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Hey there, I'm Anass, and I want to share my personal my story with you. For years 2008 to 2014 , I relied on benzodiazepines to manage my anxiety and sleep issues. Little did I know that the very medication I thought would help me would eventually lead me down a path of unforeseen challenges and severe symptoms. Today, I want to shed light on the rollercoaster ride I've been on, hoping it serves as a cautionary tale for others facing similar struggles. I experienced a range of physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms. Physically, I became dependent on the medication and faced debilitating withdrawal symptoms such as heightened anxiety, restlessness, muscle spasms, headaches, and even seizures. My coordination and motor skills suffered, making everyday tasks a challenge. The medication disrupted my sleep-wake cycle, leaving me fatigued and excessively drowsy during the day. On the cognitive and emotional front, I experienced memory lapses, difficulty concentrating, and a constant mental fog. I also felt emotionally numb, struggling to connect with my own feelings and experiencing frequent mood swings and heightened anxiety. My life with benzodiazepines has been a difficult one. Since I stopped taking benzodiazepines abruptly in 2015, my life has been a living hell. In 2018, my body reached a breaking point, and I ended up in the intensive care unit. I was diagnosed with severe anxiety, and they would give me Valium injections that provided some relief for a few hours. But the worst was yet to come when they injected me with the antidepressant Anafranil, and that's when I slipped into a coma for four days. When I woke up in the ICU, I felt disconnected from my body, experiencing severe mental confusion. However, they dismissed it as anxiety. I will never forget the rapid heartbeats, reaching 198 beats per minute, and they simply brushed it off as fear. Consequently, I was placed in a closed ward at a psychiatric hospital, where I was prescribed Escitalopram, Pregabalin, Xanax, and a sedative antidepressant for sleep. I remained on this medication regimen for two years. It's true that many of my symptoms disappeared, but the depression, anxiety, fatigue, and lack of motivation, along with cognitive impairment and the inability to think or reason, are still present. My psychiatrist decided to discontinue the use of Xanax and switch my antidepressant, but nothing seemed to work. We tried almost every class of antidepressants available, but it only made my symptoms worse. I made the decision to go back to Xanax and gradually taper off Valium over several months, which was successful. However, I haven't been able to stop the antidepressant, even though it causes me extreme pain and severe headaches, especially in the evening. Additionally, I experience derealization, depersonalization, and extreme anxiety that didnt been so intence when using first time antidepressant for 2 years. i guess because my doctor Abruptly is changing antidepressant medications leadme to withdrawal symptoms. I'm glad that you're reading this, and your opinion is very important to me.

Hello, I was on Lexapro for nine months, maximum dose was 25mg. The medication didn’t help me at all, I had terrible side effects like increased anxiety, nausea, headache, no appetite and low libido. And therefore I decided to quit, and tapered down for five weeks, as told in my signature. I was shocked to see that all the horrible side effects actually increased after quitting the drug. And on top of that I got extreme dizziness and vision disturbances. It’s like my head can’t keep up when I move my head. I also have flu-like symptoms. I have been 5 months off Lexapro now, and am sick as a dog… This is truly a living nightmare, but I will never go back to that horrible medication. I know, after reading stories in here, that my brain and body will adapt, and that I will get well!

