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Luke Montagu: Millions are taking antidepressants 'they don't really need', fueling growing epidemic of addiction to prescription medicines


Madeleine

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Article in the Daily Mail: 'Doctors gave me depression pills I DIDN'T need for 20 years': Coming off his antidepressants drove Viscount Hinchingbrooke to the brink 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4173468/My-GP-gave-antidepressants-didn-t-need-20-years.html

200 Zoloft; 10 mg Zyprexa; 4 mg valium as of May 2021;  Valium taper: July 16: 3.5 valium; July 30: 3 mg (paused valium taper); Aug. 23: 2.5 mg
Zyprexa: July 26: 8.75 mg; Aug. 9: 7.5 mg; Aug. 30: 7.1 mg

-------
Dec 1, 2016. 10 mg zyprexa for 1.5 month. Started taper mid-Jan. 2017. Cut 1.25 mg every 2 weeks; smaller cuts 2.5 mg down. Stopped at .6 mg. May 7, 2017: zyprexa free. 
Zoloft: Dec1, 2016, 200 mg. Started taper: Jun12, 2017: 197.5 mg; Jun19,:195 mg; July 2:185mg; July 9,:180 mg; July16,: 175; July 23: 170; July 30: 165; Aug6: 160; Aug13: 155; Aug. 20: 150; Aug.27: 146 mg; Sept3: 145 mg; Sept10:143 mg; Sept17:140 mg....Nov5: 122 mg...Dec3:112.5 mg; Jan14, 2018: 95 mg...Jan28: 90 mg; Feb21:80 mg; Mar11: 75 mg; May2:70 mg; May15: 68 mg; May28: 65 mg; Jun9: 62 mg;Jun25: 60 mg:July22: 55 mg; Aug25: 45 mg. Aug28: 50 mg...Oct 28: 38 mg; Dec.4: 30 mg; Jan8,2019: 25mg; Feb6: 23.5 mg; Apr1:17.5mg; May1:1 mg; May 5: 18;  May 18:15mg; June 16:12.5mg; Sept 10:11 mg; Sept.16:10 mg; Oct. 1: 9mg; Nov. 27: 8mg; Dec.5: 7mg; Jan.1,2020, 6 mg; Feb1: 5 mg; May 1: 2.5 mg; Jn 1: 2 mg; Jy 1: 1.5 mg

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I read this. What a story.

It's impossible to sue doctors in my country though. (Sweden). Pity.

Current dose: 0! Free!  Quit June 2017.

2017: Last dose zoloft: 17 June 0,00065 mg 18 May 0, 001 mg 14 May 0,002 mg 9 May 0,003 mg 28 April 0,006 mg 19 April 0,009 mg 8 April 0,013 mg 25 March 0,019 mg 22 March 0,039 mg 18 March 0,052 mg 16 March 0,079 mg 4 March 0,086 1 March 0,099 mg 22 February 0,11 mg 15 February 0,13 mg 6 February 0,145 mg 24 January 0,15 mg 19 January 0,19 mg 10 January 0,20 mg 3 January

2016: 0,98 to 0,22 mg; 2015: 2,35 to 1,01 mg; 2014: 4,9 to 2,5 mg; 2013: 9,1 to 5,1 mg; 2012: 15,7 to 9,7 mg; 2011: Started on 25 mg - then 50 mg- dropped to 25- to 12.5 mg - back to 25 mg - after 18.75 mg started tiny tapering to 16.6 mg

Started on 25 mg Zoloft in March 2011 due to stressrelated tinnitus that gave me panicattacks. Had a terrible reaction to Zoloft from start, but was told to "hold on". After four months I was stuck. Therefore the long taper. Crazy, I know... Super sensitive to drops and have dropped by 4-6 % from the previous dose.

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I read this, too, after Distraut (who lives in the UK) sent me the link. I think it is GREAT. Here is a member of the upper class who was harmed by these drugs and had the courage to speak out publicly against it.  He seemingly went through hell getting off of them. Imagine how much harder it is for most other people, who don't have the family support and $$ that this Viscount has. Good on him for getting this article into press, because it is not an easy thing to discuss--having a breakdown when getting off (or going on) psych drugs. Even harder to announce the corruption of the power structure--which all of us, really, need to be doing. This unethical, actually criminal experimentation on the most vulnerable members of the population all over the world must be exposed and stopped.

