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Coming off anti-depressants.

41 replies

vickylou2004 · 28/03/2011 14:32

Hi.
I've been on anti-depressants for a long time now. I have just started to wean myself off very slowly, missing one a week for now.
I would like to hear peoples experiences with the same thing and get a little support on finding the best ways to come off them.
Also did anyone else have these side effects from Citalopram-memory loss, sweating and lack of sexual desire?
I'm fearfull that when I've eventually come off them that I will go back to old me-negative and low.
Any comments would be greatly appreciated. xx

OP posts:
EveryonesJealousOfGingers · 30/03/2011 10:10

that book sounds like a good investment Strawberry I wonder if we could bulk buy for a discounted price! Grin

Thanks for your advice and experience I am glad it's going well for you and it gives the rest of us hope and a realistic expectation of timescale.

itsonlyajob · 30/03/2011 10:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GetDownYouWillFall · 30/03/2011 11:08

I agree with strawberry that dropping a dose once a week or every other day is not necessarily the best strategy, this definitely didn't work for me. I was told this can actually cause peaks and troughs of the drug in your bloodstream and is not a smooth, gradual transition. It does depend on the half-life of the drug. Those with long half-lives it doesn't matter so much, but short-half lives the every other day strategy just doesn't work.

It is amazing how GPs are often quite ignorant of this fact. Also they think that just because you are on the lowest dose of a drug that therefore means you can just stop the drug. No way! It took me 6 months to get off mirtazapine (and I was only ever on the lowest dose). Thankfully doing it so slowly I was mostly withdrawal effects free.

One thing I would say is that it is not necessarily that easy to get a drug in liquid form. It is much, much more expensive for the NHS and most doctors / pharmacists are reluctant to do this. Particularly as the liquid forms are usually pretty "unstable" i.e. have to be used within a certain short timeframe, and usually have to be stored in the fridge, which, when you have small children around, is not particularly secure or safe.

I got quite skilled at cutting my tablets myself. Another thing I found helpful was to store the tablets with some vitamin pills. Take a vitamin pill at the same time as the AD, then gradually when you've stopped taking the AD you continue to take the vitamin pill so "fooling" your body into thinking you are still in the same routine of taking something.

I hope this helps someone. Best of luck, you will get there in the end.

vickylou2004 · 30/03/2011 12:56

I am taking these comments on board and sounds as though you know what you're taking about, I actually agree that peaks and falls may happen and that lowering the dose would work better.

Strawberry-what are short/long half lives??

I'm going to make an appointment and see if I could go onto 5mgs a day then liquid?

Thank you so much for the advice and influencing my views. xxx

OP posts:
strawberry17 · 30/03/2011 17:52

I guess I was lucky my surgery made no fuss about giving me liquid prozac. Maybe if you put it to them that long term you'll be SAVING them money because you won't be stuck on tablets for years and years and years LOL
Pharmacists/chemists are very knowledgable on what's available in liquid form so worth talking to a good chemist as well. If your medication isn't available in liquid form you might be able to do what I did and switch to the equivalent dose of prozac which definately is available in liquid.

Half lives are explained in that book as well I think, it means the length of time it takes for your body to metabolize the drug and for it to wash out of your system, for instance Seroxat washes out really fast in a matter of 5 or 6 hours, prozac really slowly say a few days. So if you do the alternate day thing with seroxat your brain gets really confused with the peaks and troughs.

isaacandelodiesmummy · 30/03/2011 21:39

Hi - I came off Citalopram 20mg when pregnant with the first angel and got majorly ill about 30 weeks pregnant and had severe postnatal depression afterward. After a nightmare getting onto some sort of even keel, I am on Cipralex and have remained on it ever since - took about 8 months to even out and I have since had another baby. My experience would unfortunately make me resolve never to come off the AD's however everyone is different and ensure that you go on a very slow taper down - 5mg down daily every week until you are off completely. Best of luck with it! X

vickylou2004 · 30/03/2011 22:07

Thanks for your comment isaacandelodiesmommy! I will go SLOOOOOW! X

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purplepidjin · 30/03/2011 22:08

Place marking here, thank you for the opportunity to see other people's experiences! I daren't google, I terrify myself with worst case scenarios

I'm currently weaning off 225mg Velafaxine in order to switch onto 10mg Sertraline. As I can tell within 20 minutes of getting up in the morning that I haven't had my meds, dropping one a week would NOT work for me Grin Luckily, I work in care and the gp I saw knows me through work so he basically just asked what I wanted and advised me based on that.

