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So encouraged to find this site about experiences of withdrawal from antidepressants, because I am feeling so alone in my struggle to be drug-free right now. It is a lot of pain! I abruptly stopped long-term antidepressant pharmacotherapy when I read that new emerging symptoms I was having while on the meds, could actually be induced by dangerous drug-drug interactions of the medications I had been prescribed by my psychiatrist - and taking regularly. I had become more and more active over the summer, and it got to the point where I was getting up at 3AM to start work, working till 8 or 10PM, working on weekends, excited all the time about new projects, talking a mile a minute, and having unusually great success at all my activities, feeling euphoria a lot of the time - but it was just abnormal levels of activity and I got concerned, and looked it up. I was thinking of writing a book about my new state of mind, "Unbearable Happiness", then Googled about what other people with this experience were writing, and found many, many links to people writing about their psychological disorder of mania - and not in a good way, but from bipolar. I looked up my meds on drug-drug interaction sites, and found mania is a potential drug-drug interaction of the meds I was taking, and became distressed. What if I was developing mania from the drugs, after having depression for most of my life? What if I started doing dangerous risky manic things? So now I am in withdrawal at about 4 weeks after stopping all of them completely, all at once. I'm not feeling depressed, nor manic, but am feeling sick as hell physically. I live along with a house bunny and parakeets, as my daughters are grown and have moved on. I had been prescribed and taking a high dose of 2 different kinds of antidepressants, venlafaxine at 300 mg/day an SNRI, plus generic prozac at 80 mg/day an SSRI, along with risperidone at 2.5 mg/day for about 5 years, all intended to treat a psychiatrist's diagnosis of depression, and later, schizoaffective disorder. When I read that these medications are clinically contraindicated - not to be taken together - because of serious drug-drug interactions, and that the doses I had been taking were very high, I stopped taking them. That was about a month ago. Since then, I get waves of sleepyness coming over me a lot. Every hour or so when I try to work at something, and often I am just sleepy and napping all day long, and have trouble concentrating on things I would like to do, in addition to unbelievable constant pain. It eases up when I take advil and Benedryl, but how much of that can you take? Not a lot. I am home from work (I'm a research scientist) and most of the time unable to do my normal things like cook and clean and exercise because of the pain and fatigue. I have sneezing and coughing and GI upset all the time, but no fever or anything like that. Pulling myself together to go out into public is a real effort. I have pain all over my body - electrical pricks all over the surface of my skin, deep pains in my muscles, aches in my joints, terrible headaches, and the only relief comes from going to sleep, and I am sleeping a lot. But then I have the worst nightmares of my life, with horrible things happening to all my prior loved ones and pets, and wake up terribly disturbed. I think my nerve cells are all in disarray. I used to meditate and do yoga but right now, I can't seem to do them at all. What has been helpful to you, if you have been going through antidepressant medication withdrawal? How long does it last? With gratitude, Bunnymom

Sorry for my English, I'm Brazilian, I used google translator I took venlafaxine for 4 years and it did me great but I had the wrong idea that I was well enough to stop so that's what I did, within a few months I realized it was a bad idea and I took it back, but to my surprise the antidepressant started to cause me constant tension (100% of the time, I can't relax anymore), only in the first 5 days of use (more or less) I get better and I'm great without tension and after that I feel bad again it's very sad because this constant tension takes all the fun out of life (I can't enjoy any moment because the tension is there) During that time, I tried to stop and go back on the antidepressant to see if it worked again (I've been like this for 3 years) I have tried several other remedies Lexapro Zoloft depakote lithium pristiq (I've tried to do physical exercises, meditation, relaxation exercises, and I've also tried to stay 2 months without medication and it seems that this tension doesn't go away anymore, it seems that nothing can make me relax and enjoy the present moment) I would like to know if anyone has any ideas on how to resolve this, or anyone who has a similar case to talk to. Thank you very much