Hey! It is the first public post I have ever made about my mental health but I feel like I reached the rock bottom. I am only 21 years old and I feel that every singe day is a new emotional nightmare. I am going to start from the very beginning. I used to be very shy child for whom making friends was a real challenge. In primary school I finally found my group of people where I felt accepted, liked and just good. The problems started again in the middle school. My shyness together with anxiety gave me "beautiful" social anxiety and depression of which I was not aware until I turned 16 years old. After one year in high school my symptoms got so bad that I was put on Citabax (citalopram) 20mg in 2018. My life changed completely in one year. I finally was anxiety free person, started to express myself in a way I always wanted to before. I would say that my life finally was "colorful" and I could find joy in my daily life. After one year on Citabax I started to feel worse again. I was aware of the fact that SSRI may stop working after some period of time or your body can build up tolerance to a specfific dose. In my case, I started to experience more intense anxiety, brain fog (some of the symptoms which may have appaered at the beggining of my treatment). I went to my psychiatrist and said that I feel bad again. In 2019 I was put on Oriven ( Venlafaxinum) 75mg. This medicine gave me no physical symptoms as citalopram at the beginning of the treatment but I suffered from rapid mood swings and I got easily irritated. Again, I went to my doctor and said that someting is wrong it's not helping me and I even feel worse than before. She gave me paroxinor (paroxetine) instead but mentioned I may try with higher dose of venlafaxinum firstly. So, I did it It was probably the most stupid decision in my whole life. As you can suspect, higher dose gave me worse symptoms and even more frequent mood swings. I was totally resigned and tired of this constant battle with my mental health. After 3 months of waiting if these symptoms will go away I gave up, changed the doctor who gaved me Aciprex (escitalopram) 10 mg. It was in March 2020. This medicine was the best option for me. I was more stable and I had zero awful symptoms as in case of Oriven. I lived happily on them for approximately 2.5 years. In May 2022 I started to experience brain fog (at that time this fog became annoying for me), mood swings, depression, my OCD came back again and was worse than ever. At that time, I thought that maybe I am bipolar. I went to doctor described how I feel and my answers suggested that I suffer from bipolar II. I stayed on Aciprex and additional I was prescribed Lamotrigine to stabilise my mood swings. I took new medicine for approximately 2 or 3 months and I got terrible rush on my leg and arm which gave me scars. I completely resigned from taking Lamorigine and stayed on Aciprex only. Now, It's almost 3 years anniversary of taking them. My mental health is again in total mess and I feel terrible. Over the time of taking Aciprex I developed: - terrible brain fog - problem with concetration - irritability - my libido is not existing - my anxiety got worse - I suffer from very intense derealisation and depersonalisation - panic attacks - constant feeling of threat and fear - I developed completely new phobias too Taking into consideration my 5 year joruney with antidepressants I feel like I come full circle with each drug: firstly it helps a lot or not at all, over time I got a lot of side effects. I am no longer sure if I develop tolerance or I got side effects after many months of treatment initation. I am going to see the doctor in a couple of days and I go to the psychologist regularly. My question is: Is it possible from your own experience to develop a lot of side effects over time? I intend to completely stop using SSRI to try if I will feel better because I think it cannot be any worse than it is now. Also, after detailed analysis of my symptoms I think that Aciprex is doing me more harm than good now. I would be extremely grateful for your opinions, particularly how you felt being on drugs for a couple of years. And whether you developed any side effects over time. Thanks a lot!!! ❤️

