. And I had brain fog all the time, ironically I was still taking driving lessons. It's so dangerous for me to drive and I know it. I failed tests for other reasons, and now I realize they might be a warning from god. Test center ppl didn't know I was dangerous driving, but they still failed me. This must be a sign from god, warning me that I am on the wrong path. Brain fog, fatigue, bad sleep, my family doctor thought it was my depression that went worse. So he increased the dosage of D to 20mg(the max) and rexulti to 3mg. By the end of July, my work became intense. I was fatigued and foggy, but I have to work. I worked **** hard again under tons of pressure, with a foggy brain and fatigue. That week was so bad that I had really bad headache. I guess I was really on the edge of falling apart by then. The week after that I had the worst panic attack and sleeplessness. I lost my sleep completely, I became so fatigued that I couldn't function in the day. If in July the fatigue and fog were something I could still live with, by the end of August that became something that I couldn't live with because I couldn't function at all. went to the emergency again, and they gave me Seroquel, another antipsychotic. This is the med that kept me sleeping all day in September. But no one told me that. I figured it out after I stopped it. Oh I wasn't working since August because I cannot. And brain fog is making me crazy. I didn't have the fog when I was on venlafaxine, so I switched back to venlafaxine. The fog went away, but my racing heart and bad sleep came back. When I was standing , my heart rate was 120. So my family doctor switched me to trintellix, the one I.am taking and tapering right now. After switching to trintellix my heart rate became normal again. But still I was so fatigue and sometimes foggy. I wasn't able to sit still and watch a movie even. I began to realize something was wrong. For the first time, I was honest to my doctor and everyone around me. I told them at the beginning there was nothing wrong with me, I lied for antidepressants just for enhancing performance. My doctor cold turkeryed rexulti and Seroquel six weeks ago and I am still suffering from its withdrawal symptoms: bad sleep, anxiety, brain fog. This week my doctor asked me to taper trintellix. I have been taking 5 mg for three days and could feel the anxiety is worsen, so is my sleep. But at this point I really don't care about my feeling anymore. I just want these poison to get out of body ASAP and give my body time to recover back to normal. I was so regretful that I lied, I was stupid and greedy. I am in desperate everyday that there has been permanent damage to my brain and I will never become a normal person again. PLEASE give me some support/encouragement/hope that I will be back to normal. PLEASE feel free to blame me for being so stupid. I feel lonely, helpless and desperate.

Hi all, I've been affected by depression since my teens. That also brought me sleep problems which I still have to this day. I started trying to fix this in 2006 with the help of a psychiatrist which was a wrong call since my body is, till now, addicted to psychiatric medication. I've been successfully tapering this meds for about 5 years now, my main problem is tapering Quetiapine. The benzos, antidepressants, etc were easy to taper compared to this drug. I was only on 5mg and doing well when I thought that I could start to do it on a quicker pace, since it was such a small dose. It appears that was a wrong move. After being almost 2 months with no medication whatsoever, I decided to reinstate since I was having problems with sleep that were affecting my general well being. I restarted at only 2mg but after a few days still with sleeping problems decided to up it to 5mg which is the dose I'm taking now. I was a few days without sleeping problems but this week has been terrible again. There's also the problem that I have some things in life that are stressing me out which certainly doesn't help with this, though I think that's not the main problem. I think the main problem is that I should have tapered more slowly when I was at 5mg. Any tips on what I should be doing next? I guess it's probably better if I wait a good while to see if my brain stabilizes on this dose (5mg)? Or should I up the dose a bit again to see if I can sleep better? Or do you have any other tip? The sleeping problems I'm having now are really affecting me. I'm also suffering a bit with depression issues again (sleeping problems are just making it worth).

Hello everyone, hope you are having a good day. My name is David i am 33years old and i have 17 year history of intermittent alcohol and drug abuse (cocaine, marihuana). I have also been using sertraline for 7 years (for my alcohol problem) which i stopped cold turkey in 2017 (without major issues). My current problem is that i was abusing Xanax for alcohol withdrawals last 2,5 years in high doses and from January 2022 daily in doses between 2-8mg. I stopped Xanax CT on 3rd May alongside with alcohol and cocaine for 6 weeks and reinstated on 30mg Valium under doctors (addiction specialist) supervision. She tappered me way too fast from 30mg to 0,5mg in 2.5months and i was in a terrible terrible shape left with 90+ symptoms. I also developed a paradoxical reaction to Valium and could not updosed so i decided to jump. After 3 days i was having visual halucinations and was totally disoriented on top of my 90 + symptoms, so my mother drove me to psych ward, because i was living alone and she was scared because i could't take careof myself any longer and lost almost 90 pounds in 5 months. I was in psych ward for 7 weeks where they have put me on 375mg of Seroquel and 750mg of depakote. They stabilised me and lot of my symptoms improved. I am nowhere near healed, i still still have about 20-30 ongoing symptoms. I was severely kindled by intermitent Xanax and alcohol usage and mostly with my reinstatement, where every dosage drop was harder than my CT experience. I am alcohol and drug free for 6+ months and benzofree 8+ weeks. I know now, that my only chance to get out of this mess and have a normal life is to abstain from all drugs and meds for the entire life. I am here for support, and tapering advices for meds that they have put me on psych ward. I am also offering support to anyone suffering from withdrawals or any other crisis. I hope we are all going to make it and have a normal life without such an undesrcibeable suffering. Stay strong.💪 (Sorry for my english it's not my first language)