Hi there, I was put onto Venlafaxine about 10 years ago and my dose was 325mg per day. I continued on that for about 6 years until I really felt that it just wasn't working anymore and I was tired of living in a fog and bad digestive issues. With my dr's help I have reduced my dose to 37.5mg per day about 4 years ago and have remained on the maintenance dose since then. While withdrawing I did suffer really badly from all the symptoms that many people have suffered from, but they eased. About a year ago the withdrawal symptoms started to return with brain zaps , irritability, insomnia etc and I want to try and find out if this has happened to anyone else out there. It's a nightmare and my Dr just wants to put me back on a higher dose of Venlafaxine, but I've refused. I don't want to go that route. Anyone else out there with a similar problem. I thought this was all behind me. Many thanks 🙂

i swore i would never take an snri again after what i went through on effexor, but he suggested i try cymbalta for the chronic pain and told me that generally there are less side effects/zaps than with effexor, so i said i would give it a try. my psychologist and his super decided that i have bipolar 2 not mdd, but the pdoc waved this away and didn’t even consider mood stabilizers. when my pdoc raised my dose of cymbalta after i expressed a wish to discontinue, and wrote in my record that i display “abnormal illness behaviors” (which just means i disagree with him?), i have decided to get off the ADs once and for all.

I am a 33 year old mother of 3 and it has been 2.5 months since my last dose of escitalopram. So many downs with a few ups. I wake up with extreme anxiety. Fear of death and dying for me and my family. I have so many physical symptoms I feel like a hypochondriac. I've had stomach pain side pain, neck pain, knee pain, and hand pain these go away occasionally and then come back. Constant fatigue, dizziness, brain zaps, and headaches. My palpitations have calmed down a bit. I am able to sleep I think that is my saving grace though all this. I try to walk 30 minutes on my treadmill most days and then I'm too wiped out to do much else. I'm on long term disability for some other health problems I don't think it would be possible for me to work as an RN in any capacity. I feel like I lost complete faith and confidence in my ability to do much of anything anymore. I'm just hoping things will get better.

Effexor x12 years. Added lithium in sept 2015. Added prozac in october to help bridge taper from effexor as i started having symptoms. Started withdrawing effexor in September 2014. Over last 4 months i went From 112.5 to 14mg as of last week.. Last week I seemed to all of a sudden hit a wall. Crying uncontrollably constantly. Shaking, nausea, extreme fear and overwhelming need to cry. Ive read your site. Ive reinstated to 20 mg of effexor for last 3 days but absolutely no improvement. Im so scared. I cant go to work like this. Continuing prozac 20 and lithium 300. Please help.

Greetings In the summer I went through a prolonged stress event after making a disastrous real estate decision. The stress sent me into a death spiral and I went on Effexor for about 5 month at 150mg. The side effects were of course horrible, my doc bumped me up to 300mg for a while and I thought I was dying. My poor liver:(. By fall I had moved again the the acute stress receded so I decided to get off this poison. I tapered off too quickly, under 3 week to 0. I didnt realize the consequence of this would be protracted discontinuation symptoms > mainly body aches, severe dry eyes, fatigue, brain fog, mornings are very rough. I am wondering how long it took others to recover and feel somewhat 'normal'? thx

I’ve been on Effexor for 9 years at 75mg.. just two months I decided to try and taper off. Little did I know I did 50% drop without knowing the consequences. Lasted a month and decided to take my original dose again 75mg.. Did this all while not knowing a thing, I just followed my psychiatrist.. Now I’ve been back on my 75 mg dose and I’m dealing with what I think is neurological problems in my arms and legs.. my arms feel restless and my legs feel weird at times.. I also have a very weird headache constantly that feels like a burning sensation with weird and unusual anxiety I’ve never felt. I thought I would be able to stabilize at my original dose but idk what to do now.. I wish I did things differently. I didn’t know about slow tapering till it was too late. Any advice would be appreciated.. hopefully I can stabilize…

