Antidepressant Withdrawal: A Prozac Story. Editorial Note: Over two years ago we posted Antidepressant Withdrawal: V’s story. It has close to 1. Right now the New York Times is running a series on Breaking up with my Meds that is attracting a lot of comment. This is a hot button issue with many people desperate to get off antidepressants and others who appear to think anyone who wants to get off must be mad. This post is an extraordinary piece of writing about the difficulties in stopping. Nine out of ten people now taking antidepressants are on them chronically – most of these are on them because they can’t get off. This makes clear what the problem is. I’m still not sure I understand what happened to me. I was prescribed Prozac in 1. Started at 2. 0 mg, then up to 6. I had never had a depressive episode, had never been anxious. I recall very little about this other than the psychiatrist telling me than he preferred Prozac to the available MAOIs because it had less side effects, no diet restrictions, and that some people had lost weight while taking it, which of course appealed to me. I vaguely recall feeling jittery when I first started, but it was a sort of energized jittery which I didn’t mind and may have even liked. As far as dates when I attempted to stop taking the drug, I’m not sure. I do know that I reinstated a few times after being told by my GP or psychiatrist that the problems I was having was the re- emergence of depression, and then more recently, the emergence of an anxiety disorder. What I didn’t know at the time was the Wellbutrin effects an increase in plasma concentrations of SSRIs. So even though I was only ingesting 9mg of Prozac a day, the increased concentration of the drug made it seem as though there was much more in my body. How much I don’t know. This means I was inadvertently tapering the Prozac along with the Wellbutrin. This may not have been so terrible if I hadn’t tapered the Wellbutrin so quickly. Because of prozac’s long half- life, which was being lengthened by the addition of the Wellbutrin, the effects of the quick drops didn’t hit immediately. I still felt fine after I was done tapering the Wellbutrin so I decided to begin my Prozac taper pretty quickly after that. Descent to Hell. It was several weeks after that that things started spinning out of control and I crashed into some horrible state I can only think of as hell. It began with irritability and me being easily frustrated. Anxiety became an issue. As time went on the anxiety became increasingly bad and longer lasting until I felt overwhelmed with anxious and hopeless thoughts. It became difficult to focus or sit still. I was unable to concentrate and began to feel agitated. Fatigue set in. It too worsened and became exhaustion. I had this constant feeling of wanting to sleep but being unable to. I would get out of bed, or stand up, or whatever and within less than 3. It was like I kept thinking, “if I could just sleep for an hour I would feel okay.” Except if I was able to fall asleep, I wouldn’t feel better, but generally I was unable to fall asleep. This exhaustion and overwhelming desire to lay down culminated in my inability to get off the couch. Or more, my total lack of desire to get off the couch. All motivation had vanished. I would just lay on the couch watching TV and constantly checking the time. My anxiety continued to get worse and the things that had been worrying me previously (real things) began to become overwhelming. I would ruminate and ruminate and not be able to stop worrying and thinking about them. No matter how they played out in my head the end was always catastrophic. Hopeless. I had never had insomnia until this. While I could fall asleep, I would be awoken at 2am by dread, panic and those horrible ruminations. I might doze off, but then around 4am I’d get jolted awake again. I felt like I was losing my mind some nights, between not being able to sleep, the panicked feeling, the noise sensitivity. It helped slightly, but it also seemed to make my waking anxiety worse, so I stopped. Commonly reported side effects of clonazepam include: drowsiness. Other side effects include: ataxia, depression, and dizziness. See below for a comprehensive list of. What is the Withdrawal Time for Benzos? Most benzo withdrawal symptoms start within 24 hours and can last from a few days to several months, depending on the length. Melatonin made me more dopey the next day. My vision became blurry. It was as if I had a film over my eyes that no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t rub off. Sometimes I felt like I had to really concentrate to talk. I struggled with self- doubt, and shame like I had never. My brain felt like it was working more slowly and I had what I can only think to describe as . It was mostly in my shoulders, neck and upper back.
