How soon do most people experience WD symptoms after a reduction?

[sunflower]

Hi,

 

How soon after a reduction can one experience wd symptoms? Can one experience symptoms up to 2-3 months after a reduction?

 

Thank you.

 

Sunflower

[Rhiannon]

It's pretty variable, and it depends on which drug you're cutting, but there are a couple of rough patterns.

 

First, there are the immediate symptoms, which people experience as the drug level drops, within a few days of the cut. Then there are the symptoms that play out after that as the body adjusts to the change; those can play out and come and go and change over weeks or sometimes months.

 

Second, when people are cutting too often or too fast, there can be a sort of cumulative crash when they've just gotten way too far ahead of their body's ability to adapt, and that can come on fairly suddenly at any point in a taper of pretty much any med.

 

But there's also a pretty common thing with ADs in particular, where people taper or cut and don't have much trouble at first, and they feel like they're doing pretty good, and then they get hit suddenly further out, anywhere from about three months to a year. In that situation the person has been feeling okay but then they just get hit out of the blue, although there's often a stressful event that precipitates it.

 

Hope this answers your question. :-)

[sunflower]

Dear Rhi,

 

Yes it does. Thank you! So happy to see that you are doing well!

[texmax]

On 1/21/2015 at 7:07 AM, Rhiannon said:

É bastante variável e depende de qual medicamento você está tomando, mas existem alguns padrões aproximados.

 

Primeiro, existem os sintomas imediatos, que as pessoas experimentam à medida que o nível da droga cai, poucos dias após o corte. Depois, há os sintomas que surgem depois disso, à medida que o corpo se ajusta à mudança; aqueles podem jogar e ir e vir e mudar ao longo de semanas ou às vezes meses.

 

Segundo, quando as pessoas estão cortando com muita frequência ou rapidez, pode haver uma espécie de acidente cumulativo quando ficam muito à frente da capacidade de adaptação do corpo, e isso pode acontecer repentinamente em qualquer ponto do cone. de praticamente qualquer med.

 

Mas também há uma coisa bastante comum com os anúncios em particular, onde as pessoas diminuem ou cortam e não têm muitos problemas no começo, e sentem que estão indo muito bem e são atingidas repentinamente mais longe, em qualquer lugar três meses a um ano. Nessa situação, a pessoa está se sentindo bem, mas é atingida do nada, embora geralmente ocorra um evento estressante que a precipita.

 

espero que isso responda sua pergunta. 🙂

 

but what to do if I am suddenly hit in the middle of withdrawal

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by ChessieCat
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[PrayingForRestoration]

Thank you for your feedback, @Rhiannon.

 

What should we do if/when withdrawal symptoms occur? I've seen where people have increased the prescription dosage slightly if/when the symptoms persist. And I've seen where people "gutted it out." And I'm sure there are other options. 

 

Is tapering done differently for AD than a non-AD? For example, I'm weaning off Lithium (I think this is a non-AD) now and praying to wean off Bupropion (AD) without too much pain next. 

 

And is the tapering process always the same (ie. 10% reduction every month) regardless of AD, dosage and time (three-months or 30-years) on the prescription?

 

I apologize if these questions are in the wrong topic. 

[Yesyes123]

Hey, wondering if people have had experiences of WD Symptoms months after a reduction... or some story here to read about someone... thank you!4

[ChessieCat]

@Yesyes123

 

I've responded to your question posted in another topic:

 

1 minute ago, ChessieCat said:

 

This might happen, if nothing else has changed, if a drug has reached tolerance, also known as poop out or tachyphylaxis, which can happen after a person has been taking a drug for an extended time and it loses its effectiveness.  When this happens the doctor may increase the dose and the person starts to feel improvement then after some more time the same thing happens.  See:

 

tolerance-or-poop-out-or-tachyphylaxis

 

and

 

Tachyphylaxis, Reaching Tolerance or as It's Lovingly Known “Poop-Out”

 

Generally withdrawal symptoms after a reduction show up during the first 1 or 2 weeks after the dose is lowered and then they start to reduce.  Tolerance to a drug generally happens gradually over time and one sign that it is tolerance might be that when a reduction is made a person starts to feel better but the longer they hold then the symptoms start to worsen.

