chickie: hi and intro

[chickie]

Hi I'm new to this site I've been on antidepressants for 25 years and off I have tried to take of myself off multiple antidepressants and always had bad withdrawal. Initially I tapered too fast which with because of my ignorance of tapering but now I have tapered off of the last 2 anti depressants which were effexor and celexa over a year to a year and a half with withdrawal after long tapers. I've been on 15mg of prozac for eleven weeks with no improvement. The doctor thinks it's too strong for me and wants to give me less but I think it's withdrawal. Went from 30 of Celexa to 5 in four weeks while also starting prozac per the MD'S suggestion. He said I would have no problem switching from one SSR to another.

I'm in hell and have already taken a leave of absence from work. I don't Want to take another big but it's so hard to function. Not sure if I should urge the MD to give me more prozac?? I'd love any advice or experience you can share.

[SquirrellyGirl]

HI Chickie, 

 

Welcome and thank you for filling out your signature block!  Could you perhaps clarify the sequence of events for us?

 

I am still a little confused though you filled in your signature.  

 

How long were you on Effexor and up to what dose?  How did you do the taper off?  You said you took one to two years to do so but how you did that would help the mods out.  Did you drop by increments of the pill dosages and then hold in between?  For instance, dropping down by 75 or 37.5 mg?  Did you jump off of 37.5 mg, the smallest dose available of Effexor?

 

How long after the jump from Effexor did you start Celexa?  Did you have WD from Effexor during the taper?  Did you have WD immediately after jumping off?

 

Did the Celexa help?  When you say withdrawal started at 12 mg of Celexa after tapering down over 1.5 years, what were your withdrawal symptoms?  What was the previous dosage?

 

Sorry for all the questions but I think this will help the mods better advise you.

 

You are one of the old-timers like me who have been on these meds 20+ years.  Our brains remodeled to take the drugs' actions into account, trying to restore homeostasis, and the longer we've been on the them, the more sluggish our systems seem to be to adapt back when cutting down.  Very frustrating, I know!

 

You've probably already been surfing around the site learning stuff, but I'll just give you some useful links to help if you haven't:

 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1024-why-taper-by-10-of-my-dosage/

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/6036-why-taper-paper-demonstrates-importance-of-gradual-change-in-plasma-concentration/

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/603-what-is-withdrawal-syndrome/

 

I'm sure there are more that would be helpful but I don't want to overload you!

 

I don't know the answer about the Prozac but am wondering if your nervous system had adapted back as you tapered, and taking too much Prozac would definitely upset things if it is above and beyond where your nervous system healed to.  Basically you'd be having start up side effects of Prozac on top of Celexa withdrawal, and it is hard to tell the two apart sometimes.  I can see that you'd want to increase the Prozac in hopes that it would cancel all of this out, but unfortunately it very well may make symptoms worse because the start up side effects would get worse with more.  At least that's my reasoning!  So, your doctor may be doing right by you (for once! LOL!)

 

I'm sure a mod will be along shortly.

 

Again, I'm glad you found your way to SA!

 

SG

[SquirrellyGirl]

 

 

Did the Celexa help?  When you say withdrawal started at 12 mg of Celexa after tapering down over 1.5 years, what were your withdrawal symptoms?  What was the previous dosage?

 

Yikes, that was a nonsensical question at the end!  Ignore that last one.  So you got down to 12 mg Celexa but had withdrawal, so is that when you reinstated to 20 mg? Then from 20 your doctor had you do a relatively fast taper off over 4 weeks while starting Prozac... is that correct?

 

Thanks!

SG

[chickie]

Tapering Trazodone

 

Been on and off AD’s for many years. Was CT ‘d from Ativan at detox 6 yrs ago and was so sick for many years .

 

I was put on Prozac before the Ativan and tapered over a year and got down to 5 mg then massive WD.

 

PCP switched  me to Celexa then and added Trazadone for sleep and the withdrawal was so bad from the Prozac that I had to resume the Ativan 0.5 mg twice a day for the last two yrs plus 40mg of Celexa and I am currently tapering the Trazadone at 5% since January but am having terrible WD now . Need advice about increasing it a bit to stop the WD and stabilize.

 

I have gone through a few AD withdrawals and can never seem to get off these drugs without loosing my ability to function when I get to a lower dose . 

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by ChessieCat
added Intro topic title before merging with intro topic

[ChessieCat]

It's been 6 years since you last posted so we need you to provide information about what you have been taking/stopped since January 2016.  Please do this by updating your drug signature following these instructions.  We need to see details for the last 2 years and a summary of anything before that.  Because we need to be able to see your drug history at a glance and so we do not have to read through it to get the information, please change your signature so that it provides the staff with the needed information:  drug name, dose and the date you started taking that dose.

 

Instructions:  Withdrawal History Signature

 

Q:  What drugs are you currently taking?  Please reply in a post (separate to the requested drug signature) what you are taking, the dose and the TIME you take the drug.

 

Once we have more information we will be better able to answer your question/s.