Hello, I'm a 21 year old Canadian who was on Effexor for about 1.5 years, until I stupidly tapered off over the course of about a month, and have been SNRI free for about 7 months now. Here's the story on how I got it: After an extremely depressing moment in my life compounded with the COVID lockdowns, I started thinking there was something wrong with me, perhaps Anxiety, Depression or ADHD. I ended up getting prescribed Lexapro but was switched to two pills of Effexor a day after 1.5 months due to having no energy on Lexapro. Effexor made me feel very strange, it removed any anxiety I had but also made me not care about where I'm at in life, and stopped my ego from being in check. It felt like my anxiety was keeping my ego from being inflated, but now with the anxiety gone I was a different person with illusions of grandeur. I blew up 3 semesters of university, withdrawing from my courses two semesters in a row and in my third just taking fat 0s in all my classes that semester. I had a wakeup call then and decided to get off the pills no matter what. I tapered off the course of about 1-2 months, slowly reducing my dosage and then only taking one pill every time I felt ill, until I ran out of pills. I didn't really go through any withdrawals that people describe, but I still feel kind of odd and have been going through weird waves of depression. I went through a whole semester SNRI free and actually got good grades, so I'm happy my academic career is being repaired, but I still kind of feel stunted. There are many things I want to do but I have no motivation to actually get anything done. I also feel like I am exhausted much more easily now and have been sleeping a lot. I'm not really sure if this is a withdrawal or just something because of my daily living habits, but I do feel like I've changed a lot since taking antidepressants for the first time, and then getting off of them. For anyone who has read this far, thank you. It seems many of you were on antidepressants longer than me, and had worse withdrawals. I'm thankful it has gone different for me, but I really appreciate you reading this and would love to hear your insight on what you think. Thank you

I am a 23 year old guy. I have been exploring this forum for the first time and it has renewed hope that I might one day be able to come of these drugs. In the past I’ve dealt with opioid addiction even coming off of buprenorphine (currently over a year clean), but Effexor withdrawal is especially nasty. I am currently on 75mg of Effexor and 30mg of Remeron. I have been on on them for about 3 years respectively. I haven’t yet attempted to taper off of either drug and have had enough issues in my life to deal with. They are not causing me any obvious issues, but I cannot stand being at the mercy of doctors just so that I can live a normal life. I had asked my doctor about how he’d approach the issue and his suggestion (over the course of a few months with significant decreases) seemed to me to be absolutely ludicrous given the experiences I’ve read online. I do not know what I’m looking for here honestly. Perhaps just some hope.

Tapering Effexor. Jumped benzo's 6 months ago. Two weeks ago I hit a hard wall at 18mg effexor and have scrambled back up to 30mg. I'm barely non-functional. sx are a combination of benzo (muscle spasm/cramps) and AD sx (zap). I can write clearly only because it's the PM. In the AM... I am a mute tortured potato. I know I have violated 3s's. 1) Not Slow. 37.5 to 18 is way too fast. I was fooled by ease of 300 to 37.5 over 4 months (%50 reductions) and maybe confused by immediate release. Things are blurry. 2) Not Simple. After benzo withdrawal I deserve a break. I really didn't intend to quit AD this soon after. 3) Not Stable... I need advice on how to stabilize my situation. Was going to 30mg enough to recover? Would 37.5 or more be better? Should I bridge to another SSRI to stabilize on Effexor? What should I know about tapering SSRI being newly benzo free? Double waves?

