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SSRI support group - tapering while on benzo's or after recovery


[Ki...]

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I see from a lot of people's signatures that they are on an SSRI/SNRI or have been in the recent past.

I'm hoping this can be a place for people to discuss their histories with SSRI use and provide relevant information or advice.

 

What was your experience?

 

Did you taper your SSRI before or after benzo's?

 

Which withdrawal did you find more difficult?

 

Thank you, Kiddo  :smitten:

 

 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...
Hi Nicole!  Happy New Years.  I am on my 3rd day off Celexa after being on 40mg for 2 months.  I am feeling really bad and depressed.
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Hi SoCaler.....I'm really sorry to hear that. At least you were only on a short time. Since you were feeling that way before AD's it probably still benzo withdrawal. The gift that just keeps on giving  :tickedoff:

 

Dig deep my friend  :smitten:

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I was on nitrazepam and various ADs for 40 years. After stopping nitrazepam 21 months ago, my depression was worse for 6 months. Since then I have been free from depression but have been in bed due to pretty awful physical symptoms, particularly numbness from the waist down. I started tapering effexor about 6 months ago and have reduced it by half, from 225 mg to 112.5 mg. I have noticed no difference at all so far!! I don't seem to be highly sensitive as many are on this forum so have been lucky with this. Although my benzo withdrawal has been awful it is probably not unusual after 40 years.  I would only recommend tapering a second drug where benzo withdrawal seems stable as mine was.  I continue to improve physically, but very slowly.

 

Hope you get more replies, Kiddo.

 

Hugs

 

LF  :smitten:

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Thanks LF.....do you remember what AD's you were on and how long you took them for? When did you go on the Effexor? I plan on waiting 1-2 years after my taper to resume my AD taper. What's the longest you were on an AD?

 

Hugs  :smitten:

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I was on ADs for 40 years continuously.

 

1979 - Anafranil - had grand mal seizures (had myoclonic epilepsy anyway)

1979 -  Doxepin - about 10 years

1989 - Dothiepin -about 10 years

2000 - Effexor - about 14 years

 

Tried a few others such as prozac which I could not tolerate. Can't remember the others.

 

You are very sensible to wait. I am in no hurry either.

 

That does not add up to 40 years!!

 

I forgot it was 1979 I started on ADs , 5 years after nitrazepam.

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Thank you for sharing. It gives me hope knowing that AD tapering will be easier than benzo's. I've seen a few people signatures on the forum that are tapering AD's and they all seem to be doing ok  :thumbsup:

 

:smitten:

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[76...]
SSRI's for 18 years, tried all of them, was on Celexa the longest.  Then was switched to zoloft when taken off klonopin.  It was going to take away all my anxiety and I was to be on it the rest of my life, said the shrink.  I weaned off of it slowly, took last does in June 2014.  I don't think the withdrawal was as bad as benzos, but I think now that maybe I've been withdrawing from both.  Anyway, happy to say that I am doing much better now and feel the healing happening.
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[76...]
I'm doing better, the last few weeks have seen a big improvement and am able to work from home 6 hours a day, which is a really good distraction.  I tend to forget all about my symptoms when I'm busy doing things.
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I'm kind of sliding down the rabbit hole a little bit.....but I'm hoping tomorrow is better! Feel free to come introduce yourself on the blog and get to know everyone  :)
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Hi all

Good to see so many people doing well with their SSRI, and benzo, tapers

 

In July last year I tried to taper a bit of my SSRI whilst tapering my benzo. It went fine at first, until it didn't. Finally I felt a bit funky one day and thought I'd just go back to my original SSRI dose so I could get off benzos quicker. Well that didn't work.

 

This is what I wrote on my blog about that event. I'm sharing it in case it proves useful

 

When I updosed my SSRI back to my original dose - of only a few months before - I initially got serotonin syndrome: Akasthesia, anxiety, stomach churning, heat etc. Even when I went back down to the dose I'd been on for a month I was still wracked by terrible anxiety and agitation until the SSRI's active phase was through. Anyway, once I went down to the dose I'd tapered too - half of the dose I originally was on - symptoms resolved relatively quickly, though some new symptoms arose that were different and clearly withdrawal.

 

So what have I learned?

 

I've been on an SSRI since I was 19. There is no doubt I was a mess, and there is equally no doubt the SSRI helped soon enough. I tried to get off only 2 times. Naturally I went too fast and when symptoms reoccurred I, and Drs, thought that was an indication of my needing to be on the drug.

 

Never in all that time did I have the reaction I described above. Sooo lesson 1: Drugs can change on you (particularly in benzo w/d).

 

Also initially I approached the reaction as I would with benzo w/d: hold and/or err on the side of more. Nope! More don't equal calmer with all psych meds and sometimes a reaction can't be helped by holding. Lesson 2: No two psych drugs are the same and what you know about one wont translate to another.

