Saud: your opinion on my tapering history

[Saud]

Hi everyone my name is Saud this is my first post and i just want to share my experience and get your thoughts on my situation so far. 
 

I have a mild social anxiety since i was a kid. Nothing too serious at that time but when i was in my early 20s it started to be a problem for me. I wanted to be comfortable when i speak to a group of people without shaking or feeling afraid. I started to see a psychiatrist and he proscribed for me a seroxat CR 25mg and inderal 20mg. I started to take them and i worked like magic. All social anxiety symptoms disappeared and i was more confident and better in dealing with large groups.

 

One note worth mentioning is that at that time i had no idea about the withdrawal symptoms. Honestly i did not read about the medication before i started taking it. My bad . Probably thats why i had no issues tampering to 20mg from 25mg suddenly. This is a quick decrease that will cause me withdrawal symptoms now but for some reason it did not at that time( this was in 2015 after 3 years of 25mg). 
 

i 2018 i was about to get married and i said to myself why do i need seroxat. I was ok before that and i should be ok without it. It was a mild social anxiety and i can live with it. Also, i wanted to start my life with my wife drug-free. At that time i visited my psychiatrist and he alarmed me about the withdrawal symptoms and advised me to tamper it slowly (from 20mg to zero in one month) that was his advise. I followed the instructions in August 2018. At that time i did not tamper inderal. 

first week of August 2018 seroxat 20mg, inderal 20mg 

second week of August 2018 seroxat 15mg, inderal 20mg

third week of August 2018 seroxat 10mg, inderal 20mg

fourth week of August 2018 seroxat 5mg, inderal 20mg. 
 

i was ok until the forth week when suddenly i had a massive panic attack and depression. I didn’t had that much depression ever and i dont know what i was thinking at the time, it was all confusing time, but i did not relate this to coming off the seroxat. For 2 weeks i was suffering form those symptoms and coming off seroxat until insomnia kicked in. That was my breaking point and i went back to my dr and reinstated me to 20mg. I was asking him are those withdrawal symptoms and he was like no those are your panic coming back hard. 
 

after getting back to the normal dosage seroxat 20mg and inderal 20mg it took me 2 weeks to get better and 2 months to fully recover and get back to normal. 
 

that experience was unpleasant. So i started to read a lot about the tampering and withdrawal symptoms until i had a good and full idea and i postponed the tampering and got married (yay ). From Nov. 2018 until July 2020 i was in a good shape but i hated the idea of having to take those tablets for the rest of my life. I wanted to quit them so bad but every time i remember the withdrawal symptoms i get scared and just submit to the fact that i should not do it for now. My most scary symptoms was insomnia. Sleeping aid do help but not that much and my biggest fear was if i tamper seroxat, for how long i would have insomnia before it fades off. There are a lot of questions in my mind that i dont have an answer for but  tampering experiences and reading from others experiences helps all the time. 
 

Anyhow, in July 2020 i started tampering seroxat alone in much slower base than before. 
 

july 2020 seroxat 20mg, inderal 20mg

August 2020 seroxat 17.5mg, inderal 20mg no symptoms. 

September 2020 seroxat 15mg, inderal 20mg. The end of the second week had mild withdrawal symptoms. So i decided to stay on the 15mg of seroxat until the withdrawal symptoms worse off and the. I can go lower. In the fifth week of 15mg i started to have insomnia and depression started to kick in with panic and after 2 weeks of mild symptoms having that load to start getting heavier and specially with insomnia and having stress from work i went back to 20mg after 2 months and a half of tampering. 
 

now i feel disappointed at myself feeling that i might be on those medication for the rest of my life. Although they are working very well with me but i cannot keep thinking that one day i might be forced to come off them while i can do it now in a much better way. 
 

my only question is that how can i overcome insomnia while coming off. Will it get easier with time and how much time is that? 
 

your happy thoughts are most welcome. 
 

 

[Shep]

Hi, Saud. Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants. 

 

Please note we recommend tapering no faster than 10% per month, based on the previous month's dose (not the original dose). Here are some links to read:

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

Tips for tapering off paroxetine (Paxil, Seroxat)

 

On 11/15/2020 at 6:56 AM, Saud said:

Sleeping aid do help but not that much and my biggest fear was if i tamper seroxat, for how long i would have insomnia before it fades off.

 

What sleep aid are you taking? Please list the name of the drug or supplement and the dose.

 

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Please continue to use this thread to ask questions and document your taper.