Almost killed me coming down off Amytriptilin and Duloxetine, ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks, took months to overcome. 😢 But was never once was told it was the meds . 😢 My blood pressure and blood sugar shot through the roof, brain zaps, no coordination, brain felt like it was dying, then arm went numb, thought I was stroking, but didnt. Got put on Gabepatine, but started having problems breathing, had no idea why, until recently.
@RobertWhitaker thank you so much for this talk especially the reframing as a positive opportunity. Ive been on antipsychotics almost 30 yrs Currently on Clozapine in a struggle w MH team around reduction Please could you provide the link you mentioned detailing the American psychiatrists with quotes with them saying the theory of changes in the dopamine system is the cause schizophrenia. Very Grateful to you all for your work x
Thanks for telling your story whoever you are - your personal circumstances sound very challenging. I'm looking for advice going through withdrawals 9 days. Withdrawal was worse on the lower of the dose. Frightening. I'm going cold turkey and I feel absolutely terrible. But feeling is healing. I'm strong willed. Good luck to everyone.
I was prescribed Effexor 37.5mg for my anxiety from 11/2022 to 3/2022, after a few months I felt better and decided to stop, then I asked my psychiatrist whether I could stop it and he said I could try but he never tapered the dose and at that time I hadn’t known about the antidepressant withdrawal before so I just stopped as he said. Just 2 months later I experienced severe anxiety so I came back to him and he said it was a relapse and I had to retake the med for other 9 months until I decided to stop completely. Until January 2024 he said I can stop the med and he tapered down the dose for 4 weeks and stopped completely then, just once time tappering. I experienced average withdrawal symptoms a few days after coming off the antidepressant. It lasted for weeks then I experienced free symptoms before they went back again, I’ve suffered from my ups and downs until now, and the latest wave I’ve had is more terrible than before. I had panic attacks, insomnia, constant anxiety and intrusive thoughts. I wonder when the symptoms go away. I dont really want to come back to these drugs again. The point that I felt livid is that my doctor didn’t say anything about withdrawal and let me quit cold turkey then he made me go back to him and continue taking the drugs for a long time. The second time I went back on the med my symptoms subsided within a few days, which made me wonder if I really had a relapse as he said.
I want to start weaning off of 5mg of olanzapine. Dropped from 20 to 5 with no issues but going to the 2.5mg was awful my anxiety was through the roof. It’s so annoying the first week and a half was fine but after that was hell and I didn’t realise it was withdrawals initially. Fell out with best friend during this time and our relationship never recovered. So that wasn’t worth it!! I now have no support to help me with this taper
After 3 failed attempts that led me to hellish withdrawals, I am finally doing a proper taper down to zero mg of the drug. I’m glad I have my “why?” for coming off the drug. I’m looking forward to my sexual functioning to come back. I’m looking forward to my new or reborn life full feeling and experiencing what it means to be human again. ❤
Thank you very much. I have a much better understanding. Wouldn't it be nice if antidepressant pharmaceutical companies contributed financial to future research on withdrawal?
I stopped Sertraline (Zoloft) a few months ago, after tapering down to 25mg. Am now experiencing periods of anxiety & depression, extreme nervousness, anger, & crying at the least little thing. I'll be fine for a while, even a day, then I'll wake up with a sinking feeling of depression & nervousness. Thank God someone led me to Dr. Horowitz, & to Dr. Alice W. Lee -- both of whom withdraw people from antidepressants. Dr. Lee preps first by using supporting therapeutics while withdrawing, even kidney support because they can be affected. Wish I'd known that prior to. Heck, I wish I'd known not to drop it at 25mg. I'm hoping that maybe I can go back on the 25mg (or even 15mg), then very slowly reduce from there. Have emailed my doctor, am waiting to hear back. If he won't help me, I'll have to go it alone, maybe by filing off bits of tablets during the incremental decreases. I'm currently taking Ashwagandha (liquid, from globalhealing.com) & a few homepathic remedies for nervousness (Cina, Sepia, Natrum Muriaticum). Not sure how much they're helping, but maybe some. My main reason for being on the med was that it helped me not to cry so easily -- I'd always been very emotional. Gave me more control, emotionally.
Keep up the good work guys. I’m at the end of a long taper. It’s been tough even sticking to the safe method. Mainly mental distress. I’m down to 0.5ml of liquid citalopram and my nervous system has finally stabilised after 5 weeks at this dose. I’m afraid to stop but I’m determined to keep going on this journey. These drugs are v v powerful and should be prescribed with caution. We’ve got this guys!
I no what you mean but stop. Thinking is all in the mind. Get. B vitamin s and magnesium tablets. Grab it will help you. I'm finishind myself of the tablets. Good luck to you with love ❤️
Taper the one which is giving you the most side effects, however try and taper the one which helps with sleep last, as preserving you sleep will help you get off the other two. Also taper the ones with shorter half lives first.
