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  1. Hi Everyone, I'm pleased to find this forum, but I am sorry that it is for the reason it is. It is amazing how many people are suffering from AD WD, and the symptoms and length of time it can take. I found this site from searching withdrawal symptoms, because today is my 10th day at my lower dose and I have been feeling worse today than at any time since I halved my dosage. Recently I became absolutely miserable about my aches and pains, which were stopping me from doing things around the house and causing sleep problems. I started wondering about them and then remembered that I had had to go off Prozac (about 20 years ago) when I got muscle weakness. St John's Wort also caused similar but not as bad muscle weakness so I stopped that too. I started researching AD symptoms and made (what seems to be) the connection that I have Serotonin Syndrome so I made the decision to reduce my Pristiq from 100 mg to 50 mg. The doctor suggested alternating between 100 & 50 for 2 months, but because the aches and pains are debilitating I decided to see how I went going straight to 50. After a couple of days I did get mild zapping / electric shock sensations, and also headaches for several days at the end of the 1st week. I slept a lot over the first 3 days (and was able to sleep at night). Then I had several nights where I had trouble sleeping. Last night I slept through for the first time. I had several days where I had an upset stomach which I had thought was a tummy bug but I now realise it is possibly from the withdrawal. At this time, I am feeling achy (a bit like the flu), different from being on the higher dose. This surpised me because I had been going well. Thinking back, the first few days I wasn't drinking coffee. Then I started having coffee in the morning again and yesterday I had one at breakfast and then another at lunchtime. What I have read on this site confirms my suspicion that it may be the cause of me not feeling as good as I had so no more coffee for me. Yesterday I decided that I need to started taking more care of my nutrition (I haven't had much of an appetite lately), and what I have read here confirms this. I am taking one day at a time, and I am not making any decision yet as to whether I will go off the Pristiq completely or stay on the 50 mg. At the end of last year I completed a free Government funded online workshop (I'm in Australia) which I found very helpful. Even though I had previously seen a psychologist, had done a lot of reading of books and internet articles and "knew" CBT (which I have nicknamed Change Bad Thinking) I found that doing the workshop (which was over 8 weeks) was very helpful because it was practising the CBT, instead of just knowing it. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone all the best as you deal with whatever you are going through. Unfortunately, that is the hard part. We have to go through it ourselves. Thankfully, though, others can support us. Take care everyone. ChessieCat
  2. Hi all I was put on 10mg Olanzapine for a manic episode 4 months ago, since then I've come to learn more about this drug and realise I didn't want to be on it long term if I could help it. I Started a too fast taper from 10mg - 7.5mg 29th Jan, 8th Feb down to 6.25mg, 17th feb down to 5mg, 24th Feb down to 2.5mg. Here is where the effects got really bad and I started getting even worse horrendous anxiety, anhedonia, loss of appetite and thoughts of self harm. On wednesday 1st March I went back up to 5mg to try and stop these effects from the big jump of 5mg to 2.5mg but it seems to be helping only a little to have gone back up. Should I go to a dose in between like 3.75mg or hold at 5mg? Any advice please? I know I should be going a lot slower but I've only been on a few months so thought I could go more quickly.
