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Sunnydays: 11 months off 16 years of ssri (CT)


Sunnydays

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Do whatever you have to do. I hope it works for you -

 

I'm sure that after a year of being off these drugs, it's the last thing you want to do.

 

We make our own decisions about our plan forward, and we're here to support you.

 

No matter what happens, keep coming back, tell us how you're doing. I hope you feel better soon.

 

We all know it often takes 2 - 3 years to turn the corner during recovery, especially if you were on them for 16 years.

 

Protracted SSRI withdrawal is brutal and pushes us to our limits, sometimes beyond our limits. It is more brutal for some than for others. 

Hell hath no fury as an SSRI scorned.....

 

Prozac:   20 mg 1996 – May 2003 CT to 0 mg; by Aug 03 CRASH then protracted WD 3 yrs

Zoloft:    2004 few weeks;, CT to 0 mg

Effexor:  2005 few months CT to 0 mg; bad withdrawal. 

Lexapro:  10 mg from 2009 – 2011; cut dose in half to:

Lexapro:    5 mg from 2011 – Feb. 2014; CT to 0 mg; 2 months of fatigue, followed by:
Aug - Oct 2014 Lexapro WD Insomnia Wave; sleeping very good from Nov 2014 - Nov 2015; broken sleep pattern Dec 2015 - Jan 2016

Dec 2014 - present: Brutal Lexapro WD ear ringing/head ringing/head pressure lasting for 14 months now.

 

24 months SSRI-free  

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So I'm going to ask my doc for liquid prozac and try to go back on. I don't want to I really don't I will have wasted 16 months and even though I have made some improvements in 9 months I feel so desperately depressed to the point nothing means anything and I get zero enjoyment from being alive. I have a lot of physical pain and chronic fatigue, life is truly unbearable at the moment and I have not had a window since early April. I feel completely traumatised by the last 9 months the really bad times go over and over in my mind on constant replay. It's torture it really is. Iv practically lost my job and my other half is struggling whilst trying to be supportive. I'm totally and utterly destroyed and I'm completely lost as to what to do

Please send a private message to a mod... they may have some suggestions on dose to ri ect... or more ideas I don't have.  This post so reminds me of so much of my life I spent in exactly that state... before and after I knew about wd... I spent a lot of time there.  Sometimes I struggled to work other times I just could not do it... I hope whatever you end up doing makes life livable for you and your family. 

peace

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Posted 31 May 2015 - 01:34 PM

 

I have so much anger at doctors and the pharma companies and it's eating me up inside. Which I know is no good for me, it's like eating poison and expecting them to to die. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

I have so much anger at the doctors and drug makers too. It's insane that they are still getting away with this mass poisoning of society.

 

It's very frustrating that average doctors and average people still don't know how dangerous these drugs are.

 

Plenty of doctors are publishing the facts about these dangerous drugs for years now. Yet the message hasn't sunk in with all this information available on the Web. 

 

All one has to do is Google "protracted SSRI withdrawal" and there are hundreds of websites that pop up showing what's going with these drugs.

 

I can't waste any more of my energy on anger at these ignorant, negligent, self-satisfied doctors. It won't get me anywhere, and the anger will consume me.

 

As shocking as their behavior is, I just need to accept what happened to me at their hands. I need to remember what happened, and protect my loved ones from this danger.

 

If society wants to let this abomination continue, in spite of all the information available, I'm powerless right now to stop it.

 

I sure do hope that I live to see the day of reckoning for these criminals. 

Hell hath no fury as an SSRI scorned.....

 

Prozac:   20 mg 1996 – May 2003 CT to 0 mg; by Aug 03 CRASH then protracted WD 3 yrs

Zoloft:    2004 few weeks;, CT to 0 mg

Effexor:  2005 few months CT to 0 mg; bad withdrawal. 

Lexapro:  10 mg from 2009 – 2011; cut dose in half to:

Lexapro:    5 mg from 2011 – Feb. 2014; CT to 0 mg; 2 months of fatigue, followed by:
Aug - Oct 2014 Lexapro WD Insomnia Wave; sleeping very good from Nov 2014 - Nov 2015; broken sleep pattern Dec 2015 - Jan 2016

Dec 2014 - present: Brutal Lexapro WD ear ringing/head ringing/head pressure lasting for 14 months now.

 

24 months SSRI-free  

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Hi Sunnydays, I just read back through your thread and have a couple of questions, did you take the tramadol that your doctor gave you for pain? And did you take the seriphos? If you did, how much and when?  Tramadol is an SNRI and has side effects, it seems like you started to get worse after that post so I'm wondering if you are taking either of those. 

**I am not a medical professional, if in doubt please consult a doctor with withdrawal knowledge.

 

 

Different drugs occasionally (mostly benzos) 1976 - 1981 (no problem)

1993 - 2002 in and out of hospital. every type of drug + ECT. Staring with seroxat

2002  effexor. 

Tapered  March 2012 to March 2013, ending with 5 beads.

Withdrawal April 2013 . Reinstated 5 beads reduced to 4 beads May 2013

Restarted taper  Nov 2013  

OFF EFFEXOR Feb 2015    :D 

Tapered atenolol and omeprazole Dec 2013 - May 2014

 

Tapering tramadol, Feb 2015 100mg , March 2015 50mg  

 July 2017 30mg.  May 15 2018 25mg

Taking fish oil, magnesium, B12, folic acid, bilberry eyebright for eye pressure. 

 

My story http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/4199-hello-mammap-checking-in/page-33

 

Lesson learned, slow down taper at lower doses. Taper no more than 10% of CURRENT dose if possible

 

 

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  • 1 year later...

Hi Sunnydays,

I'm just curious what happened? Did you reinstate? Not reinstate? Feel better? Worse? Any info would be great to either provide help or close the loop.

Lexapro: started in 2002 at 10 mgs.

Ambien: started as a as needed sleep aid in 2010.

Quit Lexapro cold turkey in June 20015 due to contributing to low sodium issues.

Restarted Lexapro in late November for a week (only 5 mgs) but quit due to dizziness side effects. Side effects worsened for 3 weeks until

12/24/15: Protracted WD hit, experienced extreme anxiety, insomnia lack of full concentration and social challenges.

Reinstated Lexapro on 1/1/16 at 5 mgs. Increased per Dr to 7.5 MG. Tapered off Lexapro in March 2016.

Started 50MG of Seroquel in late January 2016 for bedtime to help in eliminate Ambien. Tapered off both Seroquel and Ambien in March 2016.

2/14/16: Prescribed both Remeron (15 MG) and Temazapam (15 MG) for sleep. Also use Klonopin and Ambien again in place of Temazapam to avoid addiction. However I did take Temazapam 60 straight days

6/15/16: Stopped use of all benzo's and now use Belsomra 1-2 times a week. Still on 15 MG of Remeron

10/11/16: Off all psych medications

 

After kindling, trying to regain my strength suffering from severe mental and physical fatigue.

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