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Misc Are antidepressants hard to get off of/ withdrawal.... expereinces?

bdomihizayka

bdomihizayka

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Joined
Jul 30, 2012
Messages
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Down the rabbit hole
Suboxone has been horrible for me. I am depressed on it and feel like a zombie... yet every time I try to come off, the depression gets worse and I always have to reinstate after about 5 days. I want to get on an antidepressant, namely anafranil. I am scared though. I was burned by benzos and had the funnest time in my life goin g through a 5 month withdrawal which lead to opiate use to cover the withdrawal which lead to it's own withdrawal... and now the siboxone... I just want to feel normal!!1 It's been forever!

My question is... do antidepressants have withdrawals? I've seen forums like paxilprogress where people are having just as hard of a time getting off of antidepressants as benzos... and I am scared shitless.. because I really believe I need an antidepressant for a few months to get through this suboxone withdrawal. Any input? Do antidepressants really mess up your head when you stop in your experiences?
 
That depends on the AD and your individual reaction to it as well as on dose and the length of the intake.
But yeah, ADs can have nasty WD-symptoms and if you want to feel normal they actually could do the opposite (emotionally blunted, "Zombielike-state").

But if it is necessary they can definitely help. Talk to your doctor about it.
How much Suboxone are you taking?
 
I am on .5mg of suboxone... And yea... I see all these bad reports for ssris and especially snris like effexor...but what about tricyclics....a low dose of anafranil (i have ocd and it may be beneficial in other ways).... i cant find any info
 
perhaps talk to your doctor about Agomelatine

Agomelatine (trade names Valdoxan, Melitor, Thymanax) is a melatonergic antidepressant developed by the pharmaceutical company Servier. It is marketed for the treatment of major depressive disorder and has been reported to have a reduced level of sexual side effects as well as discontinuation effects compared to some other antidepressants. Agomelatine may also have positive effects on sleep.
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its in australia and we get everything 2 years after the states so i would have thought so

i got it from my mom though who is quite a progressive doctor so who knows
 
bdomihizayka said:
I am on .5mg of suboxone... And yea... I see all these bad reports for ssris and especially snris like effexor...but what about tricyclics....a low dose of anafranil (i have ocd and it may be beneficial in other ways).... i cant find any info
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I started taking doxepin a week ago. Started at 10mg and now I'm at 30. I plan to stay on 50 mg as long as I can. So far, I have less anxiety during the day, I sleep better, and I'm not feeling desperate. I used to be very unstable, angry one day, calm the other, depressed the third etc. And I'm not feeling "emotion-less" like I did feel on cymbalta.
Also, not sure if that applies where you live but tricyclics are much cheaper than ssris. I also plan on trying anafranil in 6 weeks or so.
Good luck !
 
SSRI W/Ds are fucking hell , stay the fuck away from Citalopram and the likes, nasty horrible shocks going through ur whole body when u stop, they put me on em when I was only 17, The only Anti-Depressant I would ever take is Amitryptiline, any sides it has are worth it ! It knocks u out at night and u bounce out of bed about 7 in the morning and if u got something to do that day believe me youl get it done, that's just my experience anyways at 150mgs at nightime, Doxemine might be helpful also I can't comment but I believe it is also a Trycilic , defoe stick with that kind of SSRI's in my opinion bro, gd luck ;)
 
For me personally AD is/was/will be very difficult to come off of. I was put on Cymbalta approx 6 or 7 years ago by my pain management doc. He placed me on it for pain but I was having bouts of depression (mostly I felt like I was depressed because of the pain, it not going away no matter what and the thought of livingg with it the rest of my life) too. I have been on it for so long that I honestly don't know what effects I have from it. Not sure if it causes me any side effects or if it helps me for depression or pain. I still have a lot of pain but of course my condition has developed more in the past years and I now have some pretty rough spots of depression, not sure if these would be even worse if I wasn't on the Cymbalta or if it is doing a thing for me. I just kept taking it because I didn't want to solely rely on narcotics for pain and the docs always want to see you are trying other things.
So a few times I decided to see if I could/should come off and a few times I ran out and went a few days without it (circumstances didn't allow me to get a refill) over the years. I had absolutely horrible effects from trying to stop. Besides depression (not the worse of it) the physical effects are unbearable. I have never withdrawn from benzos as I have only taken them occasionally here and there so I can't compare. I will say that I am literally sick as a dog if I go more than 48 hours without my Cymbalta or if I try to reduce my dosages.

The dizziness and absolute horrible brain zaps and other things that go on within my head/brain (physically not emotionally) are absolutely unbearable.honestly I guess I will be on it forever because I cannot deal with that.
 
i've had horrible w/d symptoms from anti depressants and anti psychotics like Risperidone , Fluvoxamine (Luvox), and Celexa . Not a good time.
 