i swore i would never take an snri again after what i went through on effexor, but he suggested i try cymbalta for the chronic pain and told me that generally there are less side effects/zaps than with effexor, so i said i would give it a try. my psychologist and his super decided that i have bipolar 2 not mdd, but the pdoc waved this away and didn’t even consider mood stabilizers. when my pdoc raised my dose of cymbalta after i expressed a wish to discontinue, and wrote in my record that i display “abnormal illness behaviors” (which just means i disagree with him?), i have decided to get off the ADs once and for all.

Hi, I’m new to site and looking for some guidance on current medication. I have Generalised Anxiety Disorder and Adjustment Disorder. I had an acute episode and was signed off work back in November 2021. Up until then my anxiety had been managed by 45mg Mirtazapine daily. After my acute episode my Psychiatrist put me on Quetiapine 100mg augmented with 45mg Mirtazapine at night for sleep and anxiety. I also take 4mg diazapem during day. The problem I have is debilitating fatigue during day and anxiety doesn’t seem to be managed. I feel my medication is too sedating and not managing the anxiety. I cannot go back to work full time on all these drugs. I had a second opinion from another Psychiatrist this week and he told me I should switch to an SSRI and gradually taper off the Mirtazapine. Any experience or opinions would be greatly appreciated. thanks Jale

Hi all. I've been reading lots over the past six months from this forum, so let me start by saying thank you. For anyone sharing your story, the ups and the downs, it truly is helpful and encouraging to read. My story starts in April 2020 with the initial onset of symptoms. Since then they've followed the windows and waves pattern and are best described as adrenaline rushes that last for days or weeks at a time. I regularly speak in public, and the physical symptoms that I have almost entirely mimic the feeling I get right before speaking to a large crowd. Heart palpitations Loss of appetite Very fidgety Sweating Hot flashes Tightness in my chest Sometimes a salt craving Low libido Can’t rest -- Unable to nap Mentally it’s uncomfortable… hard to focus, can’t be present for my kids, often need to use TV shows or podcasts to distract myself. I would later find words to describe the mental symptoms that were also part of it all... Feeling of unreality or detachment Unable to feel positive emotions Unable to imagine or dream about the future Fast cycling thoughts Initially my GP diagnosed me with Panic Attacks, however they seem to differ from panic attacks because they lack any sense of impending doom or danger or fear of loss of control or death. My symptoms also don’t end. They usually subside in the evening, but I’ll wake up early with them. I'm fairly confident that this corresponds with the cortisol spike that many people experience. Next was a Generalized Anxiety diagnosis (fall 2020), but again, I don’t actually have any worries or anxieties. I did a full round Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with two different therapists and both discharged me because they said what I was experiencing was physical/biological and that they had given me everything they could. To be fair, I now will sometimes have worries or anxieties about what I'm feeling, but they aren't based in any of my life circumstances other than the symptoms. My life is great and outside of this experience I'm ridiculously positive and optimistic. So I’ve always wondered if there was a way that I overproduce adrenaline or if it's related to histamine. Because it seems like the only medications that have been helpful have had sedating/anti-histamine qualities (Benadryl and Seroquel). I did receive 30 Clonazepam pills (0.5mg) in 2020 and then some Propranolol in 2021. Both were used 'as needed' and I took roughly 15 of each of them overall. Over the past two years I've tried all the things. Naturopath, supplements, therapy, massage, chiro, acupuncture, gluten/dairy free, CBD, keto, etc. I went from my family doctor to a psychiatrist (June 2021) and jumped from Escitalopram to Lurasidone to Seroquel. All changes were either immediate or phased over a few days. In November 2021 I was frustrated and decided to quit Seroquel. I figured I could always go back on and the psychiatrist was pretty open to taking me off it when I was feeling better. My symptoms were never solved by the medication, so I wondered how much the medication might be triggering the ongoing symptoms. When I had waves of symptoms in December I signed up for this site and have been the beneficiary of all y'alls wisdom since then. I think the last six months have followed a fairly commonly described pattern of waves and windows, with each window getting better. I finally decide to post today because I just entered a wave that feels stronger than the past few (seemingly I hit a wave once every two weeks now). The step back is frustrating and makes me second guess so many things, which is why I feel it helpful to anchor into this community more. I wish I had of tapered the drugs I was on. I also know that fish oil and magnesium are the two commonly suggested supplements. I've used them lots over the past couple of years, but stopped them during a wave in March. Waves usually bring a renewed investigative spirit about me to find the cause of my symptoms and I usually change whatever I can in an attempt to force a change. I think that's it for now! Feel free to fire any questions or clarifiers.

