Moderator Emeritus ChessieCat Posted August 25, 2017 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted August 25, 2017 For people who aren't able to either buy or borrow these books, some of the authors have YouTube videos which contain similar information. So close to the end!!! 🏁 Current from 16 October 2021: Pristiq 0.005mg ADs since ~1992: 25+ years - 1 unknown, Prozac (muscle weakness), Zoloft; citalopram (pooped out) CTed (very sick for 2.5 wks a few months after); Pristiq: 50mg 2012, 100mg beg 2013 (Serotonin Toxicity) Tapering Oct 2015 My full tapering program My Intro (goes to my tapering graph) My website PLEASE NOTE: I am not a medical professional. I provide information and make suggestions. Link to post Share on other sites
Nevertoolate Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 https://nypost.com/2016/04/05/are-antidepressants-making-women-sicker/ An excerpt....All you have to do is spend a few minutes on SurvivingAntidepressants.org, BeyondMeds.com, or SSRIstories.org to appreciate that we have created a monster. Millions of men, women and children the world over are suffering side effects, including complicated withdrawal routinely dismissed by their prescribing clinicians. Contrary to what Big Pharma would have you believe, weaning off antidepressants is extremely difficult, so choosing to take them could be signing up for a lifetime of medication use that creates and sustains abnormal states in the brain and entire nervous system. As a clinician who once believed in these medications, I have been humbled by what they are capable of. In fact, even when I have tapered women off of Celexa at extremely low increments of .001mg a month, it can be hard to imagine another class of substances on Earth so potentially complicated to discontinue. I think I need to stop reading these articles. I'm genuinely worried and scared I'll never recover completely from the long term effects of being on these for 30 odd years. I don't remember ever feeling this way before after coming off them the few other times I tried. Lexapro 10MG Almost continually for 25 odd years Reduced to 5MG beginning July 2018- end August 2018 August 2018 til now off completely Link to post Share on other sites
DrugfreeProf Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 If you have experienced improvement thus far, which it seems like you have, then you are likely to experience further improvement, according to what I've read by other heroes (aside from Kelly Brogan) and based on many, many people's experiences. Keep the faith! And yes, be careful what you read. Drugfree Prof Psychologist and Psychotherapist Prozac 20 mg for approx 3 months during 2000, withdrew, no w/d sx Prozac 10 - 30 mg Jan. 2008 - Dec. 2014 Ritalin 30-40 mg Jan. 2008 - Mar. 2015 W/d sx from Prozac started around 3 months after cessation--crying spells, depressed mood, lethargy; resolved in 8 - 12 mos. post cessation Used and continue to use a TON of alternative methods--meditation, mindfulness, nutrition. supplements, exercise, etc. Link to post Share on other sites
Nevertoolate Posted March 19, 2019 Share Posted March 19, 2019 Thank you. Yes some days it's hard to believe or keep the faith but we just have to keep pushing forward because there's definately no going back!! Lexapro 10MG Almost continually for 25 odd years Reduced to 5MG beginning July 2018- end August 2018 August 2018 til now off completely Link to post Share on other sites
Nevertoolate Posted March 19, 2019 Share Posted March 19, 2019 8 hours ago, DrugfreeProf said: If you have experienced improvement thus far, which it seems like you have, then you are likely to experience further improvement, according to what I've read by other heroes (aside from Kelly Brogan) and based on many, many people's experiences. Keep the faith! And yes, be careful what you read. Can you expand on what you mean about Kelly Brogan please? Lexapro 10MG Almost continually for 25 odd years Reduced to 5MG beginning July 2018- end August 2018 August 2018 til now off completely Link to post Share on other sites