Hello, I think it best to start a history of how I got here. I was also on antidepressants from 1986 to 1989. Was put back on AD’s in 1997. I was functional for years with periods of remission and periods of depression and anxiety. Single mother, worked, raised two girls, etc. I was on sertraline the longest. Over a period of about 4 years I began to slowly lose interest in socializing and doing things and became increasingly anxious and fearful, lost my confidence. Was bumped back and forth from Sert. 100-150mg a few times then stayed at 150. Was able to remain functional. By Fall 2017 my anxiety was constant and severe, panic attacks, increased depression, insomnia, no appetite, and much difficulty functioning, relying on lorazepam to get through the day. In January 2018 the sertraline was increased the max. 200 mg., did nothing. 2 months later was cross tapered over a week to Fluoxetine. Within 3 weeks was non-functional and could not continue working, a huge stressor. Could barely get out of bed or leave the house. Became worse on fluoxetine, horrible symptoms, severe anxiety, panic, irrational fears, depersonalization, racing thoughts, constant jerking, insomnia, panic, speech and word retrieval issues, suicidal ideation, barely able to drive or go out. Constant brain fog, difficulty speaking. 12 weeks later was switched to Paxil, within 2 weeks became even worse, and was switched to venlafaxine. Within 2 days was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for 3 weeks. The venlafaxine, mirtazapine and lorazepam were increased and olanzapine added. In Aug. 2018 my Psych. increased the Ven to 225 mg, in Oct. 2018 to 300 mg and the olanzapine to risperidone. With the risperidone, became very foggy, out of it, suffered from derealization, anxiety worsened again, had panic attacks. Dec. 2018 Ven was reduced to 225 mg and mirt.to 15. Became worse. Feb. 2019 months back to 300 mg. Stimulants added but made things worse those. Stopped Risperidone over 2 months, July 2018. In Aug. 2019 went to 225mg Ven, Sept. back to 300. I continue to be lethargic, emotionally blunted, disinterested, unmotivated, unable to cry, anxious, periods of heightened anxiety, fearful, uneasy, ruminating and worrying, no anticipation, pleasure, joy, the list goes on. I am bored with no motivation, interest or confidence. I am now 65 years old and had to retire on disability. Now that I am at 178mg I can think more clearly and word retrieval is better. Last year I began researching online. Found SA., read Robert Whitakers book, joined the Effexor withdrawal group. To put it mildly my eyes were opened. Learned about poop out, withdrawal, PAWS. That these drugs can keep you this way and how dangerous they are. I tapered from 15 mg mirtazapine (too fast) by breaking off pieces (off April 24, 2020). Severe insomnia, but do get broken sleep now. Started tapering from 300 mg Ven on April 1, 2020, by weighing beads. The first 5% taper was okay. Thought it would be easy, 10% here we come. I was so wrong. Starting with the 5/1 taper, began experiencing greatly increased anxiety and worrying, ruminating over and over, waking with anxiety, dread, unease (the intense morning unease does pass after about an hour) nervous stomach, intermittent heart palpitations. This starts around day 4 of the taper and can go 4 weeks without beginning to lessen its grip. I feel blah most of the day, it’s often a struggle to do even little things. I generally feel better in the evening, then by morning it's all back. I hold, but there has not been a day in over 3 years that I haven’t experienced anxiety and blahness. I’m close to 5 weeks into this taper and am just starting to feel it start to lessen. I know my CNS was destabilized and is oversensitive to drops. I am afraid that I have been kindled. Does this sound like kindling? Do people successfully taper when kindled? Could I also still be experiencing PAWS from being taken off sertraline, plus withdrawals from going off mirtazapine too fast, and from tapering venlafaxine? The lack of interest, motivation, anticipation scares me, between that and the fear and anxiety, it’s a terrible way to live. I am home all the time unless I go for a walk or out for necessities. Like others I am sure, I am frightened that I will not recover. I am determined to get off of psychiatric meds. It has been hard to wrap my head around how long this is going to take, and it keeps getting longer. I never again want to go through what I went through when I was in poop out and then taken off sertraline and then paroxetine, it was terrifying. I’m not sure what to do next once I stabilize from this last drop. It seems even 5% at once is too much. The 4+ weeks of severe (neuro) anxiety and ruminations, morning dread, nervous stomach and heart palpitations are not sustainable. I just can’t tolerate it any more. Being blah and not wanting to do anything and no interest is bad enough. I need to find a taper pace that is tolerable. Maybe at some point in the future I will be able to tolerate larger drops. I was thinking about the Brass Monkey slide method, at 1.25 for 4 weeks plus the hold. Maybe my system would accept that. But maybe not. The thoughts of how may years this could take is so disheartening. I need some help to move forward with a taper rate that I can tolerate. I am trying not to fear that I won’t be able to find a tolerable taper rate. I want to heal from this. Any help, wisdom and encouragement would be very much appreciated.

