Fluoxetine withdrawals- seems to keep getting worse...
Posted , 2 users are following.
Further to my post earlier i thought it may be helpful to record some if the experiences of 'bad' fluoxetine withdrawal as they happen.
it is difficult to be say Day 1 etc as I stopped taking my final dose around 6-8 weeks ago and thought Id sailed through with no problems. However nearly 2 weeks ago I came down with what I thought was norovirus and I presume still was that illness. I had a very bad bout of whatever this gastric upset was however as I sequestered myself in my house to get over it almost imperceptibly I started to feel extremely anxious and with the most awful feeling of utter hopelessness. As the stomach issues started to recede the psychological problems became even more extreme. I'd had a few days off work and then had already booked the next week off as leave so so far I've not had to take anytime off work - unfortunately being a locum worker I only get paid when I'm in so an now faxed with wondering How I can face work on Monday.
Anyway as many have said you realise these are withdrawals when the anxiety and low mood are far worse than anything you've ever experienced before and the clincher for me was the strange pushing in my head which seem very similar to the brain zaps others describe.
Today which us about day 5 since the obviously psychological symptoms started and I awoke with an anxiety of a level off the scale as far as I have ever experienced anything. Mood very low but I can cope with that to a degree but this anxiety feels as though I an literally cracking up and need some sort of hospitalisation. However even if that was easier to come by in this country I would be very reluctant to get admitted in case they thought more meds was the answer.
i went on the fluoxetine originally to deal with mild social phobic symptoms which were the legacy of self- medicating for many years with alcohol and illicit drugs to deal with what I now know were OCD problems in my late teens and 20s. it took a long time but I have been abstinent from alcohol and drugs for some years now and just wanted something to help deal with the damaged nervous system from decades of abuse. However my life was liveable and I was a fully functioning member of society -I trained as a health professional once the worst of the substance misuse years were passed, and eventually had a reasonable life. However I thought using an anti depressant would help with the residual effects such as socialising not just without the use of alcohol (which face it most people use to relax) but which in my case was compounded by the damage I'd wrought on my psyche.
Was starting on the ADs a mistake! After 6 or 7 years on them I became tired of the nightly weird dreams/nightmares I experienced and also thought do I even need the ADs any more after all who wants to be on them forever? Little did I know what lay in store in coming off them.
Added to all this I am also currently trying to deal with worries about my 89 year old mother who old age has started to catch with and who lives 280 miles away from me.
I have a few diazepam but i am loathe to use them as even at this stage if what us verging on terrifying I do not want to ingest anymore psychiatric meds.
Currently it feels all about just surviving from hour to hour with this horrible intense agitation and anxiety pervading my whole body . But I'll do my best to update this with any significant changes or new symptoms. I've has no brain pulses today but did lay in bed last night with weird aches in my limbs before I fell into a very shallow sleep. Sleep is very hard to achieve at the moment and facially I look washed put. I have used promethazine in the last few days the only medication I have because it doesn't cross the blood brain barrier and is non addictive but even that is struggling to work now.
0 likes, 3 replies
kingprawn
Edited
well i made it through yesterday which included a long drive back from where I d been visiting my mother. that and doing shopping etc for her kept me active which was difficult but preferable from the alternative sitting there with the constantly moving feet.
I slept for around 6 hours which is good currently but may have been from the many hours spent driving home.
Today though I woke to the feeling of not wanting to wake up but stay as sleep as long as possible to keep out the mental pain that is all encompassing at the moment. My feet constantly moving feeling like I could tangibl feel my blood coursing round my body as I lay in bed. My plan is to go straight from rising to doing an hour's cycling on my static-bike to try to burn at least some some of this feeling of constant tenterhooks away and then to do a few household chores that need doing and see if the tiredness I hope to bring on can make the thought of the rest of today any more tenable. Obviously the spectre of returning to work on Monday is scaring me to death as my job involves intensely working with people on a close basis. Anyway first to try to get through today and cross one bridge as I come to it...
kingprawn
Posted
Well managed to go back to work Monday and have almost made it to the end of Thursday. I Don't know how though as I feel worse than ever. The anxiety is like nothing I've ever experienced before in my life and its more or less unremitting. I went on them originally because of OCD and the damage caused by it Iver the years so you can imagine now it's intolerable as all my intrusive and distressing OCD thoughts which I'd pretty much learned to live with are now amplified by a hundred. All I do at the moment aside from work and sleep is read anything I can on WDs I've tried reading other stuff or listening to music but it just makes things worse. I've been using nytol to sleep and it also relieves things slightly for the couple of hours before I go to bed but now I've seen that it is also a mild SSRI and after going through this I'm absolutely terrified of anything of that description so I won't be having any tonight so problem insomnia to add to the mix tonight as well. I was doing an hour on my exercise bike when I got in until last night but I even missed that last night although will attempt to start again tonight.
I have some prn benzos which I have not taken since I took a night before my return to work 5mg of diazepam Sunday night as the last thing I want to do is introduce those to the equation. Although I may need one tomorrow night as the thought of a weekend alone in my house away from the albeit small distraction of work may be too much to bear .
I've still remained alcohol free and the last thing Ive been thinking of was getting hammered but I was just tempted to have a bottle or two of beer to take the edge of thus hell but because of my history and not having had any alcohol for 4 years I've resulted so far. What's keeping me going is the general idea I've got from my reading around the subject if ADS is that once you get severe symptoms you can expect them to last at least 3 weeks and possibly up to 6 and that doesn't mean you're definitely going to enter the months or years type of syndrome. I'm still only at about day 15 or 16 since they started.
This is the most unpleasant experience if my life by far and my life has been far from easy but I'd give anything to go back to how I was 4 or 5 years ago before the fluoxetine or 7 or 8 years ago before I ever took an SSRI. Those days now seem like paradise - if course there are new stressors in my life now - being 8 years older and alone- I had a partner back then and my mothers failing health but no way are what I'm experiencing now just recurrent depression and anxiety after all it started overnight the 4 or 6 weeks after my last fluoxetine just like they admit it can with the longer half life from that drug and there are all the weird physical symptoms too.
Feel it pointless going to see my GP as he'd only try to persuade me to go back on the ssris and I'm not even into restarting at a lower dose for a slower taper after what I've already gone through in the last fortnight. And of course as we know they're not even guaranteed to start working again once you've stopped them completely for a few weeks.
stewart57904 kingprawn
Posted
hi sorry to hear your having a hard time from the fluoxetine. fluoxetine is one of the better ones for withdrawals because it comes out the system so slow. I know this doesnt help but i think you are one of the unlucky ones and gping back on to taper wouldnt make a difference. I have been on and off fluoxetine for many years and always had no withdrawals just the bad side effects starting.
hope things get better for you soon