Drugfree Prof

Psychologist and Psychotherapist

Prozac 20 mg for approx 3 months during 2000, withdrew, no w/d sx

Prozac 10 - 30 mg Jan. 2008 - Dec. 2014

Ritalin 30-40 mg Jan. 2008 - Mar. 2015

W/d sx from Prozac started around 3 months after cessation--crying spells, depressed mood, lethargy; resolved in 8 - 12 mos. post cessation

Used and continue to use a TON of alternative methods--meditation, mindfulness, nutrition. supplements, exercise, etc.

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I liked the article also. It is great that he got a chance to speak about it in the newspaper. Here in Austria they dont even answer you, I would so much like to go away, somewhere where the system functions

05/2013 Lyrica 100 mg / per day for pain + PGAD resulting from caesarian delivery11/2014 started to taper: 50 mg per day/ for one week then c/tafter one month reinstated at 50 mg /per days of 10 July 2015 drug free-

symptoms OCD

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I know this story well so i only skimmed read it until i got to the bottom of the article.

 

Then i couldnt believe what i saw ..and watched and listened to

What really infuriates me is that NHS video at the bottom of the page is undermining the whole story... !!

 

This is what that clown says 'D is a very common illness' that was the very first sentence. As if they are mocking LM's story.

.."and it goes on for more than 2 weeks" ...Thats just because the pharma influenced fraudulent unvalidated DSM says so.

 

Then the doctor talked about drugs and other talking treatment.

 

What really made me laugh was when Dr Hague has talked about taking an antidpressant for moderate or severe D then the he says "Dont use alcohol as a drug as it is a very bad drug and doesn't necessarily help your mood at all "

"You certainly shouldnt use street drugs to try to help yourself feel better ...it makes D worse"

 

wtheck !! What about ad's they are very bad drugs they actually have the same effect as alcohol....to emotionally numb.

They are just as bad if not worse than street drugs. What about the withdrawal from ads why the heck was that not mentioned? Side effects? addiction?

 

Then he  finishes with put down some of your friends phone numbers to phone if feeling D and ALSO dont forget to put down your GPs number too ...!! Boy there is a lovely fate awaiting should your friends not pick up the phone.

 

Just sickening.

 

I wonder what the CEP team have to say about that little NHS video at the end of the article.

Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen

We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. 

URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting  for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing.

http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651   

Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos.

Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you

Recovering paxil addict

None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. 

This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! 

  "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped."  Dr Mosher. Me too! 

Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015

I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015

Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017

 

 

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  • Moderator Emeritus

Good. Finally someone with the financial resources and media connections brought this issue to light. I'm glad that he co-founded the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry, cepuk.org. Let's hope the Council's work is so effective that they make themselves obsolete.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.
1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results

Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to  0.0 mg  Aug. 12; details here


scallywag's Introduction
Online spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet

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20 years... I can empathize with the pain but at the same time, me being at like 5 years and with off times, can't probably imagine it.

 

However, it's damn scary how quickly do the years on these can pile on. During the "SSRI-spell", the passage of time kind of vanishes, or more properly the awareness of it.  Puts you in some sort of emotional, limbic limbo (pun unintended, yet appropiate) whose whole  meaning and weight its only felt on retrospective, when you actually opt out, and lures you into entering it again into it as the WD hits hard.

 

These link was also on display in the Mad In America site, so maybe the zeitgeist will turn.

Name LostInTheWoods evokes both the feeling of getting stranded, forsaken and alone in an alien, hostile environment and the chance to experience awareness, tranquility and self-discovery during the experience. Just call me Lost in the posts.

 

February 2012. After a crisis, a crippling anxiety that culminated in a panic attack. Started 20 mg Paxil and Clonazepam.

Clonazepam left quickly in the 2nd attempt.

About about a year on 20 mg, begin tapering.

June 2014, after several weeks on 5 mg and trying to dose down, went CT.

May 2015.Anxiety came back again, went to psychiatrist back. Fluoxetine was tried and left because of bad reaction, returned to paroxetine. Start tapering in mid 2016.

December 2016. After like 2 months of going 2,5 mg, stopped paroxetine.

Truth to be told, descended into a downward spiral of caffeine, alcohol and masturbation.

