I have stopped antidepressants now I feel worse than I did than before I started!
Question: Do antidepressants put problems there that were not there before in your experience?
Doctors would say - "ah that is your depression coming back because the tablets were working", but I say that they are fiddling with my brain chemistry and causing me to be worse on withdrawal than I would have been if I had never took them.
Answers: Do antidepressants put problems there that were not there before in your experience?
Doctors would say - "ah that is your depression coming back because the tablets were working", but I say that they are fiddling with my brain chemistry and causing me to be worse on withdrawal than I would have been if I had never took them.
I agree wholeheartedly with you, but only because of my own experience. I'm getting off this last medication and will never go back. Someone needs to admit that the "chemical imbalance" thing is very misunderstood and far from exact science. Sit and really give thought to what you're doing when you take them - it's bizarre.
Edit: You might appreciate this: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlser...
NO NO NO!!!! NOT AT ALL. I will finish the rest in an edit so wait a bit. The withdrawl will pass and you will go back to the same amount of depression as before.
Your brain didn't know yet what it was missing. It had lived all this time with the amount of happy chemicals going through you that it creates on its own. Then you started added additional happy chemicals through your medicine and your brain liked this and got used to it. Even if you didn't feel an improvement on your conscience level your brain noticed. Then you take away the chemicals abruptly and your brain begins to miss them and crave them wildly. It could take a few days for your brain to stop being in withdrawls or weeks. Each of our brains are all so different and Psychiatrists are playing a guessing game more than they want us to know. There was no permanent damager done to your brain chemistry. There are very few drugs easily prescribed that can actually alter things up there and if it was one of those drugs you would have been told and been under close observation. Going on a medicine cold turkey is always a worse feeling then before you were on them. Wean off slow, and still that can be difficult. I'm so sorry it has been horrible, but I know that medication helps. You just haven't found the right on yet. Good luck. Keep Trying. If you are a teen medication reactions can be more dangerous so keep close contact to your doctor and family.
Scoobs: I totally see what you are saying. I feel I have been over medicated in the past and that even the doctors didn't quite know how to diagnosis me. I know a very successful therapist that is Bi-polar and is a recovered heroin addict and after 20 years dealing with his illness he is now medication free. He figured out he knew his own body better than the doctors and he has been successful. I'm not saying everyone or even me needs to do this, but he is an example on how having self control and awareness of your mood and body has allowed him to be free of medicine and it must feel liberating. Thank you for your point of view on this.
start taking them again
Depends on if you had completed the course fully,if you havent that can make you depressed.
you're not meant to just 'stop' taking them...it has to be done in a controlled way by your GP....if not you may end up 'worse' than when you 'started'
Don't start taking them again. Things will get better, but it will take a LONG time.
EDIT: Don't give me thumbs down and make comments when you don't know what you're talking about. If you've never been in this situation, don't make suggestions. I was medicated all through high school and for years after that, and about a year ago, I finally stopped taking prescriptions meds altogether, and it's been hard, but things are getting better. It's just the withdrawal that makes it difficult. Your brain needs to readjust and it takes a while. I've taken Zoloft, Lexapro, Effexor, Effexor XR, Cymbalta, Wellbutrin... there are others that I've forgotten. And I've experienced withdrawal for all of these. And I don't know that my brain will ever be the same again. I resent being medicated and I resent being "diagnosed" with conditions that AREN'T REAL! "Depression" is not fully understood. They say it's a "chemical imbalance" but that's NOT PROVEN. Read about it. I don't make this stuff up.
How long were you on the medication. Certain antidepressants should not be stopped cold turkey, and need to be weened out of your system slowly. Please seek the advice of your doctor or pharmacist.
it is a difficult area and i know what you mean but you do need to take anti depressants long term and stopping them without medical advice is not a good idea
go back to your GP for advice
I have to say, I agree slightly with the doc. You are obviously not cured of your depression if you still feel bad. Anti-depressants help you to cope with your problems - they do not solve them.. You should get back on medication & perhaps have some counselling to work through your issues & only come off tablets when you're sure that you have the inner strength to deal with day to day life & are able to tackle issues as & when they arise. I have been there, done it. Good luck to you.
No, I don't believe so... if you quit taking them your symptoms of depression are probably coming back...sometimes people feel better, so they quit the meds., but they fail to realize that the meds. are helping them..
Sorry to hear this but never quit cold turkey it messes your brain chemical balance type stuff lol Not funny I know get your Doc to give you a smaller dose of maybe a diff type sometimes the smallest dose is the best and be aware that you may be on them for the rest of your life They are to repair imbalances not change them
i was on 150 mg a day, i am now on 20mg but the doctor told me to miss a day whilst coming off the 150mg dose it was the worst day of my life.
Depression should be only short lived, it would have been better, if your doctor had weened you off those tablets gradually, go back and see if he has a less powerful tablet so you can cut back gently.
basicly i think...
You take them to stop you feeling bad... but whatever it was that was making you feel bad in your head is just being masked by the pills.. so when you stop taking them its still in your head.
you need to cure or sort out why you feel bad first.
anti depressants are bad. doctors give them as an easy way out.
hope you find something that works
good luck!