Hi my name is Alberto and I’ve tried a ton of ssris and antipsychotics over the past 7 years. Most recently I had a really bad experience with rexulti that gave me akithsia (which went away once I discontinued thank gawd) and my current ongoing bout with Effexor. I’m in a bit of weird situation in that I wasn’t in it for long and am looking for help as I’m at wit’s end and am seriously inching closer to suicide due to my symptoms. I started Effexor June 24 75mg. I immediately noticed really bad headaches and nausea but stayed he course as “that’s the side effects for 2 week”. By 5 days in the headaches had gotten really bad but I also had started getting burning sensations across my whole body and head. After dealing with this for a few days we reduced my dose to 37.5. The symptoms continued and got worse so we discontinued Effexor Monday 7/4. The first two days were a continued hell of body burning headaches nausea anxiety shortness of breath etc. The intense while body burning thankfully went away 2-4 days later tho lighter leg burning remained. The anxiety and shortness of breath have slowly gone away too but the headache and nausea feel worse/like they’ve stagnated. I’m two weeks post stopping this hell drug (for me) and almost a month since starting it but my nausea and headaches are just insane and making it impossible for me to live a good life and function well. It’s really impacting my work but most importantly my wife and kid. Has anyone every heard of or experienced anything like this? Did it go away, when? Did anything help you manage the symptoms til it did ? I have this fear that this is going to be a chronic thing I have to live with forever and tbh I won’t live long if that’s the case. The klonopin, zofran, and advil I take to manage do a meh job and I’m at wit’s end. Guess I’m looking for some success stories related to this and advice to help me get on the right track and ultimately save my life. Thank you and sorry for the really dramatic post, I’m just really hurting.

Hello everyone, I'm confused lately on what's going on. I'll share my history first: I was on Effexor, Lithium, Klonopin and Tegretol for various times for anxiety and bipolar (although I'm not sure if I was bipolar or just developmental psychology throughout my 20's). Anyway, I came off all drugs after tapering. The klonopin was the last drug I came off back in 2012. I healed from it all around 2 years later.... Here's what's strange after all these years of feeling better, I suddenly got derealization and depersonalization again along with adrenaline and some tinnitus. I'm just curious if this is because of stress in life OR if it's a setback. Perhaps my brain was still healing on the back burner? Maybe I took something that caused me to setback or overwhelming stress: only things I can think of I took the past month was nicotine gum, collagen supplement or retinoid creme for my face. Only things I can think of. Just strange after all these years off meds and healed, a few of the symptoms come back. Don't get me wrong, I've healed myself bucket loads in 10 years, but why some of the symptoms return? Can this happen because of stress or something we took? The derealization and depersonalization are the worst: I haven't been able to feel much emotion in 2 weeks now. Just terrible stuff. Thanks, D.

Hi there, I'm a new one here. Luckily, I've found this website because we don't have any single website which helps people who want to stop taking antidepressants in my country. My name is Anastasia, I'm 32. I work as a teacher at school. I'm married and have a lovely cat. I take antidepressants for 11 years. I've always been a shy person with lack of confidence. Since my childhood I've suffered from intrusive thoughts just about any imaginable staff. The first time I went to the psychiatrist was because of intrusive thoughts about my relationship. And my horror story began. I had various reasons for my constant painful thoughts. I had permament nausea, irritable bowel, which didn't let me leave my house, a sense of guilt, depressive thoughts, anxiety. constant tears and just liying at home and staring at one point - not all at once, of course. These were the reasons for many many visits to the doctor. Each time antidepressants helped a lot and I was back to life again. Can't say I was always in a good mood, but, nevertheless, I could live. I really don't remember the years and dosage of medicines, but in different periods I took amitriptilin, venlafaxine, zoloft, duloxetine, fluoxetine, phenazipame, atarax. One day pills stopped helping me. I changed three doctors hoping someone'll help me. The first one finally said that my brain had become tolerant to drugs and I had to quit. I tried so many times and always my thoughts came back and tortured me. The second doc said I had endogenous depression and it's ok to take antidepresants just for the whole life. She also said that if one medicine didn't help, so let's try another. And we tried and changed. My thoughts and depression didn't go away, but I felt not well, not bad. The third doc finally said that my diagnose was anxiery disorder and eating disorder. Insisted on treating my depression to the end and then quit. My latest medicine was venlafaxine 75 mg. But I decided to come to my first doctor and tried to withdraw like 37, 5 - one week, 18,75 - two weeks. Now it's three weeks I'm off. And it's just a hell. My thoughts (now about my weight and shape) have become more painful than they were on medicines. I find it hard to go outside because I feel really uncomfortable in all my clothes. It seems they are too tight. I'm depressed, angry and nervous. I can't do anything and distract myself. Even in my pyjamas I feel fat and uncomfortable. The story of my eating disorder: when I got married, my husband and I gained some weight. Then we started keeping to a diet. We lost weight and I felt just great for some time. Then it wasn't enough and I started to eat 1000 calories a day. But still I had a fat belly and wasn't satisfied with my weight and the way I looked. I gave up dieting and gained half the weight I had lost previously. Now I'm obsessed with my weight and it's just a nightmare. I think about it 24/7 but can't stop eating. Food is the only thing that gives me pleasure. I tried Gestalt therapy and CBT a bit, but I'm convinced that these sessions just do nothing. I understand everything, nod to the psychologist but don't believe it can help. I'm really confused now if I have to be on medicines or not and don't know what to do... Living like this is not a real life. The only wish I have now is to stop this suffering, by means of drugs or not, I don't know. I 'm studying this website and try to understand all the mechanisms. I'm not sure I'll manage to tolerate this for many years, it's been only three weeks but I'm completely exhausted. The reason why I wanted to quit was to have a baby, but it's practically impossible to think about pregnancy and birth now because of my condition. Seeking for help and support. Thank you in advance. PS: I was really frightened to start my topic here because of the country where I live, because of my nationality. But I want you to know that I just can't stand all the hell that is going on right now in the world. Of course, it adds a lot to my anxiety and depression.