DrugfreeProf Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 Kelly Brogan is one of the few medical doctors brave enough to speak out against psych drugs. Drugfree Prof Psychologist and Psychotherapist Prozac 20 mg for approx 3 months during 2000, withdrew, no w/d sx Prozac 10 - 30 mg Jan. 2008 - Dec. 2014 Ritalin 30-40 mg Jan. 2008 - Mar. 2015 W/d sx from Prozac started around 3 months after cessation--crying spells, depressed mood, lethargy; resolved in 8 - 12 mos. post cessation Used and continue to use a TON of alternative methods--meditation, mindfulness, nutrition. supplements, exercise, etc. Link to post Share on other sites
Nevertoolate Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 Ah no worries. Thank you. Lexapro 10MG Almost continually for 25 odd years Reduced to 5MG beginning July 2018- end August 2018 August 2018 til now off completely Link to post Share on other sites
Moderator Onmyway Posted June 27, 2019 Moderator Share Posted June 27, 2019 Recently I have read two books about anti-depressants and I have been having a hard time with my anger. Not anger so much about what I have been through (there is no use in that as what's done is done) but anger over what is still being inflicted on millions of people including kids. I am also angry at myself that I didn't read these books when they came out. I am a researcher exactly in this field and I can't believe I put my head in the sand for this long. At some point in my life I interviewed Joseph Biederman, the guy who has been paid millions of dollars by pharma and created the diagnostic "tests" for AHDH in children and popularized bipolar disgnosis in children. He talked to me about innovation in healthcare! This was way before he was discredited for all his conflicts of interest. I can't believe I ate it all up! I am glad that I know what I know now. It helps quell my fear that anxiety (what got me onto SSRIs) is not a permanent feature of my brain due to some imalance of chemicals and can hopefully be managed. At least I hope it has not become permanent after the SSRIs. I feel like everyone should read these books - Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker (the Mad in America founder) and The Emperor's New Drugs by Irving Kirsch. I am wondering if it would be useful to summarize these books for those of us who can't read as much in wd. I am only proposing this because I still see in some discussions people who believe the official line of the chemical imbalance. Heck, I believed it until a month or two ago. If you would like to get a response from me directly please type @Onmyway some place in your message so I get notified of your post. I am not able to follow all of the threads all the time. Aug 2000 - July 2003 (ct, 4-6 wk wd) , citalopram 20 mg, xanax prn, wellbutrin for a few months (don't remember dates), trazodone prn Dec 2004 - July 2018 citalopram 20 mg, xanax prn (rarely used) Aug 2018 - citalopram 40 mg (self titrated up) September 2018 - January 2019 tapered citalopram - 40/30/20/10/5 no issues until a week after reaching 0 Feb 2019 0.25 xanax/day, then 0.5/day (3 weeks) over to klonopin 0.25 once a day to manage severe wd March 6, reinstated citalopram 2.5 mg (liquid), klonopin 0.25 mg for sleep 2-3 times a week Apr 1st citalopram 2.0 mg (liquid), klonopin 0.25 once a week, citalopram (liquid) 4/14/19 -1.8 mg, 5/8/19 - 1.6 mg, 7/2719 -1.5 mg, 8/15/19 - 1.35, 2/21/21 - 1.1 (smaller drops in between), 6/20/21 - 1.03 mg, 8/7/21- 1.025, 8/11/21 - 1.02, 8/15/21 - 1.015, 9/3/21 - 0.925 (fingers crossed!) Supplements: magnesium citrate and bi-glycinate Link to post Share on other sites
