Tmindai: OCD/Depersonalization

[Tmindai]

Hello everyone, my name is nick and I'm 19 years old. I have been suffering from depersonalization for about 11 months and it's very frustrating and scary. The motive behind me exposing my thoughts/feelings is to better understand the true cause behind these disturbing and uncomfortable feelings, but more importantly to strengthen the possible link between medication and my condition. My question is as follows: Has anyone found a psychiatrist or anyone else that works in this field, which was able to at least reduce there symptom? and how can someone like me be able to reach him/her to ask for advice on this matter.

[Petunia]

Hi Nick,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for posting.

 

I'm sorry you have been experiencing depersonalization for so long, I know what its like as I've been experiencing the same thing, on and off for almost 2 years, its a common symptom of withdrawal from antidepressants.

 

Are you on any medication now?  Are you trying to come off medication?  Did something happen in your life shortly before you started to feel this way?

 

From what I understand, most psychiatrists will add more medication or change medications in an attempt to reduce unwanted side effects, but I have never found any of these methods helpful and so decided to come off the medication.  I never experienced depersonalization on medication, or before medication, only after a too fast taper and stopping.

 

If you write a little more about your situation we may be able to be more helpful.

 

Petu.

[Tmindai]

Thanks so much for getting back to me on such short notice, I will answer your questions very briefly and if there is anything left unclear about my condition then I will add more detail to it.

 

I’m not taking any medications for now but I did take Zoloft(25-50mg) over a year ago, but didn’t take it regularly. And after a couple of weeks when started to notice that I was feeling tired and a little dizzy as well as less motivated I stop taking the drug and haven’t been on it ever since.

 

The feelings of depersonalization/derealization started to kick in after nearly 6 months. It was only then that I started to focus on these symptoms and have been researching for clues ever since. I also had  and still have some other symptoms such as dry mouth, extremely dizzy upon standing up and experiencing spasms during regular explosive exercises, as well as not being able to thing straight and being very forgetful and also being very tired sleepy/bored and incapable of truly enjoying anything. I do not remember exactly when each one of these symptoms started to bother me but I think it still should make sense.

 

 

So after experiencing these symptoms I tried to visit my psychologist which prescribed the drug in the first place. And just like you have mentioned without therapy or anything he just simply went on prescribing another SSRI medication this time it was(I don’t remember exactly but I can find out) either Fluvoxamine or fluoxetine(the same dosage as Zoloft), which I took for about a week or two and after experiencing no relief I reduced the dosage and after a day or two completely stopped taking the drug.

 

So for now I’m drug free but every second I can feel it’s effects. And the worst thing is that I have these suicidal thoughts, I’m very aggressive and dangerous to be around people. And this is all because I’m all alone and everyone (parents, doctors, my friends, my parents friends) either thinks that there is nothing wrong with me or they just say that they don’t understand and I shouldn’t worry about it. I’m very pleased that you were able to respond to me and please keep me as informed as possible about what might be available for me in the future in order to at least get a proper diagnosis on the matter, either from your personal experience or from the research which you have done for this field.

 

I can’t thank you enough for responding to my article and please get back to me at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely

Nick

[Jemima]

How long did you take Zoloft, Nick?  It sounds to me like you may be in antidepressant withdrawal and not taking the drug regularly may have compounded the problem.  Some people are far more sensitive to these drugs than others and may have a bad reaction after only a few doses.  It would be very helpful if you could put your psychiatric drug history in the signature area of your profile.  Directions:  How To Add Your Drug History To Your Signature

[Tmindai]

I took the drug irregularly  for couple of weeks, then I completely stopped. I didn't experience any of the symptoms before taking the drug, only when I was on it and after I came off.

[Jemima]

How long has it been since you last took an antidepressant? (It would be really helpful to have a history of what you took, when, for how long, et cetera, or we're going to be going back and forth with questions and answers some more.)

 

As I said, it sounds like antidepressant withdrawal syndrome to me, and there is no one we know of who knows how to reduce the symptoms or make recovery go faster.  It takes time and taking good care of oneself.

[Petunia]

I took the drug irregularly  for couple of weeks, then I completely stopped. I didn't experience any of the symptoms before taking the drug, only when I was on it and after I came off.

 

What symptoms were you having which caused you to be put on medication in the first place?