  3. Hi everyone Great to have found this website...I have been on SSRI's and more recently SNRI (mirtazapine) for past 17 years and the mirtazapine for past 5 - I have been depression free for past 5 years (previously had between 10 to 12 major breakdowns since age of 21 including whilst on the drugs..I am 38 now)...phew it's been tough but I have made it this far! I decided that, if I could go 5 years without a major depressive episode, that I would try and come off my meds as a I feel I have developed the coping skills and resilience skills to manage my mental health drug free...I reached 5 years and started in August 2019 - I managed to cut down from 30mg to 22.5 and then 22.5 to 15mg over the course of 5 months...I had a period of about one week of WD during both reductions and it was very unpleasant but I just toughed it out and it passed and I felt better again - so I made it to 15mg which I thought to be quite an achievement! With this in mind and also wanting to get off this drug as fast as possible (within reason) I decided to cut the 15mg pills and start on approx 11mg around 9 days ago (with my doctor approval who is, by the way, absolutely clueless)....I have been suffering WD since day 1 including anxiety, foggy head, insomnia, slight ringing ears and generally just feeling low and not myself - I thought that this will pass if I just tough it out again but now, 9 days in and after reading a lot of stuff online I'm not so sure...it seems that with mirtazapine (and possibly other drugs) it gets harder as the doses get lower...which is hard to believe when you see the size of the 11mg in your hand. I have now found this website and it's incredibly helpful and I'm so glad to be here and able to talk to others about this! My first and REALLY important first question to ask for advice is should I go straight back up to the 15mg where I felt ok and stabilise there before thinking about my next approach which could well be the 10% reduction advocated on here? I just want to feel better again so I can cope with stresses in my life...I would appreciate some responses ASAP as I may do this tonight! Could I possibly use a quality weighing scale and go to 13mg or will this just further confuse my nervous system more? I'm sure I'll have lots more questions in time but this will do for now Lovely to meet you all Big love and strength from Malbec37
  4. Hi everyone. I just wanted to say firstly that I only discovered this site 2 days ago and you have all been an absolute god send! I was in the throes of horrific withdrawal and after seeing how screwed up my doctor's advice has been I have reinstated some of my dose today and I feel like a different person already.... A bit about my history with antidepressants: I'm 32 years old and was put on nortriptyline originally in March 2018 for migraines. The migraines weren't affected in any way by these drugs (different story but in the last 4 months I have found my trigger and have gone from daily to once monthly migraines so that's a win!) I had to switch through 3 different antidepressants (amitriptyline and mirtazapine included) before I could settle on Venlafaxine at 150mg. Nothing else would allow me to sleep through the night. That was around August of 2018. Everything was going OK, and it turned out I had both anxiety and depression which I didn't realise until these started to ease with the Venlafaxine. In May 2020 the first lockdown in England really got to me, I felt like nothing was helping so I requested to up my dose to 225mg of Venlafaxine. This went fine and I've been fine ever since, however during all of this time I've been working really hard on mindfullness and knowing how to combat my anxiety and depression head one and I truly felt like I was just taking this drug to stop any withdrawal symptoms instead of taking it because I needed it. Cue the absolute nightmarish hell of Jan 2021..... On the 4th I was instructed by my doctor that it would be fine and dandy to come off, and that I could reduce by 75mg a week, or 2 weeks if that felt too fast..... I wasn't warned of anything except I 'might get a bit dizzy and tired' .... Well week one passes dropping from 225mg to 150mg and I feel a bit off but OK. So week 2 I drop down to 75mg and yeah sure I'm a bit dizzy and I have a properly dodgy stomach but eveywhere seems to say that'll only last a week or 2 and then I'll be drug free so I can take it! ...... Week 3 I drop from 75mg to 0 and my god. I have never in my life, even in the worst throes of depression, had anxiety, panic, derealisation or depersonalisation like it. I was truly for the first time in my life terrified that I was going to either die, or accidently injure myself and die as I had no control. It was so horrific that 3 days in I couldn't get out of bed, and I gave in and started taking 75mg again. I felt better in the next 2 days but in that time I had a subsequent call with my doctor who said 'oh....well you can take a 37.5mg tablet instead. Do that for a week and then come off' ...... So before I even had chance to stabilise on 75 again I was back down to 37.5 for a week. Still dizzy, still panicking away but not as badly. 