I completed "benzo withdrawal No 1" in 2019. About 2 years later I went back on 10mg diazepam because of protracted symptoms (worsening pain and severe insomnia). However, this diazepam re-instatement didn't cure my symptoms, so I began "benzo withdrawal No 2" in January 2022. I reduced my diazepam dose to 5.75mg, but then stopped the withdrawal for 4 1/2 months because my symptoms (which all relate to a vibrating nervous system) continued to worsen and 'strike' earlier and earlier in the day. Unfortunately, my symptoms did not 'settle' during this pause but continued to worsen, so I re-started this "withdrawal No 2" two weeks ago. I reduced my dose by 0.25mg (to 5.5mg) on 9 November 2022, and then by a further 0.25mg (to 5.25mg) on 16 November. My plan was to reduce my dose by 0.25mg every week whatever the pain. Why? Because the Ashton Manual Supplement (www.benzo.org.uk/ashsupp11.htm#supp2) states that: "The truth is that one never 'stabilises' on a given dose of benzodiazepine. The dose may be stable but withdrawal symptoms are not. It is better to grit one's teeth and continue the withdrawal. True recovery cannot really start until the drug is out of the system." However, my symptoms are horrendously painful [roaring, ringing tinnitus; dental 'vibrational' pain; internal vibration (like a motor); deep burning; and disrupted breathing] and I don't know if I can bear the (very severe) pain much longer. It is possible that these (protracted) symptoms would have worsened despite my 0.25mg reductions, in which case following Ashton's advice (above) and continuing with these weekly withdrawals seems to make sense. What do I do? Pause (again), or continue with my 0.25mg reductions ?

Hi - This is my first post. Here's my story - sorry it's so long! My daughter was put on Zoloft at age 10 for OCD. I believe now that her OCD was triggered by an infection (ala PANDAS) but have no proof of this. She did okay on Zoloft and it did help her OCD. However, over time it seemed to have an "activating" affect on her. For example, she started exhibiting ADHD symptoms that she never had before and had a terrible time sleeping. However, she was mostly okay. When puberty and COVID hit at the same time, she started showing signs of instability - cutting, suicidal ideation, terrible impulsive behaviors. I never thought the Zoloft could be behind it and the psychiatrists we saw never mentioned it. They just kept raising her Zoloft dose until eventually she was at the max dose. In retrospect, every time they raised her dose she would get crazier and crazier. She wasn't sleeping at all at one point and was leaving the house in the middle of the night to wander the streets (unbeknownst to us). A psychiatrist eventually added Intuniv which helped her sleep and made her more manageable but didn't really solve her underlying issues. About a year after this kind of crazy behavior started, she was hospitalized for SI and then spent the next seven months in and out of hospitals and RTCs. Psychiatrists kept adding more drugs and raising her dosages - until she was on high doses of Seroquel, Zoloft, Intuniv and Naltrexone. Her outpatient psychiatrist was wanting to raise her Zoloft dose to 250mg (above the max dose) which thankfully he never got a chance to do. During the last hospitalization, she was cheeking meds so they started crushing up her Zoloft and giving it to her in yogurt. She refused to take it that way because it made her mouth burn, so she essentially went off of Zoloft cold turkey. (Note that no one at the hospital told me this or even seemed to think this was a problem). After a week and a half of cold turkeying off of Zoloft, she was discharged - pumped full of anti-pyschotics they had given her as part of daily meds plus as multiple injections per day to keep her calm. Our beautiful girl was a zombie - she couldn't walk, she was incredibly irritable and barely functioning. BUT, she seemed better somehow - like less crazy/impulsive. We let her continue to not take Zoloft and let her cold turkey off of Seroquel and Naltrexone. Her outpatient psychiatrist seemed uncaring and said that once 48 hours passes, the Zoloft will be out of her system and she couldn't possibly be having withdrawal symptoms and didn't see an issue with cold turkeying off of anti-psychotics. Once the Zoloft was more out of her system, she couldn't stay awake so we started tapering her Intuniv which she's now completely off of. (her psychiatrist told us to just stop the Intuniv cold turkey which I fought against because if she missed even a dose she'd have horrible headaches. He grudgingly wrote an RX for her to taper). She's now been off of Zoloft for 8 weeks and all other meds for about 6 weeks. She is mostly relatively happy - going to school, hanging with friends, etc. She's been home 7 weeks which is longer by far than any time she's been home since the whole hospitalization hamster wheel started. She's still not 100% - she can get extremely angry and irritable very quickly, has a very hard time getting up in the morning and still has some weird impulses and I think has occasional SI. She doesn't have much interest in doing anything other than watching TV - although she'll go swimming or do things with friends if that's an option. (She's lost most of her friends at this point due to weird behavior and just being in institutions for so long). I know this story is pretty crazy - I honestly can't believe everything we've been through. I don't trust the psychiatric industry at all at this point and my biggest fear is that she'll be hospitalized again and be forced on meds again. I don't trust her psychiatrist to tell us the truth about what withdrawals are really like and how long we can expect it to last. Unfortunately, she seems to think everything that happened to her was totally okay and she doesn't buy into the idea that the meds were harming her. I guess I don't know for sure if the meds harmed her but I can fairly confidently say that I don't think they helped her at all (after the initial help for the OCD three years ago). What I'm seeking here is just info from anyone who has experienced something similar. Also, just want a place to vent. Question: do you think it's normal for her to still be very irritable 7 weeks later or maybe the irritability is not withdrawal related? Does anyone have experience with this type of withdrawals and how long did it last for you? Thanks.