 

[Yesyes123]

Hi, has anyone here experienced WD symptoms that only started months after a reduction?

 

Beeing absolutely symptom free for +1 month and then starting to have symptons only then, from that reduction?

[ChessieCat]

@Yesyes123

When that happens it is a good idea to not assume that it is directly related to the reduction.

 

It's a good idea to be your own detective and consider what other thing/s happened at, around or leading up to the time that the symptoms increased.

 

Things to consider:  alcohol, late nights, going out, loud music, bright lights, playing lots of games on the computer or similar, watching movies with a lot of excitement/suspense/tension, different food/s, caffeine, external stress (job, financial etc), change/loss of job, relationship issues, death of a person or pet, moving, holidays/travel (even good stress can have an effect), change in routine, sickness, antibiotics, supplements started or stopped, exercise.

[Yesyes123]

Thanks so much for the kind response @ChessieCat.

 

The thing is, when I started fast tapering last year and after stopping Lexapro, I was actually fine and with minimal symptoms for around 2-3 months.

 

Now, I'm sure fast tapering and stopping the drug is a very different thing than reducing the dose by small increments. 

 

I'm just worried that since I had that experience of being almost symptom free for months and then crashing extremely hard from stopping the drug, the pattern of symptoms from reducing the dose might follow a similar timeline.

 

Like, reducing it and only starting to get hit with terrible symptoms 1 month or more later, like it happened when I CT'd.

 

So, in your view, if I make a reduction and have no symptoms at all after 1 month on the lower dose, it means that reduction did not cause any problems? 

 

Also, when I crashed last year, I had absolutely nothing else wrong in my life, it was 100% withdrawal from the drug.

 

What do you think about this @Gridley?

[ChessieCat]

@Yesyes123

 

Please discuss your own situation in your Introduction topic.  That way your history is in one place, it means you do not have to repeat yourself and it keeps the general topics "on topic".

[Gridley]

3 hours ago, Yesyes123 said:

 

So, in your view, if I make a reduction and have no symptoms at all after 1 month on the lower dose, it means that reduction did not cause any problems? 

 

I'm sorry, I don't know.   Withdrawal symptoms can be delayed and the time frame can differ from person to person.  One month would seem to be indicative that the drop was well-tolerated, but that's just my opinion based on my Lexapro taper which involved a 2-week hold, so the parallels with your situation aren't the same.  I do know that there were certain dosages where symptoms showed up after the 4-week taper and I had to hold longer and other dosages where I was able to proceed.  So it's going to vary.

[Rhiannon]

On 3/29/2021 at 11:07 AM, Yesyes123 said:

 

 

Like, reducing it and only starting to get hit with terrible symptoms 1 month or more later, like it happened when I CT'd.

 

So, in your view, if I make a reduction and have no symptoms at all after 1 month on the lower dose, it means that reduction did not cause any problems? 

 

 

This is actually my typical pattern for every bout of withdrawal off of SSRIs that I have had. There are acute symptoms, and then things seem okay, and then I get hit hard about two months out. I've seen a lot of other people have a similar pattern. I don't think it's that unusual. The timing can vary.

[baderaalfaydi]

The first time i stoped paxil the withdrawal was severe after 3 days.

The 2nd time i experienced brainzap after 3 days and severe symptoms after 3 week.

The third time is the same as 2nd time except i feel normal for about one week before severe symptoms start again.

[Yesyes123]

11 hours ago, Rhiannon said:

This is actually my typical pattern for every bout of withdrawal off of SSRIs that I have had. There are acute symptoms, and then things seem okay, and then I get hit hard about two months out. I've seen a lot of other people have a similar pattern. I don't think it's that unusual. The timing can vary.

 

Thank you so much. I am a huge fan of yours. All you say on this website is so precise and valuable. Thank you.