I was on mirtazapine (30mg) for a year and after a fast one week taper I didn't have any noticeable w/d symptoms. However I have read of others that went trough hell trying to get off of it even after tapering for months. Seems to be individual based.
 
I've quit opiates and benzos, but Lexapro was without a doubt the hardest thing that I've ever quit. I only came off of it during detox in rehab.

I think I would sell my soul to quit benzos though, it just is a horrible feeling knowing that I've gone literally 60 days without them and I haven't been able to quit them longer than that in 7 years of taking them for legitimate anxiety.
 
Yeah... my doc put me on risperidone, valporic acid, welbutrin, and topimax (sp?). I'm working on getting off all of them. I'm bi polar, so not really sure what I should stick with.. i'm slightly keeping up with the welbutrin as I havent seen any neg affects from not taking it. The risperdone makes me feel like i'm in outer space or something.... now simply takin the valporic acid i feel weird!! I dont have a clue what to do either and my doc just said they dont know if they can schedule me another appt.... I'm on 5 meds and out of the blue they wont schedule me another appt? Thank God i've been weaning myself off!
 
It is better to find an AD that works for you with minimal side effects and stay on it, rather than switching on and off. If you get on an AD that works fine, you're not going to have to worry about withdrawal. And if you do need to stop, you don't have to suffer excessively, you just have to have a taper plan and stick to it. More importantly, don't stop them cold turkey.

Most antidepressants cause discontinuation syndrome if you don't taper them off. The SSRIs and SNRIs are the most often complained about. Anafranil (clomipramine) is a tricyclic antidepressant that acts as a SNRI, so it will also cause a discontinuation syndrome too. Most tricyclics will cause some sort of withdrawal if you stop taking them, because they're basically older, less selective SSRIs and SNRIs.

The important thing is to not get psyched out about it. Like snake_eyes said, it's personally dependent how severe the withdrawal will be. Stressing out about w/d isn't going to help you, either. It's better to go find some sort of distraction and wait it out. Staying active, in general, is a good way to combat depression too.
 
Snake_Eyes said:
I was on mirtazapine (30mg) for a year and after a fast one week taper I didn't have any noticeable w/d symptoms. However I have read of others that went trough hell trying to get off of it even after tapering for months. Seems to be individual based.
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I second mirtazapine. People seem to come off it much easier than most ADs. I felt nothing coming off it by tapering 7.5 mg a week from 30 mg after being on it over a year. It's also an amazing antidepressant in my experience. It didn't cause the emotional blunting or sexual side effects that SSRIs are famous for. It's the smoothest AD I've taken.
 
I have tried getting off Paxil countless times. It is horrible and so far I've found, impossible to do. My doctor put me on it at 16 for anxiety and honestly, I wish I'd never started it. The physical symptoms are bad enough (nausea, shakes, brain zaps) but the anxiety and weird spaced out feelings are unbearable. I have pretty much come to terms with the fact ill be on it for life. I don't think of myself of too much of a wimp either, I've gone through benzo wd, opiate wd with subs, and I recently went ct off heroin.
 
thelung said:
i've had horrible w/d symptoms from anti depressants and anti psychotics like Risperidone , Fluvoxamine (Luvox), and Celexa . Not a good time.
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Exactly. Me too.
Also Cymbalta and for years, years, I took Prozac.
I did not see how in the hell I was ever going to get off antidepressants. My doctor wasn't having any of it.

Withdrawals don't feel nice. They would be called happy skippy fun fun time or something if they didn't suck.
BUT THEY SUCK.

Withdrawals suck so hard that, at least for me, the fear of going through that again makes me stay off... even when I have been tempted, or in the future when the crave strikes, part of what makes me stay away from the drugs is the fear of revisiting the pain.

So... maybe in a way it is good that withdrawals are bad.
 
Damn you guys basically killed my idea of getting on one for this suboxone withdrawal.

One more question though.... are SSRIs and SNRIs easier or harder to get off of than tricyclics?
 
Everyone responds differently towards antidepressants. It's hard to say which is the "worst", because personal physiology will vary a lot.
 
Antidepressants are hard to w/d from if you've been on them a while. You don't get high off of them but you can feel their effects. IME ssris ruin your ability to feel emotions in the long run. If you are on them for months you will become an emotionless zombie that needs constant amounts of sleep. They seem to boost your ego and make you delusional. Imagine slightly rolling everyday. Content and happy, but it only lasts when you're on the meds. They're not worth the brain zaps and the rebound depression and anxiety. Maybe look into alternatives such as medical marijuana or other natural remedies?
 
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