Hi all. My name is Paul. 36 years old. Been on psych meds since I was 16. Have just recently come to accept that these medications are truly poison. I'm now in the process of healing from a Mirtazipine taper. Been completely off for 16 days. This is hard. Not as hard as when my psych CT me off of Seroquel last summer and I ended up in the hospital, but the emotional Rollercoaster and histamine intolerance I've formed is just insane. I can't wait to see what life is like without meds. I've been on them since I was 16, truly feel like I wasted a lot of my life on these things. Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself, getting away from social media like fb and twitter (another form of poison) but wanted to join a community to help me cope with what I'm dealing with. Thanks for having me.

Hi, I am in crisis right now and desparate for help. I tapered off effexor 1 year ago and have had no psychiatric meds since. The past year has been rough with prolonged withdrawal and bouts of anxiety along with way, but for the past 3 months I have been doing very well (working a stressful job and handling it well, traveling, etc). For the past week, seemingly out of the blue, I am having severe, debilitating anxiety and insomnia. I also have odd physical senstations that I haven't experienced in quite this way before (odd nagging nausea-not the anxiety kind, but the flu kind; extreme muscle pain; periodic cramping of my hands and feet; a buzzing or tingling sensation in my arms and legs; weakness. I saw my doctor, who ran blood tests- everything is normal. I saw her before the anxiety started- at first, I just had the flu-like symptoms, then the anxiety hit. I don't know what to do....I am going to have to resign from my job (a well-established, successful career of 9 years). I aleady took a leave for 1 month 6 months ago when I was having a bout of bad withdrawal. I feel desperate for relief, and am so desperate that I would even go on meds again (although I swore they were the worst thing I ever did to myself and that I would never touch them again). Is there any chance this is still a delayed withdrawal? Please if anyone can offer me advice, I really need help right now. Thank-you.