Started withdrawal from venlafaxine a month ago (cold turkey) after 1 year on it at 37.5 mg. Everything was normal and mild (dizziness, vertigo, and insomnia). In the fourth week, I started experimenting burning thighs, pretty unpleasant. I had to reinstate venlafaxine at 37.5, within one week most symptoms are gone (occasionally I get the burning, but once I take the dose it slowly goes away). I will start a tapering plan with my psychiatrist because I no longer need these meds. Is anyone suffering from the same symptoms? The burning sensation can be incapacitating...

Hello Everyone. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’m a male in my mid 30’s. I suffer with panic disorder/ agoraphobia. I’ve been on 300mg xr for around 6 years, 5 years at 225mg before that. So around 12 years in total. I was doing well and had a pretty normal life, no panic attacks. I was happy. I started to noticed my heart rate was high, sweating a lot, feeling wired, not sleeping well. Almost like too much caffeine, I woke up one morning in February 2022 and my anxiety was back with the vengeance, panic attacks, terror, shaking, unable to leave home etc In May, my psychiatrist said to taper off the Venlafaxine 300mg I was on, over the next eight weeks and cross taper with Escitalopram when I got to 75mg of Venlafaxine. The Eight weeks of Tapering, was extremely difficult to say the least. Increased Anxiety, crushing headaches etc. It seemed to get unbelievably hard when I went from 37.5mg to zero. I literally couldn’t get out of bed for the next 2 months, panic, nausea, headaches, derealisation, crying, brain fog, tinnitus, vertigo. It’s only for being lucky enough to have a loving supportive family that I got through this period. I was thinking this was the uptake side effects of the Escitalopram but I came across a bbc interview of a lady who seemed to be experiencing the same thing as me and it clicked that it’s possibly the Venlafaxine. I think I’ve been naive, everywhere I read, all the literature said 6 to 8 weeks of withdrawal I’ve been completely off the Venlafaxine for 4 months, and this past month things are slightly improving. It’s still horrible but it’s not as bad as it was. The symptoms are starting to come and go where as before it was constant. is this the waves and windows? I’m getting hours of feeling normal, no sickness, no vertigo, no tinnitus, no anxiety, no electric in my head. I feel hopeful about my future and the anxiety just isn’t there. Then literally within minutes, the symptoms all come back, my head seems foggy, I feel totally over stimulated, vertigo, Nausea comes back, my brain feeling like it’s wrapped in aluminium foil. I feel like I’m in a dream. I’m fearful and feel despair. There seems to be no pattern or consistency as to when this happens. It comes and goes at all different times regardless of any outside stressors etc. Could this be Venlafaxine withdrawal?. Am I justified in how sick I feel and how hard it’s been? Is it a good sign im being to feel better? I would like to add, I am very regimental with regards to medication, I never miss doses. I don’t use any illegal drugs, I don’t smoke or drink alcohol. I’m quite clean living. I would greatly appreciate any input or thoughts. thankyou for reading.

