MaidofErin: wondering why I am still feeling dreadful one year after withdrawal

[MaidofErin]

Hello,

  I'm new here and , after taking my last does of paroxitine last August , am still feeling exhausted most of the time, plus getting a fair bit of inflamtion pains around my body. I'm feeling dreadful now so I'll leave it at that for now, but if anyone wants to know more, ask away and I'll answer best I can when I feel less wrecked. Thank you.

[Shep]

Hi, MaidofErin.

 

Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants. 

 

Here is some information on withdrawal to get you started: 

 

How psychiatric drugs remodel your brain

 

Healing from antidepressants. Patterns of recovery video (4 minutes)

 

The Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

 

 

Please add a signature.  Include drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements in the last 12-24 months. Also include supplements. This will help us give you the most accurate advice we can. 

• Any drugs and supplements prior to 24 months ago can just be listed with start and stop years. 
• Please use actual dates or approximate dates (mid-June, Late October) rather than relative time frames (last week, 3 months ago) 
• Spell out months, e.g. "October" or "Oct."; 9/1/2016 can be interpreted as Jan. 9, 2016 or Sept. 1, 2016. 
• Please leave out symptoms and diagnoses. 
• A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs. 
• This is a direct link to your signature:  Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

As you let us know more about your drug history and your pervious taper and symptoms, we can better guide you in your recovery. 

[MaidofErin]

Thank you Shep, I will look at them when I finished replying to you. I will try to give you the info you've asked for as accurately as I can but my memory of some details is either fuzzy or gone, so I apologise in advance. Would I be able to edit the signature if I remembered anything else? Please excuse my spelling too, I have a problem with mixing letters up.

  1. 1995-Antidepressants prescribed in England, an SSRI , cannot remember which one. I cannot remember the finish date but think I was off them by September 1997.

   2. September/October 1999- Prescribed Prozac ?20mg and Xanax 0.25mg B.D. in Ireland. Returned to England in February 2000 and GP did not continue prescription, cannot remember details ?

   3. Prescribed Prozac in 2001- cannot remember how long for.

    4. Prescribed Xanax 0.25mg-0.5mg in England in Summer 2005. Moved back to Ireland in April 2006 and GP refused to prescribe them so I had an abrupt withdrawal.

    5. Prescribed Zispin in Summer 2012. Stopped after 4 or 5 weeks abruptly with no problems!

    6. December 2017- Prescribed Seroxat/ paroxitine 20mg. Dose increased to 30mg in Summer 2018. Started tapering in March 2020. Used Prozac "bridge" and liquid Seroxat half way through. Final dose in August 2020.

  I hope this is OK? My memory is quite fuzzy in some places and I also wonder if my memory has been affected by the menopause, which started in 2014 and I feel like I still haven't got over!

P.S. I am still taking 5-HTP tincture, 7 drops 3 x a day. Sorry, I only just remembered. I know this influences seratonin as well and have come down from 10 drops 3x a day but I know I need to get off it too and that will be a struggle, as I feel my energy levels, which aren't good at any time, crashing when I due a dose.

[Shep]

@MaidofErinThanks for providing your drug history. I've added it to your signature, which shows up beneath each of your posts. 

 

On 8/14/2021 at 8:03 AM, MaidofErin said:

P.S. I am still taking 5-HTP tincture, 7 drops 3 x a day. Sorry, I only just remembered. I know this influences seratonin as well and have come down from 10 drops 3x a day but I know I need to get off it too and that will be a struggle, as I feel my energy levels, which aren't good at any time, crashing when I due a dose.

 

When did you start taking the 5-HTP? You're correct that it affects serotonin. For more, please see:

 

5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan) and l-tryptophan

 

As you stabilize from your other drug changes, you'll likely need to taper slowly from this, no more than 10% a month based on the prior month's dose. 