Topic title before reducing: 5 months into Lexapro withdrawal & really struggling. Considering a possible reinstatement of 0.5mg Hello Everyone. I’m glad to be here with you all. Although I wish that none of us had to be experiencing any of this distress at all. I’m currently approaching my sixth month of withdrawal from Lexapro. I have been on SSRI’s of various forms since 1999. Originally prescribed for anxiety and depression that were a natural response to life in a dysfunctional family and stressful life events. I have been tapering very slowly since 2014. Got down to 2.2mg from 5mg in 2018 and held there as I was dealing with thyroid issues which required my focus, then perimenopause. I’ve been very busy rebuilding my business post lockdowns (I work part time from home) and planning a move since December and forgot to take my Lexapro for several weeks before Christmas. I thought (wrongly in hindsight) that this might be a good time to withdraw as I was on relatively low dose. However, Lexapro is stronger than most SSRIs mg for mg from what I’m aware through research and personal experience. I previously attempted withdrawal from Citalopram in 2010 - according to doctors instructions over a matter of weeks. Much too quickly knowing what I know now. I was ok at first but around the 6 month mark I suffered horrendous protracted withdrawal - derealisation and depersonalisation that I’d never suffered previously. This is when I started on Lexapro as I had an adverse reaction when Citalopram was reinstated. I’m around the 6 month mark again and it has only clicked that my issues may be withdrawal related. I’ve been focused on my thyroid / peri menopausal issues which have a lot of overlapping symptoms when under-treated. Main symptoms - I can’t get started on or complete tasks, everything is taking immense effort to get motivated and to complete. I watched a Robert Sapolsky video on you tube recently. He describes ‘retarded motor function’ associated with depression - which is very similar to what I’m experiencing. Also impulse control problems when I’m usually very calm and considered, especially in what I say to others. I feel like my personality has been hijacked. My sleep is erratic and mood is very low. I either feel tearful, fearful or snappy. I’m usually positive and enthusiastic. I’ve also had physical problems like back ache, a sciatica flare, joint pain, tinnitus, headaches, temperature dysregulation/ sweating, dizziness & vertigo. I also experienced what I think was akathisia this week - extreme inner and external restlessness, couldn’t feel settled, sense of impending doom and feelings like I wanted to crawl out of my skin. This came out of the blue with no stressor preceding. I’m struggling to function to work or socially. I haven’t been out much at all this year due to these symptoms and feel very isolated and lonely. I enjoy my own company but also need and benefit from the companionship of the right people around me at intervals. I love the sunshine, it’s the time of year that I feel most alive, happy and healthy. We don’t get much sun in the UK. So I usually make the most of every ray! But this year, I can’t bear to go out in the sunshine - it just makes me feel sad. Like a spotlight shining on how depleted I’m feeling and the darkness I’m experiencing. I’ve also noticed that during my withdrawal, I have attracted a few toxic, emotionally unhealthy, manipulative people that I no longer speak to. I’m guessing this is because my energy and judgement is off balance and my boundaries / filters aren’t as strong right now which makes me more vulnerable. I’m having very strong (neuro?) emotions. Feelings of shame, failure, paranoia, hopelessness and helplessness. Every negative issue that arises feels exaggerated, heightened and distressing. I’m overthinking everything, but can’t stop doing this, even when I know that’s what I’m doing. I seem to spend the best part of my day worrying and berating myself often speaking out loud to myself in recent weeks. Not in a helpful way the way that some people do. But harshly. Often not making sense. My self esteem is very low and I feel under immense stress and have very low functioning currently. In the past month I also had Covid and viral meningitis at the same time. I was bed bound for a week and it was very scary. Some of my symptoms may be from post viral fatigue? Thyroid? Peri menopause? Stress? It’s very difficult to unpick what is causing what. Although things like impulse control difficulties and akathisia have only ever been present during withdrawal attempts. I’m caffeine free, eat a healthy diet and do not take any medication other than HRT estrogel and micronised progesterone and Armour thyroid. I was also prescribed testosterone to help with stamina, confidence and sleep but haven’t commenced that yet due to the strength of my negative neuro emotions. Testosterone may amplify these which wouldn’t be at all helpful. I was exercising daily last year but haven’t been able to with any frequency or consistency this year. I take magnesium in the form of Epsom salts and spray, b complex and B12 which tends to be low due to my thyroid issues, vitamin D3 and K complex. As much as I’m loathe to reinstate at all, my level of functioning is very low currently and deteriorating. I do not have the luxury to take an extended period of time off work to endure this as I need to be able to support myself financially. Maybe a very low reinstatement of 0.5mg may help me to be functional again and not mired in such distressing symptoms? I hope that what I’ve wrote makes sense? Ruminating about writing the wrong thing here will no doubt take up part of today… I’d be very grateful for any views, thoughts and advice from a community of people who understands what I’m going and the dilemma I’m facing. Thank you so much!

Hi all, I finished my Effexor taper about 2 months ago and have mostly recovered from the (heinous) withdrawal. I still get the occasional zap and headache, and my temper is terrible, but the worst symptoms are fading. However, over the last few days I've started getting major head rushes whenever I stand up, sometimes to the extent that my vision blurs for a few seconds. I'm in good shape, I eat well and work out regularly etc. so it's not a diet or fitness issue. Has anyone else experienced this symptom? I can't exactly explain why but it feels tied to the drugs and withdrawal as opposed to anything else. Apologies if this is covered anywhere else - I did try searching the site and couldn't see anything. Thanks, Larry