I felt like I had to twist, arch my back, or contort my body for relief, but in reality I couldn’t get relief from it. It seemed to become less severe in my upper- back and shoulders over time, but then seemed to settle into the right side of my body from my neck all the way down to my knee. Stranger still was this feeling of numbness and weakness in my right leg, only it wasn’t numb and I don’t think it was weak, it just felt like it was. I began to think I had had a stroke. I was terrified. To be honest, my description here doesn’t do what I was feeling justice. It was simply horrific and scary. At some point I developed muscle spasms/twitching. It would happen at various parts of my body. I had had this before as I was tapering earlier, but it was infrequent and mild, and I had expected it after reading other people’s posts. This was frequent, the spasms stronger, and like I said, occurred over multiple areas of my body. I became hypersensitive to light and sound. It was always worse when I woke up at 2am and 4 am. I began sleeping with the TV on and earphones in because at least that was a constant sound, and would sometimes be effective in distracting me from my ruminations. I would bury my head in the pillow if I could hear noise beyond the earphones and began wearing a sleep mask, which helped, but I began dreading having to take it off. My complete lack of motivation to move from the couch also meant that I felt no motivation or desire to shower. It’s not that I didn’t want to or felt that it would be too hard or take too much energy. I just didn’t have any desire to take a shower. It didn’t matter. I also all but stopped eating. Sometimes I would eat something because my stomach felt off or was making crazy noises and I thought it would help. I lost a significant amount of weight and muscle during this whole thing. I didn’t drop to an unhealthy weight, but I stopped getting my period. My menstrual cycle had functioned like clockwork for the previous 3. There were 3 or 4 nights when I suffered horrible stomach pains and loud churning from my stomach. Sometimes severe enough to wake me if I’d fallen asleep. I often had diarrhea. I wanted to die. I would wish for a terminal illness to kill me. I thought about suicide but never really had intent, or guilt over the problems it would cause for loved ones would dissuade me. I just saw my life unraveling with no hope in sight. Anhedonia became severe for several weeks. I almost can’t explain it. Except once during this whole thing when I was verbalizing a wish to die, I never cried. I never even really felt sad. Sure I had these horrible distressing, catastrophic thoughts about the same three things over and over, but I never felt depressed, per se. I felt dread and numb at the same time but didn’t feel much else. My body temperature would fluctuate, or it felt like it would. There were times when I would have hot flashes, then other times when I felt like I couldn’t get warm, particularly in the morning. Combined with not getting my period I thought I might have entered menopause. I hadn’t. I woke up nearly every morning during this with shaking and trembling in my arms. They would shake and feel weak, particularly if there was any kind of physical exertion. This morning trembling lasted for weeks after reinstatement and I will still on occasion experience it, albeit at a lower level. One thing which I still find strange is the fact that all these horrible symptoms, even on the worst days, would begin to subside in the late afternoon and by 5 or 6 pm I would feel almost . It sounds impossible, but it’s true, and it was one of the reasons I dreaded going to sleep at night. I didn’t want the feeling to go away and I knew it would and that the horror show would start all over again within a few hours of me falling asleep. Retreat. I went to see my primary care physician several times during this. I had blood tests hoping that something would reveal why I was so freaking tired! I was tested for Lyme disease, hormones, electrolytes, mono. I craved the stimulation it gave me. I thought it might pull me out of this unrelenting fatigue. But it exacerbated everything within hours of taking it. Plus the idea of having to go through the process of dissolving it, etc. I didn’t take it again. An initial reinstatement of 1. Prozac initially made my symptoms worse. The akathisia, anxiety, and muscle tension would become worse within about a half- hour of taking it. But I had been told that I would feel badly in the beginning. Worse before I would feel better so I stuck it out. I didn’t feel better after about 2 weeks, or didn’t think I did. Looking back the ruminating became much less severe and I think I may have even been sleeping better. Feeling that the 1. I was advised to bump to 2. I then began to feel some relief from most of the symptoms. But I was impatient now and when I felt any improvement had stalled out after a week I bumped to 3. I began to feel improvements in 2. After about 3 weeks at 3. I knew I had “survived” whatever it was that had happened to me. The symptoms I describe above almost completely resolved. However, as time has passed some of the side effects from taking Fluoxetine re- emerged. Currently on 3. 0 mg I sleep okay. I sometimes wake around 4 am but I’m not panicked. Just tired and have difficulty falling back asleep. There are some mornings when I wake with some minor anxiety or I still feel like my arms are shaky with what I think is mild Akathisia. This is usually remedied by exercise. Side Effects of Ativan 1 Mg. Ativan is a prescription medication available by oral tablet, oral solution and injection. It is a controlled substance that must be taken only as prescribed. The drug is available by brand name or as the generic drug lorazepam. Ativan is indicated for short- term anxiety, long- term anxiety disorders, acute seizure and is frequently given prior to surgery for relaxation and to reduce recall. A physician may order the medication for other purposes. According to 2. 00. Lippincott's Nursing Drug Guide, common oral dosages range from 2mg to 6mg per day. Common neurological side effects of Ativan include sedation, loss of reality, light- headedness, tiredness, a lack of concern, depression, anger, hostility, headache, confusion and restlessness. Excitement and drowsiness are common side effects during the initial phase of treatment. Less common side effects include crying, excitability, seizures, weakness, unsteadiness, lack of emotion, slurred speech, hallucination, reduced consciousness, rigid muscles, loss of coordination, difficulty concentrating, vivid dreams, slowed response, difficulty speaking, tremor, memory loss, euphoria, involuntary muscle contractions, numb or tingling skin, a sensation that one is about to fall, mania, difficulty controlling eye movements, double vision, other visual disturbances, difficulty hearing, other hearing disturbances and extrapyramidal system symptoms, which are manifested by difficulties with muscular movement or involuntary muscular movement. Cardiovascular side effects are uncommon and include high blood pressure, low blood pressure, slow heart rate, fast heart rate, the sensation of the heart pounding in the chest, easy bruising, easy bleeding, swelling of the feet or legs and cardiovascular collapse, which involves the loss of blood flow to the body and can be life- threatening. Blood- related side effects are uncommon and include low white blood cell level, low granulocyte (a type of white blood cell) level and elevations of various blood enzymes. Common gastrointestinal side effects of lorazepam include dry mouth and nausea. Less common side effects include increased salivation, difficulty swallowing, loss of appetite, heartburn, stomach disorder, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea and liver problems. Urinary and reproductive side effects are uncommon and include dark urine, retaining urine, incontinence, changes in sexual interest and changes in the menstrual period. Skin- related side effects are uncommon and include increased sweating, rash, yellowed skin, hair loss, skin inflammation, itching and hives. According to Drugs. Other side effects are uncommon and include decreased rate and quality of breathing, respiratory failure, periods of stopped breathing, infection, fever, low temperature, stuffy nose, hiccups, muscle problems and enlarged breasts in males. Drug dependence is a frequent side effect, and withdrawal syndrome can occur if the drug is abruptly stopped. An allergic reaction may also occur when taking this product, with effects of difficulty breathing, dizziness, rash, itching and swelling.
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