lena Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 (edited) Hi everyone! I'm 19 and in November 2022 I got diagnosed with depressive episode. Long story short, I have a tendency to overthink stuff and get sad since I can remember, I suffered from a great heartbreak over the last year and began to feel suicidal. I also started studying at university and my degree is pretty challenging. I felt like everyone around me was just 'getting things done' and I stayed home, or I went outside and felt overwhelmed quickly. I was hopeless and I tried everything before medication: I got decent sleep, got checked for thyroid hormones and improved my diet, I exercised, I read good books, I met inspiring people, I surrounded myself with things that used to make me happy, I made new friends, I talked to my old friends, I cried and meditated and did some voluntary work, and I still felt sad and like, life didn't make much sense to me. My dad and my grandma are on antidepressants, so I decided to see a psychiatrist, even though I didn't think it would help. But it helped me at first. I was put on trazodone (cause I got sad in the evenings and cried and delayed going to sleep) and sertraline. Trazodone was a horrible drug and I asked my doctor to switch it to something else, so that in December 2022 I started taking mirtazapine as an addition to sertraline. Mirtazapine did wonders for me and I am grateful for that but I worry about the withdrawal after stopping taking it because of its powerful effect on body. January was a good month and in February things took a turn for the worse, partially because of environmental stuff (I could elaborate on this more but it's just some personal problems that made me feel like before taking medication). I considered therapy but due to bad experiences with therapists in my childhood I just asked my psychiatrist if it was possible and beneficial to switch sertraline to something else. She suggested paroxetine. So, I did a lot of thinking and researching and read about horrible withdrawal symptoms after paroxetine and I panicked a bit. But, when my worsened mood didn't change til March, I decided to cross-taper (with my psychiatrist's guide) sertraline to paroxetine. As for today, I reduced setraline 100 mg to 50 mg and I'm experiencing pretty awful flu-like symptoms (headache!! sore throat, muscle pains and so on). What are your suggestions on continuing cross-tapering? Thank you in advance! Edited March 15, 2023 by Gridley Trazodone 75 mg Nov 2022 - Dec 2022 Sertraline 50 mg Nov 2022 - Dec 2022 Sertraline 100 mg Dec 2022 - Mar 2023 Mirtazapine 15 mg Dec 2022 - Mar 2023 Cross-tapering sertraline to paroxetine since 14th Mar 2023 - the plan suggested by my psychiatrist: sertraline 50 mg for the first week, 25 mg sertraline + 10 mg paroxetine for the following week, then 20 mg paroxetine instead of sertraline Link to comment
Moderator Emeritus Gridley Posted March 15, 2023 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted March 15, 2023 Welcome to SA, Iena. We are a site for tapering psychiatric drugs. If you intend to stay on psychiatric drugs, this may not be the site for you. Going too quickly off an antidepressant can cause significant and long-lasting withdrawal effects, as your research has revealed. The symptoms you're experiencing are typical withdrawal symptoms. The flu-like symptom is a very common. The mechanisms of action of these different antidepressants are different, and one drug may not cover for another. This appears to be the case with you. What is withdrawal syndrome. Daily Checklist of Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms (PDF) As your research also revealed Paroxetine is notorious as being one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, antidepressants to stop taking. For this reason, the switch to Paroxetine is, in our view, an extremely bad idea. If you were a member seeking to taper off antidepressants, our recommendation would be to stop the cross-taper immediately and return to the Sertraline. Once you had stabilized on your old dose of Sertraline, we would advise a slow taper off it at a rate no faster than 10% of your current dose every four weeks--no faster. Why taper by 10% of my dosage? Because of the difficulties involved in cross-tapering in to go off a drug, our general advice is to taper the drug you started--"dance with the one you came with." In the cases where a members did a cross-taper, we would never advise a cross-taper to a horrible drug like Paroxetine. The most common cross-taper is to Prozac, but that too presents problems. The Prozac switch or "bridging" with fluoxetine If you are interested in tapering psychiatric drugs, please let us know and we can make recommendations. You should work with your doctor if you want to stay on drugs. We recommend non-drug techniques to deal with withdrawal. Therapy with the right non-drug therapist is also helpful. Non-drug techniques to cope We don't recommend a lot of supplements on SA, as many members report being sensitive to them due to our over-reactive nervous systems, but two supplements that we do recommend are magnesium (glycinate is a good form) and omega 3 (fish oil). Many people find these to be calming to the nervous system. Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) Add in one at a time and at a low dose in case you do experience problems. This is your introduction topic -- the place for you to ask questions, record symptoms, share your progress, and connect with other members of the SA community. I hope you’ll find the information in the SA forums helpful for your situation. I'm sorry that you are in the position that you need the information, but I am glad that you found us. Gridley Introduction Lexapro 20 mg since 2004. Begin Brassmonkey Slide Taper Jan. 2017. End 2017 year 1 of taper at 9.25mg End 2018 year 2 of taper at 4.1mg End 2019 year 3 of taper at 1.0mg Oct. 30, 2020 Jump to zero from 0.025mg. Current dose: 0.000mg 3 year, 10 month taper is 100% complete. Ativan 1 mg to 1.875mg 1986-2020, two CT's and reinstatements Nov. 2020, 7-week Ativan-Valium crossover to 18.75mg Valium Feb. 2021, begin 10%/4 week taper of 18.75mg Valium End 2021 year 1 of Valium taper at 6mg End 2022 year 2 of Valium taper at 2.75mg End 2023 year 3 of Valium taper at 1mg Jan. 24, 2024: Hold at 1mg and shift to Imipramine taper. Taper is 95% complete. Imipramine 75 mg daily since 1986. Jan.-Sept. 2016 tapered to 14.4mg March 22, 2022: Begin 10%/4 week taper Aug. 5, 2022: hold at 9.5mg and shift to Valium taper Jan. 24, 2024: Resume Imipramine taper. Current dose as of Oct 15: 3.2mg Taper is 96% complete. Supplements: multiple, quercetin, omega-3, vitamins C, E and D3, magnesium glycinate, probiotic, zinc, melatonin .3mg, iron, serrapeptase, nattokinase, L-Glutamine, milk thistle, choline I am not a medical professional and this is not medical advice. It is information based on my own experience as well as that of other members who have survived these drugs. Link to comment
lena Posted March 15, 2023 Author Share Posted March 15, 2023 Thank you! I intend to stay on psychiatric drugs for a while, I guess, so I will go back to sertraline at first. Ultimately my goal is to get antidepressant-free, but I am very afraid of doing that right now. So, thank you one more time for your support, and I will work with my doctor from now on. Trazodone 75 mg Nov 2022 - Dec 2022 Sertraline 50 mg Nov 2022 - Dec 2022 Sertraline 100 mg Dec 2022 - Mar 2023 Mirtazapine 15 mg Dec 2022 - Mar 2023 Cross-tapering sertraline to paroxetine since 14th Mar 2023 - the plan suggested by my psychiatrist: sertraline 50 mg for the first week, 25 mg sertraline + 10 mg paroxetine for the following week, then 20 mg paroxetine instead of sertraline Link to comment
Moderator Emeritus Gridley Posted March 15, 2023 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted March 15, 2023 (edited) @lena One other thing to talk about with your doctor is that there is a major drug interaction between Mirtazapine and Sertraline (also between Mirtazapine and Paxil, also between Mirtazapine and Fluoxetine), which is a serious condition known as Serotonin Syndrome. Here's the link: Interactions Checker I suggest you run any psychiatric drugs prescribed to you through this link. Edited March 15, 2023 by Gridley Gridley Introduction Lexapro 20 mg since 2004. Begin Brassmonkey Slide Taper Jan. 2017. End 2017 year 1 of taper at 9.25mg End 2018 year 2 of taper at 4.1mg End 2019 year 3 of taper at 1.0mg Oct. 30, 2020 Jump to zero from 0.025mg. Current dose: 0.000mg 3 year, 10 month taper is 100% complete. Ativan 1 mg to 1.875mg 1986-2020, two CT's and reinstatements Nov. 2020, 7-week Ativan-Valium crossover to 18.75mg Valium Feb. 2021, begin 10%/4 week taper of 18.75mg Valium End 2021 year 1 of Valium taper at 6mg End 2022 year 2 of Valium taper at 2.75mg End 2023 year 3 of Valium taper at 1mg Jan. 24, 2024: Hold at 1mg and shift to Imipramine taper. Taper is 95% complete. Imipramine 75 mg daily since 1986. Jan.-Sept. 2016 tapered to 14.4mg March 22, 2022: Begin 10%/4 week taper Aug. 5, 2022: hold at 9.5mg and shift to Valium taper Jan. 24, 2024: Resume Imipramine taper. Current dose as of Oct 15: 3.2mg Taper is 96% complete. Supplements: multiple, quercetin, omega-3, vitamins C, E and D3, magnesium glycinate, probiotic, zinc, melatonin .3mg, iron, serrapeptase, nattokinase, L-Glutamine, milk thistle, choline I am not a medical professional and this is not medical advice. It is information based on my own experience as well as that of other members who have survived these drugs. Link to comment
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