How does length of time on a medication affect withdrawal from it?

[bluepm]

I think we can be  scientific  by taking survey based on your  equation plugging in the numbers . there where suveries done in bezo community by age and number of  months to recovery. but there  have be strict compliance to certain parameters.    at the benzo community state any wear to 6 month 18 months  but between 0 to  18 months can be shear hell with improvements along the way and the there  odd cases that it takes  years to  recover   that is max  and mean cases.   But SA has different mythology for tappering then BB community .   I agree SA that is no fast rule  for recovery time no body wants give false hope  to anyone. 

 

[ChessieCat]

Please read this topic: 

[Songbird]

Recovery happens gradually over time.  Some of it happens during the slow taper, as the body adapts to the dose reduction.  There are so many factors involved, it just isn't possible to predict a timeframe.

[Altostrata]

I haven't seen any basis for a prediction of healing time for an individual.

 

Conventional wisdom says the following are at higher risk for longer recovery:

 

- Those who go off suddenly (cold turkey or close to it)

- Those who have been on the drugs for many years

- Older people

 

However, these are just suppositions based on perhaps faulty common sense. There's no definition of "higher risk" -- what does that mean? I have seen no evidence in journals or anecdotally that these conditions are predictive. There's very wide variability of individual tolerance for dosage reduction. Some people recover within weeks, some within months, some take years.

 

One thing is clear: Cold turkey off psychiatric drugs is a very, very bad idea. If you've been on a drug longer than a month, going cold turkey begs the most severe acute withdrawal symptoms. No one has any idea how bad it can be until they experience it. It's so bad, we don't even have the words for it. Don't do it.

[Ibnabu]

Do we heal at the end?. This is my question. I been asking this question many times without clear answer. Do heal at the end???? Regardless of the time it takes. Do we heal after 5 or 6 or 10 years? Do all symptoms disappear at the end????

[Daniel1269]

Hi,

 

Does anybody have any up to date insights on whether the duration of being on an SSRI ( and the time taken tapering off it) is linked to risk of WD?

 

I.e if the duration you spent tapering is a factor in determining WD risk, this means you are on the drug longer than a faster taper, and as a result of this there’s a higher chance of WD as per a group of studies indicating long term use has higher chance of WD?

 

Should this be considered with regards to tapering speed if you have only been on the drug say 4 months in my case, or should the 10% rule still firmly remain despite any duration that is over a month.

 

Also I obviously realise that too fast tapering can cause WD, I’m trying to determine if there’s a perfect balance that could be striked. (In my case for example)

 

Any insights greatly appreciated, many thanks!