928heidi: coming off 4 psych meds

[928heidi]

I have been on psych meds since I was 12 years old.  I am 39 now.  Last July, they added Wellebutrin to me to help with lessening depression.  I started having emotional contractions and severe emotional pain.  My psychiatrist finally said after being in his office nearly weekly with continued bad reaction and severe depression that he would like to take me off antidepressants .  I quit my job and he said that he would go cold turkey on the Wellebutrin because of all of the bad side effects and that it would be distressing.  I slowly tapered off and had little problems.  We decided to do Risperdal 2 mg next and I had been on it since I was 21.  I tapered by .5 mg and was bedridden for about a week each time and sick feeling but in between felt better than ever.  I went down to .5 was in bed for a week and decided to go down to nothing a week later, without the 3 weeks in between.  I could not get out of bed at all, was throwing up and felt no life, except for desperation.  I found this site and decided to go back to .5 tonight and wait another 3 weeks in between as I don't want to do irrefutable damage.  Glad I have found the site as I am feeling extremely hopeless.  Loss of any passion, love, caring, anything but bedridden and extreme exhaustion.  I hate reading that peoples Drs believe there is no withdrawal and hate that none of my Drs over several decades have ever told me of the harm that these drugs do.  I don't know if I am the type of person that can live through months and years of withdrawals.  Life becomes wasteful.  Hopefully I will find some inspiration as well as feel connection and support through this living hell.

[Gridley]

Hello, 928heidi and welcome to SA.

 

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.  Please include the dates of your Wellbutrin CT and when you started the Risperdal taper.

 

Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

 

We recommend tapering no more than 10% of your current dose every four weeks.  Some have to go slower.  Your taper of Risperdal was 25%, accounting for the withdrawal symptoms you've been experiencing.  These links will give you an understanding of why we recommend a slow taper:

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

Brain Remodelling 

 

Video:  Healing From Antidepressants - Patterns of Recovery

 

Tips for tapering off Risperdal (risperidone)

 

The symptom you describe are known and acknowledged as common in withdrawal from psychiatric drugs. Please read:

 

What is withdrawal syndrome.

 

Glenmullen’s withdrawal symptom list.

 

You wrote that you planned to reinstate .5mg Risperal tonight.  This should help to reduce your withdrawal symptoms.  It takes about 4 days for a dose change to get to full state in the blood and a bit longer for it to register in the brain.  It may take some weeks or months for your nervous system to settle down, so I would continue to hold at .5 mg until you stabilize and not reduce after three weeks as you planned.  Here is some information on reinstatement.

 

About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms. -- at least the first page of the topic

 

We recommend tapering only one drug at a time, with a rest period of at least three months between tapers.  Generally, we suggest tapering the more activating (stimulating) drugs first, leaving the sedating drugs to act as a buffer until you're ready to taper off them.  Once you've completed your signature, we will be in a better position to advise you.

 

Taking multiple psych drugs? Which drug to taper first?

 

This is your introduction topic -- the place for you to ask questions, record symptoms, share your progress, and connect with other members of the SA community.  I hope you’ll find the information in the SA forums helpful for your situation.  I'm sorry that you are in the position that you need the information, but I am glad that you found us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dj2010]

13 hours ago, 928heidi said:

I have been on psych meds since I was 12 years old.  I am 39 now.  Last July, they added Wellebutrin to me to help with lessening depression.  I started having emotional contractions and severe emotional pain.  My psychiatrist finally said after being in his office nearly weekly with continued bad reaction and severe depression that he would like to take me off antidepressants .  I quit my job and he said that he would go cold turkey on the Wellebutrin because of all of the bad side effects and that it would be distressing.  I slowly tapered off and had little problems.  We decided to do Risperdal 2 mg next and I had been on it since I was 21.  I tapered by .5 mg and was bedridden for about a week each time and sick feeling but in between felt better than ever.  I went down to .5 was in bed for a week and decided to go down to nothing a week later, without the 3 weeks in between.  I could not get out of bed at all, was throwing up and felt no life, except for desperation.  I found this site and decided to go back to .5 tonight and wait another 3 weeks in between as I don't want to do irrefutable damage.  Glad I have found the site as I am feeling extremely hopeless.  Loss of any passion, love, caring, anything but bedridden and extreme exhaustion.  I hate reading that peoples Drs believe there is no withdrawal and hate that none of my Drs over several decades have ever told me of the harm that these drugs do.  I don't know if I am the type of person that can live through months and years of withdrawals.  Life becomes wasteful.  Hopefully I will find some inspiration as well as feel connection and support through this living hell.

 

Sorry you are going through this, just thought would let you know that I also was on 4 psych drugs at the same time for around 15 years and felt hopeless with many failed tapers, finally managed to get off them and now after 2 years in withdrawal feel great and back to normal,

 

hope this gives you hope that it can be done