January  26, 2017. Wave with some tinnitus that was fixed by a visit to the ENT.

April 21, 2017. Acid reflux at night was a stressor that triggered another wave.Vices have been put into check and only a drink or two a week remain.

By May 7 stabilized with a little anxiety left and some pains.

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There is a follow-up article in today's Daily Mail - DO ANTI-DEPRESSANTS DAMAGE THE BRAIN?

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4197460/Could-antidepressants-damage-brain.html

cannabis: Spring 2002 - Dec. 2007; regularly smoked, stopped cold turkey; symptoms: paranoid and depressed

Paroxetine: 20 mg July 2008, 40 mg October, 20 mg spring 2009, 0 mg summer 2009

Depakote (sodium valproate): October 2008 - Spring 2009

Haloperdidol 1 week Oct. 2008, H caused seizures, went to A&E;  stopped taking it.

Citalopram few weeks in the fall of 2009 to deal with withdrawal symptoms from stopping paroxetine

Paroxetine round 2: 20 mg Feb - summer 2010 -20mg don't remeber if I went up to 40mg

Venlafaxine & sodium valproate (again): Sep 2010 - Summer 2012  

SERTRALINE: November 2012 - May 2016 , 50-100mg (few days @ 150mg in Summer '15). a complete freak out at the end of April. 

May 2016 Prescribed Lithium and Abilify HAVE NOT TAKEN

No medications May 2016 - October 2016

Hospitalised - November 13th 2016 - Prescribed 15 mg Mirtazapine/Remeron. Reducing since 24 December 2016.  9 June 2017 medication free. 

 

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Distraut thanks heaps for posting that.

 

Even before i clicked on the link i thought i wonder if the article will end with a video (again)...and i wonder what the last word from pharma will be this time and i wonder what the pharma doctor puppet will have to say this time.

 

Well i didnt read the article but went straight to the end to see if there was another video. My heart sank as i saw there indeed was another video and then to my joy i found this time truth had the last word. Now rather than the BS from pharma we got a video on akathisia i applaud the daily mail for that and couldnt be more pleased. Personally i think its a lot higher than 5% but hey things are looking up when it comes to being 'informed'.

 

Three cheers for the daily mail...now to go back and read the article....

nz11

Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen

We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. 

URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting  for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing.

http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651   

Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos.

Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you

Recovering paxil addict

None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. 

This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! 

  "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped."  Dr Mosher. Me too! 

Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015

I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015

Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017

 

 

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Thank you for posting.   It was a familiar story to read and very much like the ones on this site. 

 

I too was told within 15 minutes of seeing my first psychiatrist that I had probably been depressed my whole life.  I was so exhausted, grief stricken and yes depressed from care taking my mom and over working for many years that I believed him.  Like the writer in this article I was relieved to know there was someone who could diagnose and help me.  I too went on and off 4 or 5 drug in a short period of time, and then became dependent on Xanax and Clonazapm.  From never taking any medication to being on 3  medications in a year. 

 

I'm glad people keep publicly sharing their stories. 

9/2013-4/2014:  After moms death, was prescribed a series of meds for short periods of time that didn't work. Zoloft, Lexapro,  Nortriptyline, Liquid Prozac, Cymbalta. 

1/2014-9/2014. Clonzapam: Given Lamictal, stopped Clonzapam at .125mgs  

1/2015-4 2017 Remeron: 41.25 -0.025mgs

7/2015-11/2018 Lamictal: 200mgs-0.05 mgs Had paradoxical reaction to Lamictal wd, broke my heart to take a benzo but wasn't sleeping. 

3/28/2019 -2/5/ 2021  Clonazapam: 0.625mgs-.00115 Med Free 

July 27th, 2022**Severe Setback due to surgery/ anesthesia. 

9/7/22-10/4/22 Trazadone 50-100mgs for sleep, 10/13/22-11/13/22 Trazadone 1 mg to stabilize

10/4/22-11/20/22 Remeron 7.5mgs (for sleep doesn't work) 11/20/22 7.3 - 12/31/22 6.3 

2023: 1/18/23 6.1 - 6/6/23 3.6  6/16 3.4  6/28 3.0 7/12 2.7  7/28 2.5 8/11 2.2 8/23 2.0  9/5 1.8  9/16 1.6  9/30 1.4  10/13 1.2  10/26 1.0  11/9 0.8  11/22 0.6  12/6 0.4  12/23 0.2.