Hello everyone, I'm not quite sure which topic the following issue and question belongs to .. so please let me know if I should post this in another topic / category. As described in my signature, I completely stopped ingesting venlafaxine after about 3 months of tapering - I know, too fast, I was never informed about withdrawals or the need of a slower taper by my physician. One week after the last pill, various withdrawal symtoms such as brain fog, blurred/limited or "constrained" vision, OCD, tiredness and vertigo all appeared at once. Everything lasted for about 1 month and then, like all of a sudden, the withdrawals just stopped or became much milder. This period, which I like to refer to as my withdrawal "honeymoon," lasted for about 2 weeks. After this, the withdrawal symtoms started to come back, yet this time much more severe. I don't know if it has to do with the 2-3 glasses of champagne I had in New Years (I doubt so), but ever since they came back, they have slowly gotten worse. In the beginning I could still work, see friends and do other things people do in the leisure time but now I am on the sick list since three months, I can barely go or stay outside very long because all my symtoms (especially my visual symtoms) gets worse and my body and brain gets tired really fast. I am home most of the time. I try to exercise and to go out but my symptoms allow me to do very little things before it gets too hard for me. Now I ask you people who know this better than me - is it common for the symptoms to get worse over a period of time (for several weeks/months) before things hopefully turns around and you start feeling better again? I know that I may be a little messy in my explanation and I have certainly posted this in the wrong topic, but please know that I am suffering from a bad brain fog and that I am trying my best. I have already visited an ophthalmologist and I did get my brain scanned and they could find nothing. Still, I'm worried that there may be something else that causes my symptoms, which in turn was caused by effexor. PS -I have tried several supplements and have found that soy protein powder and magnesium tables relieves some of my symtoms. Thank you all in advance, and sorry for the messy text!

An Odd Case I am going to try to explain this as short as I can. A couple of years ago a strange thing happened to me when I was on anti-depressive medication. The episode took place in 2013 after a weekend where I suddenly went cold turkey on my medicine (which I now know you shouldn't do) and felt very weird a couple of days before starting to take my medicine again and then the "weird feeling" suddenly passed away (perhaps a week later after starting the medication again). This "Weird feeling" is hard to describe but it felt like your head was either in an aquarium or like if your brain was wrapped in plastic foil. I could go to school, exercise or do whatever you do during your weekdays without no one really noticing anything weird about me. But I was stuck with this scary kind of "outer body experience" and was almost going mad mentally. Looking back at it now I think I might have opened "pandora's box" during this event. And what do I mean by Pandoras box? Well because I stopped my anti-depressive medication in 2014 and was off it a couple of years (since a felt good and not in need of it), but suddenly in 2016 (still off from medication) I had a bad trip on marijuana which had me waking up the next day feeling exactly the same "weird feeling" I did after going cold turkey on my anti-depressive medicine in 2013. Not only was that horrible feeling back, but that feeling also lasted a couple of weeks (5-7 weeks perhaps) before it slowly went away. I have this experience documented in a diary format somewhere. I'm not a big consumer when it comes to party drugs but have probably tried marijuana at least 50+ times before this event and have never experienced anything like it, not even close. After this horrible experience, I decided to stay away from drugs completely since I was scared that a similar episode could occur again. At least that's what I thought back then..... The new years eve between 2017/2018 I took some MDMA, since I thought that this is a completely different drug from marijuana and sertraline and it didn't seem logical that a similar episode could occur with such a different drug. Well, it did..... But it took perhaps 3-5 days before this "weird feeling" came crawling back after the MDMA trip. This freaked me out of course because it made me think: wonder how long this horrible experience will last this time and so on. After 2 months, this "weird feeling" hadn't disappeared and I got desperate after trying to get help from a shrink, calling all kinds of different help centers and finally (this is a whole separate story, how the Swedish doctors handles anything that has drugs related to it, could talk for hours about how stigmatized drugs are in Sweden) came to my own conclusion after a "hobby" analyze that hmm wonder if I can reverse it all by starting with anti-depressive medication again? Finally, I got hold of a psychiatrist who could subscribe the medicine for me --> had a couple of horrible weeks getting into the medication again (where I even felt worse for a while) before the "weird feeling" disappeared after a couple of weeks of medication. Very grateful that it helped, not sure what I would have done otherwise. And why tell you this story? Has anyone out there hade a similar experience? I would like to understand what it was that happened to me? I understand that the brain is complicated and there is only so much we still know about the human brain, all I can do is hope to find answers and keep on digging..... Hopefully, my experience can help other people with similar experience stepping forward so that we can prevent people from having the same experiences that I/we had. Lastly, I will be more than willing to elaborate if it could be useful/needed for trying to answer my questions. Just let me know and I'll do my best answering the questions in the comments section. Best regards, Victor

