Say hello to discontinuation syndrome, anxiety and depression

[paperbag]

Hello,

I've been a lurker for sometime now. I decided it was time to open an account, because I feel I might be able to find some help here.

I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety few years back. During that period I was on and off on SSRI's and benzodiazepines, until 2 years and a couple of months ago I decided to give Prozac and Klonopin a try. They helped greatly at the beginning but after a while I didn't like how they made me feel. About 2 months and a couple of days I quit Prozac, which has led me to some shitty withdrawal symptoms that have last more time than what I've read on the internet. Sometimes I wonder if it's depression coming back or a mix of both.

Anyways, I'm here to look for other alternative. I was thinking of doing psychedelics to see if that could help, but I would like to do it in therapeutic setting, however it's illegal where I live. My other option was going to a retreat, however I don't have the money for that.

My only option at the moment is medical cannabis, which became legal recently here. I did extensive research on it and I was full of hope that maybe this was going to help, the problem is that too much THC gives me panic attacks and CBD products aren't available in the market yet. I bought some CWHemp tinctures online and have some THC one. Maybe I could experiment with it, to see if I can reduce the symptoms.

Thanks for reading! :D

 

[herbavore]

I think you could definitely benefit from some supplementary non-drug interventions as well while you are looking into the right chemical intervention. Have you ever tried dealing with the depression and anxiety through mindfulness or CBT? I've found it pretty practical and helpful for myself.

Hopefully trained therapists using psychedelic therapies will be available to people in the near future. But in the meantime, there is nothing that a psychedelic can do that you cannot do without them--the difference is in the ease of getting the doors open! In other words psychedelics may make it easier to access deeper understanding and awareness but they certainly are not the only way.

Quitting the psychotropic drugs like prozac can be a bitch. I imagine that it will be somewhat difficult to tease apart wd's and PAWS from that with the symptoms that precipitated using prozac in the first place. My advice there is to not worry too much about the source of the anxiety and to simply get some good tools for dealing with it. No matter what the source, anxiety is a manifestation of thoughts and thoughts can be changed.