Hi all, found this forum via google searches many a night on how to cope with withdrawals! Like many others on here and I am sure everywhere in the world, I started on on anti-depressant and it just spiraled into larger and larger doses then multiple meds and meds on top of that for side affects. So a general summary was that I went to the Dr around 14 years ago for depression. I was put on Cymbalta 30mg straight off the bat. The side affects were unpleasant but I don't recall specifics of what they were, just that I did NOT like how they made me feel and I stopped them cold turkey. Withdrawals for several months of course, though fairly mild with major brainzaps being the one I most remember. Somewhere along the way I then went onto Mirtazapine. 15, 30 and then up to 45mg over a short period of time, maybe a year or so ramping up? Basically a result of going to the Dr, saying that I wasn't feeling the best on these meds, so they just increased them. I stayed on 45mg for probably 5 years or thereabouts. During that time my personality changed a lot (on retrospection I see how much). I became anxious, paranoid, ALWAYS tired, I started having panic attacks, grumpy, short temper making me snap at people for little, and isolated myself a lot. This went on for years. Each time the Dr would just tell me 'its not a magic pill' and leave it at that. Along the way my marriage fell apart and I moved to a new city. To 'cope' with the enormous increase in anxiety and stress, Dr gave me Olanzapine.... I took maybe 3 doses ever, as that stuff turned me into a zombie. I found a new doctor who I discussed how I felt on Mirtazapine and was switched over to Effexor XR. Ramped up from 37.5 to 150mg in the space of a few months. Generally felt 'good' but then noticed side affects that were persistent, sexual side affects galore, my BP sky rocketed, and hey look my anxiety was still very much around and panic attacks were a semi frequent occurrence. Dr's response was to switch to Paxil - which resulted in a heightened state of anxiety and rolling panic for days until I stopped them completely. Went back onto Effexor, despite the side affects and stabilized. Mirtazipine was then added to the Effexor for 'californian rocket fuel' - still anxious, still having panic attacks.. My BP was now concerning my Dr so was given a Blood Pressure pill, which then became two sets of BP meds, then three. My Blood Pressure still stayed high. Propranolol was added on top to reduce the heart rate and stress on my heart in general. This year was the hardest, I was referred to a psychiatrist, who every 6 weeks would get me to start a different drug. So I went from Effexor to Pristiq 50, then 100mg, Pristiq + Mirt, then onto Pristiq plus Seroquel at night (which made my anger turn into rage), then over to Luvox and some Respiradone and Valium to 'help' with the panic. Luvox basically kept me in a state of permanent nausea for 5 or 6 weeks - the dose was also increased to 100mg. So I spent around 4 months going through a cycle of drug withdrawal and startup over and over. I couldn't cope with being nauseous and feeling awful ALL the time anymore. At which point I had my next appointment with my Psychiatrist who just told me to 'just take half a dose for a few days and then stop them'. I asked that just ceasing any and all anti-depressants after FOURTEEN YEARS on them sounds very dangerous, she just shrugged. So I cancelled any future appointments with that practice, and after much research decided to cross taper from Luvox over to 15mg Mirtazapine and taper down from there. I chose Mirtazapine for several reasons - one was it stopped that permanent nausea everyday from the Luvox immediately, two it was a med my brain and body knew well and would tolerate almost immediately (which it did) and three i knew precisely what I would feel and how it would change me. After around 4 weeks of brainzaps and mild gastro issues as my body cleaned the last of the mix of drugs out of my body, I started to work my way down on Mirtazapine. Have currently gone from 15 > 7.5 > 3.75 with 6 or so weeks between drops. I will stay here until I stabalise again. So far the steps down have been very mild and tolerable (brain zaps for a day or two then fine), so my body is tolerating the 50% drops ok. 10% is recommended here, but so far for me personally its been ok dropping at 50% each time and stabilizing. The only noticeable (and expected) WD would be insomnia. My sleep quality has really tanked. Though interestingly enough despite low doses of Mirt meant to INCREASE your sleepyness, it has had little affect at all. So thats where I am currently at. I'm taking supplements like Vit C, Fish Oil and Vit B in the mornings and the small dose of Mirt at night. From here, I may need to look at a compounding chemist to begin tapering more slowly on the lower dosages, as cutting a tablet into 8th's is getting very difficult, even with a pill cutter. So the methods of diluting in liquids or a compound chemist will be the plan for the taper slow down (if needed) from here and my goal of being drug free hopefully within the year the final target.

Hi, I'm new to this site. As far as my background, in 2018, after 25 years of taking Paxil and feeling good and stable, I decided to reduce my dose of 40 mg. down to 20 mg. over the course of three months (May-Aug) as I wanted to get rid of sexual side effects. After some back and forth with the dose, I reduced my dose to 20 mg in August and began to experience bad SSRI withdrawal and particularly intense anxiety. It got so bad I eventually ended going back up to my baseline dose of 40 mg of Paxil but it no longer was working to control my anxiety, etc. In addition, I began to experience a new cyclical mood disorder, whereby I could feel fine for several weeks or a month or more and then I would have an episode where for 7-10 days I would wake up with intense suicidal depression that would generally start lifting a few hours after waking. I have been working with a cadre of psychiatrists and other healthcare providers to get stable again, my anxiety is under control but so far nothing has worked to address this mood disorder which has been diagnosed as an atypical presentation of cyclothymia and which has been life-altering. In addition to reinstating the 40 mgs of Paxil, I am now on Seroquel (300 mg), Lamotrigine (75 mg) and recently started Lithium Carbonate (300 mg). My questions: is it possible that my attempts to go off Paxil (including some back and forth with increasing and then lowering dose) after so many years could have instigated this new mood disorder I'm dealing with?

