[misfit77]

This message is a partial rant/partial feeling sorry for myself/partial wondering if anyone else has had withdrawal this bad.

Here's the quick info: I was diagnosed with depression in my teens. I have been on pretty much every SSRI and SNRI as well as many other things. Finally, two years ago I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, and started doing Dialectic Behavioral Therapy. I have done on and off meds many times, had to switch meds when they stopped working (it was really BPD so they really were not working at all in all reality). But for the most part, I have been on an SSRI or SNRI since age 17. I am 38 now...so that's more than half my life on these things. When looking at it that way, it kind of makes sense that the withdrawal is so bad.

I started tapering down slowly from 100mg to Zoloft in May. In September I switched to liquid Prozac because the withdrawal was so bad (Prozac has a shorter half life and is therefore easier to go off-and the liquid form allowed me to taper extremely slowly). I went from about 10mg of Prozac down to maybe 2mg...then started taking it every other day, then every third day or so. Now, it's been over 3 weeks since my last dose of it and the withdrawal symptoms have come back and are as bad as if I just stopped taking 20mg of it cold turkey. WTF!!! I hate these stupid brain zaps!!! I know it's withdrawal because there is nothing in this world other than SSRIs and SNRIs that do that.

Aside from the crappy withdrawal symptoms, I am 14 weeks (3 months) pregnant. I am SOOOO Happy about being pregnant. It is my first and we were trying for about 8 months. I have had really bad morning sickness...so I went from months of withdrawal symptoms, straight into bad morning sickness (which is of course all day sickness). My psychiatrist is baffled by the withdrawal symptoms. He started talking about metaphysics because he couldn't explain it. I did a study with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto that shows I metabolize medication very quickly...you'd think if I metabolize it so fast it would get the heck out of my body fast-but no the opposite seems to happen. It somewhat explains the bad withdrawal.

It's just so frustrating that these medications can cause this. I am glad I am getting it out of my system so my baby will not have to go through withdrawal too. I just hope these recent brain zaps will subside. It seems insane to me that such a minuscule dose could cause symptoms 3 weeks later. I know the half life of Prozac is about 2 weeks-so I don't know...once again I just hope it's its last hooray and will just get out of my system once and for all.

Thanks for listening.

[kaliope]

hi misfit
congrats on the baby........i hated the med rollercoaster too. it took years for me to find the right ones. i am stable enough. it is a shame they cant find anything to work for you but from what i hear, meds dont typically do much for personality disorders. dbt is great though. i did an intro class for my lack of emotional regulation when it came to my ptsd. the thing is, there is so so much info to learn when it comes to dbt. it was an 8 week class. so i took it three times. the first time it was like i just got the high lights. the second time i was able to start practicing it and the third time cemented it and it just became everyday practice. i used to say i went from 0-60 emotionally when i was triggered and all that just went away by the time i finished. i think taking the time to do that class over and over was the best thing i ever did for myself. take care.

[misfit77]

Thanks for your reply. That's a good idea about the DBT classes. I have been doing it one on one with my Psychiatrist and find I am always forgetting things, it's so much to take in. I am glad I am not the only one! I have the DBT skills book, I find it somewhat different than how my psychiatrist teaches it. I have recently been looking up videos online and find them helpful to keep me practicing. It's not easy to change 30+ years of irrational thinking. It's been harder then ever lately as I have felt so rotten from the fatigue, morning sickness, withdrawal and hormones. I've told some of the people I am close to it's like having a whole new brain. I am trying to be kind to myself. I feel if I can get through all of this unmediated then really anything is possible.
Thanks again for replying :-)

[ChipperMonkey]

I don't think its the meds in your system that are causing you issues, rather its how your body is reacting by not having these drugs in your body. So in that sense, its good for your baby that you do metabolize drugs so quickly, because they are getting out of your system faster.

I think you have it backwards with Prozac as that's a drug that has a longer half life. My anxiety doc hates to put anyone on that drug because it has such a long half life and takes longer to taper off of, so if you need to switch drugs quickly, it is a hindrance. Its typical to switch from a shorter half life drug to a longer half life drug when withdrawing. That's why many docs switch patients from Xanax, Ativan or Klonopin to Valium.

[sbrooks]

I have been off zoloft now for over a year and it was tough! I was on it for 15 yrs. the only thing that cured the brain zaps is Mega doses of fish oil! Particularly high EPA. RESEARCH IT. You'll thank me.

[pinkflower17]

Originally Posted by misfit77

This message is a partial rant/partial feeling sorry for myself/partial wondering if anyone else has had withdrawal this bad.

Here's the quick info: I was diagnosed with depression in my teens. I have been on pretty much every SSRI and SNRI as well as many other things. Finally, two years ago I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, and started doing Dialectic Behavioral Therapy. I have done on and off meds many times, had to switch meds when they stopped working (it was really BPD so they really were not working at all in all reality). But for the most part, I have been on an SSRI or SNRI since age 17. I am 38 now...so that's more than half my life on these things. When looking at it that way, it kind of makes sense that the withdrawal is so bad.

I started tapering down slowly from 100mg to Zoloft in May. In September I switched to liquid Prozac because the withdrawal was so bad (Prozac has a shorter half life and is therefore easier to go off-and the liquid form allowed me to taper extremely slowly). I went from about 10mg of Prozac down to maybe 2mg...then started taking it every other day, then every third day or so. Now, it's been over 3 weeks since my last dose of it and the withdrawal symptoms have come back and are as bad as if I just stopped taking 20mg of it cold turkey. WTF!!! I hate these stupid brain zaps!!! I know it's withdrawal because there is nothing in this world other than SSRIs and SNRIs that do that.

Aside from the crappy withdrawal symptoms, I am 14 weeks (3 months) pregnant. I am SOOOO Happy about being pregnant. It is my first and we were trying for about 8 months. I have had really bad morning sickness...so I went from months of withdrawal symptoms, straight into bad morning sickness (which is of course all day sickness). My psychiatrist is baffled by the withdrawal symptoms. He started talking about metaphysics because he couldn't explain it. I did a study with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto that shows I metabolize medication very quickly...you'd think if I metabolize it so fast it would get the heck out of my body fast-but no the opposite seems to happen. It somewhat explains the bad withdrawal.

It's just so frustrating that these medications can cause this. I am glad I am getting it out of my system so my baby will not have to go through withdrawal too. I just hope these recent brain zaps will subside. It seems insane to me that such a minuscule dose could cause symptoms 3 weeks later. I know the half life of Prozac is about 2 weeks-so I don't know...once again I just hope it's its last hooray and will just get out of my system once and for all.

Thanks for listening.

Congrats on the pregnancy!

I'm wondering how much of you symptoms are truly withdrawal and how much are due to other life events and/or pregnancy. You're going through a lot. Prozac does have a really long half life - 9.3 days, the longest out of the SSRIs and since it's half life is so long, you really don't even need to taper it, it basically tapers itself as it's very slowly breaking down. We usually give a one time dose of 10 mg when patients are having issues withdrawing from other SSRIs and most people don't have further issues.

Some other neuro issues can cause brain zap type symptoms, but they're pretty rare, and you should be having other symptoms if that were the case.

Hang in there, they should go away soon.

Again, congratulations.