 

Benzo w/d was part of the picture of the reaction. That is partly because my brain chemistry was already destabilised, and I believe partly because there is some truth to the AD crew's contention that 'the activating drug should be tapered first'. Now I don't think SSRIs should be tapered first, but I do think when you have no GABA brakes in your brain you are far more susceptible to getting a sped up reaction from a drug like an SSRI. I know many of the people who have had reactions to SSRIs like the one I described where in tolerance to benzos. Similarly I've rarely seen anyone already in benzo wd be able to start an SSRI. The 'activation' is too much for the brain with no brakes.

 

soo lesson 3: If you are on an SSRI and plan to taper benzos, it may be helpful in some ways but there will be ways in which that extra noradrenaline and serotonin is not helpful at all.

 

lesson 4: If you are tapering from benzos already, or in tolerance, you can give an SSRI a go but I wouldn't hold my breath it will help much (in many cases). If needed there are other ADs that are probably a better fit for benzo w/d.

 

lesson 5: Not everything - even anxiety - is benzo w/d. I mostly didn't fall into this trap luckily because I know benzo w/d so well I can tell what is different. But, I write this anyway because there were times, even when it was clear the symptoms resolved once the SSRI's active phase was through, that I questioned whether this was benzo w/d.

 

Other thoughts...

....SSRI withdrawal sucked - especially in the early morning hours just before I'd dose for the day - but it doesn't such anywhere near as much as benzo wd. It feels so much more like wd: a passing sensation of shakes, cold, nausea and anxiety. Benzo wd hangs around so much that it is hard to tell it from your regular self.

 

.... This gave me a bigger perspective of the darker side of psychiatry and psychiatric meds. Amazingly when my p-doc talked to me about this reaction I was having she brought up bipolar, because SSRIs can sometimes bring this out in people with bipolar. That is truly astounding. It breaks so many 'rules' of science it would be fascinating if not so scary. One obvious rule it breaks is that of parsimony. If there is a simple explanation and no reason for another then go for the simplest. Guess what psychiatric world: The simplest explanation for a reaction a drug BY FAR is that there is a reaction to a drug. There is so many ways in which I could have been further drugged with a mood stabilizer of some variety. Instead, thankfully I am skeptical, and my p-doc acknowledges I'm sensitive to meds, so I just reduced my dose and the symptoms disappeared. There are people on here who have been down that path of SSRI induced hypermania or mania and the resulting poly-drugging. There are even more on AD forums. And it scares me that this happens with such frequency and we are the ones who are crazy. The medical world is THE establishment. There is no other sector of our community that is more listened to with trust and without question. lesson 6: everything deserves questioning sometimes

 

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So after that I can say that things have mostly improved with my taper - particularly insomnia! In fact I probably started temazepam in the first place because of SSRI induced insomnia.

 

For the first few months I had a worse gut and some histamine issues - itching/sensitivity to foods. Things are mostly back to baseline now. I didn't get a single bout of depression, even though my life is fairly benzo w/d crapola.

 

If I could cut benzos that quickly with that level of side effects I'd be happy indeed!

 

I am hoping to taper the SSRI fully once I'm through with benzos. I have no idea when I should start that: if I should start once I'm healed from benzos or before to get it done and since my brain is in flux anyhow.

 

We shall see

 

Hi all

 

Hi Nigel  :smitten:

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Great information, Smiffy. Thanks for sharing with everyone. Personally, I won't/can't taper simultaneously (AD and Benzo) and will wait until about a year off I suspect. Even if I'm not healed from benzo w/d at that point.

 

Love, Nigel  :smitten:

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  • 3 weeks later...

15 years of Celexa  :o

 

I felt a slump a few years ago and the pdoc gave me Prozac to "jump start" me again.  One year, 8 different AD's, multiple hospital visits, serotonin syndrome, suicidal feelings .  Around this time last year I started to finally pull out of the mess.

 

I'm still on 10 mg of Celexa .

 

For me personally, tapering (and in some cases CT due to serotonin syndrome) from AD's has been MUCH worse than tapering from Clon.  Since my taper from Clon started earlier this month, on most days I feel BETTER and a sense of control over my life again. 

 

AD withdrawal left me fatigued, depressed beyond belief, suicidal, completely depleted.  Biggest mistake I ever made was consenting to taking that first pill of Celexa many years ago.  It never helped the anxiety and PMS like irritability I had prior to taking it and if anything made things worse.

 

I feel robbed of 15 years.  No matter how bad the future anxiety or any other symptoms I'd rather swallow fire than take an AD again. 

 

I always thought going off the benzo would be worse than going off the AD so I saved the benzo for last, thinking it would help me sleep at night during AD WD.  Benzo WD for me has been mild discomfort compared to AD's  . 

