Coming off anti depressants?

[wooger]

So I thought I would post this here as I figured many people here might have some experience..

My dr put me on trazodone about 7 weeks ago now and I really am starting to feel MUCH less anxious and not nearly as miserable as I was.

However, I really do not like the fact I am only feeling 'better' because of medication and would like to stop taking it if possible. It is with this in mind that I decided to 'test' whether or not I could stop.

I have only stopped them about 3 or 4 days ago but I noticed I am starting to think really negative thoughts.. about me and life and just general stuff. I'm not sure that this and the medication is even related... but I didn't seem to have these thoughts after a few weeks of being on the stuff..

So I was wondering... at what point can you come off them altogether... I mean.. if I try to stop them after a few days I start to feel pretty crappy... will I have to take them FOREVER?!

I'd really like to hear from someone whos come off the stuff successfully and how long it took them until they were able to come off permenately....

 

[n3ophy7e]

wooger, firsly you really shouldn't mess around with psychiatric meds in this way. Why don't you talk to your doctor and tell him that you're really not comfortable being on medication and that you want to try a different method of treatment for your anxiety.

Secondly, a lot of people who suffer from depression and anxiety actually don't have to be on meds for their whole life. Sometimes it's sufficient just to have a course of meds for a year or two, then don't need them after that. However having said that some people do actually need to be on meds long-term. You won't know this until it happens though.

Lastly, I'm not sure how much your doctor explained to you about psych meds but they usually take a long time to really have their full effect on your brain's chemistry. 7 weeks is a good period of time for the meds to work, which is why you were feeling much better. However you may not have reached the full potential of the trazodone in that period of time. On the other hand, stopping psych meds cold-turkey can have pretty significant psychological effects. This might be why you are having "bad thoughts", because you just stopped taking the trazodone abruptly.

So as I said, you really should go back to your doctor and discuss this with them, and hopefully they will have an alternative method for you to try. Good luck, be safe, and let us know how you go

 

[wooger]

thank you for your response

I saw my dr today and we had a talk - he actually was suggesting that we increase the dose.. but I didn't particularly wish to do this so we agreed to keep it as it is, for a while at least.

He also suggested counselling which I'm a bit hesitant about, because I did try it before... but that was only a few weeks really so it felt like it was over before we had even really started. This time its at a different place so I guess we will wait and see .

 

[n3ophy7e]

That's great you saw your doctor today, and it sounds like it went well
Maybe give the counselling another try, it couldn't hurt. There are so many variables with counselling as to whether it will work for you or not, e.g. whether or not someone is ready to face their issues, that different types of people mesh better together than other types of people, so the counsellor you had last time might not have been your "type". Or as you said, you might just have not been getting counselling for a long enough period of time for you to get good results. I have had counselling with quite a few different therapists for all sorts of different issues throughout my life, sometimes it's helped, other times not so much. But in my opinion it's always worth it to give it another try

 

[wooger]

Thanks I am on the list thingy so like you say theres nothing to lose by trying it .

 

[STiLife]

it may take you a few trys to find the right therapist but i can say that it does really help. i went through 5-6 to find the right one and it has helped me a lot. I used to be on trazadone and through therapy and a good taper plan i was taken off it. Took a year or so to do so