I'm curious, any of you ever wean off of an antidepressant? If so, what side effects did you experience? Any significant emotional changes?

by La Falta Habitacion Por Sr Hor-Hey!! 20 Replies latest jw friends

  • La Falta Habitacion Por Sr Hor-Hey!!
    La Falta Habitacion Por Sr Hor-Hey!!

    I'm asking this because I just weaned off of Paroxetine (Paxil) successfully. I say successfully because I'm not naseous or dealing with tremors, however that's not to say everything is peachy. I've felt within my brain something like pulses from time to time, as if my brain jumped with no rhyme or reason. I did some research and found out that this is commonly labeled as, brain zaps. Sometimes I feel it in my head only, other times the weird shocking sensation travels through my arms and legs. From what I've read, it's not permanent to experience these zaps, so at least I can look forward to it disapating somewhere down the road.

    What's really bugging me out though, is my emotional state. My emotional pendulum is swinging from anger to mild frustration, to numbness. All day yesterday, I felt a frustration and rage that I cannot fathom. I just wanted to step into the middle of the courtyard adjacent to this office building, strip down to my boxers and just scream profanities at the top of my lungs, or find the nearest person who appears to be able to reasonably defend themselves and beat them senseless. Today however, I feel numb, and my concentration is way off. It's like I look at the work on my desk and momentarily I feel a slight panic because I don't know what I'm supposed to do, and then almost miraculously it comes back to me.

    When I was on Paxil, my sex drive was null and void, although my appreciation for a woman never strayed. Since coming off though, I'm ready to declare smashfest on Whoopi and see if she has earned the right to call herself, Whoopi. Yet, when I converse with attractive coworkers or sisters in the congregation, or even just to notice someone attractive walking down the street, I feel almost nothing, and what I do feel, seems abnormal. It reminds me at times of the camera effect used for weird psychological scenes in movies/television, where the camera zooms in rapidly upon a character's head/face, and then it does a weird shaking effect. That's how I feel at times since coming off this stuff when conversing with other people. Other times it's like they're talking to me or at me, and I have to force myself to concentrate and stop looking through them.

    I imagine all of this is temporary and I'm learning to live life again without any assistance from a pill, but I'm curious as to whether any of you have experienced this or similar?

    edit post: meant to add, I have a weird feeling of cockiness and this inkling to simply not give a damn about my actions, anybody experience that too? Almost as if you have no problem living wreckless?

  • baltar447
    baltar447

    Side effects vary depending on the meds you are coming off. Did your doctor do up a protocol for coming off them or are you doing that yourself?

  • James Brown
    James Brown

    I remember it made it hard to get arroused.

    Paxil.

    I got dizzy from coming off it to fast.

  • breakfast of champions
    breakfast of champions

    Yup. That's how it feels alright. IT SUCKS!

    I am hoping you gradually tapered off it. Going cold turkey is a HUGE no no.

  • blondie
    blondie

    Of course, everyone's reaction is different. It is best to work with your doctor. It also matters what other medications you are taking.

  • talesin
  • botchtowersociety
    botchtowersociety

    I think Paxil is just terrible stuff. I know people who have been on it, although I was on it for about 2 weeks at one point over a decade a go. Most recently I was on Cymbalta, and before that, Zoloft. Getting off Cymbalta gave me dizziness and nausea. I couldn't wean off, it didn't work. I finally just cut it off entirely and endured a bad week. After that I was fine. I've been off antidepressants for close to 18 months now. I chalk being able to be off of them to the fact that I've been out of JWism long enough now for the difficulty of exiting to wear off, as well as some plant based products I am taking.

    When I was on Paxil, my sex drive was null and void, although my appreciation for a woman never strayed.

    I don't know about Paxil, but the other two drugs didn't affect my sex drive. On the other hand, they made it very difficult to orgasm....but the orgasms were amazing when they came (and I could have sex for a looooong time).

    edit post: meant to add, I have a weird feeling of cockiness and this inkling to simply not give a damn about my actions, anybody experience that too? Almost as if you have no problem living wreckless?

    Sounds like you might be experiencing a manic phase of bipolar disorder. That happened to me once in my 20s. It was a great feeling...but the depressive phase sucks.

    But I've been fine now without these drugs for a long time now.

  • wha happened?
    wha happened?

    I've gone the homeopathic direction for some time now. My therapist seems ok with it, although I do get an occassional eye rolling or two. I decided about a year ago to wean myself off it. Bad idea. I drove myself crazy. All the OCD issues came right back along with the depression. I won't do that again

  • sd-7
    sd-7

    I was on Zoloft for awhile. I just quit it cold turkey. The second day was the worst of the withdrawal--a weird buzzing sensation, the feeling of being almost in a dream, maybe a headache or something. But it wasn't much after that. When I was on it, I had to take it only after all other activities were done for the night, because I would immediately drop off to sleep, no way to prevent it. If I woke up after an hour, it felt like my brain was short-circuiting. I only did that maybe once. Never again. The sexual side effects were actually quite helpful--it took much longer to feel overwhelmed by desires, and once I actually could have sex, it lasted longer. I became more normal in that regard once I stopped taking it for awhile.

    But I stopped because I had to go without sleep for...well, pretty much the last 2.5 years...and didn't want to doze off on the road, plus I couldn't afford it anymore. Anyway, guess it's different for each person.

    --sd-7

  • Amelia Ashton
    Amelia Ashton

    I came off Effexor/Venlafaxine cold turkey.

    We had all been to a favourite restaurant and didn't connect the symptoms until we saw the newspaper article about multiple cases of food poisoning in the paper.

    We were all ill but everyone else was pretty much fully recovered within a week, except me. I was worse.

    Nausea and dizziness to the extent I was holding onto the walls to get to the bathroom. I had a painful zapping in my eyes and my legs would spontaneously kick out for no reason. I can't remember the rest suffice to say it was so bad I couldn't function. None of the symptoms seemed related and I didn't have a temperature.

    It was purely by chance trying to self diagnose using Google my eldest typed in the medication I was on but had stopped taking as there didn't seem to be any point when nothing was staying down.

    Every single symptom was directly caused by stopping the effexor. Now I am scared of all anti-depressants. It took about a month of hell before all the symptoms stopped.

    I self-medicate with alcohol now when the depression isn't too much. Or if really bad call on friends till the really dark sinister thoughts dissipate.

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