withdrawal is horrible!!

I feel like I'm losing it! have decided to go off the antidep's and am having horrible withdrawal symptoms. Have any of you had this? today I was SOOO dizzy I could barely drive home from work, and my skin is itchy. Also, I am extremely tired. Feel like i can't take it! feel even more like a psych patient than ever!

i had TERRIBLE withdrawal from some medications in the past......i hope you feel better soon but i was never sure it was a good idea to go off of them.....

I don't know if it's a good idea - I can't say that my depression is ok, but I don't want to take medications for the rest of my life. Scared to go back to the close to catatonic state I was in before...

I don't support you in doing this, but I support you in that you really need to have help with the doctor on this.

The medicines of today are finely tuned to work in the brain. WE ARE TALKING BRAIN here..and when you go cold turkey off of them, you are messing with the wrong stuff IMO.

Who said you have to go on meds for the rest of your life? How long have you been trying the AD? How long did you go without them even though youneeded them? This will only set you back, imo. ANd you will have to begin again, and this time might have to be on them even longer than you've tried. Nope, doesn't make sense to me.

What did you doctor say about you going off them? Shouldn't you call him before you go catatonic?

I hope you feel better soon! *hugs*

I'm sorry but I totally agree with Sky on this one. I don't think you should have gone off them. You may not need to be on them for the rest of your life but it seems obvious that you need to be on them now. If I were you, I would go back on them and stay on them until I felt I was in a place where I could go off them but then only after talking to my doctor about it. I don't understand why you are putting your body through this when it seems that you do need to be on them. I don't want to be on them either but I know I'm not ready to go off of them yet. Besides, my doc said that I will need to be on them the rest of my life and even though I don't like that idea, he could be right. Worse things could happen. Please, don't put yourself through this anymore and talk to your doctor about this. I really worry about the outcome of you doing this to yourself.
Linda

Thanks for caring...
I know i'm being stupid, but i didn't feel very good on them either. i had a total disconnect between my feelings and thoughts, and also, i wasn't sleeping and always felt tired (that did not change with effexor since i had that b4 too).
i just hate how i feel right now - on thurs. i'm seeing my therapist and i'll tell her (but like you, she'll probably yell at me for going off of them).

don't know what i'm doing anymore...

Ouch, that is why I went off effexor. IT was the only one that helped at all and didn't give me allergic type reactions, but after 4 years on it, I didn't like the way it made me "feel" which was "sick" somehow.

You can always take one pill now, to counter some of the side effects...

Withdrawal doesn't have to be horrible. There are ways to do it. Your doctor can help. Going cold turkey is a recipe for a breakdown, based on my own experience. Please do it the right way, with your doctor's help.

I fully support you in getting off meds it that is what you want to do. I did the same thing, after 10 years on antidepressants; I wanted to see what it was like off of them and see if I still had as many bad days.

But... you must do this with your precribers's help. Let your doctor know what you are doing and he/she will recommend a way for you to taper off so that you won't experience those horrible withdrawals.

I quit cold turkey and the withdrawal symptoms lasted weeks and were very unpleasant!

Taking meds or not is your decision, but please do get some help with getting off so you don't have to suffer the withdrawal symptoms.

ECHOES