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

You may find some helpful information to handle your symptoms here: 

 

Non-drug techniques to cope with emotional symptoms

 

We don't recommend a lot of supplements, as many members report their nervous systems are simply too fragile to handle them. However, magnesium and fish oil tend to be calming to the nervous system and many people report they do help. Please only add in one supplement at a time and at a small dose. For more, please see:

 

 King of supplements: Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil)

 

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker

[MaidofErin]

Hello,

  thank you for replying. I started the 5-HTP around the time of my last dose of Seroxat, so I reckon I've been taking it for about a year now. I recently dropped the dose from 10 drops 3x a day, to 7 drops 3x a day. Could that have been what caused the "wave"? I was in better form yesterday but today I overslept until gone 12 and woke up feeling a bit battered. I have been waking up before 9 in the mornings recently and have had one night in the last few weeks when I didn't get to sleep for hours but otherwise have slept quite well. Should I increase the drops at all or should I stay at 7 drops for a while and then reduce again? I am not feeling ill at the moment but I haven't much energy.

   I was taking some Omega fish oil then stopped but have started taking them again because I read they helped with dry eyes; my eyes had become very inflamed and sore at the inner corners last week but are much better now. I have been taking a ZMA supplement; should I change to just Magnesium and which type? I have read up a lot about coming off SSRIs but sometimes find it hard to remember what I've read, and sometimes forget to take things as well. It's a pity I hadn't found this site before I decided to come off Seroxat, I think I'd have done it better but I don't regret what I did at all and I am resolved to keep off all ADs, no matter what as TBH, I'm not sure I was ever genuinely depressed in the first place. If I was, it was to do with the situations I was in and was mild; a course of St. John's Wort would have done me but they have to be prescribed here in the Republic of Ireland!

  All told, the worst symptom I have is fatigue, sometimes extreme. I can cope with the pain, the gastro symptoms and even the occasional insomnia but the fatigue is crippling at times and makes me barely able to function. That was what prompted me to go looking up withdrawal from SSRIs again and how I found ye!

[Shep]

19 minutes ago, MaidofErin said:

I started the 5-HTP around the time of my last dose of Seroxat, so I reckon I've been taking it for about a year now. I recently dropped the dose from 10 drops 3x a day, to 7 drops 3x a day. Could that have been what caused the "wave"?

 

Yes, this could very well be the cause. If the symptoms are too severe, you may want to updose by a drop or two and see if that helps. The other option is to hold. 

 

Going forward, reducing by no more than 10% per month off the previous month's dose will be best. 

 

 

20 minutes ago, MaidofErin said:

I have been taking a ZMA supplement; should I change to just Magnesium and which type?

 

I'm not sure what a ZMA supplement is, but here is the information on magnesium:

 

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker

 

If you decide to increase the 5-HTP, please do not add in magnesium until you find out how the updose works. Only one change at a time is best. 

 

The rule of 3KIS: Keep it simple. Keep it slow. Keep it stable.

 

Please let us know what you decide to do and how you're feeling. 

[MaidofErin]

Thanks Shep!

   I think I might stay at the 7 drops, for today anyway, read up on the links you've sent me and see how I go. 

p.s. ZMA is a combination of Magensium, Zinc and Vit B6 which is supposed to help one sleep. I've had problems getting off to sleep all my life, even all though my childhood according to my  late parents. Funnily enough, although I have a sleepless night about once every 3 or 4 weeks since I've been off the Seroxat, I'm actually getting off to sleep quite quickly most nights! The only reason I went to the GP in the first place was because my husband was ran into by a woman at a traffic lights, his boss replaced him while he was off sick with a back injury and I had insomnia for a few weeks after that. He prescribed the Seroxat and I, being so wrecked from sleep deprivation and the stress of us being back on the dole again, didn't do the research I would normally have done and here I am! They knocked me out at night for a couple of months, then it was back to the usual, lying awake for hours, then oversleeping in the mornings and me too sedated to go back and tell the GP they weren't helping me anymore! More fool me, eh?

[Shep]

22 hours ago, MaidofErin said:

Funnily enough, although I have a sleepless night about once every 3 or 4 weeks since I've been off the Seroxat, I'm actually getting off to sleep quite quickly most nights!

