stay on anidepressants?

downfallin

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 8, 2010
Messages
188
Location
Somewhere in California
Well this is my first post on bluelight and my main struggle with drugs right now is with the ssri Lexparo. Ive been on this for about 2 years now and first got on because of a case of hppd that i got from smoking weed that brought out some depression and anxiety issuse that i have in my genes. Wierd i know but its the truth. So anyways ive gotten alot better and actually started smoking again this past year and the hppd and everything havent come back so im taking that as a good sign. It seems to be working but i really dont want to stay on ssris for the rest of my life... My mom has been on them for several years now also and i dont want to have to depend on them in order to feel ok but whenever i try and stop them i get really bad withdrawl. Honestly its not that thats keeping me from stopping im just not sure weather ill be ok. if anyone has any advice its welcome ps if im posting this in the wrong place idk so just speak up haha.
 
if u decide to stop the anti's ur suppose to taper really slowly.
quite possibly slower than the doctor recommends, as they often underestimate the danger of too quick taper.

i have a friend who's been on srri's for a few years,
and now he's been off them for 2 years or so and he's still recovering
from stupid withdrawal symptoms like: being tired, feeling fucked, emotions totally out of whack, etc.

he says in these 2 years he's gotten a lot better though.
i'm not sure why he has protracted withdrawal syndrome from ssri,
but i suspect that he didn't taper slowly enough and went off them really fast.

the brain eventually recovers, but it takes time.
slow tapers prevent protracted withdrawal syndromes.

------

about smoking weed and hppd.
if smoking weed brought it out, u took ssri's for it and now ur smoking weed again then that's really a bad idea.
the fact u get hppd means ur vulnerable to it and weed has brought it out in the past, why risk again?

unless you are willing to learn to live with the hppd, i recommend to not smoke weed and to taper the srri's slowly.
 
Don't worry Lex is a wonderful drug. I was on it myself for about 1 1/2 years. It stopped my panic disorder completely, stopped my social phobias of speaking in groups of people, and stopped my all around anxiety being in social situations.

Towards the end with lex I became too apathetic on it, was missing days of work and not anxious about it. It created a rebound where I had too little anxiety and it was affecting my life. Things that should have bothered normal people didn't bother me because the Lex made everything ok. My sleep schedule also became aggravated and I was sleeping late everyday.

I did a 4 week taper with lex and although the brainzaps were annoying for a month it wasn't that bad. When I stopped completely, not only did I notice Lex had changed the way I think permenantly (from not being afraid of certain things anymore) but NOTHING ever came back. I just stopped it after that and couldn't have been any happier that the Lex seemed to have done its job completely.
I never felt any sort of rebound depression or anxiety getting off it. You just gotta feel out your own life and make a decision you think is best for yourself. After about a year on it I started noticing the negative sides that I mentioned of being apathetic all the time and not caring, and 6 months later I decided to get off for good. Also the dosage of Lex imo is VERY important. People always seem to do better on 10mg doses then 15mg or 20mg. The sides are more pronounced at higher dosages and its really not stronger at all imo. So if your on a high dose consider getting back down to 10mg.
 
downfallen,
is it a psychiatrist that is doing the pill rolling ? If so, do you have rapport with this doc.?
If you feel this Pdoc has chops and has done you right, then tell him your thoughts about letting the crazymeds go.
Cannabis and crazymeds have a bad reputation when taken together . Being that weed jammed you up previously then ,in my opinion, you would be best served by abstaining whether or not you are taking Lex. Cannabis is not for everyone ! There are many here that have left it alone and were all the better for that decision .
 
If you want to stop your medications you will have to speak to your prescribing doctor about getting off of them. If he thinks that going off of them would be wise then he can slowly taper your dosage down until you are no longer taking any of the medications. If he thinks that you should stay on the meds you should probably stay on the meds: He knows better than you.

Also, keep in mind that a lot of people with mental health issues get tempted to stop taking their meds after things have been going really well for a while. You know why things are probably going well? The medications are probably working very well for you, that's probably why things have been going well. If you stop your medications things could get worse again for you so keep that in mind. I have seen too many people decide that they are suddenly "fine" because the meds have been working, then they go off of the meds and terrible things happen. This will not necessarily happen to you, but please do the smart thing and speak to your doctor about whether or not you should stop taking your medications.

Some people who have clinical depression need to take meds for the rest of their lives in order to treat the condition. Depression is a chronic (life-long) illness that needs to be properly treated over the course of your lifetime. Some people only need to be on meds for a little while, but a lot of people will have to stay on the meds for as long as they live. I have to take my bipolar meds for as long as I live because bipolar disorder is also a chronic condition.

It isn't so bad having to take meds for the rest of your life though. Think about it: If you had diabetes you would have to take insulin for the rest of your life to stay healthy. If you were diabetic would you stop taking your insulin just because you aren't happy you have to take it for the rest of your life? Of course not! You'd get very sick and you could have limbs amputated. So why would you want to stop taking the medications that are keeping you well now?

Also, you would probably be better off not smoking pot or taking any other drugs if you have a mental health issue. A lot of people convince themselves that their drug use is therapeutic for their condition, and I felt that way, too, but eventually it catches up with you and things could get worse. I'm not saying that things will get worse, but it is very possible that even just smoking pot could worsen your symptoms. It's your choice to do what you want, but if pot caused you some problems in the past don't you think it's going to lead you down the same path again? Do you really want to risk making things even worse for yourself than they were before?

Just think about all of those things, talk to your doctor, and decide what's best for you.
 
well ive been trying to taper down taking 5 mgs (im normally on 10 mgs) but sadly the depression and anxiety is seeming to get worse. Im just afraid that if i stay on them too long it will change my brain so its impossible for me to go without them. It feels like im doing better on them tho it might be better to stay on em. idk ill talk to my doc. thanks
 
well ive been trying to taper down taking 5 mgs (im normally on 10 mgs) but sadly the depression and anxiety is seeming to get worse. Im just afraid that if i stay on them too long it will change my brain so its impossible for me to go without them. It feels like im doing better on them tho it might be better to stay on em. idk ill talk to my doc. thanks

Yeh thats natural because you just cut your dose in half. It does NOT mean thats your natural anxiety coming back though, its very much artificial and part of the wd process imo. Although obviously I can only speculate. I just know that stuff stopped towards the end.

I want to say first, I dropped from 10 to 7.5mg for a week, then 5mgs for a week, then 2.5mg for another week, then 2.5gms every other day for the last week.

I DID get anxiety too. But it was withdrawal anxiety from the headzaps and general withdrawal symptoms. Nothing like the anxiety I get from stopping opiates, but it was still there. Towards the last week it started to get A LOT better. And thats when I knew I was ready to stop.

If you're getting mindboggling anxiety, you may want to go back up to 7.5mgs. But either way, the anxiety you're experiencing now SHOULD go away in a week or lessen and get better. Its not a completely smooth ride, but I was feeling much better towards the end. There still remains the chance your anxiety will come back when you stop completely, but I honestly didn't have much of anything when I stopped completely. I would like to see you SLOWLY get down to 5mg, because I'm not sure halfing the dose is a smart thing to do. At least I know my doctor didn't do it that way.
 
well ive been trying to taper down taking 5 mgs (im normally on 10 mgs) but sadly the depression and anxiety is seeming to get worse. Im just afraid that if i stay on them too long it will change my brain so its impossible for me to go without them. It feels like im doing better on them tho it might be better to stay on em. idk ill talk to my doc. thanks

Yeah downfallin, you really need to speak with your doctor about this, especially if you've tried to taper down yourself before and it hasn't worked well. Good luck man, and let us know how you go.
 
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