2024 1/4/24  Remeron/Mirtazapine free 

Additional Support:  Armour Thyroid 75mgs, Magnesium Glycinate 300-500mgs,  L-theanine 

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Heard bout this guy a while ago its great hes telling hes story ,we all need someone that can penetrate the public eye like this .I by no means want to sound pesimistic but drop in the ocean comes to my mind here .

The reality is someone high up in government would have to go throught the same hell for anything to change ,its such a mess and a lot of governments around the world at that.

we are looking at decades for change I reckon.

Big pharma has built a gigantic conglomerate around these drugs ,taxes and jobs and lives built around it ,I hate to say it but it could be to big to fail.the same with the banks and big oil companies.

Just look at the thousands of court cases that settle out of court to do with big pharma and then the records are buried .

 

On a positive note all of us on this site and amazing people like Robert Whitaker will eventually bring the change so I will never give up the fight and will always follow and welcome all the change hopefully to come .

Alcohol free since February 2015 

1MG diazepam

4.5MG PROZAC.

 

 

 

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For those of you who can access it, tomorrow, Sunday 12th February, on BBC Radio 5 from 11.0 - 12.0 am here is a programme on anti-depressants.

 

James Moore started a Petition on Change.org to get assistance with tapering medication:

 

Make Pharmaceutical firms help users who want to stop taking anxiety & depression drugs

:

 

https://www.change.org/p/secretary-of-state-for-health-jeremy-hunt-make-pharmaceutical-firms-help-users-who-want-to-stop-taking-anxiety-depression-drugs?source_location=minibar

 

 

BBC Radio 5 live investigates

KTRngJDWsEevkte-128x128-noPad.jpg?147189
James Moore
Caldicot, United Kingdom
vUbnistEvwTdzBK-800x450-noPad.jpg?148680

11 Feb 2017 — Hello there

As we approach 1,400 signatures, I wanted to let you know that BBC Radio 5 live are broadcasting a programme on antidepressants on Sunday 12 February from 1100 to 1200. I am interviewed as part of the program. If you could listen in that would be great, if you felt like making contact with the show to share your experiences that would be even better.

Here's a link to the programmes web page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08dnpkn

Contact details are:
Phone 0500 909 693
SMS 85058
Email: 5liveinvestigates@bbc.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/5live
Twiter: @BBC5live

Thank you, as always, for your signatures and your support.

James

cannabis: Spring 2002 - Dec. 2007; regularly smoked, stopped cold turkey; symptoms: paranoid and depressed

Paroxetine: 20 mg July 2008, 40 mg October, 20 mg spring 2009, 0 mg summer 2009

Depakote (sodium valproate): October 2008 - Spring 2009

Haloperdidol 1 week Oct. 2008, H caused seizures, went to A&E;  stopped taking it.

Citalopram few weeks in the fall of 2009 to deal with withdrawal symptoms from stopping paroxetine

Paroxetine round 2: 20 mg Feb - summer 2010 -20mg don't remeber if I went up to 40mg

Venlafaxine & sodium valproate (again): Sep 2010 - Summer 2012  

SERTRALINE: November 2012 - May 2016 , 50-100mg (few days @ 150mg in Summer '15). a complete freak out at the end of April. 

May 2016 Prescribed Lithium and Abilify HAVE NOT TAKEN

No medications May 2016 - October 2016

Hospitalised - November 13th 2016 - Prescribed 15 mg Mirtazapine/Remeron. Reducing since 24 December 2016.  9 June 2017 medication free. 

 

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This looks just great, Distraut. It looks like it will be archives and available on the BBC radio link you provided shortly after the show is aired. It is so good to see these things coming to light at last, and on such a mainstream outlet as the BBC.

Drugfree Prof

Psychologist and Psychotherapist

Prozac 20 mg for approx 3 months during 2000, withdrew, no w/d sx

Prozac 10 - 30 mg Jan. 2008 - Dec. 2014

Ritalin 30-40 mg Jan. 2008 - Mar. 2015

W/d sx from Prozac started around 3 months after cessation--crying spells, depressed mood, lethargy; resolved in 8 - 12 mos. post cessation

Used and continue to use a TON of alternative methods--meditation, mindfulness, nutrition. supplements, exercise, etc.

