AIBU to think anyone can come off antidepressants successfully

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Just that really. Interested in hearing people's stories please. I've been on them on and off for more than ten years.
Thanks

Mental = menstrual

GPs?

No it's about pharmaceutical interests. It's not GPs, it's drug companies and beneficiaries of their profits. It's a multi-billion pound industry with endemic corruption. Many MPs have pharmaceutical interests.

It's naïve to think demand incentive disappears just because an organisation is large and overarching. In fact the opposite is true.

I managed a couple of years between coming off Sertraline and going on Paroxetine (should have gone back on Sertraline in hindsight but I thought coming off that was tough - was nothing compared to stopping Paroxetine). I switched from Paroxetine to a high dose of Amitriptyline (had to come off it to increase amitriptyline dose) and have been OK ish. I can't imagine I'll ever stop amitriptyline now.

Tom Cruise is that you?

I was struck by the difference between the medical advice I received and what I read online. My GP said halve the dose for 2 weeks and then you should be fine to just stop taking it. What I actually did was taper down ridiculously slowly. It was easy to come off them this way, whereas the first time I tried the GP way it was horrible.

I didn't share the slow taper with my GP, I thought she'd think I was silly. But actually, chopping tiny tablets into thirds and quarters worked really well for me, however silly it seemed. No timetable, just nudging it down a bit, sticking for a bit, nudging it down again when ready.

There are very few absolutes in life so I would never assert it's right for everyone, but I do think support for a slower taper from my GP would have helped me personally.

I've been on and off them since my teens, but haven't been on them now in around 5 years. But I'd never discount taking them again if I got to a place I needed to and they would help.
My friend has tried to come off them, and has had real problems when weaning down and/or switching to something else and so stays on them.
I also have a bit of a bum knee that I need to take pain relief and NSAIDs for at times and wear a support, I look on antidepressants the same way I do the support and pain relief, I'm not going to suffer unnecessarily if I don't need to, it's just the support is for my brain instead of my knee.

Ds with severe autism will probably be on sertraline or similar for life.

Sertralind has just transformed my weeping heartbroken depressed Ds in 3 weeks.

Don’t give a shit about money, bigpharma or any other stupid crap. Ad’s are life transforming imo.

@SilverDragonfly1 and @ArseInTheCoOpWindow I love you.

The stigma of the 'mental health pandemic' drives me up the wall. Some of us were taking anti depressants before it was cool!

Glad you aren't dead. X

Of course some people have an imbalance. ! Try telling someone with years of chikdhood trauma, which affected the brain pathways that !!!

Right.

Drugs exist purely to make money for Big Pharma. None of them actually work. People just numbly hand over their hard-earned cash for nothing.

I’m a retired doctor with an adult DD who has twice hanged herself and who would very probably now be dead without long term antidepressant therapy.
I find these thoughtless threads potentially dangerous - even life threatening- if they encourage seriously depressed patients to stop taking essential medication.
People who “easily come off ADs” either didn’t need them in the first place, had a resolving short term episode of reactive depression, or risk a future relapse.

I went cold turkey and I definitely don’t recommend it. I had very specific issues and I really did not want to take medication anymore. I’ve worked extremely hard on my mental health since, but it’s only now that I’m in a place where I feel it would be ok to take ADs again. Honestly, I think my resistance to considering medication was part of my poor mental state.

Hollywood hasn’t helped - there’s definitely an anti-medicine vibe that’s easier to spot retrospectively. The film Beautiful Mind basically suggests that John Nash overcame his medication and won a Nobel prize. The true story is completely different, but that film perpetuated a dangerous message about not trusting doctors.

On the other hand, though, there is an issue with women being diagnosed with anxiety and depression instead of adhd, or people being given ADs instead of pain relief. If you think that you’ve been misdiagnosed, you need to get second opinions, or push to seeing a specialist, rather than falling out of the system.

None of them actually work🤔

As l said, I’d be dead or paralysed with fear without them. Have you taken them? Are you speaking from experience? Depression is the worlds number 1 health problem. Maybe ask one of the millions across the world that takes them?🙄

Are you quoting me?!

Clearly the heavy sarcasm did not come through for you as you read my post.

Maybe you need to do your research elsewhere.

Whoops!!!😂😂😂 Sorry!

Sure. Just like anyone can successfully come off insulin. Oh wait...

Yes more than once. The hardest to come off were Duloxetine, had to do it very very slowly over a long time. It was fine. That said, should I need them again, I'll go back on them.

I was only on them for a short time but boy, coming off them was horrendous. I didn't get the brain zaps but my GP recommended just halving the dose for a week then stopping. I was either sobbing about everything or insanely angry, and I bloated so much I felt like a Weeble.

Took me six months to get off them (which was longer than I was actively taking them for, and only then I had to do it by reducing by tiiiiny increments) and, while I can appreciate that anti-depressants work for some, I wouldn't touch them again.

My husband managed to taper down his 40mg citalopram dosage. Dr advice was 5mg at a time, let it settle and then another 5mg but he still had bad side effects so eventually he was literally scraping off a tiny bit with a really sharp knife, doing that for a few days and then scraping off a bit more. It tooks months and months and he has stuck at 10mg for a while now.

AIBU to think anyone can come off antidepressants successfully

It depends on the definition of success. If you mean, can anyone on antidepressants get to a point where they are no longer taking them, if that's your definition of success then yes obviously "anyone" can. They might be fine, they might be dead, but they're no longer taking them.

If you mean can everyone who takes antidepressants get to a point where they can live their life just as well without them as with them, then no. Like many illnesses people suffer in different ways. Someone might have successful treatment for cancer, another person might have recurrent bouts. It's the same with mental health, a one size fits all approach doesn't work.

Really sorry my post was simplistic. I've had 4 episodes of anxiety and depression between 2010 and 2014. I was on and off citalopram during this time. After my biggest episode in 2014 I stayed on them longer and weaned myself off very slowly. I then felt myself struggling again in 2017 and took months to wean myself on again (horrendous side effects).
I'm am ex science teacher and have a degree in Physiology so understand the drug effects and neuro issues. I've read scientific papers that long term use damages receptors in the brain, so sought advice with my GP. He referred me to a psychiatrist who dismissed my case by letter without speaking to me and said mine was an endogenous depression and I should stay on meds for 5 years. That 5 years ends this year.

Since then I have stopped teaching (a major cause of stress and anxiety) and am now doing pastoral work in a school which I love.

I've weaned myself down to 10mg which I have been on for a couple of years but wonder if I can ever really manage without. I know no one can answer that question for me, but wondered whether anyone on here had successfully managed to live meds free. No point me going to GP as that was a dead end last time.

Thank you for your time

Babdoc I'm interested in your thoughts please?