Quote:
Originally Posted by channelI
Hello, I am attempting to get off both Prozac and Xanax. I have been taking some form of SSRI and Xanax for 15 years, although SSRIs have never worked for me long term and I had to constantly swap them out for other SSRIs. I was most recently on 20 mg of Prozac and stopped on 4.29.16 and I stopped 1 mg of Xanax (which I took at night for sleep) on 6.24.16. When I stopped Prozac I would get an occasional panic attack and after I have stopped Xanax I have gotten panic attacks constantly, sometimes lasting hours. I never had a problem with panic attacks before so it's very hard to claim "well the medicine was working and that's why you're getting panic attacks." My questions is do I continue with this withdrawal? It has been 3 weeks off Xanax so I should be past most of the agonizing withdrawal symptoms? When I read online about benzo/SSRI withdrawal, some sources claim it can take months or years?? Is this true? Any advice, or personal relevant stories are welcome. P.S. Sometimes people ask "Did you not respond well to SSRI's because you are bipolar?" I am not bipolar, nor have I responded to bipolar medications, as I was happy to try them as a last resort. I tried Lamictal, Lithium, and Zyprexa.
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I'd say no. I haven't taken benzos but I took a couple SSRIs and upon discontinuing, I went through terrible WD. It was hell on earth. The scariest period of my life. Stupid doctor said the symptoms will go away after 2 weeks or a month max after stopping, but they never did. The WD continued for more than 3 months and it was actually getting worse by the day. I suffered severe social anxiety during that time (along with other horrific symptoms) to the point where I couldn't step out of my room. My SA was never EVER this severe. My mood was all over the place. Eventually, I couldn't stand it no more so I went back to taking meds.
Btw, I heard benzo WD is even worse than SSRIs'. I don't know how doctors deal with patients experiencing benzo WD given that they know benzos are addictive and SSRIs are not which is ********. If the doc happen to deny the possibility of prolonged WD syndrome, then don't be surprised. For me, doctors were completely useless when I was experiencing withdrawal. Each one of them told me along the lines of "that means your original SA is very severe. The meds were helping and thus, you can't live without them." Also, because I had anger fits and mood swings caused by WD, one of them commented: "maybe you have depression or bipolar." Utter crap!!
