Going off antidepressants, how did you find it?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm thinking about tapering off Lexepro soon. I was on Citalopram before and don't like the side effects of meds. They help with anxiety but I feel like they make me emotionally blunted and dull. My sex drive is at an all time low too. Also I think Citalopram might have been responsible for causing/worsening IBS symptoms? Anyone experienced anything like this?

So who has stopped taking meds? Did you feel better or worse afterwards?

I've had to taper off meds a few times. The worst were SSRIs and SSNRIs. Certain meds, like benzodiazepines, can be dangerous if suddenly stopped.

I got better after stopping antidepressants. But first I got worse. My brain had to adjust to the difference, and I nearly went crazy for a few months. Then I was my old self again. Many meds made me physically ill if I miss a dose, because my body had become dependent on them.

It's not something I'd try without doing a lot of research and talking with my doctor beforehand.

The meds I was on all seemed to cause cold sweating, abnormal dreams, and nightmares.

I'm tapering off mirtazapine at the moment.

I've gone from 45mg to 7.5 but it's taken me years because I have really bad nightmares and I keep having to up my dose again to stop them.

However, been on 7.5 for 3 days now and I feel ok.

It's a different kind of sleep I'm having though. Light but then groggy in the morning.

I think I can put up with that though.

Good luck.

After taking them for a reasonably long time, I went "cold turkey" on both Citalopram and Mirtazapone. Peculiarly, I experienced no adverse effects at all when I stopped taking Mirtazapine. But Citalopram was a completely different story. In the three months that followed, I felt disorientated, lifeless and, at my worst, suicidal. I am now hoping my GP will prescribe me something for what I suspect is either ADD or ADHD. I believe the negatives to taking SSRIs far outweigh the positives.

I have experienced the same on Lexapro and two or three other SSRIs. I quit them all for the same reasons you are, with the added fun of horrible side-effects. I tapered off all but the Zoloft, which I simply quit. Either method gave me no problems. In the case of the Zoloft, the combination of side-effects was making me so miserable the doctor wanted to change the medication. I was supposed to stop Zoloft for three days and move on to Effexor, an SNRI, but I was so euphoric over losing the side-effects from the Zoloft that I didn't bother.

Having said that, I'd caution that people respond so differently to antidepressants (or their removal) that it's impossible to draw any conclusions about how you will react based on other people's experiences. I'd still follow your doctor's advice.

Always do your research, always get support...

You might want to go to the Icarus Project's website, download their guide, and show it to your doctor.

I don't take medications that aren't medically necessary because, after I had taken SSRIs for about seven years, I learned that research showed that they do almost nothing to help with depression (which I didn't have) or managed pain (which I do have).

So, I titrated off the SSRIs over two-and-a-half months. I felt better every day. I was more alert and my short-term memory improved.

There are so many so-called side effects with SSRIs and other medications that I try to avoid them.

I have been on around 60 different prescription medications since 2005. If there is one thing I have learned when going off of them, is that you should taper at YOUR own pace, not at the pace that your doctor tells you to. You tell the doctor at which pace you feel comfortable with, because in the end, it will be you who will have to suffer from any withdrawal symptoms should they occur, it won't be your doctor, and he won't be at your bedside taking care of you or filling in for you at school or work. Most doctors don't care either about any withdrawal symptoms you have to suffer through so long as they don't kill you.

Do your homework, research and taper off slowly and you can in most cases avoid most if not all withdrawal symptoms. Some people on the spectrum may be hypersensitive to medication's or changes in doses more so than that of the average population. The taper schedules doctor's use may not take that into account.

The only side effects that are okay to put up with are the side effects that YOU personally are okay putting up with, not the side effects that your doctor or anyone else tells you that you should just suffer through. If feeling emotionally numb or having no sex drive are deal breakers for you, then you have every right to choose what goes in your body and choose not to accept these side effects from these drugs.

I am doing this right now, and doing it reeeeally slowly with very gradual reductions. I have done it before (under medical supervision) but the gradations they suggested were too steep and I had side effects. This time it seems to be going fine. I hope when I'm totally off them I feel fine too!

I would advise never, ever going cold turkey on SSRIs. I did it once (because I'd run out of pills) and the effects were horrendous. However, I haven't had any negative effects tapering them off slowly as I'm doing now.

I need to get off Venlafaxine. I'm pretty sure it has made me sick (constantly light-headed/dizzy, always tired, weird headaches, vague nausea). I've been on it 5 years now though. It wasn't bad at first, but the last two years have been horrible. I'm terrified I'll never get better. Going down seems to make the symptoms worse. That's what's so scary.

This is what I'm hoping for, only time will tell. If I don't see any improvment I can always go back on the meds.

I stopped taking Sertraline a while back because going down to the pharmacy monthly was going against my anxiety.

Really, I think my body had gotten used to the withdrawal symptoms after the numerous breaks within taking the medication on account of anxiety delaying me getting more pills. So the usual 2-3 days of withdrawal didn't really happen.

After that, I felt no different than I did on the pills, so I stopped taking them.