3 days ago I then thought I cannot drop right off this, I'll take out 1 little tablet inside the capsule and make the dose 25mg. 3 days later there I was having another horrific panic attack, convinced I was never going to be OK and would definitely die of something and so dizzy I couldn't see straight. That is how I ended up desperately looking around online for help (I had been anyway but looking in all the wrong places like....the NHS website....) and I found this site. I have never felt so relieved to see what now is obviously logic! I'm still in the process of reading through the site but I've already reinstated to 37.5mg and today I felt like a different person! A bit of panicking tonight but very manageable and hopefully it will pass over the week. I am also now committed to staying at this dose for at least a month (assuming it helps and I don't need to updose higher?) and then I will be tapering at 10%. I even bought a pill cutter today in preparation! I literally cannot thank you enough for this websites existence. I am so incredibly angry at my doctor for essentially throwing my brain off a cliff for the whole of January and I really hope that reinsating will even me out - it's already stopped every single symptom except the night time anxiety/jitters (which to be honest was so bad that I'm probably bringing it on more by worrying it will happen, than it actually being a symptom. It's also an echo of what it has been like since jumping from 75mg-0....) So that's me! Hello if you got this far, and I hope to join everyone on a successful and much slower journey to being antidepressant free! A quick edit just to say I was also advised to take that 37.5mg tablet one day on, one day off. Something I have told my friend off for doing with his antidepressant for literally years, something that has never made any sense to me, and something I was so vindicated to see is actively discouraged here!
  5. Hello, Thank you so much for this site. It is really a lifesaver. I am trying to taper off of Effexor XR (Venlafaxine) after 17 years of use. In the past I unsuccessfully tried to get off of Effexor XR. My doctor attempted to taper me off in only one month. The withdrawal symptoms were so horrible that I went I back on the drug and the symptoms immediately stopped. I finally got up the courage to try to taper again. This time I tapered 4 times as slow as before, but clearly not slow enough. I was desperate to find relief from the severe anxiety attacks and insomnia side effect that I got when my Effexor was increased above 150 mg. The anxiety and insomnia immediately improved after each reduction. However, I still experience some anxiety attacks from the drug withdrawal. I am currently holding steady at 112.5 mg. of Effexor XR. I tapered from 187.5 mg. Effexor XR plus 10 mg. Viibryd, 300 Gabapentin and 25 mg. Amitriptyline (Elavil) down to 112.5 mg. Effexor XR. over the course of approximately 7 months. Gabapentin and Elavil were relatively easy for me to get off of. Probably because I was only on them for a year or two. The withdrawal only lasted 1 week after each dose reduction. The antidepressants however, were a different story. They have been hell to get of! Especially the Effexor. I reduced the antidepressant every 3 to 5 weeks by reducing by the lowest dosage pill. In June I had Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). This treatment helped me immensely. In fact I believe that it saved me. Before the treatment my depression was severe. The TMS decreased it to mild. It also helped with the anxiety a lot. It also helped some with sleep, fatigue and sexual dysfunction. If it was not for the drug withdrawal I really think that the depression would be in remission. I am happy that I am making forward progress, but I am frustrated that I continue to suffer withdrawal symptoms and it has been 6 months since I last reduced the Effexor. I am positive that I have PAWS. I am not sure but I suspect that I may have Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction. The withdrawal symptoms are no longer severe like they were but they are still significant. I read your post on up-dosing and reinstating. Thank you! for the advice! I would have not known better and tried to up dose way too much had I not read this. Based on the recommendation I decided to be cautious and up-dose at the lowest dose possible (1 beadlet or 0.4 mg.) It has been 1 week since up-dosing. The first night that I up-dosed I noticed that my heart raced when I drank a glass of wine and I had insomnia. I don't really know if these things had anything to do with the up-dose or if it was an effect from the alcohol. Other then this I did not notice any difference at all until today. Today I had more intense head zaps. It might be too soon to jump to any conclusions just yet. I am thinking at holding steady for 1 more week and then assessing. What do you think? Also, how would you recommend storing the beadlets? Do you think they need to be kept out of light? P.S. I hope my signature is not too confusing. Did I put it in the right place? I am very glad that I found this site and I hope that I can help others as well. Signature: 2002-2005- Effexor XR. 150 mg. 2006- (Jan.- June) increased to 225 mg. Effexor XR, July 2006? decreased to 150 mg. 2007- 2018- Effexor XR.- 150 mg. 2018- increased to 225 mg. Effexor XR, added Gabapentin 900 mg., added Amitriptyline (Elavil25 mg. 2018- (Sept.) Decreased Effexor XR to 187.5mg, added Zoloft 10 mg., (Nov.) tapered off Elavil, (Dec.) tapered off Gabapentin 2019- (Jan.) switched Zoloft to 10 mg. Viibryd., (Feb.) decreased Effexor to 150 mg., (March) tapered off Viibryd, (April) switched 37.5 mg. Effexor to 10 mg. Prozac then tapered off of Prozac.
