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yima How to handle multiple psy drugs taper. I'm close to finishing tapering Pristiq (yey!)


yima

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Hi everyone!

I've been reading this forum for quite some time and I've found the information here extremely useful, so I thank everyone for it.
In particular, I want to thank Altostrata for this wonderful post:
http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/876-tips-for-tapering-off-pristiq-desvenlafaxine/

To sum it up, my objective is to be medication free, except for Ritalin 50 mgs that I take for ADHD and want to keep taking. This is what I've been taking:

- Pristiq: started at 50 mgs, then 100 mgs. Took that for almost 2 years, been tapering Pristiq using capsules done at a compound pharmacy and it's been a hell of a ride... but I'm content I'm finishing with this poison. Right now I'm at 12 mgs a day (4 mgs every 8 hours). It was very hard at times, but doable

- Clonazepam: 0.25 mgs now. During these 2 years I oscilated between 0 and 1 mgs. Recently I was able to get from 1 mg to 0.25 while tapering Pristiq (pretty cool, eh???)

- Caffeine, unfortunatedly, I'm very dependant on this. My dosage is hard to measure since I don't use pills, but must be between 300 & 400 mgs. I know this sucks for ADHD and anxiety and want to quit ASAP

I think the best plan is to finish tapering off Pristiq and once I feel stable, start tapering both clonazepam and caffeine together.
Since caffeine makes me anxious and clonazepam makes me sleepy, once I start lowering both medications, I should have an hyper activation due to lowering clonzapem, but since I'm lowering caffeine also, it should be mitigated. Makes sense?

My doubts are this:

1) When to jump off Pristiq?
I've read in a study somewhere (sorry, can't find it), that 10 mgs showed no results different from placebo.
Does it makes sense to lower from 12 to 8 mgs for a week, then from 8 to 4 another week and finish it off

2) How sudden caffeine withdrawal should be, considering my main issue now is a certain apathy and I don't want to get it worse? I found that when I lowered clonazepam to 0.75 this apathy went away mostly. Unfortunatedly, I wasn't able to hold it, since I was invaded by a huge anxiety (most likely due to being in withdrawal from Pristiq)

Thanks for reading all this!

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  • Administrator

Hello, yima.

 

You've done this in a very considered way, congratulations.

 

Please consider making smaller decreases in Pristiq now. Many people find the last part to be the most difficult.

 

Disregard the study you saw -- it has to do with treating symptoms of "depression," not tapering. Your nervous system still needs to let go of the Pristiq slowly.

 

It's hard to say when to jump off completely. 12mg a day is still a fairly substantial dose. I would taper until I'm under 1mg per day, at least.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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Thanks, Altostra.

I guess I just want to get over with this as soon as possible. I'd love to be medication free by new year, but I guess it's not worth if it means going through withdrawal in a non functional and painful way.

I'll take your advice again.

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  • Moderator Emeritus

Hi Yima, I agree with Alto, slow down the taper at the low doses. I was tapering effexor, the same type of drug as

pristiq and quit at about 1mg after a year of tapering.  It was too soon and I didn't realise I should have slowed 

down at the end. I reinstated that 1mg (5 beads) after suffering from awful withdrawal and it was another year 

before I was stable enough to start tapering again. It would have been just another few months if I had slowed

down and I wouldn't have had the withdrawal!  Slow is the way to go.  Congratulations for getting this far and I'm

glad you found us before making the same mistake I did! 

**I am not a medical professional, if in doubt please consult a doctor with withdrawal knowledge.

 

 

Different drugs occasionally (mostly benzos) 1976 - 1981 (no problem)

1993 - 2002 in and out of hospital. every type of drug + ECT. Staring with seroxat

2002  effexor. 

Tapered  March 2012 to March 2013, ending with 5 beads.

Withdrawal April 2013 . Reinstated 5 beads reduced to 4 beads May 2013

Restarted taper  Nov 2013  

OFF EFFEXOR Feb 2015    :D 

Tapered atenolol and omeprazole Dec 2013 - May 2014

 

Tapering tramadol, Feb 2015 100mg , March 2015 50mg  

 July 2017 30mg.  May 15 2018 25mg

Taking fish oil, magnesium, B12, folic acid, bilberry eyebright for eye pressure. 