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This radio programme should now be available on BBC catch up:

 

  change-logo-106-22.png spacer1.gifKTRngJDWsEevkte-fullsize.jpg

James Moore just posted an update on Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt: Make Pharmaceutical firms help users who want to stop taking anxiety & depression drugs

spacer1.gif BBC Radio 5 live programme spacer1.gif

For those that are interested the full BBC Radio 5 live programme on antidepressants can be accessed here... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08dnpkn#plaThank you.

spacer1.gifRead full update spacer1.gif

cannabis: Spring 2002 - Dec. 2007; regularly smoked, stopped cold turkey; symptoms: paranoid and depressed

Paroxetine: 20 mg July 2008, 40 mg October, 20 mg spring 2009, 0 mg summer 2009

Depakote (sodium valproate): October 2008 - Spring 2009

Haloperdidol 1 week Oct. 2008, H caused seizures, went to A&E;  stopped taking it.

Citalopram few weeks in the fall of 2009 to deal with withdrawal symptoms from stopping paroxetine

Paroxetine round 2: 20 mg Feb - summer 2010 -20mg don't remeber if I went up to 40mg

Venlafaxine & sodium valproate (again): Sep 2010 - Summer 2012  

SERTRALINE: November 2012 - May 2016 , 50-100mg (few days @ 150mg in Summer '15). a complete freak out at the end of April. 

May 2016 Prescribed Lithium and Abilify HAVE NOT TAKEN

No medications May 2016 - October 2016

Hospitalised - November 13th 2016 - Prescribed 15 mg Mirtazapine/Remeron. Reducing since 24 December 2016.  9 June 2017 medication free. 

 

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"Six years after taking my last dose of antidepressants, I am still suffering from their effects. 

I have constant nerve pain all over my body, like a burning pins and needles sensation. 

I'm agitated much of the time and I lose my temper quickly — perhaps understandable for someone always in pain. 

I also have tinnitus and can sometimes feel muscles twitching in different parts of my body.

I can't have sugar, caffeine or alcohol, as these all intensify the symptoms

 

That is about where I was at 6 years off I wonder if in 9 years he will have a movement disorder?

 

"It may take a decade or more before today's mass psychiatric drugging is consigned to the bulging dustbin of failed psychiatric treatments — but I hope that telling my story will help bring the date forward, and thereby reduce this entirely unnecessary contribution to human suffering. "  

 

Maybe his name will help his story is just another story like all our stories... I hope they listen to him I don't care why.  Just listen and change this.... 

 

Thanks for the heads up on the video at the end NZ I skipped I don't need any more aggravation today.

 

I see a couple of news books are in the offering ... I wonder if they will say anything new I have so many now most say the same things ... in a bit different way.  

 

Let me know if any are worth buying... my book budget is maxed out buy multiple chemical sensitivity books from the pot to the fire that is how this has gone for me and I wonder how much these drugs have to do with MCS... I wonder. 

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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  • 1 month later...

Another article today in the Daily Mail about the over prescription of anti depressants

 

A million patients are taking anti-depressants 'they don't really need' fuelling growing epidemic of addiction to prescription medicines

 

More than one million patients are needlessly taking sedatives and anti-depressants, a damning report reveals.

They are left on the drugs for months or years at a time, fuelling a growing epidemic of addiction to prescription medicines.

Research by the University of Roehampton suggests a quarter of a million in Britain have been left on tranquillisers such as Valium for more than six months, well over the recommended one-month limit.

3EB021C900000578-0-image-a-1_14906537864
 
 

More than one million patients are needlessly taking sedatives and anti-depressants

Another 800,000 have been taking anti-depressants for more than two years, having wrongly been prescribed them in the first place, the report says.

Coming off these drugs can cause crippling withdrawal effects, such as hallucinations and depression.

The Mail today backs calls led by charities and MPs for a 24-hour helpline for people innocently hooked on prescription drugs.

Study leader Dr James Davies told the Mail’s Good Health section: ‘This is a scandal for which there can be no excuse.’ The UK has the fourth-most medicated population in Europe when it comes to anti-depressants. One in 11 people – five million across England alone – take anti-depressants every year.

Dr Davies estimates half of patients have been on the drugs for more than two years.

Of these, he calculates, a third have no clear clinical reason for doing so.