 

That's great your sleep is getting better. Are you able to sleep all night? 

 

 

[MaidofErin]

I am most nights; I'll just have the odd night every few weeks when I don't drop off until the small hours, or am even awake after it's got light. I've just bought a face-mask to block out light as I read it not only helps improve quality of sleep but eases dry eyes and I do think I'm sleeping more deeply and my eyes are much better!

  The one downer is that I forgot to take one of my 5-HTP doses on Sunday and I have overslept yesterday and today and am wrecked tired. I have slept well on both nights though and I am only very tired, I don't feel ill the way I have been that lead me to finding this site, so I can cope with that!

[Rusty1]

You signature shows an extremely rapid taper. You could be feeling I'll effects from your taper last year or maybe you avoided withdrawal symptoms and as discussed above your current supplements are the trigger. 

 

Best to make any changes one at a time so you can identify what each item may be doing. 

[MaidofErin]

Yes, I am beginning to think that myself. As I have said in a previous post, it's a pity I didn't find this website before I decided to wean myself off Seroxat and supplement with 5-HTP. I can't change what I did though so I'm just going to be very careful and taper off 5-HTP dead slowly!

[MaidofErin]

Post moved from:  important-topics-about-symptoms-including-sleep-problems

 

Hi, I took my very last dose of Seroxat 2 years ago this month and I'm wondering about sleep, particualarly napping.

 

I have always had problems getting to sleep, even as a small child. I managed this for most of my adult life by having naps, either when I got home from an early shift when I was a nurse, or when my son was having his afternoon nap or when he was at school. Unlike at night where I have always seemed to have something inside me "fighting" sleep, I would have no trouble dropping off during the day. Quite the opposite, I'd be struggling to keep my eyes open. When I was doing nights, I'd drop off into a deep sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and never needed blackout curtains. The only thing apart from the alarm, that I'd set for 6PM, that would wake me would be very loud, ongoing racket, such as one day when 2 old men started having an argument in our street, one below my window and the other fella about 50 yards away! I still went back to sleep once they shut up though!

 

My problem now is, I still need to sleep in the day because of the irregular hours my son and husband work, and because I still have the odd night where I'm awake for hours but I just can't! When I was first put on Seroxat I would still have a nap some afternoons but would be woken up by a stressful dream and a pounding heart, feeling even worse than if I hadn't lay down at all- cortisol surge! After a while I found that no matter how knackered I was I just could not drop off in the day any more and I wonder if there is something in my subconscious that's stopping me going to sleep in the day? Is it because of the dreams and the cortisol surges, which were much worse after a day-time nap than in the mornings after a night's sleep. I find I'm not really getting them in the mornings anymore- I wake up because I need a wee these days, lol. However, I am still finding it very difficult to drop off during the day when I am really wrecked and could do with a nap. In fact I think I NEED naps because I still have the late-onset insomnia from time to time as well.

 

I've also started continuous combined HRT in May and am getting on fine with it. I had quite a good day yesterday but stayed awake late and would love to have a lie down now but there's no point. The worst times are Christmas Day and New Year's Day because my son starts work at 2 O' Clock in the morning on both 26th December and 2nd of January and he can't get out of it. This means I have to stay awake from about 9AM when I naturally wake up until I get back from taking him to work about 2.45 AM because I hate driving in the dark and so drive well below the speed limit. I'm dreading it this year and I'm worn down with the driving and I know he won't have passed his test by Christmas ( we've been nagging him to start lessons and he still hasn't arranged them!), especially as I will have to do all the late ones because my husband's on nights! Tonight he's finishing work at 9PM and it'll be getting dark. He works in the city and too many of the drivers in that city are rubbish, and some of them are stupid to the point of dangerous!  I really need to be able to go for naps again but I can't and wonder if anyone has any advice or will this eventually wear off and I will be able to go back to being able to top up my poor sleep deprived body with naps again? Thanks.

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by ChessieCat
added Intro topic title before merging with intro topic / added spacing

[ChessieCat]

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