 

My story http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/4199-hello-mammap-checking-in/page-33

 

Lesson learned, slow down taper at lower doses. Taper no more than 10% of CURRENT dose if possible

 

 

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  • Moderator Emeritus

In my experience (with my own body and also talking to other people) caffeine withdrawal is much easier to cope with than withdrawing from a med, and faster too. What usually happens is headache and fatigue for three or four days and then fairly rapid normalization, and it's all over within two or three weeks. I don't think you'd need to reduce by the 10% method or anything, you could probably cut down by a third and then by another third and then off. You might want to time the reduction so that you will have a few days off from work or other busy responsibilities.

 

We have found that in psych med withdrawal, cutting out the caffeine is usually a big help with any kind of anxiety or over stimulation.

Started on Prozac and Xanax in 1992 for PTSD after an assault. One drug led to more, the usual story. Got sicker and sicker, but believed I needed the drugs for my "underlying disease". Long story...lost everything. Life savings, home, physical and mental health, relationships, friendships, ability to work, everything. Amitryptiline, Prozac, bupropion, buspirone, flurazepam, diazepam, alprazolam, Paxil, citalopram, lamotrigine, gabapentin...probably more I've forgotten. 

Started multidrug taper in Feb 2010.  Doing a very slow microtaper, down to low doses now and feeling SO much better, getting my old personality and my brain back! Able to work full time, have a full social life, and cope with stress better than ever. Not perfect, but much better. After 23 lost years. Big Pharma has a lot to answer for. And "medicine for profit" is just not a great idea.

 

Feb 15 2010:  300 mg Neurontin  200 Lamictal   10 Celexa      0.65 Xanax   and 5 mg Ambien 

Feb 10 2014:   62 Lamictal    1.1 Celexa         0.135 Xanax    1.8 Valium

Feb 10 2015:   50 Lamictal      0.875 Celexa    0.11 Xanax      1.5 Valium

Feb 15 2016:   47.5 Lamictal   0.75 Celexa      0.0875 Xanax    1.42 Valium    

2/12/20             12                       0.045               0.007                   1 

May 2021            7                       0.01                  0.0037                1

Feb 2022            6                      0!!!                     0.00167               0.98                2.5 mg Ambien

Oct 2022       4.5 mg Lamictal    (off Celexa, off Xanax)   0.95 Valium    Ambien, 1/4 to 1/2 of a 5 mg tablet 

 

I'm not a doctor. Any advice I give is just my civilian opinion.

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mammaP: really, you needed to stay at 1 mg (from the lowest commercially available of 50 mgs) for a full year? You couldn't drop from there?

How is that possible? I mean, sounds almost like homepathy. I'm not saying I don't believe you, I've noticed the same thing when dropping clonazepam, from 1 mg to 0.25 it's pretty easy, but that last pill is a pain... why is so?

 

Rhi: yes, I definetedly should quit that crap. I can't believe it's actually harder for me than desvenlafaxine or clonazepam! Maybe since there's no pressure to quit, I don't. But deep down I know it's very bad for me.

 

Edit: I already have on me 60 capsules of 3, 2 and 1 mg each :D

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  • 1 month later...
  • Administrator

yima, how are you doing now?

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Altostrata! Thanks for asking :D

 

Well, I went on vacations for 2 weeks close to new years eve to the beach and since I knew I would be more relaxed and wanted to get over this soon.

So I basically went down from... 12 mgs around Christmas, if memory serves well, to cutting heavily the past week (from 4 to 1 mg in one week).

Now I'm on 1 mg. Emotionally, I feel GREAT, very happy that I'm about to drop this treacherous drug.

But physically and mentally, I'm very tired, unable to focus and the worst, I never felt so dizzy in my life! Barring being drunk, of course.

It feels like the same kind of diziness.

It's not constant, but at times it's pretty bad. I can stand, do stuff, but I feel it.

Hope it improves soon, because I'm not backing down now :D

Oh, the headeaches are there, but by far, the worst symptom is the dizzyness.

 

There is no way to treat that symptom, right? I know nausea can be treated, but this must be a strong, chemical imbalance in the brain that I would say can't be dimished?

 

Thanks!

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I was wondering this... All the time I took it, I always felt very tired.

How is it possible that a drug that makes you tired, exhausted, generates the same effect when you are withdrawing from it?

There must be something complex at work, I assume, because it makes no intuitive sense.

Any ideas?