Hi there. I am female, 41 years old, married with an almost 18 year old. I was diagnosed in 2018 with anxiety, depression and BP2. After my diagnosis I started to see a Therapist and Psychiatrist regularly. I realized I have dealt with these mental health issues my whole life and figured medication would be my saving grace. I was wrong. They made me a zombie and I was constantly sleeping. I had a suicide attempt in late 2017 and that is what started my experience with medication. I was in-patient for 9 days and came home with an abundance of new medication (please see signature for meds). I thought this would be the right step in the right direction for me. I had another close call with suicide in late 2019 and was subsequently hospitalized for that as well. Fluctuating between depression, BP2, hypo mania and anxiety was exhausting. Husband and I decided we wanted to try for another baby so my OBGYN suggested certain drugs be out of my system, hence coming off of them. I had been wanting to stop my meds anyways because I was tired of feeling numb. Psychiatrist took me off of my Depakote cold Turkey on May 19, 2022 and I decided on June 22, 2022 to come off the rest except my Buspar. June 22, 2022 was the day my IUD came out so it was the best time to end my meds as well, against my Psychiatrists wishes. So far the withdrawals have been probably run-of-the-mill (i.e. insomnia, nightmares, headaches, irritability, sweating, dizziness, body aches). I’m taking it one day at a time and trying to rest as much as possible when I’m feeling awful (like right now, while I’m typing this).

I was on Paxil from 1996 to 2013 when I foolishly thought I was doing well after my father's death the year before. I asked my then psychiatrist about changing to a newer med, one that wouldn't cause weight gain. He recommended Wellbutrin, so I titrated off Paxil for 4 to 6 weeks. This was the beginning of my ride on the anti-depressant merry-go-round from hell....

Hello, I did a relatively quick taper from Lexapro using 1 mg per week water titration from 10mg with my final dose mid-November. Acute withdrawals lasted a couple weeks then subsided. Around Christmas the weeping and depression set in with a vengeance. At the same time insomnia started. I could not sleep unless I took 50mg of Seroquel. i am still battling the insomnia but ironically last night I slept 7 hours without having to take meds. Today is my 5th day of reinstatement on 5mg of Lexapro. Seroquel as stopped a week ago and replaced with Ambien, which I have not taken for 2 days. The insomnia is taking it's toll on me. My T3 thyroid is starting to go low, I am having cold temperature intolerances, hair is falling out, strange "feelings" in my hands and legs from time to time, and inability to relax or make myself comfortable. It's like I am always in a restless state. Since I have reinstated the weird feeling in my hands and legs are subsiding and are more flair up in nature. I felt relaxed when I woke up this morning and when I layed down last night. I do have the typical startup anxiety/tiredness that is all too familiar. the head fog is very bad also. How long will I know whether or not this reinstatement is going to work? Also, how long should I stay at 5 mg before I go to 10 mg and plan to hold there? I did not want to reinstate but the insomnia will put me to an early grave if I do not get it under control. Dr. Shipko's blog also scared the crap out of me. If I would have read that back at the end of last year, I would have never goin off in the first place.

Hello I always wanted to return to the site and thank all that helped me in the dark hours and also the forum owner and originator for the tireless work that has helped so many people Heres my thread when I first asked for help http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/6865-andy-hello-tapering-from-zyprexa/ I wont go into how I finally quit the drug because it wasnt the normal 10% approach although I tried 5 times and failed miserably.I found a good understanding doctor who helped me reduce and more than anything listened to me without prejudice.This helped enormously,I finally jumped off at 1.25mg and to be honest it wasnt to bad,by far the worst reduction was going just under 2.5mg,I had severe migraines ,nausea,heart palpitations,sickness,depression,mania,mood swings and relentless insomnia.The insomnia was by far the worst symptom as it made me anxious and very irritable ,all this while trying to be a good father and holding down a very stressful and demanding job.Of all the drugs I was put on Zyprexa was the hardest to quit,it was hell and back but it can be done I have recently started my Taekwondo training again that I practiced for over 15 years but couldnt while I was on this terrible drug,I now feel calmer and sleep well.I put on over 3 stone while on zyprexa even though I ate a well balanced diet,I felt lethargic and had no interest in life,that has all changed and the weight is coming off steadily. Excercise has been the most helpful tonic for me and even when I had had zero sleep I went to my class and worked out.It slowly but steadily improved my sleep and made me feel confident again that I could get over all of this,when you start to see improvements you start to see light at the end of the tunnel Things are heading in the right direction and my outlook on life is positive once again.I feel good Once again thankyou for all your help and for people just starting the journey dont ever give in it can be done,god bless you all Andy