 

He said: ‘In other words, about 800,000 people shouldn’t be on this medication. The longer you are on them the worse and more protracted the withdrawal will be.’ The dangers of benzodiazepine sedatives – a class of drugs including Valium – is even starker. Benzodiazepines are prescribed for anxiety or sleeplessness, but people who take them for more than six weeks face a 50 per cent chance of becoming addicted.

And the only help they can receive is from addiction services frequented by Class A drug addicts.

According to the latest Office for National Statistics report on drug poisoning, prescription drugs were linked with 1,313 deaths in 2015, more than the 1,201 deaths linked with abuse of heroin and morphine.

Debbie Abrahams MP, a member of the all-party Parliamentary group for prescribed drug dependence, said: ‘There is a real and urgent need for more help to be made available.

3EB02AE900000578-4354894-image-a-15_1490
 
+2

MP Debbie Abrahams has called for more help to be made available for patients suffering persistent withdrawal effects

 
 
 

‘Many patients report devastating persistent withdrawal and other negative effects.’ 

Professor Jim McManus, director of public health for Hertfordshire County Council, said family doctors must take responsibility. ‘GPs’ prescribing behaviour has to change, including not over-treating people or giving them treatments that will actually do them harm,’ he said.

But Stephen Buckley, of the mental health charity Mind, stressed that helping people stop taking drugs has to be a priority.

He said: ‘We hear from lots of people who have been on anti-depressants for a long time and want to come off them.

‘We’d like to think GPs can help but that doesn’t always seem to be the case.’

Professor Colin Drummond, chairman of the addictions faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: ‘Prescription drug dependence is the Cinderella of addiction.

‘Treatment services have been directed by government to prioritise treatment for illegal drugs. People with prescription drug dependence are often turned away.’

A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘We recognise that this is an emerging risk, which is why we are taking steps to better understand and tackle the harms caused by addiction to prescription drugs.’

cannabis: Spring 2002 - Dec. 2007; regularly smoked, stopped cold turkey; symptoms: paranoid and depressed

Paroxetine: 20 mg July 2008, 40 mg October, 20 mg spring 2009, 0 mg summer 2009

Depakote (sodium valproate): October 2008 - Spring 2009

Haloperdidol 1 week Oct. 2008, H caused seizures, went to A&E;  stopped taking it.

Citalopram few weeks in the fall of 2009 to deal with withdrawal symptoms from stopping paroxetine

Paroxetine round 2: 20 mg Feb - summer 2010 -20mg don't remeber if I went up to 40mg

Venlafaxine & sodium valproate (again): Sep 2010 - Summer 2012  

SERTRALINE: November 2012 - May 2016 , 50-100mg (few days @ 150mg in Summer '15). a complete freak out at the end of April. 

May 2016 Prescribed Lithium and Abilify HAVE NOT TAKEN

No medications May 2016 - October 2016

Hospitalised - November 13th 2016 - Prescribed 15 mg Mirtazapine/Remeron. Reducing since 24 December 2016.  9 June 2017 medication free. 

 

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  • 3 months later...

 

On 07/02/2017 at 3:18 AM, LostInTheWoods said:

20 years... I can empathize with the pain but at the same time, me being at like 5 years and with off times, can't probably imagine it.

 

However, it's damn scary how quickly do the years on these can pile on. During the "SSRI-spell", the passage of time kind of vanishes, or more properly the awareness of it.  Puts you in some sort of emotional, limbic limbo (pun unintended, yet appropiate) whose whole  meaning and weight its only felt on retrospective, when you actually opt out, and lures you into entering it again into it as the WD hits hard.

 

These link was also on display in the Mad In America site, so maybe the zeitgeist will turn.


Regarding SSRIs:
 

If you look beyond the propaganda by the ruling medical criminals one can see that serotonin isn't the happiness chemical but rather the misery chemical because it is linked to
brain dysfunction, stress hormone release, cognitive deficits, inflammation, impaired blood circulation in the brain, hypertension, cancer, and other less than "happy" effects - Tryptophan Side Effects & The Scam with the Serotonin Theory 

 

 

Edited by mammaP
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  • Altostrata changed the title to Luke Montagu: Millions are taking antidepressants 'they don't really need', fueling growing epidemic of addiction to prescription medicines
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