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  • Moderator Emeritus

Hi Yima, thanks for checking in. I'm glad you had a good holiday. I cannot stress enough the need 

to slow down at the low doses. It is the last few mgs that are the hardest and need the most time,

especially with SNRIs like pristiq and effexor, they are about the worst because of the short half life. 

 

The dizziness is a withdrawal symptom and is a sign that your nervous system is struggling to cope. 

This is a good read and explains the need to slow down at low doses. http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/6036-why-taper-paper-demonstrates-importance-of-gradual-change-in-plasma-concentration/

 

I was just like you and so pleased to finally be ready to quit after tapering for around a year. It was a huge

mistake, and I ended up quite ill with withdrawal. There were windows of feeling ok but they were fleeting.

 

It is not a chemical imbalance in your brain that is the problem, it is that your brain has been growing and

renewing itself for so long with the drug, when the drug is taken away slowly the brain can adjust and renew

itself without trauma. Take the drug away fast and the brain and nervous system struggle to catch up.

 

Rhi explains this beautifully here..http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/6447-best-of-sa/?p=91582

**I am not a medical professional, if in doubt please consult a doctor with withdrawal knowledge.

 

 

Different drugs occasionally (mostly benzos) 1976 - 1981 (no problem)

1993 - 2002 in and out of hospital. every type of drug + ECT. Staring with seroxat

2002  effexor. 

Tapered  March 2012 to March 2013, ending with 5 beads.

Withdrawal April 2013 . Reinstated 5 beads reduced to 4 beads May 2013

Restarted taper  Nov 2013  

OFF EFFEXOR Feb 2015    :D 

Tapered atenolol and omeprazole Dec 2013 - May 2014

 

Tapering tramadol, Feb 2015 100mg , March 2015 50mg  

 July 2017 30mg.  May 15 2018 25mg

Taking fish oil, magnesium, B12, folic acid, bilberry eyebright for eye pressure. 

 

My story http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/4199-hello-mammap-checking-in/page-33

 

Lesson learned, slow down taper at lower doses. Taper no more than 10% of CURRENT dose if possible

 

 

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Thanks for the reply, Mamma.

I've been dropping for about a year, I've only accelerated recently.

 

I hope I'm part of the group that is able to quit it fast, because I have 1 mg for... tomorrow and Monday, and then I'm out.

Anyway, I'll tell you guys about it.

Worst case scenario, I can take a few 50 mgs pills on Monday to the compounding pharmacy to get them prepared, but I'd rather not.

I won't take it on Monday, if I feel I can't stand it, I'll take it and ask for an urgent preparation there.

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  • Administrator

yima, I can understand why you want this to be over but if I were you, I'd figure on another month or two of compounded drugs for tapering.

 

The dizziness is a withdrawal symptom. It's possible it will go away, but it's also possible it's a warning sign that you're going off too fast for your nervous system.

 

Thanks for letting us know how you're doing.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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  • Mentor

All these drugs are complex.  The wrost thing is they never, ever have done any reliable trials of the stuff.  We are human addicted guinea pigs.  I hope you are cutting your dose, very, very slowly, as per the tapering recommended on this site.

1992 Dothiepin 375mg 8 weeks, exhaustion/depression.  Serotonin syndrome, oh yes!  seizures . Fell pregnant, 3rd baby, Nitrous Oxide, 3 weeks mental hospital pp psychosis. zoloft tegretol.

Feb 1996 ct tegretol, tapered Zoloft 8 weeks. as (unexpectedly)  pregnant. Steven died after 3 days.(Zolft HLHS baby).  98 had run in with Paxil, 2 tablets, 3 weeks taper, survived.
2005..menopause? exhausted again. Zyprexa, mad in three days, fallout....  Seroquel, Effexor, tegretol,   and 8 years of self destruction. Failed taper.
Damn 1/4 valium... nuts again! .fallout, zoloft 100mg  seroquol 400mg mirtazapine 45 mg  tegretol 400mg.  Mid 14 3 month taper. Nov 14 CRASH.
Mid 15 ....   75mg  seroquel,  3 x 1800mg SJW  2 week window end of December followed by 6 week wave
5/2 68mg seroquel, 2.5 x 1800mg SJW::::20/2 61mg seroquel, 2.5 x  SJW::: 26/2 54mg seroquel, 2 x SJW::::21/3 43mg seroquel, 1 x 2700SJW :::: 23/4 36mg seroquel 1 x 1800 SJW
15/5 33mg seroquel, 1 x SJW::::   28/5 30mg seroquel, 1 x SJW::::;  18/6 25mg seroquel 1/2 SJW::::, 11/7 21mg seroquel 1/2 SJW::, 26/7 18mg seroquel 1/2 SJW:::, 9/8 12mg seroquel :::, 16/8 6mg seroquel ;;;;, 12/9 0 jump.