Hi I'll start by telling that I never wanted to take psychiatric drugs. But when I was hospitalized for "major depression and dissociation" they put me on this tragic road. After that life was never really life for me again. I am currently taking quetiapine 50 mg at night, because my NS is so damaged I almost don't sleep naturally. This apparently lets me sleep from 3 to 6 hours most nights. I don´t know how I would withdraw from this as not sleeping is the one torture I (and anyone) cannot withstand. The reason I'm writing now here, is I'm currently going to a psychiatrist (who works with Open Dialogue), he says I would be benefited by taking more drugs and does not acknowledge the adverse effects as being worrisome ("the people who get damaged are the ones on high doses for a long time"). My situation is so bad that he says they would reduce suffering and somehow allow me to do things to get well. But I can´t believe this, and I'm frightened and know that I'm probably stepping into conditions I nor my NS can take. 7/6/21 he gave me escitalopram 10 mg (to go up to 20) and aripiprazol 5 mg (to go up to 10) "switch the quetiapine for the aripiprazol". The first night I took this I vomited twice and did not sleep at all. I thought it was a mistake to just stop the quetiapine, told him and he said ok, it seems to help you sleep, we'll reduce it gradually (which is likely a month or less, as he's adviced before) Next day took the escitalopram earlier to divide the hit on the stomach and soon as I took the rest, vomited again. He was unalarmed of course, said the system has to get used to it and told to take aripiprazol in the morning, and later the others. Yesterday hours after the morning, on the street felt the same sensation as I was gonna vomit, but tried to avoid it and walked. I felt burning heat in the chest and stomach and then waves of freezing cold in my head too. It passed. I didn't take the rest and don´t want to. I don´t know what to do and how to tell him this is wrong and likely going to harm. I feel the more side effects I have to endure and then the effects I'll just turn into a complying thing "dealing" with all this, until I can´t take anymore, once again, but this time with a hardly functioning NS and already destroyed life experience. I'd appreciate if you can give me an honest opinion about the danger of taking these drugs. And maybe a suggestion of something well articulated I can give him to read to maybe start seriously considering the inhuman experiences these substances put us through, not only in high doses. Thank you for reading, it ended up quite long. I hope you are finding some wellbeing and meaning, take care.

Hi Everyone, I am currently trying to taper down from 150 mg Quetiapine XR. I am down to 87.5 mg by now. The 75mg capsules I take each contain 6 pallets of 12.5 mg each, so to reduce my dose further I need to switch to capsules that contain a lot of spheroids instead of a liquid formulation. I explained this to my GP and she said that in the Netherlands (where I am currently residing as an expat) they don't have either the capsules with spheroids or a liquid formulation, which I find difficult to believe. Instead, she offered to switch me to 37.5 mg capsules which I found contain 3 pallets of 12.5 mg each just like my original medication so it is no use. I tried to do a google search to look up options but in the brochures, I do not find any information on whether the capsules contain pallets or spheroids and how many. Does anyone have an idea how I could get this information? I am planning to visit some pharmacies to ask but I find that it really helps to have some knowledge before asking the question otherwise I usually just get a 'no it is not possible' even when there might be an option available but it requires some looking into. Thank you very much in advance

Hello all, just found this site and was looking for some advice on tapering off antipsychotic's. It all started about 11 months ago when I was prescribed saphris for depression by my pdoc to augment pristiq, (I know I should have known better). All was fine until about three months in when I started slowly developing anhedonia, just a complete lack of interest in life, it messed up my endocrine system, and destroyed my short term memory. Having successfully quit seroquel cold turkey in the past I thought saphris would be a breeze.... Boy was I wrong, only managed to make it there days in before the overwhelming anxiety (which I've never had before)and insomnia drove me back onto it. After three failed attempts to taper off(lowest dose is 5mg and couldn't cut sublingual wafers any lower), my pdoc suggested switching to 10mg zyprexa for two weeks then stopping that cold turkey, well that was a mess again, had anxiety from hell and insomnia. Again we tried switching over to seroquel which failed.So now I'm back on zyprexa (with a whole new set of side effects)with the plan of tapering off at a rate of -1.25mg every two weeks, currently I'm down to 7.5mg with moderate anxiety, intermittent insomnia and an insatiable appetite. Just wondering if this is too aggressive a taper, I only have tablets available so I'm just relying on cutting them into quarters. Just want off this pharmaceutical merry go round, feel as though I've been lobotomized.

