Prolonged antidepressant withdrawal syndrome
Posted , 4 users are following.
Hi everyone,
I’m gonna try to make this post as short and sweet as possible. I’m a 26 year old female and I’m sort of at my wits end with this and I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced the same thing. I have always been an anxious person, mostly severe social anxiety, but besides that I was generally a happy person who could see the positive side of many situations. I was extra stressed in August 2015 and went to my general family doctor and he put me on 10 mg Lexapro, I took the pill as directed for 10 months and did not feel any different whatsoever while on them, I really didn’t even see that it helped much with my anxiety to be honest, maybe slightly. Well after those 10 months I decided I didn’t wanna be on medication anymore and my doctor told me to cut my pills in half for a week and then stop cold turkey. I did as ordered and for a couple months I was okay, nothing out of the ordinary, a few headaches and slightly increased anxiety but nothing I couldn’t handle. Well after the two months were up I woke up and it felt like my entire world around me had changed. All of a sudden life just seemed so dark and pointless, I had never felt so bad. Things that once mattered no longer did, my motivation was completely gone, I had a constant feeling of agony in my stomach(like that feeling when you lose someone or you’re going through a break up) it was torture. I endured 8 months of that, I felt like I was barely surviving through the day and ended up having to quit my job. A week later I realized that a person could not live like this so I went back to my doctor and was sobbing telling him something was wrong and I haven’t been myself since quitting the antidepressants. All he wanted to do was put me back on meds but I knew better. I knew this wasn’t the real me and I decided to do my own research and I’ve found tons of stories of people never being themselves again after cold turkeying from an antidepressant and it absolutely terrifies me. I have not felt like myself in 3 years and I swear I’m not exaggerating. I’m so scared I will never be the person I once was.
Has anyone else experienced prolonged antidepressant withdrawal syndrome? I really hope this gets better. Thanks in advance!
0 likes, 7 replies
Manny321 taylor_17978
Posted
Hey,
i know the agony you're speaking. at the moment I'm a year off cold turkey my antidepressant that i took for two years. And boy I'm still having symptoms. The lingering ones are off balance/feeling in a boat, g.i. Issues, sudden anger and sadness, and hyperarousal thats giving me a lot problems at the moment...(kinda messed up my prostate for over stimulation)
I've come across pages were people still suffer from protracted withdrawals. So, at least i know I'm not the only one.
taylor_17978 Manny321
Posted
I’m so sorry that you’re going through this also. It does give me comfort to know that I’m not alone in this, but I hate that other people have also had to deal with this agony. My physical symptoms are insomnia, extreme fatigue, brain zaps and extremely weird sensations through my brain and entire body, but my mental symptoms are by far the worst thing I could ever imagine. The sadness I’ve felt these past 3 years is seriously just insane to me. It’s so hard to believe that a tiny white pill could cause us such distress.
Please message me if you ever need to talk to someone who understands.
sam90321 taylor_17978
Posted
this sound scary, am glad i came of these meds immediatly when i had the chance, my dr prescribe these exact ones to me last year, i took half of one pill and let me tell you the amount of side affects i gotten from that it was scary to the point i went to the er, i had severe diarrhoea as well but i think i had a allergy reaction to these because i started to wheeze the next day, on the second day i got so scared i discountined them and didnt take a 2nd dose, i had withdrawl symptoms from these my dr told me it would take a week to get out my system but that was a lie it took a whole month for all the side affect to go away, she didnt believe me but its my body and i know myself, i research these on youtube and other people who took these had to stop them because these meds are pretty powerful, imagine that i only took half a pill and it did this too me, so believe that its these meds my dr told me they are pretty strong and these ones i heard people said not to come off cold turkey a matter of fact any meds no one should stop cold turkey. i hope you feel better very soon.
taylor_17978 sam90321
Posted
Oh my gosh I’m so sorry about your experience. I desperately wish I would’ve done more research before taking these pills and especially before quitting them cold turkey, but we trusted our doctors when they told us we needed them, and yes I had they same thing. My doctor acted like I was crazy when I told him I think it’s the Lexapro withdrawal that caused this agony in the first place and basically acted like I was just a mental patient who needed drugs to functions, which is bull crap cause I was fine for 23 years before I was on any meds. I’m so glad you recovered from your experience!
And thank you!
ann55375 taylor_17978
Posted
yes its very normal to feel like this after anti deps. i cannot take any, tried them all. and now im left with depression and anxiety. eveyone says it just takes time,, hold on.
taylor_17978 ann55375
Posted
I'm so sorry! Do you mind me asking how long the withdrawal has affected you? I'm 3 years off meds and I really hope to feel better soon, but I don't see myself just snapping out of this anytime soon. 😦
ann55375 taylor_17978
Posted
they have left me on only diazepam for anxiety for over 18 months as i cant tolerate anti deps. i am worse now and need some help but dr seems unable to assist me.