I've just done a week at 150mg, and will be starting on 75mg tomorrow. It's absolute fucking hell, and I've done 3 pg tests just in case lol. Nausea, dizziness, lethargy (does anyone else get the thing where you're so tense, you feel like you're holding your body up even when you're flat on your back?) I will then go "cold turkey" for 48 hours before starting 10mg Sertraline with option to go to 20mg after a week if I need to.

The long term benefits are worth it. I have to fight this because I want my life and my personality back. I've been with DP 15 months, and had the PTSD for 16 (also anxiety and depression but I managed that for 15 years before my trigger incident) so I'm not entirely sure he's ever "met" me iyswim?

Keep at it - every day is a battle, and the more battles you win the closer you are to winning the war

vickylou2004 · 30/03/2011 22:15

Ooh thanks for the wine!!

I'm sorry you are struggling. That sounds like quite a fast withdrawal??

xx

OP posts:
purplepidjin · 30/03/2011 22:24

The Venlafaxine isn't working, and I'm a care worker with adults with learning difficulties. Having meltdowns every week to ten days is worse than a fast switch onto something else. I also want to start a family in the next few years so need to be on something that is known not to affect the baby.

The one thing I learned from counselling is that you actually do have to pull your socks up - but you have to find the inner strength to do it. I will beat this and if I have to do it by sheer bloody-mindedness then that's what it takes.

strawberry17 · 31/03/2011 08:03

Hi Purpleidjin, it does sound like you are going way too fast, you shouldn't be suffering this much, all your horrible synptoms are because you are going too fast, as a rule of thumb it's best not to reduce more than 10% of your previous dose, then wait until you feel really really ok before you make another reduction, it really is slowly slowly catchee monkey with this or you end up right back at square one before you know it.
Also, just a thought to ask your doctor, would it be better to switch to 5ml liquid prozac which I believe is the equivalent of 10mg Sertraline, if you have something in liquid form you can then reduce a lot easier, or are you planning to stay on Sertraline? in which case ignore that last bit!

purplepidjin · 31/03/2011 09:36

Thanks, Strawberry. In my head I feel stronger and more like myself which is what makes the physical stuff bearable. The Venlafaxine is my 3rd attempt at finding the right drug, and it took 9 months and 3 dosage changes to get to 225mg. Which started to become ineffective about 3 months ago [aarrgghh!!!!] so now we kinda just want rid of it iyswim

The Sertraline is hopefully going to be the one that works for me, although the way I'm feeling at the moment I'm actually wondering about the switch and thinking a reduced Venlafaxine would be better...

Is any of this helping you, Vickylou?

vickylou2004 · 31/03/2011 17:36

Oh yes purplepidjin, thought I knew the best stratedgy for weaning myself off but it seems that people on here know better than the doctors. Understandable really.

Got an appointment tomorrow to ask them to lower my dose.

OP posts:
purplepidjin · 31/03/2011 17:59

I will state clearly that I do not know better than my doctor.

I'm lucky that the doctor I saw also knows one of the resident's I work with, who I have supported with various medical issues, and therefore treats me like a human being because he knows I can handle medication safely.

I only know what works for me, and that seems to be totally by accident!!

strawberry17 · 31/03/2011 19:07

Oh God I don't mean to come across as arrogant and I know better than doctors, and I would never advocate doing something without your doctors agreement after all I am not a doctor I am just talking from my own personal 12 years worth of experience with antidepressants LOL

purplepidjin · 31/03/2011 20:49

I didn't think you did, strawb.

My doc openly said he didn't know what would happen, which is one of the things that make me trust him! Like all things you just have to suck it and see. What works for me could be disastrous for you and v v

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