Acsr Hi ! Thank for having me! Hi have a question for you since I’m don’t know what to do and nobody believes me . So, I was on Protheadene 75mg ( for 2 years) and still on 0,5 ( maxolazan-sedoxil) and 50 mg of quietipine. I was doing really well so I decided to win off my antidepressant, very slowly 7 months tapering, and my last dose was on 1st November. I got a flu in the beginning of March and since then I’ve been experiencing diarrhea, morning fast heart beats, depression and extreme fatigue during my periods and after. Was very gradual and this month is has been awful. I went to see a funcional doctor who says my adrenals are depleted, that I’m hypo, no magnesium ferritin and C. And my gut is a mess, Candida and disbiose. My progesterone little low. so this is where I need help : Is this withdrawal from the antidepressant? is this benzo tolerance ? Can I take progesterone since my symptoms get really bad during and after my periods? can I take aminoácids? can I take tyroid meds ? what do you think? I just don’t want to mess up . Thank you very much!

Dear all, I am 32 years old, currently living in Vietnam. On 18 August 2021, a psychiatrist prescribed me the following meds: Fluoxetine 20 mg and Dogmatyl 50 mg (taken twice a day), Seroquel 50 mg and Escitalopram 15 mg (taken at night before sleep). I stopped taking Dogmatyl, Escitalopram and Fluoxetine after a month and a half. (I did experience some withdrawal symptoms from this - mainly more sensitivity to muscle tension/pain/ache, sensitivity to light, blurred vision (though I suspect it could be a side effect of taking seroquel), emotional blunting, apathy etc.) Seroquel was the only one I was consistently taking (every night) for over 5 months or so. I did not take the full 50mg Seroquel and only took around 18 mg nightly. My last dose of Seroquel was on Friday night 14 January 2022. I CT-ed instead of lowering the dose because my pschiatrist thought it would be okay. For the first three nights I went through withdrawal I hardly slept at all: only falling asleep around 4 a.m in the morning and waking up at 8 a.m. The sleep was not at all restful. I surmise at that point, Seroquel had not fully left my body yet. The next two weeks were slightly better: I took 0.5 mg melatonin a night (I only have the 5mg time release version and I know breaking it would just make it lose the extended release component of the drug but here in Vietnam, there are little options. They have to import supplements from overseas) and managed 6 to 7 hours a night (waking up twice or thrice a night). Then, around 7 days ago, I stopped taking melatonin altogether to see how I would fare with my "natural" sleep. I experienced something very strange: I waked up every hour that night. While I managed to go back to sleep soon after, this problem persists until now. It has been little over a week since my sleep is so fragmented. This is honestly so disturbing and stresses me out a lot. I would like to mention that for the last two nights, I also incorporated Valerian Root Extract 300mg into my nightly regimen. For the first night, I managed 6+ hours of sleep (waking up thrice). However, yesterday night, while I slept for a total of 7+ hours, I continued to wake up every hour. The thing is when I waked up, it was not in panic, it was as if I was aroused very subtly/slowly from sleep. Oftentimes, I would wake up after a dream (I have had so many strange dreams while taking melatonin)? Is this some sort of REM Rebound after quitting substance (though wouldn't I get REM rebound the first two weeks after quitting seroquel and not at the 3rd week)? Aside from rebound insomnia, I don't think there is any other noticeable symptom. Perhaps some agitation/anxiety here and there but I try to not let it get to me. I do practice yoga and meditation on a daily basis, sunlight viewing, eating greens/healthy, going out with my mom/friends etc. I am not sure reinstatement of Seroquel would be a good idea at this point. One theory is that the way I'm taking melatonin atm is very counterproductive: https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20110107/splitting-pills-may-have-risks#:~:text=“Not all formulations are available,PhD%2C of Ghent University in Another theory is that by stopping melatonin so abruptly, I have made my already sensitized nervous system even more vulnerable and even when I reintroduced melatonin into my system, it did not help much. I would love to receive any guidance / opinions from SA. Thank you so much in advance.

Hi, everyone, I write because I am really very desperate. I come from Germany and about 3 months ago I lost my life ... It happened when I re-dosed a small amount of fluoxetine according to the instructions of a German forum and then reduced it. (see my signature). Since that day, I have been unable to sleep and run my little business that I built so hard for myself ... Regarding fluoxetine: I took it for 9 years and was doing very well with it (except for the muscle pain). I am now so far that I would say, I am taking the fluoxetine again ... Do you have a suggestion for me???? Warm greetings from Germany Swiffy