Yes withdrawal if done like cold turkey is not pleasant. Have you stopped taking them under doctors supervision and by gradually decreasing the dosage. If not you can expect to feel pretty rotten. Hopefully you will soon feel better if you have followed the instructions for coming off of them to the letter.
However, I would speak to your GP if the symptoms of withdrawal persist.
Been there worn that tee-shirt and came out the other end but I did have to go back on tablets for a while as is was obvious to everyone apart from me that I was not ready to come off of them. When I did finally manage it took me a good 6 months for the fuss to clear but it has I now I'm getting on with my life.
I would say stay strong and ask for support if things get too much for you...no man is an island remember.
All the best and I'll be rooting for you.
Hi.
I have been taking antidepressants for the past 4 years.
I dont know how long you have been taking them,but you need them at least a year,as they put back chemicals in the brain,so if you dont take them for long enough,your deppression will remain.
If there is need for you to take the medication and you dont,your deppression can become major.
My advise is take your pills,the good from the pills overways the bad.
Ive been there,and personally my choice would be to stay on deppression pills. I have the pills to thank for being here today.
Good Luck.
P.s Problems dont just go away,besides depression is an illness in the mind.
Sure you do.. I am sure the Dr. did not intend for you to quit cold turkey..... I was taking paxill for a few years and when I ran out I thought well I will go get a new script next week. Well next week never came I was in the emergency room wanting to know what was wrong with me. I missed the party of the year and did not feel good at all . It was like my body was outside of myself I swear I never felt this way in my life and would never let my meds run out again..... Too dangerous.
I was on Zoloft, and you are supposed to see the effects around 3 month into it. Let me tell you that did not help a bit. I was aware that once i stopped taking the med I was going to suffer some kind of reactions. The medication made feel like nervous and upset stomach, sleeping problems. Once you stop them there will be some kind of reaction. You should go to the doctor and have the med changed. Anti depressants are good but if used with caution. I decided to go cold turkey but I was aware of my body reactions and I make sure I had a support group and I did keep the sleeping pills that I did use very seldom. But I needed them after three or four night of restless sleep.
If you need to change doctor because you don't feel comfortable do that. But if you are having some weird perception of reality be very honest with your doctor. That can be a sign of other developing condition that needs to be treated. Do some leg work and find information in the Internet about your symptoms and meds, write your thought s down and share them with your doctor..... Be brave, stay strong because you are strong when you do something about your mental health. Best of luck
What happens is this:
Depression is caused by low brain chemicals. Sometimes serotonin, sometimes endorphins, sometimes catecholamines. Different chemicals have slightly different effects. For example, being low in serotonin will make you anxious/depressed while being low in endorphins will make you sad/depressed.
(Low brain chemicals can be inherited, or caused by a really bad diet, like most Americans eat.)
When you take medication, these brain chemicals are increased artificially. Most drugs hit on the seronotin, which then causes your endorphins to drop even lower. This is why people find that the drugs don't work after a while. Your depression doesn't come back per se. It's just that drugs cause another type of imbalance.
When a person stops taking drugs, their brain chemistry is even more disturbed because the different "receptors" have shut down due to the drugs. Because there is so much extra artificial serotonin (due to drugs like Paxil for example) the body gets lazy and doesn't make it. So when you stop drugs, your body hasn't made any serotonin and your endorphin receptors have shut down. So you feel worse.
It takes a lot of time to heal the brain and body, and a very steady diet based on protein to help the body start creating those brain chemicals (protein is amino acids, and amino acids are the building blocks of brain chemicals).
A brain's chemical imbalance does effect you moods, and this is a fact. Haven't you ever taken a medical course?
You have to find the right meds that work for you. Once you find a good combo, you will get better. But it takes a while, weeks to months.
If you do just stop taking these meds, ya, you will have more problems.
You should listen to your dr. and if you don't like what they have to say, find another one.
Yes they can couse problems and you need to get of them extremly slowly one less tablet a month or two months then when you are only taking one tablet then go t half for a month then if you can a quarther of one tablet for
a month. And when you do finly stop takeing them you still may not feel right for quiet a long time
and should be with docters help
you may have developed a dependency on them,it could be both chemical and psychological.
if they weren't causing you side effects i'd say stay on them until your doctor says otherwise. it depends on how often you've been depressed and how long you've been on medication
Sorry to be flippant, but perhaps if you stopped listening to morrissey.
You shouldn't just stop taking Anti-Depressants, I missed one day once and thought the world was going to end (although I am on 300Mg), they do regulate the harmful chemicals in the brain, so by stopping them the chemicals are just going to go into hyper-drive, hence you feeling worse.
I also agree, with a previous answer, stop listening to Morrissey, if anybody is going to depress you he is, I ran a very successful Mobile Disco for over 20 years and flatly refused to buy, or play any Smiths, or Morrissey far too depressing.
You were told a few weeks ago to keep taking the medication although I doubt you'd remember....