I want to taper Effexor

Hi all, I have a 16 year history on SSRI/SNRI (see signature) as well as a few years on Mirtazapine and one year on Bupropion. The two latter I quit fairly easy without any tapering worth mentioning. I'm also a medical doctor. I've read this forum now and it's been very helpful. The main reason I'm now registering is I'd like to contribute to the Escitalopram tapering thread, where there seems to be a quite well established misconception about the water solubility of the drug (I don't seem to be able to repy there yet though). Escitalopram is, as the post states, "sparingly soluble" in water (and "soluble" in saline water). Sparingly soluble by definition means that it takes 30-100 ml of water to fully dissolve 1 g of a chemical (such as a drug). (I'll still to 100 ml instead of 30 - 100 ml for simplicity, and 100 ml is at the less solvable end of the spectrum) 1 g is 1000 mg. So, with 100 ml of water you can dissolve ONE HUNDRED 10 mg pills of Escitalopram (as the salt Escitalopram oxalate). To dissolve one 10 mg pill, you need only 1 ml of water. I suspect most people will use much more water than this, as 1. there is no reason to work with such a small amount of water and 2. people seem to think you need lots of water. So, let's say that you use 10 ml or more instead of the necessary 1 ml. Now, there is NO reason whatsoever to increase solubility by adding sodium chloride (i e, making a saline solution), worrying about decreased solubility in refrigerator temperatures, etc. Note, there is stuff in the pills that does not dissolve, but the active drug does, easily. On the term "sparingly soluble": from a required 30-100 ml of water to dissolve 1 g of Escitalopram follows that in 100 ml water the amount of solvable Escitalopram is 1 - 3.3333333... g. Compare this to table salt (sodium chloride) which I believe you can dissolve 36 g of in 100 ml of water. Hence, it is easy to understand why "sparingly" is appropriate.

Hello! I am in a hell of withdrawal. I have been on many different SSRI’s in the past and they all worked but had intolerable side effects. About a year ago I started sertraline, and when it didn’t work my psych put me on Abilify and lamotrigine. The Abilify seemed to help a bit but gave me crazy anxiety and tardive skenesis. The lamotrigine has never seemed to do anything. Since last March I have been trying to taper. I’ve had two terrible experiences when my doc told me to stop the S and A cold turkey. I’m back on low doses of both. Currently I take 12.5mg sertraline, 2mg Abilify, 200 mg lamotrigine and would like to get off all of them, if possible. I have terrible anxiety and crying spells that I’ve had since starting the sertraline and Abilify. Im wondering which drug I should try to taper first?? Thanks for your help!

Glad to know about this site, been looking for this kind of information for ages! Im 30, I have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety since 2019. I've been medicated ever since. Right now I'm just trying to try other type of treatments for my illness, so I'm leaving one of my actual meds, which is Effexor. I began last november. I was taking 150 mg of Effexor XR. On December I began taking 75 mg of Effexor XR, and on January I ended up in 37.5 mgs. This is where I am. Now, thanks to your site i`ve learned that a actually went really fast, and thats why I have been feeling not so well for the past few months. I did it like that because I've consulted 3 different psychiatrst and they told me they coldn't change any of my medication, and that maybe, I needed to increase the dose of even take another pill and, quite frankly, I am so tired of my contries mental health care system. Right know, I would love some advicies on everything. Thank you for your time, can't describe how helpful this site has been.

Knowing When to Finalize Tapering Off Venlafaxine 37.5 mg ER I was on Venlafaxine 37.5 mg ER for six months for anxiety/depression due to some very stressful life events. I began, with the help of my nurse practitioner, to taper from this medicine in late September. Initially, the taper regimen recommended was to take one capsule every other day for a week and then take one capsule every third day for a week and then stop. This was way too fast and I had to write to tell my therapist and my NP that I was struggling with withdrawal symptoms. So - I was told to go back to every other day for three weeks before moving to every third day. That was better. However, I have been on the every third day regimen for three weeks now. By the third day, I am having symptoms and am grateful to take my pill. Since there is no dose lower than 37.5 mg, should I just stop now and tough it out? I don't know what to expect. I am having a really tough time with this. Any advice? Thank you in advance.