Thank you Mark Horowitz. I have experienced these horrible withdrawal symptoms for the past five months before I managed, after a lot od disagreement, to be put on prozac instead of quetiapine for my symptoms. The psychiatrist thought I had develped an anxiety disorder in addition to my depression. Luckily I had done a lot of research beforehand. I feel much more confident about coming off the prozac knowing about this research.
I have been taking lixomil 6mg (bromazepam) for more than 20 years. I take 3mg in the morning and 3mg in the evening with a 50mg Zoloft pill on a regular basis, according to the doctor. Ten years before that, I had taken other types. How can you reduce the benzo drug when there is no standard health care and doctors only prescribe the drug? When you want to stop, they say to stop gradually as it helps you. Knowing that I am 54 years old and I work as a teacher, I panicked when I watched some videos about the difficulty of stopping benzodiazepine. Thank you all
All wd heals. But not all major brain injury from psych heals. A truth i had to sit with every day all bc i couldnt find the inner compass website when it mattered
I'm glad this info is available but i feel like what's being missed sometimes is that clinical depression is not "sadness" or just a normal reaction to an adverse situation - it is a different animal and "exercise" is not a solution nor is "wait and see" - not when you're acutely suicidal. Frankly, when i was there i would have taken ANYTHING to not feel what i was feeling. Please don't confuse these things! I think it's very importan to learn about withdrawal effects but that doesn't mean that antidepressants of some kind - perhaps of a kind not yet known, like ketamine was, are not critically important in cases of severe clinical depression. You trivialize that illness by confusing it with sadness and prescribing exercise as a solution. It is life-threatening and extremely serious. Immediate steps are necessary to prevent suicide or attempts. It's not a bad mood!
Is it possible to get an interdose withdrawal from Doxepin? I hit 7.5mg (started at 75mg 3 years ago) and 3 hours before my dose in the evening i get high agitated and some akathisia. I only dose in the evening. I try to take some in the morning but I be drowsy the whole day and some agitated.
I am never one to comment on videos but I just wanted to say how much I appreciated this video and Laura's Journey. Thank you SO much for sharing your personal journey to healing and coming off of these medications. As I'm currently going through my own healing journey off of Sertraline for over 6 years and struggling with all the withdrawal symptoms, I feel hopeful and inspired to one day be able to speak to my experience and story, and hopefully be able to encourage and educate others as well. Thank you for what you do and I look forward to reading your book!
Salve! Vorrei sapere dove recuperare informazioni, o se può rispondere il dottore, sul passaggio da un antidepressivo ad un altro,visto che menziona l' argomento nel video. Si passa direttamente da un antidepressivo ad un altro, oppure l' antidepressivo in uso va prima scalato e poi si inserisce l' altro, oppure si inserisce l' altro e nel frattempo si scala quello già in uso!? Grazie a chi risponderà!
Salve! Vorrei sapere dove recuperare informazioni, o se può rispondere il dottore, sul passaggio da un antidepressivo ad un altro,visto che menziona l' argomento nel video. Si passa direttamente da un antidepressivo ad un altro, oppure l' antidepressivo in uso va prima scalato e poi si inserisce l' altro, oppure si inserisce l' altro e nel frattempo si scala quello già in uso!? Grazie a chi risponderà!
Salve! Vorrei sapere dove recuperare informazioni, o se può rispondere il dottore, sul passaggio da un antidepressivo ad un altro,visto che menziona l' argomento nel video. Si passa direttamente da un antidepressivo ad un altro, oppure l' antidepressivo in uso va prima scalato e poi si inserisce l' altro, oppure si inserisce l' altro e nel frattempo si scala quello già in uso!? Grazie a chi risponderà!
There is no “how to safely” with these drugs. Stay away from these POISONS and especially the disturbed people who prescribe them. Psychiatry is a pseudo science.
It's difficult living in Canada, there are no strips or liquid versions of my medication available. The smallest tablet is 10mg and in halves its VERY small.
I’m in Canada as well & didn’t know that. What about a compound pharmacy???? Would they be able to do it? I’m having such troubles getting off citalopram
The construct that a demoralized person has a Chemical Imbalance was contrived by Gregory Bateson, husband to Margaret Mead. It has been used for decades as a credulous + lucrative marketing tool. Psychiatrist Jeffrey A. Schaler cut this down with: "Show me the Chemical Balance Tests!"
My main problem with the serotonin hypothesis is that it is supposedly meant to help signalling between neurons etc, but a depressed person is not numb - on the contrary they feel intensely, to the point that that feeling is numbing out other feelings. So, evidently (imo) there can't possibly be a serotonin deficiency. When antidepressants (or other psych drugs relating to serotonin) are introduced, the signalling is instead impaired; much in the same way an anti-inflammatory drug is a steroid (does this not induce an inflammatory reaction to the point that it's function is impaired? My thinking and my own experience is that introducing these drugs (as have been said) instead causes the deficiency as mood is leveled by the receptors being numbed out. I butchered this, but hopefully people get my point (which is much the same as the author's).
