utku: when shall I expect my hormones to return to normal levels

[utku]

 

Hello everyone,

 

I had many struggles in the past couple of years. Problems in my marriage ended up divorcing. I have lost my last two jobs and my career went to a dead end. I thought I would never get a job again. We have lost connection with my kids. These all happened back to back in 8 years time. I was a skilled engineer and a leader who trained himself with decades of experience but loosing jobs and family and not being able to get a new job caused my self esteem to dissapear in time. 

 

As you can observe from my signature I have used antidepressants for about 5 years before I cold turkeyed in February 2022. I have started cycling and eating chocolate or similar sweet food in order my body to release Endorphine and Dopamine. I was doing really fine in the first couple of months getting better every day. I have started working in a friends Avocado field in May 2022. Working with soil and helping the young trees to grow helped me a lot. The voice inside my head was always remebering the failures and concentrating on the traaumas. I needed to fight with this as well. Then a friend suggested me to do positive affirmations. I have recorded a tape affirming positive things and strated listening to it 4-5 hours a day. This helped a lot too. 

 

I was jobless since March 2021 but had hope all the time. I had a last hope about establishing a small business and get going again to start in June 2022. When it is time it was clear that I won't be able to establish that business since there was not enough funds to be found. Losing my final hope felt really bad. I haven't felt that bad through out my whole life. I have always had hope in my life and didn't took life too seriously but this time it was different. I had lost all my hope about being better and happy ever again. Feeling that bad must have been caused by loosing hope along with my hormone condition. 

 

Then a friend inspired me to look for a job again. Then I felt like if I find a job I would start feeling better and become my old self (meybe even better this time). Now I have found an expat job which is not the best one for me but will enable me to earn the highest in my whole career. It has been 4 weeks already and I am getting used to the country. I still need a couple of months to get used to everything here. Then I will be successful which will support my physchology.

 

I still don't feel my biology returned back to normal with all my hormone levels getting back to normal levels. I wonder how much time does it take for hormones to get back to normal levels. Anybody have experience on this? 

 

Cheers,

Utku

[Altostrata]

Welcome, @utku

 

It can take many months for your system to very gradually return to normal after going off psychiatric drugs, especially if you went off suddenly. Since you have already seen substantial improvement, this is likely to continue. See

 

 

The Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

 

Are We There Yet? How Long is Withdrawal Going to Take?

 

"Is it always going to be like this?"

 

The importance of recognizing you're feeling good

 

Creating a new self after withdrawal

 

Protracted Withdrawal or PAWS (post-acute withdrawal syndrome)

 

Progress! What withdrawal symptoms have gone away for you? 

 

Withdrawal dialogues & encouragement

[utku]

Dear Emonda,

 

My mom (73) is on antidepressants for about 5 years now and I wanted her to quit these medications which has effects on hormonal system. I have started searching internet and podcasts and found out this site. We have planned tapering but her doctor recommended cold turkeying which I have objected. He also recommended taking a pill every three days and ruined our plan.

 

She has been taking a pill every three days for about a month now. I am not sure how shall we start tapering. Shall I assume the current daily dose as a pill divided by three or shall my mom increase dosing to one pill a day and start tapering then? I don't want her to increase dosing but taking a pill every three days doesn't feel right on the other day.

 

What shall we do? I would appreciate if you could help.

Kind regards,

[Emonda]

Welcome back, @utku

 

Moving forward, it would be best for you to create a separate account for your mum. New registrations open on 1 Jan 2024, so I'll provide some initial info here to get you going while you wait to open an account for mum. We can transfer this over to her account next week.

 

We would need to know your mum's drug history to provide specific comments.

 

To clarify, you mentioned you wanted your mum to quit the ADs. Does she want to quit them?

 

Two things I can say with confidence now:

 

1. Do not cold turkey your mum's AD.

 

The approach recommended on this site is to slowly taper the AD by a maximum of 10% per month. Please read the following link, which explains why the recommendation is to taper slowly.

 

 

 

2. Don't skip doses to taper.

 

Once we see your mum's drug history, we can work out how to rectify what the doctor recommended. Dividing the current dose being taken every three days by three, and taking that amount daily...may well be the solution...but we need to see the drug history detail for us to confirm.

 

 

I hope this is sufficient for you to read and digest while you wait to open an account for your mum, with her drug history.

 

Emonda

[utku]

My mom can't open an account. She doesn't know English. Doses skipped already as I have explained. She does want to quit, too.

She was on Efexor in the beginning and Prozac for the last year.

Kind regards,

Utku

 

 

[Emonda]

3 minutes ago, utku said:

My mom can't open an account. She doesn't know English.

 

Understood re the language barrier.

 

You can still open a separate account on her behalf, so we are mixing your situation with hers.

 

Best to keep everything separate to avoid any confusion.

 

4 minutes ago, utku said:

She does want to quit, too.

 

Great.

 

4 minutes ago, utku said:

She was on Efexor in the beginning and Prozac for the last year.

 

Just need you to add the drug signature now...Date/Drug/Dose info.

[utku]

Ok I will open an account for her but recommendation is needed now. Do we need to wait for January 2024?

[Onmyway]

Hi Utku, ok, as @Emondasaid, best to get her account in January but for the time being, let's do this - the next posts, let's keep only about her and then we can move them all to her account when you open one for her in January. 

 

Can you write her drug signature in a message here for now. We need to know dates, how she switched to prozac etc as best as we can. I will follow your messages today so we can provide the best advice as quickly as possible. How is your mom feeling now? How is her sleep? What are her physical and psychological symptoms? 

We'll get this sorted!

OMW

[Emonda]

Thanks, Onmyway 👍.

 

@utku, sorry if I wasn't clear, or maybe our different languages caused a mixup...your English is definitely better than my Turkish! Merhaba is all I can say...

 

I was encouraging you to post your mum's drug history here to start the process, and we'd move that next week to her own account.

 

As mentioned above, to try and give you a solution now:

 

11 hours ago, Emonda said:

Dividing the current dose being taken every three days by three, and taking that amount daily...may well be the solution...but we need to see the drug history detail for us to confirm.

 

As Onmyway said, please post mum's drug history here, and the two of us will try to help.

 

(thanks again OMW 🙂)

 

[utku]

Unfortunately the past drug history is not well remembered. I might say she has started Efexor 4 years ago and is on Prozac fo the last year. She has started taking one pill for every three days for more than one month although I have told her to stop doing that at the day she has mentioned this

Anyway, now she is ready to taper but we don't know how to start.

I am considering like accepting the current daily dose as mg equivalent of the fluoxetine in one pill divided by three.

What do you think?

Cheers. 

[Onmyway]

Hi @utku

Can you pls create cn account and intro thread for your mom please.  The site is now open for new registration.  Do the best you can with the signature and pls tag me when you open the new account and also post the new username here. 

Omw