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SSRI withdrawal

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PsychosamaticGuy

Greenlighter
Joined
Jul 10, 2015
Messages
4
Hi everyone, I'm new to this site. I wanted to join to see if anyone else has experienced SSRI withdrawal symptoms. I've been on them for the past 12 years and it's very hard right now.
 
Hi, Welcome to Bluelight!

I went through Paxil withdrawal once. I sometimes think I'm still dealing with it at times, as my serotonin levels just don't seem the same. I'm sure others have been through it. Could I move your post to mental health or the dark side?

12 years is a long time.
 
hey!

been through SSNRI withdrawal which is not exactly the same, but closely related afaik. It was absolutely brutal. :( I'd like to offer my hand to hold (metaphorically) if you need to think about someone who's been through it and knows how much it sucks being with you.

love, lav
 
I've had it really bad.. the worst of them was paroxetine. Sweating like a racehorse, feeling like I was holding a hot and neutral wire 24/7 and constant vertigo that made me feel like I was falling down a bottomless elevator shaft.. it just stopped working at about 100mg..

Effexor was just as bad but I titrated that by 5mg every 3 days, then 4, 3, 2, 1 with an eyedropper and solution.. it actually worked almost perfectly. I still get some zaps if I take something like mirtazapine for a couple weeks straight, then stop.. but it takes a week to show up. I stay away from *RIs just because they don't do anything any more. After using almost all of them on the market I rhink my brain is just all 'oh hell no' about them.
 
Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone, I feel a little better now.

Right now I'm on day 19 of being SSRI free. I was on Paxil for about 10 years, then "it stopped working". So my Dr switched me over to Zoloft for about a year then my SSRI career ended badly with celexa and lexapro for the last year. The last 3 I took , "just stopped working". So I spoke to my psychiatrist and she agreed that it was time for me to get off them for good.

Per my psychiatrist tapering schedule, I went from 20mg Lexapro, to 10mg for 2 weeks, then 5mg for 2 weeks then nothing.

I feel so weird right now. I get days of euphoria and joy and then days of compete misery and disgust. I'm having a horrible time sleeping, my body physically twitches, I'm getting the brain zaps very frequently and my frontal lobe of my brain just feels like it's constantly THROBBING all the time. It doesn't hurt, just THROBS. Sooooo weird. (On the positive side, I no longer have diarrhea :-))

Does anyone have a timeframe on how long I should expect these symptoms to last?

I'm exercising as much as I can and trying to eat as clean as possible. I feel like this helps a little, but would love any other suggestions.

Thanks a lot.
 
brain zaps suck so much T-T I wouldn't say the worst part, because for me the worst part was the muscle ache and emotional instability (seriously, I hulked out BIGTIME and I don't even recognize myself in posts I made when I was going off it), but they're definitely up there in terms of unpleasantness. Unfortunately, I don't have a specific timeline, because my withdrawal was so bad I went back on it (for reference--I was in the hospital and between psychiatrists, and I was on both venlafaxine and bupropion, and the hospital psych thought both was overkill and wanted to take me off one, and I picked the effexor because it gives me hand tremors--which I learned the hard way are FAR, FAR PREFERABLE to withdrawal, and I had no problems whatsoever going off bupropion, I felt nothing), but I think it depends a lot on how long you've been taking it and what dose you're on. The higher the dose, the longer you've been taking it, the longer it will take for the withdrawal symptoms to completely go away. My only advice would be to taper as slowly as possible, which should minimize the effects somewhat. Best of luck to you, and I hope you feel better soon.

ETA: Stay hydrated! Also, make sure you eat; don't just drink tons and tons of water. My mother almost died due to drinking too much water without anything else and messing up her electrolyte balance. Sports drinks are excellent for this.
 
Last edited:
PsychosamaticGuy said:
Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone, I feel a little better now.

Right now I'm on day 19 of being SSRI free. I was on Paxil for about 10 years, then "it stopped working". So my Dr switched me over to Zoloft for about a year then my SSRI career ended badly with celexa and lexapro for the last year. The last 3 I took , "just stopped working". So I spoke to my psychiatrist and she agreed that it was time for me to get off them for good.

Per my psychiatrist tapering schedule, I went from 20mg Lexapro, to 10mg for 2 weeks, then 5mg for 2 weeks then nothing.

I feel so weird right now. I get days of euphoria and joy and then days of compete misery and disgust. I'm having a horrible time sleeping, my body physically twitches, I'm getting the brain zaps very frequently and my frontal lobe of my brain just feels like it's constantly THROBBING all the time. It doesn't hurt, just THROBS. Sooooo weird. (On the positive side, I no longer have diarrhea :-))

Does anyone have a timeframe on how long I should expect these symptoms to last?

I'm exercising as much as I can and trying to eat as clean as possible. I feel like this helps a little, but would love any other suggestions.

Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

In my experience, nothing has caused brain-zaps beyond 3-4 weeks, and that is including the super nasty withdrawal experiences I've had. Usually if it's just eye-movement / quick head-turn BZaps, they last about 1-2 weeks with a linear decline, and will occasionally pop up out of nowhere and then go away. After 4-6 weeks total they should be nonexistent, but everyone's brain, diet and chemistry are different.. I've not personally heard of protracted brain zapping.

Offhand, some really unusual things cause brain-zaps for me long, long outside of the antidepressant spectrum (haven't used one in a year, etc.) like gabapentin, which I can never tell if it is the drug or withdrawing from it (that's why I permanently abandoned that one, it makes me just fucking uncomfortable, unlike pregabalin which is almost too effective - same theoretical a2-d agonist action = they don't have a fucking clue).. I think I got it from a beta blocker once, a few herbal supplements.

I wonder if anyone has ever done a SPECT on someone in the throes of constant eye-movement zapping. SOMETHING worth studying would -have- to show up.

Best
m
 
Hi modocmodoc, my psych prescribed me gabapentin as well for the withdrawal effects and I agree, its a completely useless drug.

It seems as if now Aug 10-14 might be the turning point where the brain zaps might be gone for good. Although, my frontal lobe still throbs like a mother, but progress I guess.

Now I'm going through pretty substantial crying spells based on any emotion negative or positive. It's like a roller coaster at times, but I can deal with it because listening to music is finally BEAUTIFUL again!! I can finally relate to the artist, lyric, and instruments again. The message and vibe I get from music is almost euphoric again.

For the past 12 years when I was on the SSRIs, I enjoyed music but it was more or less "background music". Now I can feel it again and it feels awesome!

Has anyone else had this experience with music, art, film, etc? It feels like I'm reborn.....and I'm not a very religious guy either.
 
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