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Withdrawing from anti-depressants

BraidedPony

BraidedPony

Enjoying life and glad to be alive!
V.I.P Member
Taking anti-depressants isn’t always Aspie related but I wanted to ask here anyway.
I’m attempting to get off anti-depressants after being on them for 20 years. I want to see if I still need them after I made some positive life changes.

So here is where I am at....Cymbalta 30mg once a day for the last two years. Added Prozac 20mg for 3 days. Then after the 3 days of taking both, stopped the Cymbalta completely and took just Prozac for 2 weeks.

Now I’m opening the Prozac capsule and throwing away about a third of it and taking about 13mg Prozac with peanut butter. This will be day 4 of this dose.

I’m not doing great, bad dreams and a head/hearing swishing sound at times. No brain zaps. I’m at that point where I questioning if this is a good idea, if I’ve gone too fast in the dose reduction, if the withdrawal symptoms will subside if given time.

Oh, I forgot to mention that this is in coordination with my doctor. But I’m not going to call her with these questions because I don’t think she knows more than I do about this and would rather not involve medical professionals unless absolutely necessary.

My fear is that I don’t mentally need anti-depressants but long term use has messed up my brain and will have to take them forever.
 
BraidedPony said:
Oh, I forgot to mention that this is in coordination with my doctor. But I’m not going to call her with these questions because I don’t think she knows more than I do about this and would rather not involve medical professionals unless absolutely necessary.
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Going off such meds after such a long time...better to leave it in their hands than only yours. The stakes may be higher than you perceive.

At least with the care of a doctor you remain under the umbrella of their liability rather than your own. ;)
 
I would only do exactly as the Doctor ordered in this. Your own guesswork is likely to just mess things up.
 
Tom said:
Its not like I haven't been there, done that, and messed things up myself. ;)
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LOL. Me too! Sooooooooooo guilty as charged.

Ain't hindsight cool ? ;)

Let's just say that it's not something I'd do again, knowing what I know now.
 
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Were you both able to get off of them, if you dont mind answering?
I had tried about 8 years ago but gave up, it was too awful with dissociation, brain zaps etc.
 
BraidedPony said:
Were you both able to get off of them, if you dont mind answering?
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Yes, in my case the medication was Mellaril (Thioridizine). A beta-blocker which later was taken off the market due to some ugly cardiac side effects.

But at the time I had no concept of how potentially dangerous it is to risk withdrawal symptoms over something taken for a relatively long time. Though I don't even recall any significant withdrawal symptoms. I simply went cold turkey and that was that. However the pulmonary atrial contractions I occasionally experience ever since are likely to be a result of taking this medication for a prolonged amount of time.
 
I've heard recommendations about getting a liquid form of the antidepressant to be able to go down from your dose in smaller steps, but I don't know how viable that is (I was never offered that). I came off sertraline after being on it for 10-11 months, doing the half dose thing every two weeks, and it took 3 months of very bad symptoms (brain zaps, exhaustion, nausea, dizziness etc.) then another 2 months of minor symptoms to get back to not feeling awful, but I'm very sensitive to medication so that could have been the issue.
I do think if you have any worries you should discuss them with your doctor, because there's a lot of misinformation around and it can be dangerous coming off medication too quickly.
 
The drug companies don’t even call it withdrawal, they call it discontinuation syndrome and down play it so that doctors arent even aware of how hard it is. Well, they probably know more now than years ago.
Mellaril sounds familiar but I dont think it was one i ever had to use.
Thank you for sharing your experience, and sorry about the pulmonary thing. I hope it isnt painful.
 
Hi @owlet, when I went off Zoloft it was awful, I had those symptoms too! That was when I learned that weaning onto Prozac during the process helps because it has a longer half life than Zoloft.

I've heard about the liquid form too, but I was hoping just eyeballing the contents of the capsule would be good enough.

I’m feeling pretty good now, I think maybe mornings are the hard part.
 
I went cold turkey off of Citalopram. It seemed like a good idea at the time. It was not a good idea. I was very unstable for a few weeks, and when the dust settled I had done some very dumb things.
I’d keep in touch with your doctor for whatever questions you have regarding the withdrawal. Get all the help you need to wean off of your medication responsibly.
 
I went off about 8 years ago, I was on meds for a long time. Every time I told the doctors I didn’t feel right they would give me higher doses. They told me they did not want me off. I got to the point where I wanted off or I was going to do something irrational. I weened myself off on my own very slowly in around 2012. After I was off I felt a lot better, lost 60 pounds and felt like I got my life back. But that’s just me and I’m not a doctor.
 
If it is no longer needed then I’d rather not take the darn things. But I’m also prepared to find out I DO need them for the rest of my life and if so i will take them. Ive been diagnosed with chronic depression and GAD and OCD and Prozac helps with all these.
But that was while living in an abusive relationship. Now that Ive escaped, maybe I wont need them. Finding out I’m an Aspie fits into this too somehow.
 
I have a DX of level 1 Autism, GAD, SAD and depression. I became very active when I lost the 60 pounds when I went off. I MUST mountain bike or trail run etc or I slip back into a bad state. :)
 
I came off Sertraline a couple of months ago. having been on it for over a year. I had withdrawal symptoms, mainly brain zaps, but I powered through them - they lasted about 3 weeks, then I was ok.
 
I dont do power through very well! Maybe when i was younger, but now in my 60s I dont want to put myself through too much stress or yoyo with dosages.
I think going slower, for me, will be the answer. I tend to get eager to reach my goal and go too fast.
 
BraidedPony said:
I dont do power through very well! Maybe when i was younger, but now in my 60s I dont want to put myself through too much stress or yoyo with dosages.
I think going slower, for me, will be the answer. I tend to get eager to reach my goal and go too fast.
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I think it makes a difference how long you were on them - I was only on them for just over a year, but you have been taking them for 20 years. The longer you take them, the harder it is to come off them.
 
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