23/9  3mg.....,  27/9 0mg.  Reinstated, 6mg, then 12mg.............  LIGHTBULB MOMENT,  I have  MTHFR 2x mutations.  CFS and issues with MOULD in my home. So I left home, and working 150km away during week, loving it.

Oh was hard, panic attacks first week, gone now, along with the mould issues.

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Well, quick update!

Doing pretty good now (knock on wood!!!).

My last pill was on Saturday evening. On Saturday I went out and had a bit too much beer... around 2 litters. Pretty stupid when withdrawing from ADs, I know.

Soooo, Sunday was the worst day so far withdrawing. Maybe there was an expectation on my side, but I think the worst problem was the hangover. NO WAY I'm going to drink again until I'm completely out of the woods.

 

But anyway, had some PRETTY dark thoughts on Sunday, woke up terrified and couldn't sleep, so I took an extra 0.125 mg clonazepam, on top of the 0.25 I was taking. Monday was much better and each day I'm getting better and better!

I feel quite happy, a bit anxious at times, TIRED AS HELL, but the dizziness is almost gone.

 

The worst symptom now is that I'm extremely tired. Granted, I haven't been sleeping as much as I should, but I feel it's exacerbated with this.

 

But bottom line, I'm EXTREMELY proud of myself for getting rid FINALLY of this poison and since every time I reduced the dosage I felt bad intermediately and the worst days were the first 3/4 and after that black Sunday I started feeling good, I'm very happy to call this a success (KNOCK ON WOOD AGAIN!!!). This sense of pride and accomplishment has been extremely helpful and has helped me grind my teeth and take the pain when I needed to, knowing I was beating this little bastard (edited, I was going for a stronger word).

 

Keep you guys posted, thanks for everything and I'll make sure to make a post talking about my findings and how much it helped to break down the pills into capsules in the general forum.

Hopefully it will help some poor desperate person like I was some long months ago.

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  • Moderator Emeritus

Yima, please reconsider. It's actually at the lowest doses that the taper needs to go the most slow, not the other way around. Please look at the charts here: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/6036-why-taper-paper-demonstrates-importance-of-gradual-change-in-plasma-concentration/

and you can see why. You are getting the largest drop in effect at the lowest doses and that's very abrupt and hard for your nervous system to adapt to. 

 

We find that when people come off ADs too fast, even if they do okay at first, they generally get hit with a delayed withdrawal around three to nine months out, when unfortunately it's too late to fix things and reinstate and go slower.

 

Please reconsider. We have a lot of experience with this. I have seen hundreds of people in withdrawal and I have seen dozens do exactly what you are doing, for the same reasons (frustration, a desire to "get off the poison") and it's almost always a bad outcome and even when they get through it, it's never pleasant, they usually end up back on the meds within a year.

Started on Prozac and Xanax in 1992 for PTSD after an assault. One drug led to more, the usual story. Got sicker and sicker, but believed I needed the drugs for my "underlying disease". Long story...lost everything. Life savings, home, physical and mental health, relationships, friendships, ability to work, everything. Amitryptiline, Prozac, bupropion, buspirone, flurazepam, diazepam, alprazolam, Paxil, citalopram, lamotrigine, gabapentin...probably more I've forgotten. 

Started multidrug taper in Feb 2010.  Doing a very slow microtaper, down to low doses now and feeling SO much better, getting my old personality and my brain back! Able to work full time, have a full social life, and cope with stress better than ever. Not perfect, but much better. After 23 lost years. Big Pharma has a lot to answer for. And "medicine for profit" is just not a great idea.