40 years old, was put on Paxil 40mg 7 years ago. 8 months ago one day I suddenly felt fatigued which didn’t go away after few days of rest, my heart rate dropped below 60 and cardiologist adviced to come off Paxil. A reduction to 30mg restored my heart rate and fatigue after a few days. However same symptoms reappeared 4 months after so my Doc reduced it further to 20mg, same thing happened after 2 months so we reduced again to 10mg and after another 2 months another reduction to 5mg and full stop after a week.(this was 2 months ago end of Sep-18). The psychiatrist put me on 2 times 5ml Diazepam per day. Since the first reduction I suffered insomnia, anxiety, depression which got a lot worse when I fully came of Paxil 2 months ago however 1 month ago things took an uglier turn and I was hit by extreme profound fatigue, jlly legs, muscle weakness and I was rushed to A&E and the blood tests showed hormonal imbalance such as low testosterone and cortisol. Doctors are confused and are coming with scary possible prognosis and want to test me for things like autoimmune diseases or dangerous neurological disorders. My life is falling apart and my psychiatrist is suggesting putting me on Pregabalin as other SSRI’s may induce low heart rate. Question 1- is this extreme fatigue cause of the WD? Question 2- has anyone else experienced hormonal imbalances due to withdrawal? If so will it be restored to normal at some point? Question 3- considering my situation is it wise to stay on Diazepam and allow doctors to start me off on a new antidepressant like Pregabalin or something? Im alone and desperate with no clue where to go next please share any knowledge you have that may help me. Thank you all, Bless you.

I found my way here from the New Yorker article published online last week. Very thought-provoking and not exactly encouraging about this process. I started taking Effexor probably 18 or so years ago; it was my first antidepressant and worked well from the get-go. After 8 or so years I was feeling well enough that I wanted to quit taking it, so my medical person (nurse practitioner) advised me to taper VERY slowly. I was only taking 75 mg XR at the time, and she had me taper over 4 months. I was very impatient with the process but followed instructions exactly and never had a single withdrawal symptom. It went perfectly. A few years later, I was struggling with depression again and once more started Effexor. It worked as well, but I required a higher dosage (150 mg). Last year, my husband died and my depression deepened considerably. I gradually increased the dosage to 300 mg, which seemed to be working more or less. Recently, my therapist and I decided that it would be a good idea to get off Effexor and try Wellbutrin, as Effexor no longer seemed to be helping. My most recent attempt to taper off was a miserable failure; I had several nasty withdrawal problems and stopped almost immediately. One problem I have is that the dose I take now consists of a solid pill, not a capsule filled with tiny pills that I can divide into several doses. The directions say not to cut, chew, or otherwise damage the pill before taking it, so really gradual tapering is not possible. I have to use various sizes of pills to try and work around this problem, and it doesn't seem to be gradual enough. I'm hoping to get some practical help from others who have been through this themselves. Thanks for listening.