  6. I'm new here, but have been following this forum off and on for over a decade. I think I'm finally stable enough to try tapering off my current meds. I've been on some form of ssri for about 25 years. I've been working with a naturopath for about 5 years to address some other health concerns that have really been supportive to my healing. I'm entrenched in a wellness program that is also very supportive. I tried earlier this year to taper off with help of a dr and thought it would work (silly me). His suggestions for tapering were far too large and quick. I've read a lot of what has been written here and have prepared myself to go much much slower and realize it could take years. For this next attempt, the dr proposed a prozac bridge and I went along with it, as I've done something similar before and it worked pretty well. (Again, silly me). Prozac makes me very very tired and I do not want to continue it, plus I don't think I need it for the taper, given what I've read here. I'm in the process of tapering off the Prozac and went from 20mg to 10mg with no problem whatsoever. However, my jump from 10mg to 5mg was quite disasterous. I now realize I must go much much slower going forward. I'm at 10mg Prozac now and will start going down on that next week. I will eventually attempt tapering off my 75mg effexor, but that will be after prozac taper. I'm trying to get everything in place for this. I've printed out symptom logs to keep track of everything daily and will look into the jeweler's scale for my effexor. Here I go! 🙂
  7. Ok so 10 weeks ago i halved my dose of citalopram from 20mg (which i was taking for 1 year) to 10mg after a fast taper for about 4 weeks alternating doses each day from 20mg to 10mg. Which after reading the info on here i now know was a bad idea. At first i felt a bit off but nothing too serious for about 6 weeks. Since then I've gradually felt worse. Syptoms are headache, fatigue, tired, anxiety, irritable, depressed and feeling a bit better for say an hour then feeling like crap again! I have been through a stressful time in my personal life lately and wondoring if it could be that. Im wondering if i should reinstate to my previous dose or hold on 10mg. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
  8. I am at the point right now that I can’t handle the severe withdrawal symptoms anymore. I have been trying to get off Effexor XR since October of 2019. I was at 225 mg. I have been on it since around 2004. I slowly weaned down and was at 37. 5 mg at Christmas. I got bad withdrawal symptoms (anxiety, exhaustion, headaches, flu symptoms, brain zaps etc. ) each time I reduced the dose but they subsided after a week or two. However, weaning off 37.5 mg has been extremely bad. I slowly extended the time between doses, at my psychiatrist’s advice. I first did this by hours and maintained it for a week or 2 and then began skipping days. By day 4 the withdrawal was so terrible. Almost falling over with dizziness, extreme exhaustion, nausea, flu symptoms, severe muscle aches and muscle heaviness, headaches, brain fog, body prickles, brain zaps, severe chills, extreme irritability and anxiety and more). I pushed myself to 11 days without. I saw my psychiatrist and he said just push through it and wouldn’t suggest anything else. He doesn’t want to prescribe another medication. It didn’t seem like he took my symptoms seriously. I have made it for 15 days but am at the absolute end of my rope. I had to take days off work and the days I have worked have been so hard and literally I am not able to function after work. My anxiety is worsening and I am getting paranoid and negative thoughts that are hard to stop. My chest is in pain due to anxiety. I ink straight. This website came up in my search. Please help. I briefly read that I could break open my capsule and reduce that way. I don’t know if I should just endure or take a capsule and reduce from there by counting beads.
