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NotOkay: Is it really supposed to feel like this?


Notokay

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Dear fellow sufferers!

I'm sitting here in my bed reaching out to people I don't know and who don't know me.. surprised how little help and understanding, even knowledge, there is in the medical world when it comes to life after ADs.

I took my last Sertraline in Januay, right after new years and I actually felt quite fine, until ...

I was at a meeting with a job consultant in the beginning of march (I lost my job) and ended up crying the whole time in frustration over (what I said to myself) not being able to find a new job...

since that day (only 3 weeks, I know) my days have been really bad... i cry over?! I worry myself to torture over my job situation, my brain fog is insane, can my brain really become clear, bright and sharp again? I think and think and think and think ... my mind won't shut the **** up ... I itch every where.. I wake up in a CHOK unable to go back to sleep at 4-4:30 in the morning and think disaster thoughts.. if I manage to sleep 10 min in the afternoon, same thing happens! Wake up really unhappy, thinking something is very, very wrong...

today is my first day of thinking that I want to rush out and reinstate, and another part of me wants to be strong and hang in there....

Is this really WD?! And has anyone else experienced that the first time off meds was okay and then everything collapsed?! Or is it my old depression/panic returning?

I have not had any windows during these three weeks, none. Is that 'normal' too?! I am worried sick about what is going on with me .. being out of a job, I have so many hours alone in our house, but I am not able to do anything constructive or enjoy anything .. i feel like a prisoner caught in a mental nightmare and I can't shut my nervous system down - at all..

Someone?! Help!? Is WD really this bad?! And how long will it last?

I am really not okay ... ADs are really no longer okay by me if this is what they do..

12 years on ADs (Cipramil, Sertralin) at some point on max doze, since switch to Sertralin on 150 mmg.

Tried stopping several times, but ...

Tapered over 1/2 year this time on my own, complete loss of faith in doctor

Last pill on January 2. 2017

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  • Moderator Emeritus

NotOkay -- Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA)

The symptoms you describe sound like withdrawal from an SSRI. You can download a list of many (but not all) symptoms in the first post at this link:
Glenmullen’s withdrawal symptom list.

 

Thank you for creating a signature.

A request: Would you summarize your taper from Sertraline in your signature -- doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly?

  • Please use actual dates or approximate dates (mid-June, Late October) rather than relative time frames (last week, 3 months ago)
  • Spell out months, e.g. "October" or "Oct."; 9/1/2016 can be interpreted as Jan. 9, 2016 or Sept. 1, 2016.
  • A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs.
  • You can find instructions in this topic: Please put your withdrawal history in signature
  • If you are using a phone or mobile device, you need to switch to the "full" or desktop version of the site. Instructions are in Post 9 and Post 10

To help with your ruminations and repetitive thought patterns, please read:
Change the channel - dealing with cognitive symptoms.
Dealing with emotional and cognitive spirals

You are still in the time period where reinstatement is more predictable. Please do NOT reinstate your last dose; your brain and CNS (central nervous system) have adapted to sertraline's absence in the weeks since you stopped taking it. Please read
About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms.
How your brain responds to psychiatric drugs - aka "Brain remodeling"
Youtube video, 4 minutes: Healing from antidepressants

Your symptoms are NOT permanent. They will improve over time in an unpredictable fashion. The pattern you describe -- symptoms setting in after 4-6 weeks and no windows in the 4 weeks after that -- is quite common.

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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  • 9 months later...

Notokay any update?

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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