Hi all. I’m writing on behalf of my husband. Bit of background: 2003 was put on Prozac for 3 months- no adverse reaction and subsequently various doses of venlafaxine which he successfully came off of with no issues. 2013 was switched from Venlafaxine to sertraline. Had ‘activation syndrome’ (extreme anxiety) for 8 weeks (always thought it was him) but went away once body used to drug. August 2021 had been on 25mg for years and thought he would taper over 2 months, successfully came off no issues or problems. january 2022- I was having a C section and he was a bit worried, nothing extreme though, just normal worry and decided to reinstate the Sertraline. Within days, ‘activation syndrome’ was back. He stayed on for 5 weeks and then doctor said ‘come off as you weren’t anxious or depressed to start with’ symptoms of withdrawal started but manageable. He thought after 6 weeks that it wasn’t withdrawal as nhs website said it should have gone after 2 weeks! March 2022- started mirtazapine at 15mg going up to 30mg. Fine for 3 weeks, but then developed activation syndrome and quickly came off. GP advised to go back on to sertraline at a bigger dose- ended up in a and e, so agitated! 3 weeks later, he thought that the mirtazapine might be less activating at a smaller dose, so went back on at 15mg… alas, 3 weeks later, activation syndrome is back! june 5th came off and has been battling severe anxiety, but generally, every other day! I am aware of windows and waves but don’t understand this. One day he’s perfect and the next can’t leave the house! He also started propanalol in June which we feel makes it worse as apparently it blocks seritonin to a degree, but makes anxiety a lot worse if he reduces (or maybe he did too big a jump). NHS have left us to it, no help! Have a private appointment on Monday. Questions are: If he is getting windows this early on, is it a good sign?! The only symptom he has is extreme anxiety/agitation which seems more a reaction to lack of seritonin, thus firing out tons of cortisol? Could he go on a low dose of Prozac to see if that helps? Prozac is the only antidepressant he doesn’t think caused activation syndrome?! is there any experiences with propanalol making matters worse? I think there is a slight improvement in the anxiety but considering it’s only been out of his system for 6 weeks I expect takes a lot longer to build new pathways etc/level out. Thanks for reading. Just want my husband back, it’s destroying me and him!

Original topic title: 17 years of antidepressants, 2 failed quitting attempts, on number 3 Hey everyone! I'm Lyudik; I'm so glad to have found a community of others in my shoes, because I don't know anyone personally in a similar position, and I'm feeling pretty isolated in this experience. I started Effexor XR in sophomore year of high school (2004) for intense anxiety (and subsequent depression). It worked well, without side effects. Near the end of senior year (2007), I wanted to start the next chapter of my life off meds, so I tapered with the help of my psychiatrist. Things were pretty stable that summer, but all hell broke loose when fall semester of college started. The stress of the transition brought the anxiety roaring back (but I didn't really notice other withdrawal-like symptoms). So I started back on Effexor (early 2008). Again, it helped me. By fall 2013, I had had years of therapy under my belt, and I wanted to try going off again. Same story. This time, my psychiatrist put me on Lexapro, 15 mg (early 2014). I've been on Lexapro since then (doing well), and decided I wanted to try going off again in 2021. Only this time I would go reaaally slow. I decreased to 10 mg in June 2021 and then to 5 mg in March 2022. This was before I found this forum, so I didn't realize that making big dose jumps (cutting it by half in March) was not advisable, even if the time between adjustments was long. With the first decrease in June 2021, I noticed an uptick in anxiety after about a month, but nothing unmanageable. But with the March adjustment, things have definitely gotten harder emotionally. Anxiety, feeling like every day at work is a battle for survival, just feeling overwhelmed by life. But it didn't happen immediately. This took weeks/months to develop. I've always assumed that my spirals after tapering were relapse (because I don't have other obvious symptoms, and anxiety was the primary issue). But now I realize that my first two tapers were way too fast. With this last one, I'm not sure... I think the dose jumps have been too fast, but the anxiety didn't come on immediately afterwards. I would be grateful for any input on that question. The other question is what to do about the awful feelings I'm experiencing now. I think I want to try reinstating, but to what dose? Should I go back to 10 mg (the dose prior to the last reduction?) And then how long should I stay there before trying to go back down again? Also, on a practical note, how do people usually cut their pills? Kitchen knife? Is there a technique to keep them from crumbling? Thanks for your feedback ❤️