  9. Hi There,I've been on a low does of Amitriptyline for almost 19 years - 10 MG. I have been slowly tapering off for about 11 months. About 2 months ago I got down to 2mgs. While i had withdrawal symptoms for about two weeks each time i lowered the dose previously with the last reduction from 2.2 - 2 mg's I have been experiencing more severe and protracted symptoms. It has been about 2-3 months and the symptoms have been changing and actually getting worse over this time. At first I was feeling anxious, then I had feelings of just being slightly not myself, not here and very , very flat. Now I have nausea and severe headaches, insomnia and fatigue It seems surprising to me that these symptoms should kick in after such a gradual and small reduction. And I wonder if something else might be the cause of my symptoms? Has anyone else had similar experiences?
  10. Thank you for all your wisdom shared in this forum! I had an updosing vs. holding question. I am currently tapering off 20mg Paxil using a 10% taper method (I do two cuts for four weeks and then hold the third cut for six weeks.) It has gone smoothly until I reached 5.61mg in June, when I started feeling more symptomatic. I cut down to 5.05mg the first week of July and four weeks later started experiencing severe symptoms (insomnia, shakiness, lack of concentration, anxiety). I've held for 8 weeks now and still no subsiding of the symptoms, so my question is do you recommend I updose? If so, should I go back to 5.61mg or higher, since this crash was likely building a few months before I hit 5.61mg? And then should I hold it for four weeks or more before resuming a taper? (I'm going to start tapering at 5% per month now, since I'm hitting the lower doses.) Do you expect the WD symptoms to ease up if I updose, and does that typically happen fairly quickly? Also, is it common to hit this kind of a wall in the 5mg range?
  11. Hey everyone 😀 would love some advice please! Around 8 weeks ago I decided to taper by doctor instructions been on 3 years and stable happy/healthy loving life, of Zoloft 50mg so I started 1/4 cutting my pill I was doing ok for 2 weeks but then it hit, insomnia, panic attacks. So I quick updosed back to 50 mg, then probally got worst side effects of updosing, panic attacks, anxiety, stomach pain, headaches. I actually think one day I took 100mg as I had forgotten I took a dose then remembered. It’s now been 4-5 week since reinstatement still have side effects but panic is gone. And am thinking clearer again. I’m so up and down good days and bad days. Last 3 nights bad insomnia it’s horrible . Will take something tonight I have melatonin. My question is this normal??? Such a small cut and time frame and how long dose usually take to fully restablise. I’m happy to stay on 50mg for good I just wanna be my normal happy self. And sleep I need sleep it’s been up and down.
  12. Hi There, To make a long story short, I tried to taper off my celexa. I was tapering 10% down of my original 20 mg dose, and tapered 10% every two weeks for two and a half months. Also the schedule my doctor put me on for tapering was quite erratic. So 10 mg a few days and then back to 20 mg other days. My tapering was never an exact amount each time I tapered down. Anyways, I felt good tapering down for two months and a half but then just 4 days ago the withdrawal hit me pretty good. Obviously the tapering was too fast. So almost as soon as my withdrawal started I took the original 20 mg dose, and I felt a bit better. The second day I took another 20 mg and felt even better. Now my question is, do I just keep going at 20 mg? or should I go to 15 mg (halfway point between 10 and 20 mg) because my system has been sensitized by the withdrawal? I have already been taking my original 20 mg the past two days and feel better, so I should I just stick with that? I want to find a dose I am comfortable with and just stick with it because I think I am confusing my brain a lot. I was supposed to take a pill last night but because I wasn't sure which dose, I haven't taken any citalopram yet, so hence the urgency of this message. Please let me know your opinions. Thank you
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