Hi. I'm tapering off effexor xr 150 mgs., which I've taken for I don't know how long exactly. I have, however, been on one thing or another for 27 years. The first one, nortriptyline (sp?) made a huge difference for me, like night and day, and I was thrilled to be able to feel like what I figured was what normal people felt like usually: "Sure, I got problems, but I'm not sinking into the floor over it. I can handle stuff. I'm okay." At that time, life had thrown several curve balls at once, and I went down and could not get up on my own; my coping strategies were not helping. I felt soooo okay when I started the anti-depressant, I would spend my grocery money to have access to it. However, epic constipation and feeling so heavy I could barely run, as was my habit, caused me to want to switch, which I did - several times over several years, usually to get away from sexual dysfunction side effects. I've stuck with effexor the longest. I tried to go off it a few years ago, but the withdrawal was awful, and I went back on it. Now, I've grown emotionally and psychologically in ways I never imagined, and I am giving this a go again. Today is day 19 of tapering down from 150. The first stage, I went down to ~100 mg. by my eyeballing it, for 15 days. I had read up, so I soon started taking a beefy B complex and fish oil. I did not experience bothersome symptoms until I went down to ~75 mg., where I've been for 4 days. Still taking the B complex and fish oil. And I started taking 5-HTP as suggested by The Mood Cure, to boost serotonin. And things are weird: teary over minor slights, electric-headedness, and frankly some fear. I really want someone to work with me closely in doing this, but don't have anyone. My family physician rewrote my prescription so that the capsules are 37.5 mgs. and I can taper on my own more easily, but all he said was, contact me if you have any questions about this. The Mood Cure is great, but I want the author's phone number in my contact list! I have an appointment through my insurer with a psychiatric NP - but it isn't until the end of May, 9 weeks out!! Right at this moment, I'm wanting to know whether to continue with the 5-HTP or switch to l-tryptophan to help with the crying feeling and the electric-head. Any ideas? Also, I am meditating at least once a day for 30 minutes, and walking fast for at least 30 minutes.

Hey everyone- A little history, many moons ago (about 17 years now), I was put on an antidepressant to stop my migraines. I was never depressed and never had anxiety. Over the years, I was put on several different antidepressants because the headaches would come back. Nonetheless, I haven't had a migraine in years and decided that I truly do not need to be on this drug anymore. After going through a horrific z-drug and benzo withdrawal due to mis-diagnosed insomnia (which was really probably related to the antidepressants), I learned a lot and that pretty much convinced me that I needed to work to get off the antidepressant as well. It's been almost 3 years since I went through that and successfully tapered off those drugs. I knew my CNS would be sensitive so I waited until this year to start the antidepressant withdrawal. Back in March/April, I started a taper on Viibryd 40mg. I am down to 20mg. I have been doing fairly well with a few days here and there of withdrawal symptoms but nothing major. I decided in June that once I got down to 20mg, I was going to hold there for a while to stabilize, which I have no been doing for 3 months. I have felt great to the point, I finally started doing a mild work out daily. All has been going well for several weeks, and then I started getting adrenaline dumps on Friday. Scared the living you know what out of me (although it shouldn't since I experienced this horror with benzo and z-drug withdrawal), but nonetheless, for the past 3 days, I have been experiencing adrenaline dumps, some mild burning across my chest (ironically no muscle pain in my chest or body) just burning, major stomach queasiness, and internal tremors/shaking, limb weakness, sweating, inability to focus, and of course anxiety because all of the sudden I feel like complete crap! Being that I started this taper about 6 months ago and have been holding for the last 3 months, is this normal for antidepressant withdrawal? In 2012 I had an echocardiogram on my heart and it was found to be structurally fine.I don't drink, smoke, do any kind of recreational drugs, or drink caffeine, and I have regular blood tests when I got to the doctor twice a year and all my levels have been normal, so I don't honestly think there is anything wrong with me. But historically, whenever waves hit me, I tend to lose my mind questioning what is wrong with me. I haven't been able to find much about Viibryd withdrawal. So I am grasping at straws here to know if what I am experiencing is normal. Thanks in advance!

Gave up antidepressants 4 months ago, using what I thought was a long and careful descent. (I cut down over about three months I think, apologies still a bit muddled). After reading your comments I now realise that it can take years, not months to reduce. I have no reason to be depressed (apart from the loss of everything financial in my life, and guilt feelings, over that). And realisations that my whole personality has been changed by these drugs for years now. Must mean I am finally getting my brain back, which is promising. I was not prepared for effects of the drugs and withdrawals to hit four months after stopping them. I now anticipate a year to get better... But others say it can take a lot longer. Can anyone advise me? Will my symptoms get worse before they get better? I do feel it is now too late to start taking them again, as I know that starting over again can be horrific, been there, done that. Dont want to go down that path again. I kept taking a small amount of seroquol, to help with the panic attacks. I find now, even a tiny amount makes me terribly sleepy. Am taking St Johns Wort, Vit B, fish oil capsules, zinc. And trying to eat eggs (for whatever is found in the egg yolk). I now think I need to give away the seroquol, as I have been taking small doses, very erratically, and I have no way of knowing if this is making things worse. Seroquol always seemed fine for me, but now I wonder.