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Spiraldancer - it's amazing how different we all are isn't it? I find benzo's soooo much worse then SSRI w/d. Did you do rapid tapers with your SSRI?

 

I tried 3 doctor advised tapers that were WAY too fast and left me a mess. Once I started tapering 10% a month I was mostly okay. I was moody,overly sensitive and had bouts of DP/DR but I was fully fully functional (work, parenting, sports, etc). Benzo w/d on the other hand is taking all that I've got.

 

Was the serotonin syndrome because Prozac was added with the Celexa? I don't know too much about it.

 

- Kiddo

 

 

 

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serotonin syndrome is pretty unpleasant. It was a relief when it went after cutting the celexa - although I'm still on 10mg. I can see how it would spiral out of control easily if the taper was rapid and then going back on. That was the mistake I made: I'd tapered to 10, thought nah I should stick at 15 but by then 15 equalled serotonin syndrome. The bouncing back and forth between depressed and serotonin syndrome would surely suck hard. I'm hoping to do my SSRI taper slow enough that I never have to bounce back up again. In fact even if I'm depressed I wont be risking going up after experiencing the serotonin syndrome.
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What was your experience?

 

 

Which withdrawal did you find more difficult?

 

Paxil was great for me when I was around 19. It lifted me out of the fog. I would be on it a few years and quit C/T to try to live without the aid of an AD. The C/T was fine, just some electrical shocks when I moved my eyes to fast, but this faded within a few weeks.

 

Each time I restarted my AD I always noticed I became more disciplined in my lifestyle choices. I would go to bed on time, I would eat better and I wouldn't be as impulsive in regards to quick pleasures ... ie, porn/masturbation, over-eating, just basically over indulging in everything.

 

However, I noticed a few times I went into a manic state. It felt as though I was propelled by an invisible force ... I felt invincible, super confident and would talk extra fast and act strange ... this happened maybe 3 or 4 times and usually lasted 4-5 hours. At the time I didn't know what it was, all I knew was I felt rather good.

 

The one big mistake I made with the AD was staying on it too long and not addressing the root causes of my dep/anxiety ... the root cause was my lifestyle choices, I know this now because each time I went off the AD I would run my body down over a period of 6-8 months where I was eventually withdrawn again and worn down.

 

An AD is great short-term in my opinion, but the changes in the brain it makes long term aren't well known. Heck, I was told I could take this AD for life and have no repercussions. Boy, was that bad advice I was given. I guess the medical field thought they were really onto something. Just like they were onto something with Valium and Phenabarb in the 60's and 70's !!!

 

My mind/body/spirit finally snapped after about 8 years of SSRI use of constantly being on a slight 'go' state. At the time I didn't know what was causing this 'out of body' feeling so again I went to the doctor. Got prescribed a benzo because the doctors didn't know what else to do.

 

This only put me further out. My restlessness became extreme restlessness. My cognitive function, ie, memory retention became poor.

 

Not sure exactly what led up to me deciding to withdraw from these drugs this time, I guess I was ignorant as to my faith in the medical field. I didn't know anything about how the brain worked, I didn't correlate the medication with my worsening symptoms. I figured it was something catastrophic like a stroke, diabetes or heart failure, but nothing was showing up on tests.

 

In the end. Benzo's and AD's both suck in the long term, and I would argue they suck short term ... but can help some people get over a hump.

 

Next time I run into trouble I will go to a naturopath/holistic route unless I am bleeding out, broken limb etc.

 

AD's also kill my sex drive, which can be a good thing as I was probably overindulging in that area which only caused me to feel more run down.

 

I also had undiagnosed celiac so my diet was causing many issues in my GI tract and rest of the body that wasn't being addressed.

 

Apparently these AD's cause issues with the HPA axis long term. Also with the 'go' feeling and the extra confidence, people find confidence to attempt suicide. There really isn't any upside to these pills looking back.

 

Benzo w/d is definitely harder now that I've been at it for 3 months. I can stop and start AD's w/o issue, but with my new knowledge and awakening on health/body/mind I can safely move forward without these unnatural chemicals and heal in the proper way!

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  • 6 months later...

Hi all

 

I feel like I'm coming close to the end of my benzo taper and my mind goes to the impending SSRI taper. I wouldn't be fussed except I'm working to a timeline.

I'm 36 and my biological clock is ticking.

 

Anyone want to chuck at me some thoughts about a fast but not overly dangerous SSRI taper? I didn't like the wd effects when I dropped from 20-10mg of celexa but at least they were gone after a few months and they didn't have the omnipresent feeling of benzo wd.

 

I feel like I want to try 10% a week. Am I crazy or risk it? Thoughts ..  ;D

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