Moderator Emeritus ChessieCat Posted June 30, 2019 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted June 30, 2019 (edited) On 6/28/2019 at 7:04 AM, Onmyway said: I am wondering if it would be useful to summarize these books for those of us who can't read as much in wd. There are many videos online. Video: Irving Kirsch: Emperor's New Drugs: Antidepressants and the Placebo Effect (1 hour 20 minutes) Video: Robert Whitaker: Our Psychiatric Drug Epidemic (50 minutes) Video: Do Psychiatric Medications Fix "Chemical Imbalances" in the Brain Video: Coming off Psych Drugs: A Meeting of the Minds (1 hour 15 minutes) Interview: Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher (51 minutes Gwen Olsen - ex pharmaceutical representative) Video: Ex-Big Pharma Rep: We’re Trained To Misinform -The Drugs ARE Dangerous (6 minute video) Video: Ex-Big Pharma Rep: Manipulating Doctors to Sell More Drugs (10 minute video) Website: The Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry Videos: Where did the chemical imbalance theory come from? (1 minute) How are psychiatric diagnoses made? (1 minute 30 seconds) Why do psychiatric drugs have withdrawal syndromes? (2 minutes) Can psychiatric drugs cause long-lasting negative effects? (1 minute) Do antidepressants work? (2 minutes) Video: Dr James Davies: The Origins of the DSM (35 minutes) Video: Prof Peter Gotzsche: Why Few Patients Benefit and Many are Harmed (50 minutes) Video: Interview with Prof Peter Gotzsche "Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime: How Big Pharma has Corrupted Healthcare" (16 minutes) Video: The DSM: Psychiatry's Deadliest Scam (1 hour 20 minutes) Video: Part 1 - Pharmaceutical Drugs and the Medical Industry (1 hour 20 minutes) Video: Part 2 - Pharmaceutical Drugs and the Medical Industry (1 hour 20 minutes) Video: There Are No Rules About Psychiatric Diagnosis - And That Must End! (1 hour 10 minutes) Video: Simple Truths About Psychiatry - Series of 10 by Dr Peter Breggin Edited June 30, 2019 by ChessieCat So close to the end!!! 🏁 Current from 16 October 2021: Pristiq 0.005mg ADs since ~1992: 25+ years - 1 unknown, Prozac (muscle weakness), Zoloft; citalopram (pooped out) CTed (very sick for 2.5 wks a few months after); Pristiq: 50mg 2012, 100mg beg 2013 (Serotonin Toxicity) Tapering Oct 2015 My full tapering program My Intro (goes to my tapering graph) My website PLEASE NOTE: I am not a medical professional. I provide information and make suggestions. Link to post Share on other sites
Armorall Posted November 23, 2019 Share Posted November 23, 2019 Does anyone have any book recommendations on Neuroplasticity? I found this one https://www.amazon.com/Neuroplasticity-Exercises-Cognitive-Flexibility-Depression-ebook/dp/B07SFDRX7V/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 3/21/19 started Bupropion XL 150 mg 3/21/19 started Risperidone 2mg 7/7/19 start Abilify half dose 5 mg. discontinue Risperidone 7/9/19 full dose Abilify 10 mg 7/29/19 discontinued Abilify due to panicky side effects 8/2/19 Began Latuda 20 mg 8/5/19 discontinued Latuda due to similar side effects 8/10/19 discontinued Bupropion after realizing it was causing the insomnia From 8/10/19 no drugs whatsoever Currently taking vitamin D, E, a probiotic and fish oil. Link to post Share on other sites
Bruci Posted August 17 Share Posted August 17 Is there nothing more recent on antidepressant withdrawal. Is this forum the only updated source? 1980s: First diagnosed with depression. Treated with a tricyclic. 1988: Switched to Prozac 20 mg. 1990s to 2010: On and off Prozac. Increased dose led to side effects. 2011: Put on Zyprexa. 2011: Work burnout and breakdown. Hospitalized for suicidal depression. Switched to Seroquel. Switched to Celexa 40 mg and lithium 300 mg. 2019: Stopped Seroquel. 2020 July: Decreased Celexa to 30 mg in attempt to alleviate sexual dysfunction. Worked somewhat. 2020 August: Decreased Celexa to 20 mg. Sexual function improved but w/d effects started. 2020 September: Maintaining Celexa at 20 mg. Experiencing w/d effects - fatigue, dysphoria, mood instability 2020 September 13: Increased Celexa to 30 mg due to w/d effects. Still on lithium 300 mg/day. 2020 October 3: Reduced Celexa to 27 mg. Started taper. 10% per month as recommended. 2020 October 18: Reduced to 24 mg. 2020 December 4: Reduced to 21 mg. 2020 December 23: Reduced to 20 mg (spacing out taper intervals due to persistent w/d effects) 2021 September 23: Several reductions over the past 9 months to 7.0 mg. Stressful life circumstances led me to feeling very depressed with suicidal feelings, so upped to the dose to 10 mg until I feel better. Link to post Share on other sites
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