There have been several threads here on antidepressants so I thought I’d share my experience. I was taking Zoloft for a few months and decided to stop. I tapered down from 100 mg/day to 50 mg every other day over the course of a month or so and then stopped altogether. No problems for the first couple days, but then I started getting these weird waves of dizziness that felt like electric shocks in my brain, headaches, some pretty weird dreams, and mild disorientation. I thought it would go away in a few days, but it’s been 2 weeks now and it’s gotten only slightly better. Apparetly it’s not too uncommon and is known as SSRI discontinuation syndrome.
I read somewhere that taking low doses of Prozac for a while can help, because it takes longer to get washed out of your system so your brain has an easier time taking up the slack on serotonin production. Then again, I hesistate to get started on another drug when my expeience with the first was not that great.
Are there other ways of dealing with SSRI withdrawl? A friend takes a combination of SSRIs and other drugs. I think she is taking less of them these days but I never really thought about it or asked. Her headaches are quite common these days. Though she is also dealing with brain cancer.
I think I need to ask and make sure she’s taking them.
If they are breakable tablets, try going down to 25mg. Take the 25mg every day for a week, then every other day for another week, and then for the third week, three days. If you’re still experiencing the symptoms, go see a doctor.
i believe the lawyers running a class action suit in the uk against some drug company are involved with running the site so there may be some interest issues there, however many users post their experiences there. there is a mailing list too.
I ended up going back on a lower dose and then breaking the lower dose into half-tablets, but still had problems. So I switched to one with a longer half-life for a coule weeks and then tapered off of that–seemed to work okay for me.
Withdrawal of SSRI’s are less serious than those from benzodiazepines, but going off any psychological drug should be taken very seriously or their could be severe problems, even death. It is necessary sometimes to withdraw from some drugs and use other drugs in combination to relieve side effects. If you are on any medication for psychological purposes and want to get off consult your doctors and look up information on the web before you stop taking them. If you are not satisfied call a pharmacist back home.
If you constantly suffer from such problems as depression, OCD, anxiety/panic, schizophrenia, phobias and others you should seek out a therapist who can use cognitive behavioral therapy. This is the MOST effective treatment for the disorders above. Sometimes this treatment is used in conjunction with medication, but often times medication is unnecessary.
Please also note that some of the problems above are caused by parasites living in your digestive system. I am currently working on some information about this in combination with psychological disorders and problems. When finished the information will be posted on my website.