 

Feb 15 2010:  300 mg Neurontin  200 Lamictal   10 Celexa      0.65 Xanax   and 5 mg Ambien 

Feb 10 2014:   62 Lamictal    1.1 Celexa         0.135 Xanax    1.8 Valium

Feb 10 2015:   50 Lamictal      0.875 Celexa    0.11 Xanax      1.5 Valium

Feb 15 2016:   47.5 Lamictal   0.75 Celexa      0.0875 Xanax    1.42 Valium    

2/12/20             12                       0.045               0.007                   1 

May 2021            7                       0.01                  0.0037                1

Feb 2022            6                      0!!!                     0.00167               0.98                2.5 mg Ambien

Oct 2022       4.5 mg Lamictal    (off Celexa, off Xanax)   0.95 Valium    Ambien, 1/4 to 1/2 of a 5 mg tablet 

 

I'm not a doctor. Any advice I give is just my civilian opinion.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey guys.

 

First of all, thanks for the concern, Rhi. Honestly, I wanted to get it over soon, so I closed my eyes and went forward

Don't know if I took the right call or not, but here I am!

 

Anyways, I've been free of desvenlafaxine for 3 weeks now. Feeling pretty good in general, just at night I feel a bit of an angst. No, quite a bit of it.

Because of that, I've upped clonazepam from 0.25 mgs that I was taking to 1/4 or 1/2 of a 0.25 mgs pill (so, that's 0,3125 and 0,375).

My Dr. wants me off clonazepam, been with it for almost 2 years now (with a break of a month in the middle). I agree fully, it's just that I feel pretty bad at night alone.

So, he gave me pregabaline (Lyrica), 50 mgs to replace clonazepam.

I'm a bit (scratch that, VERY) reluctant to start on a new drug to replace the last one. He says it's better than clonazepam, but I'm fearful of starting another one and getting into this rollercoaster again... at least with clonazepam, it's the devil I know, right? I was able to ween down to nothing (granted, only for a month, but it counts for something... right?).

 

Anyway, what do you guys think? Is it easier to withdraw from pregabaline afterwards? Would 50 mgs be equivalent to what I'm taking of clonazepam?

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  • Moderator Emeritus

I don't think it is a good idea to try switching your other meds in the midst of withdrawing from Pristiq, that is likely to destabilise things even more.  Having to updose on your clonazepam to cope with Pristiq withdrawal shows that your Pristiq taper really was too fast.  Your fast taper could really come back to bite you over the next few weeks or months.  I would seriously consider reinstating a small dose of Pristiq and waiting to stabilise, and then doing a much more gradual taper. 

2001–2002 paroxetine

2003  citalopram

2004-2008  paroxetine (various failed tapers) 
2008  paroxetine slow taper down to

2016  Aug off paroxetine
2016  citalopram May 20mg  Oct 15mg … slow taper down
2018  citalopram 13 Feb 4.6mg 15 Mar 4.4mg 29 Apr 4.2mg 6 Jul 4.1mg 17 Aug 4.0mg  18 Nov 3.8mg
2019  15 Mar 3.6mg  21 May 3.4mg  26 Dec 3.2mg 

2020  19 Feb 3.0mg 19 Jul 2.9mg 16 Sep 2.8mg 25 Oct 2.7mg 23 Oct 2.6mg 24 Dec 2.5mg

2021   29 Aug 2.4mg   15 Nov 2.3mg

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  • Administrator

I would not count on pregabalin replacing clonazepam. Pregabalin alse requires tapering.

 

Better to directly taper the clonazepam, very gradually. If I were you, I'd wait at least a couple of months post-Pristiq before making any more drug changes.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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  • 2 months later...

*following 3 posts moved from symptoms forum, title added

Very bad depression when trying to quit caffeine?

Hey guys! Hope you don't mind and don't consider this off-topic.

 

It's not an anti-depressive per se, but the terrible withdrawal effects I get when substantially lowering my dosage are worse than when I quit Desvenlafaxine (free for almost 4 months now, thanks in great part to your great input!).

 

The thing is that I've been trying to quit caffeine. I take about... 4 coffees a day, which is around 450 mgs. It's a pretty high dosage. 

 

I know the strategy: lower the dosage gradually. Can be done, harder than with a pill, of course, due to dripping a grinded bean into water it's an inexact science.

 

But to go to my actual question... the 2 times I lowered caffeine substantially, I get a terrible depression, bordering on hopelessness.

I have no motivation to do anything, everything seems dark, I can only think on the negative side of life, etc.