Hello, I came across this forum after searching for information on relapses of depression/anxiety after coming off antidepressants. It was this article about Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms published in Psychology Today that lead me here, and I'm really glad to see that there is support around this much-shrouded topic. I'm experiencing the worst and most prolonged episode of depression and anxiety that I ever have before, and believe much of it has to do with stopping antidepressants earlier this year (150mg Effexor + 50mg Quetiapine/Seroquel for just over 3 years). I thought that tapering off over 4 months would mean that my life could return to 'normal' but discovered that only a few months after taking the last pill, anxiety and insomnia started to develop and worsen (which I hadn't felt prior to medication), and eventually led to full-blown depression. I tried 100mg Wellbutrin for a little over a month but found that it made me more anxious, so I've stopped and am now considering going back on Effexor, despite some really awful side effects like constant sweating and overheating around the head/neck area. The worst part is the constant negative, pessimistic thoughts that are so debilitating that I can't function like I used to, which has made the journey to recovery much harder. It seems that my only choice now is to go back on the Effexor to ease these symptoms in the short-term, so that I can once again taper off in the longer term. Does anyone have experience with dealing with the relapses or prolonged withdrawal symptoms of depression/anxiety after stopping medication, and does it subside when you restart / reinstate antidepressants? If you experience worse symptoms after stopping, how do you ever come off these drugs for good?

I need some help.. I started taking SSRIs (lexapro,seronil,and last paxil, i had to switch every year because i developed tolerance)when i was 15-16. When I was almost 20, last April , i told the doctor (it was a student practicing) i wanted to switch meds, because i was suicidal.He ,based on my history of switching ssris, wanted to start me on high dose of antipsychotics (i already took ketipinor /seroquel 100 mg a low dose) i refused and wanted to quit paxil. He tapered me off very quickly, from 40 mg to 20 mg in one day, and from 20 mg to 10 mg to 0 in one month. Also ketipinor (seroquel) cold turkey... I developed withdrawal symptoms such as brain zaps, horrible anxiety and depression,nausea, muscle spasms, 10 kg weight loss,panic, insomnia,the list goes on forever. It was 2 weeks after quitting i first went to the doctor. They put me on a low dose Seronil / prozac but it just made me feel worse so i quit after a week. After that i had the zaps and all the other symptoms for 2,5 months before i gave up and they put me on Cipralex. I took it for 2 months but it didn't work, or minimally. Eventually most physical symptoms went away but my mental health was really bad.. They put me on Sertralin/zoloft, didnt work either. In October, 5 months after quitting, i started with Voxra/wellbutrin and finally started to feel better. I'm glad for being myself again but i live in fear of my voxra/wellbutrin stopping working.. Since its the only NDRI out there i'd have nothing to switch to. I also am TERRIFIED that the person i was those 5-6 months is the REAL ME ... The me without meds... I dont remember being that way at all before i started,sure i had anxiety but not even close to that level,and never had depression..I am TERRIFIED that it was a relapse and not withdrawals... I keep thinking,there is no way withdrawal would have lasted HALF A YEAR and surely would have continued..

