As a person who is approaching the year anniversary of my freedom from psych meds after 15 years, the pessimistic attitude of your psychologist and psychiatrist greatly angers me.

I am also extremely angry that their ignorance in confusing withdrawal symptoms with a relapse has led to you being placed on a drug, Abilify, that has very dangerous side effects. That is the equivalent in my opinion, to putting someone on heroin who suffered withdrawal symptoms from cocaine.

The key to getting off of psych meds is to taper at 10% of current dose every 4 to 6 weeks. In some cases, you may have to even taper more slowly.

The exception is if you haven’t been on a psych med for very long and I hope to god that is the case with the Abilify. By the way, i would taper that drug first and then taper either Lexapro or Effexor at the slow tapering rate that I suggest. Please only taper one drug at a time.

For additional peer run support, google “Surviving Antidepressants” which will result in the Surviving Antidepressants site being listed first in the search results. It is a great place for support in tapering off of psych meds. It totally depends on donations and is not affiliated with any organization.

Hope this helps.

PJ

Your description sounds exactly like emotional blunting from antidepressants. Long-term use can cause it. After a while, your serotonin receptors have downregulated (shut off) to the extent they can’t do their job anymore, no matter how much serotonin is squirted over them.

When this occurs, your drug is truly your problem, as Dr. Peter Breggin’s book says.

And, of course, antidepressants are well-known for eliminating sex drive and sexual response.

These are a couple of those unintended consequences of long-term antidepressant use, typically denied by doctors and the pharmaceutical industry.

See http://tinyurl.com/3dk5vjb for a scientific paper about emotional blunting caused by antidepressants.

Thanks for your kind comment! Like you, I also experienced a complete loss of creative motivation while on antidepressants. It’s even clearer now in retrospect — the 2+ years that I spent taking Paxil are not well-documented because I wasn’t motivated enough to keep writing in a journal (something I’ve done since I was about 8 years old!). I also enjoy creative writing, but during my time on Paxil, I felt no reason to continue on with that, either. Same with music — music is a big part of my life as well, but while on Paxil, I couldn’t be bothered with it. Songs were just a series of notes and chords; no song could rise above and become more meaningful than another.

The good news is this: my very last dose was in January of 2007. Nearly 3 years post-Paxil, I can safely say that ALL of the creativity has returned. Things DO improve!

Last year I graduated with honours in Music. Although I had spent 4+years with depression ( untreated and undiagnosed) I was still able to be extremely creative and had a very active imagination which in songwriting is key.
After my grad I basically ‘burnt out’ put mildly, and had to come home to live. In the year spent at home, I visited a raft of Drs, counselors, Psychiatrists, psychologists you name it, and in desperation wanted to explore every avenue.
As you said, whilst developing relationships with certain people you do put a lot of trust in them and are often more then willing to give their method of ‘therapy’ a shot. In the space of the year I tried a total of 5 different antidepressants and cross faded (sorry musical term) from one to another.
At one stage when I was on a high dose of Effexor, I went cold turkey and boy did I pay for it.
I did this without telling my parents or my Dr, because I hated the side effects and the fact my mind was numb and I had no ability to create or feel. It basically took my spirit away as music is my soul food. Well….. As hard as I tried to cover up the vomiting, brain shivers, irrational thoughts, from my parents.. playing the ‘Flight to Health’ card, I was a total wreck and learnt a very valuable lesson.
It took a lot of convincing for me to try another antidepressant after several episodes of flat lining and new anxieties developing but I finally, again out of desperation, was willing to give Wellbutrin (burpropion, zyban) a go.
After 3.5 months and no improvement only worsened symptoms, I made the decision that antidepressants were not for me. I was and still am, prepared for talk therapy, I mean whatever works for you folks! but I wanted to have the ‘old colourful me’ back. Right now I am tapering ever so gradually and yes I am experiencing some terrible brain zaps, nausea and some slightly obscure thought processes, but, already I am seeing wonderful improvement and feel like I have a purpose in life again.
As you wrote re: being prepared for side effects, this is definitely crucial, especially if you have built up a dependency on the drug. But knowing that in time, through gradual reduction, this will pass, makes it all worth it. Side effects unfortunately are part and parcel but having support in place, friends/fam/counsellor whatever, can make this easier.

This article had a profound and positive impact on me and I will be sure to send people to this link.

Thank you Summer! You’re a legend.

When my son’s psychiatrist told me exactly to stop his Luvox after taking it for five years, I said “NO”, I would not. She told me to give him 50% for three days and then zero.

Not to mention that the Luvox caused my son to become ‘bipolar’, and my whole family lived in fear and agony for years. So then we spent one year trying to find the right medicine…on top of the Luvox…to treat his manic depression, and if it were not for me, and only me, he would long be dead. There were no warnings, nothing, and a year of agony. Then , when there was no mood stabilizer that did not kill him, the psychiatrist wanted him on risperdal.

Anyway, the best thing that ever happened was when my son got into trouble and someone called DHS and sent out a caseworker to my house. The guy was great, (except that he was paranoid and distracted that someone was watching him all the time) but he listened very carefully, then asked for permission to talk to my son’s psychiatrist and the next day I got the order to take my son of the Luvox. That was the very end of bi-polar, and he has not had even one second of a symptom of such in n ow about three years.
(the whole issue was never discussed or mentioned again after that, as if five years of hell never happened.)

Thanks again for writing this,

KATRIN

I am currently taking 50mg of Seratraline and I am very sensitive to the side effects as it is. If I am just one hour late in taking the pill I have nausea, headaches and hot flashes and tremors, and at times I get agitated. I have been wanting to get off the medication for quite some time but the side effects are too much.
I can cut the pill in half, but I can’t really go any smaller than that, seeing that the pill is very small to begin with.
And, even after I lower the dose and I am off the medication, how long will the symptoms last?
Is there anything I can take to rid the nausea and fatigue?
Please help.

Up until mid-January 2009 I was taking 100mg of Sertraline (Zoloft). I weaned off by by reducing 25mg each week. Even till this day, I still experience flashbacks / ptsd and some depression. I take B-12 16000 mg / day and L-Tryptophan 200mg/day. They work on some days, and on others they seem to have little benefit.

I’m thinking of going back on Sertraline but on the lowest dosage and see of I can slowly wean off slowly this time.

Do you know of anyone who has tried doing this? Was it successful?

So, Dr. T , with all due respect, the doctor can be part of the problem.