[emma4ever]

Hi! I've done some reading about getting off antidepressant drugs and found something I'd like to share. It's from a book called "The Antidepressant Solution : A Step-by-Step Guide to Safely Overcoming Antidepressant Withdrawal, Dependence, and "Addiction"" and one can read exerpts from it at amazon.com. I'm sure this author's opinion is not everyone's, but i found it interesting and helpful when dealing with withdrawal symptoms myself.

read on: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0743...49#reader-page

"doctors and patients who are unaware of antidepressant withdrawal can mistake the symptoms for a return of the patients' original psychiatric conditoin", and "antidepressant withdrawal symptoms typically appear suddenly within days or weeks of lowering the dose. By contrast, when relapse occurs -a return of the patien's original psychiatric condition - it typically takes one to two months or more to slowly develop"

Take care, Em

[Lexicon78]

Thanks for the post and link!

[(JD)]

so what this guy is saying is: that you can not need anti-depressant medication, but that weaning off them can cause the very symptoms it's taken for, and you don't know if you're still depressed until 2 months later? Or something like that? I guess it show how important it is to stay on anti-depressants long enough for them to have worked (3 months at least...maybe 6 months at least?)

those interim weeks could mean life or death for some patients.

Thanks for the info!

[emma4ever]

if one has severe withdrawal symptoms and there's a life threatening risk it doesn't matter what causes those strong feelings -one needs something to get out of it or through it. i know it can be very dangerous and one needs to be careful, have contact with a doctor, maybe other medicins for anxiety etc for a while.
i guess this guy wants to say that sometimes one mistakes withdrawal symptoms for the depression comming back. i haven't read enough.to know if he thinks that medication is only bad, i just found that part with the withdrawal coming after a few days whilst returning depression taking 1-2 months interesting.

we need to know that there is a withdrawal and be prepared for it.my doctor didn't mention a thing about withdrawal symptoms when we discussed me getting of meds... I've had them for 1.5 years and want to get off them now as i feel numb tired stupid asexual with them. i'm quite aware that for me, my very negative feelings don't mean i want to die or hurt myself, they're just very strong anxiety, and like all feelings they don't last. But i would had timed it differently if i knew. Have weened off them for 6 months, and my partner's away for a week from yesterday and that doesn't feel very good since i have no close friends where i live and need to renew my passport before i can go see my family. well i'm feeling better today and will try tp keep it that way. ok enough talking from me!

be careful everyone and take care
x em

[PetulantWolf]

ive heard a lot of things about getting off antidepressants thatthey dont tellyou whenyou go on...my best friend was trying to get off effexoer (she was taking a LOT) and she wound up inthis weird state where she couldnt move. it was not emotional it was physical. it was all she could do to get to the phone to callher shrink and her shrink was like TAKE ONE NOW!!!!

I just started taking Paxil becasue it seems like its that or hospitalization, but Ive heard things about "the zaps" and some other things...

Ald

[Rhapsody]

RULE OF THUMB..... take it slow and easy when coming off the meds - I have been there.

LoVe,
Rhapsody

[(JD)]

Been thinking more on this... and I agree, if someone is experiencing discontinuation sydrome, then the rate of weaning off the med is too fast. You said you want to get off them NOW... and that will be a problem. There's a chart of mg/halflife and rate of withdrawal for any med (I think.)... and often a patient goes off a medication far faster than they should. Slow and steady, slower than it was built up, is the way to go off a med without noticing it (assuming you no longer need it, and there's no emergency.)