 

Has anyone went through something that extreme? While browsing the web for info, most blogs are pretty bland in the description of the symptoms. But you run around descriptions of what I'm feeling every once in a while, such as this person: http://www.menprovement.com/benefits-of-being-caffeine-free/#comment-2936

 

Guess I just need some support and knowing I'm not the only one.

 

Thanks!

 

Edit: drank a coffee 30 minutes ago, that feeling of impending doom and gloom is gone. I feel great. Caffeine is no joke.

Edited by Petunia
added note
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I hear you! I have abig problem and thats coffeine, i tried to quit it earlier bc coffeeine truly makes my brain go nuts , now days i can drink and feel kinda good but i know what u mean about that depression, hopelessness and no motivation.. if im without coffee a dew days i get extreme hedache, and feel that way :/ i have tried quit many times, idk really how long these symtoms last after quitting coffee.

2007 - 2013: was on citalopram (tried to quit a few times, never worked, always went back on. max dose 40mg)

2012-2013: was tapering my citalopram all down to 2,5 mg then quit.
2013/aug: Took  my last pill 

W/D hit me bad after a few weeks off my medicine.

2014/August: 12 months off (much improved)

2015/April: 20months off. ( much improved, still some symtoms comes in waves, but not so intense.)

2015/june: 22months off. FELT different than before, all shakings suddenly stopped, feel much better. a fantastic feeling!

2016/Feb : 2 years and 6 months off, END of my suffering. I feel perfectly fine and back to normal. 
2018/Oct: Iam still feeling great. It is hard to believe my own story when I read back, what I went through!

 

 

 

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Well, depends on the person.

Some people, even after years on a high dose, have 2 weeks of headaches, a bit fatigue and are golden.

Others, after 3 months they still have huge fatigue, depression, spacing out symptoms. Only get better at the 6 months range.

 

Sooo... I think I'm leaning more to the latter, unfortunately.

 

After the draining experience that was quitting desvenlafaxine last year and all my responsibilities, I'm in no way prepared to go through that now... But I will start planning a tapper... it's pretty bad that I have gastroenteritis, bad acid reflux and I just drank coffee because I couldn't tolerate the withdrawals.

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  • Moderator Emeritus

Hi yima,

I moved the topic you started about depression and caffeine withdrawal to your introduction thread because it relates to your own situation and needs to be considered in the context of your previous drug and withdrawal history.

 

You may be experiencing withdrawal symptoms from a too fast taper off pristiq.  Are you still taking clonazepam and ritalin?

 

Please put your drug and withdrawal history in your signature. Putting a short version of your drug and tapering history in your signature helps people understand your context, it appears below each of your posts. Here are instructions for how to do it:

 

http://survivinganti...your-signature/

 

Petunia.

I'm not a doctor.  My comments are not medical advise. These are my opinions based on my own experience and what I've learned. Please discuss your situation with a medical practitioner who has knowledge of tapering and withdrawal...if you are lucky enough to find one.

My Introduction Thread

Full Drug and Withdrawal History

Brief Summary

Several SSRIs for 13 years starting 1997 (for mild to moderate partly situational anxiety) Xanax PRN ~ Various other drugs over the years for side effects

2 month 'taper' off Lexapro 2010

Short acute withdrawal, followed by 2 -3 months of improvement then delayed protracted withdrawal

DX ADHD followed by several years of stimulants and other drugs trying to manage increasing symptoms

Failed reinstatement of Lexapro and trial of Prozac (became suicidal)

May 2013 Found SA, learned about withdrawal, stopped taking drugs...healing begins.

Protracted withdrawal, with a very sensitized nervous system, slowly recovering as time passes

Supplements which have helped: Vitamin C, Magnesium, Taurine

Bad reactions: Many supplements but mostly fish oil and Vitamin D

June 2016 - Started daily juicing, mostly vegetables and lots of greens.

Aug 2016 - Oct 2016 Best window ever, felt almost completely recovered

Oct 2016 -Symptoms returned - bad days and less bad days.

April 2018 - No windows, but significant improvement, it feels like permanent full recovery is close.

VIDEO: Where did the chemical imbalance theory come from?



VIDEO: How are psychiatric diagnoses made?



VIDEO: Why do psychiatric drugs have withdrawal syndromes?



VIDEO: Can psychiatric drugs cause long-lasting negative effects?

VIDEO: Dr. Claire Weekes

 

 

 

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