Pandemonium713: new to antidepressant tapering

[Pandemonium713]

 

How do you cut your pills into such small amounts

Edited March 27, 2019 by manymoretodays
moved post from tapering

[Pandemonium713]

Hello everybody I am trying to come off 10 mg of Prozac. I jumped off this dose 2 weeks ago but I am not coping so I have taken 5mg the last 2 days. Should I go back to 10 mg and taper very slowly off this or stay on 5mg and taper slowly off that? 

 

I was coming off venlafaxine because of long term sexual dysfunction, emotional numbing, losing my creativity and bladder problems. 

My psychiatrist told me to go down 75mg once a week. I was on 225. I struggled jumping off the last 75 so we tried 37.5 but still terrible withdrawal. He swapped me over to 10mg of Prozac because he told me there weren’t many instances of sexuL dysfunction on that one but from what I’ve read online this is not true at all.

 

I went up to 20mg briefly coz I was struggling with the change but then went back down to 10mg which is the lowest dose on the market here to minimize side effects but it has not helped. When I went off it for 2 weeks many of my side effects were alleviated. My bladder suddenly after 10 years could hold so much more urine, sexual dysfunction much better and my creativity and emotions were coming back but I was also losing my mind. I have been so aggressive towards my family. I am constantly screaming or crying. I’m feeling better now that I’m back on 5mg but still a bit depressed. Feeling lost mostly. I even fantasized about killing my own mother at one point I was have very violent thoughts and urges. (This has me very worried I’ve never had such a specific fantasy about killing my mum just passing fleeting thoughts) I don’t have a very good hold on my temper normally but this is 10 times worse than normal. 

 

My psyhiatrist never warned me any of this would happen and he is a specialist psychiatrist for people with drug and alcohol problems with the hospital that helped me taper off the 6mg of lorazepam I was prescribed after I jumped off methadone 50mg cold turkey (because I had been MAT before and it took me about 2 years to taper off methadone then suboxone and both made me so incredibly sedated I slept most of those 2 years away - I did not want to lose my job at the time that I slipped on opiates so I went back on the program instead of taking a couple weeks off to withdraw off opiates which would have been way easier but I didn’t want to admit to my boss that I had fallen off the wagon and by trying to hide it I made it worse). I’m just giving this background so you realize that my psychiatrist should know better than to taper me off antidepressants that fast. Expert of drug withdrawal my ASS. 

 

Since 10 mg is the lowest dose on the market however I am not sure how to taper 10% off the last dose? 

And should I go back to 10mg and then taper slowly? Because I am not sure since I already tapered so fast off the venlafaxine and does that mean I should start again completely? Or just continue trying to taper off 10mg of Prozac/fluoxetine? 

Any help would be invaluable. 

I know some of these questions can probably be answered by reading through some of the threads but they are so long I don’t have the patience. 

[Carmie]

Hi Pandemonium, 

 

Welcome to SA. I’m sorry you are in this dilemma. Yes, jumping off meds cold turkey can certainly put one into withdrawals. I’m glad you’ve gone back to 5mg of Prozac  I’d stay there for now as your body may find the 10mg a bit too high after being off it for a couple of weeks. I’ll ask the other mods for some input on that too. 

 

Could you please fill in a drug signature, someone will send you the link. Your venlafaxine taper was too quick, most doctors don’t have a clue about tapering safely. It may take a while for you to stabilise because jumping off at 37.5mg is pretty much cold turkeying. Can you please put the dates and amounts of the meds you were on in the last two years into your signature. Thank you. 

 

There are a number of ways of getting off meds on the lower doses, one can use a scale or water titrate them. I’m actually water titrating. I’m down to 7.25mg. I wouldn’t be thinking of tapering as yet though, you will have to stabilise first from the changes you’ve just made. We should never taper until we are stable. 

 

Wishing you all the best in your healing journey 💚

[Gridley]

9 minutes ago, Carmie said:

 

Could you please fill in a drug signature, someone will send you the link.

 

Here's how to fill out your drug signature:

 

To give members the best information, we ask them to summarize their medication history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly.  

 

Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

 

This link gives you information about tapering off fluoxetine:

Tips for tapering off Prozac (fluoxetine)

[Altostrata]

Welcome, Pan.

 

Yes, I would stay at 5mg Prozac for a good while, at least a month, and let your nervous system settle down from the drug changes.

 

What times of day do you take bupropion? How does it affect you? How's your sleep?

[Pandemonium713]

I thought I had already done my signature sorry. 

I take buproprion once a day. 

I am taking a sleeping pill called Dominal that is popular in Europe because I am having a lot of trouble sleeping at the right times. It's a neuroleptic. 

I don't seem to be getting any bad side effects from buproprion because when I went off prozac for two weeks a lot of the side effects I got from SSRI medication stopped so the buproprion does seem to numb me out or mess with my bladder or lower my sex drive. So there's no hurry to get off that one but I would like to eventually. I don't want to be on it too long in case I develop side effects that only show up over time. 

I also was prescribed this because I have ADHD and apparently it helps with that too because it targets dopamine and noradrenaline instead of serotonin.  

[Pandemonium713]

I just started using a small scale to measure it exactly coz when I snap the pill in two it doesn't always snap exactly down the middle

[Pandemonium713]

My psychiatrist just told me to try taking the 5mg of prozac every 36 hours 

[Carmie]

8 hours ago, Pandemonium713 said:

My psychiatrist just told me to try taking the 5mg of prozac every 36 hours 

 

Hi Pandemonium, 

 

That’s not a good idea. The brain needs stability and taking the prozac every 36 hours will make it unstable. You need to take it every day at the same time. 

 

I’m glad you got a scale, that will definitely make the measurements more accurate.

 

Take care, sending hugs🤗

[Pandemonium713]

He said it has a longer half life than most SSRIs which is why every 36 hours. 

[Pandemonium713]

I have gone back up to 10mg because I was in so much emotional pain it feels like burnout but between 5-10 times worse depending on the day and time of day. I am trying to stabilize on 10mg again. My emotions are balancing out but now I feel the more physical symptoms...temperature disturbances, hot and cold sweats, headaches, muscle aches, and this constant weird cold drip down the back of my throat

[Carmie]

Hi Pandemonium, 

 

How are you doing?💚

[Pandemonium713]

I’m not doing so good. I can’t handle even a minute amount of stress at the moment and I’m living with my mother at the moment so that doesn’t help coz we rile each other up a lot. 

I need some more advice though if you guys can help me. I don’t know who else to ask. 

1st - I wanna come off fluoxetine as soon as I can because it causes my bladder walls to tighten so I can’t empty it properly which creates overflow and then I lose control of my bladder a lot. It’s a rare side effect. I didn’t realize it was the fluoxetine until I stopped taking it for those 2 weeks and suddenly after years my bladder was filling up normally again and emptying normally again. But I was prescribed buproprion/Wellbutrin a couple months ago on top of my normal SSRI at the time which was venlafaxine and since I’ve only been on it for 2 months I kind of think I should try get off that one first because he longer I stay on it the harder it will be to get off. Whereas I’ve been on SSRI for 10 years so that ship has already sailed. But now that I know the SSRI is causing my bladder problem I want to get off it ASAP. Is it a good idea to taper off them at the same time? 

2nd - according to that dr Healy guy and his guide to getting off antidepressants he recommends supplementing imipramine with your normal SSRI or swapping them over completely because it’s the mildest antidepressant. Has anyone tried this?