Antidepressants For Life?

Hi All,

I have a question. Do you think its possible to successfully stay on antidepressants for life, for those of us who need and can tolerate them? Will they continue working? I've tried coming off an ssri before and it is the most painful and horrific experience ever. I feel like my brain makes no serotonin and I fall in to this scary place... my brain flies uncontrollably. Anyone elses have this experience?

When i was on Paxil I got off after 5 years. I didn't have a doc because I moved states. Anyway for 2 weeks I had electric shocks when I'd move/turn my head/etc. I thought it would never end but it did. You're supposed to gradually lessen your dose until you can get off of them under a doc supervision but I didn't have that luxury.

Also from my experience, ADs stop working as well at some point. But that could be years. If you're having an issue with an AD you should talk to a pdoc. It turned out I was bipolar ll and the wellbutrin did nothing but make me annoyed and agitated. I needed a mood stabilizer to help and they lowered my AD dose

Hi! I hope not! Stabilizers stabilize me on the depressed side, and I need a touch of anti-d to feel "normal". This is for life. Hopefully we can change through different kinds and make a circle and keep going!

Do you all think its safe to take them for years? I read so many horrible things online that just scare the heck out of me... but when your born with this illness,

What choice do we have right?

Exactly. Like I have a choice. Do you?

I've heard anti d can screw a brain up to quit producing Dolphins. Lol Dolphins. Dorphines. I don't produce dorphines. Something like that. If it's impossible to live right, why live? Sorry, I'm not good

I have a question. When you ate off your antidepressant do you by chance feel seriously disconnected? That's what happens to me. Also what combo works for you?

I've tried coming off my baby dose of Celexa twice, and both times it was a disaster even with all the other meds on board (except I wasn't taking Zyprexa at those times). They call it 'discontinuation syndrome' but what it is, is plain old withdrawal. I lasted only a couple of weeks before running, screaming, to the phone to call my pdoc and get the AD reinstated.

I've also gone through w/d from Paxil and Wellbutrin. Made me a hot weepy mess with "brain zaps" and jerky extremities. Which makes me think I'll always be on at least a tiny dose of AD, but then I'm sure I'll always be on a combination of mood stabilizers, benzos and APs too in order to manage my disease. Bipolar 1 seriously sucks and I need a lot of medication to keep it down to a dull roar.

I successfully got off of Paxil but had the brain zaps and jerky stuff for about 2 weeks. It did go away. Later I started on wellbutrin and I've run out before and the withdrawal for me wasn't bad at all - not like Paxil. I'll never take Paxil again. It made me a zombie and although I wasn't depressed I basically found no joy or sadness in anything. And the withdrawal was soooooo bad.

I know people that have taken the same exact AD for yearsssssssss and never had a problem and some people the meds poop out after a few months or year.. Just depends on your own body chemistry.

Altho I think mental illness medications aren't moving very quickly due to all the terrible side effects of course that just knock them right out of even animal trials , let alone actual humans..

But new medications are coming down the pipeline so there is always hope that there will be new, better, less side effect medications on there way.

I think the best thing to do is keep the hope, that you will respond well to current medications or new ones coming along.

Everytime I withdrawled off of Wellbutrin...my head screamed kill you self! Especially when I dumped 2 bottles in the toilet. Chrisis center was like....okay...
I saw pdoc fr depression got more depressed got more drugs repeat. ****, the feel good part was mania! Didn't know. Welbutrin proved I was bipolar after 2 years of my life was in hellll haha

I go back and forth in my hrad, trying to rationalize in my head if this is something I can control. It is so scary when my brain chemicals get so low that I feel not here. Does anyone else experience this? What is it?

I spent 12 weeks coming off of Effexor only to have one of my worst crashes everrrrr. It was terribly difficult to handle the side-effects but I was determined that the newly prescribed stabiliser (Latuda) was going to elliminate the need (and the side effects of) Effexor. No such luck! It's taken almost another 12 weeks to get stabilised again and out of the depression pit.
One pdoc said to me; "All you have to do now is accept your illness is for life". Hmmmmm. Anyone else spot the irony in that statement?
Mental health is a multi-billion dollar business; there will be no shortage of alternatives coming on the market for us to indulge in, but yes, in my opinion, we're on this regimen of drugs for life - as long as that is.

They want to put me on more drugs but I just won't. Im happy with semi crazy then full blown! Lol

Sounds like a new topic!