Hey everyone, I just registered. I've been reading the site for a few weeks and it's really helped me to keep my spirits up. There is a lot of great information and support on here, and I'm really happy to be a member now. My medication history: I've been taking Lithium (900mg) and risperdol (0.5mg) for several years as long-term mood stabilizers. These ones haven't been an issue. About three months ago, in June, I started taking Wellbutrin XL (generic) 150mg to help me quit smoking. I took it for about six weeks and suffered a lot of different side effects, especially anxiety attacks, nervousness, irritability, and trouble sleeping. At the time I was also taking Concerta 18mg for ADHD, which I discontinued because of the overlapping anxiety with the Wellbutrin (it wasn't a medication that I took every day, and I hadn't had any issues with it in the past). My taper: By the sixth week, had been suffering big panic attacks daily for about two of those weeks. I spoke with my doctor and he advised me to take it every other day for a week and then discontinue, which I did (because of the extended release, and it was the lowest dose already). My withdrawal/where I'm at now: It's been forty days since I discontinued. After a day of really intense anxiety and a few days of flu-like symptoms, I felt okay and I felt like I was done. About a week after this, I started getting panic attacks again. I'm an anxious person but I've never been one to get panic attacks regularly. I made it through a few weeks of the same issues, but it got worse, and soon I was having crippling anxiety over everything as a baseline on top of panic attacks. This continued on for a few more weeks. Currently I'm sitting at, mild anxiety all the time, random panic attacks and constant derealization & depersonalization. It's gotten so bad that I ended up on short term disability because I work with heavy equipment and I don't feel safe operating it like this. I keep feeling really hopeless and scared, even though I know it's just temporary. It's been hard too because I've never read a story about Wellbutrin that was this bad. I'm really hoping it goes away soon, and i've been trying to stay busy at home, exercise, read, and take care of myself by eating healthily. Unfortunately I was not able to quit smoking! Thank you for reading. Edit: I wanted to mention also that I've been using low dose L-Theanine when the anxiety gets to be too much, and powdered glycine in warm tea at night to help me sleep. These have been a lifesaver so far.

Hello anyone here, first of all please excuse my english and thanks for letting me ask here for some mental support! I'm a 40 year old woman from Germany, where is unfortunatedly nearly no professionally qualified and/or medical help and knowledge about tapering of and really getting off antidepressants - anyway I can't even find it. My medical history and my problem now: Cause of a "anxiety disorder" in the past I got several antidepressants (although they didn't even help me with my problem - and unfortunately whether I not my docs really know or tell me about the crass impact to my body), ca. about 1994 to ca. spring of 2005. I think the last one in this period was Trevilor. Accompanying to the death of my friend in 1997 I got Tavor - but tapered it out completely at about 2000 - and then up to today Tranxilium Tabs (now a half a day) and Beloc zoc 95 mg retard (1 a day). In spring 2005 I got a new job with a much of psychic stress and til end of 2005 I slim at about 20 kilogramm (my normal weight was just about 70, now about 78), couldn't sleep, couldn't eat normally etc.pp. and became totally exhausted and anxious - so that I got a rehabilitation in a clinic from end of January 2006 to March. Clinic was a personal horror for me and when I was another week in the job in end of March/beginnning of April I finally quit the job. (Was really a bad one, but today I think my desolate feeling at that time was strenghtened by a withdrawal from Trevilor - but that's not my problem today.) The following time a had much stress with finding a new job perspective, recover myself from the clinic and so on. Worse luck in this emotional hard time my neurologist persuaded me to get a new "very very good, helping and totally harmless" (ha, ha, ha :-P ) antidepressant - its in German called Cipralex (my dosage: 10 mg) , USA called Lexapro as I knew now. Since 2008 I've a new job. And since three years I try to get off the 'Teufelszeug' Lexapro - three failed attempts, two with horrible withdrawing symptoms and one with the liquid dosage form, but horrible burning oral mucosa though I'd diluted it with more than a litre of water at least. So last year I started another way to taper it off - I let make me in the pharmacy (for really much money, but whatever) capsules with 9 and 8 Milligramms and so on... Now being on 8 mg since middle of September last year (after going slowly down to 9 before) since October I'm not really feeling well (for example headache, sleep problems, muscle pain, exhaustion). More often I consider if it could be possible that this is some kind of withdrawal syndromes from the just 2 mg and my only choice could be to go to 9 or 10 again and never in my life get rid of the Lexapro. Perhaps its possible that I feel so bad cause of other reasons, but it seems a bit strange to me. Does it's worth it to face it just another days or weeks on 8 mg and hoping it becomes better??? (If not, I've no more 9mg - capsules - could I try to get every four or five days a 10mg tablet - or would this be to 'crass'? - Or another possibility, should I let make me 8,5 mg capsules? Worth it?) So what do you experts mean? (I've a psychological coach as well.) Greetings and thanks for just reading it... German doctors say, 'oh, it's all no problem, just get off it in three weeks or months, if you're very slowly' - arghhh :-P , 'Elli' from Germany