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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by your#1fan on November 3, 2007, at 13:20:21
I would lose motivation, energy, and focus of life.
I cant function, i've gone 3 days one time with out prozac and it just killed me.
I notice alot when im on an any antidepressant (reason being is because i've been on alot) but in a situation i would usally get depressed in, i get angry, or mad. I get alot of energy for some reason because im just fed up with having to deal with some of life's hardest issues and thinking about life. You know social, career wise, collage, oh god there so much stuff that i am worried about but thank god im on something that will not let me get in the dumps.
Life off antidepressants..... wow.
Posted by bleauberry on November 3, 2007, at 18:20:33
In reply to If i went off antidepressants, posted by your#1fan on November 3, 2007, at 13:20:21
You're right, going off ADs is hell on earth. Some people do indeed need meds for years or life, even though they do usually fall short and have a side effect burden. It is a fair trade for a better life I think. But many people, I believe can get off ADs eventually. But when they do, it is extremely important, again I believe, to do it very very slowly. As with your prozac example, if you were taking say 20mg, then one would want to stir the contents of a capsule in orange juice and drink perhaps five sixths of that glass per day for a couple weeks, then down to 4 sixths, and so on, slowly decreasing dosage in tiny increments. The same can be done with pills by cutting or breaking them into custom size chunks, or by emptying capsules of effexor/cymbalta and actually counting out how many beads per day. After a long time on meds, or even a short time for that matter, these are all powerful drugs not to be disrespected. The brain needs lots of time to adjust to lower dosages, and tiny drops in dosage to avoid trauma.
As I said, I believe some people can get off meds. But that is only if they have nailed down what it is that needs to be addressed. It might be a straight forward neurotransmitter deficiency, hypoadrenalism, hyperadrenalism, hypo or hyper thyroid, autoimmune thyroid, unrecognized food intolerances/allergies, candida or parasites, heavy metal burden, sleep apnea, low testosterone, low DHEA, or something as simple and unrespected one's diet. Things like poor water quality, inadequate water intake, too much sugar, too much caffeine, not enough magnesium or other essential metals, or inadequate ratio of omega3s to omega6s, or even a lack of GLA oil. All these things cause serious depression and all these things can be remedied. The person who seriously wants to live a life without meds has in their best interest to spend a couple thousand dollars on specific lab testing.
Myself, I had no choice but to quit meds. I did pretty well with prozac/zyprexa for several years, sometimes along with adrafinil. But toward the end, something went drastically wrong. I slowly became hyper to caffeine which I usually drank a lot of with no problem. I became sensitive to various foods. I developed distinct daily patterns of fierce anxiety and severe malaise that were as predictable as the clock. Then I became super sensitive to prozac and zyprexa themselves. In the end, it turned out to be longterm low level chronic exposure to mercury and lead. Everything I suffered was from that. Prozac and zyprexa helped in the early stages, but eventually they were no match for the heavy metal accumlation over time, and the metals even had my favorite meds turning against me.
I am coming up on my first year anniversary of being drug free, after 13 years of powerful meds. Weaning off prozac took 3 months. Weaning off zyprexa took 6 months. The 3 month period following the last dose was scary and lonely. I felt like my security blankets had been stolen out from under me. Nowadays I have some pretty good days and some kind of bad. The best ones are the times I am on a round of the drug DMSA, which is a mercury/lead detox chelator.
The thought of returning to an ssri and zyprexa, or something similar, is always in the back of my mind. I can't predict the future. But for the time being, they are on the shelf.
It can be done. But it takes careful planning, longterm execution, followup labs to target things you sense need it, and some unusual endurance, of which I found God is the only one capable of supplying.
Posted by your#1fan on November 3, 2007, at 23:49:04
In reply to Re: If i went off antidepressants, posted by bleauberry on November 3, 2007, at 18:20:33
MY GOODNESS! thank you for that long response!, i just noticed. Let me read it and ill respond.
Posted by your#1fan on November 4, 2007, at 0:02:22
In reply to Re: If i went off antidepressants, posted by your#1fan on November 3, 2007, at 23:49:04
bluebarry you really got to me when i was reading. I myself was taken off a stimulant medication cold turkey. It was the most, it took nearly 2 years to recover, because i had been on stimulants since i was 9. For ADHD, it worked for the 8 years that i was on it, and then some issues starting happening.
The first month i was off it, i didnt function at all. I was in the bed, depressed, i was on prozac at the time but that medication you dont stop it cold turkey ever. It was, that memory was the "dark" period of my life. Litterly, withdrew from life, i was in a drift.......
Reason being is because i dont want to tell the exact fact why, because of some privacy reasons.
It was worse, but the medication was worse than withdrawling from Effexor. It was almost as worse as withdrawing from a barbiturate.
Thanks for your story.
God has been getting through this, but alot of times i lose my faith, and just get depressed. My old life, i want to forget it. Im medicatied with Prozac, and makes the horride self collapsing life go away. Prozac litteraly has been the lifesaver in the water, before i have drowned after what has happened over these 4 years.
I plan to stay on it until i can get to some land in the drift of water in life.
Posted by KarenRB53 on February 22, 2008, at 11:12:39
In reply to Re: If i went off antidepressants, posted by bleauberry on November 3, 2007, at 18:20:33
> You're right, going off ADs is hell on earth. Some people do indeed need meds for years or life, even though they do usually fall short and have a side effect burden. It is a fair trade for a better life I think. But many people, I believe can get off ADs eventually. But when they do, it is extremely important, again I believe, to do it very very slowly. As with your prozac example, if you were taking say 20mg, then one would want to stir the contents of a capsule in orange juice and drink perhaps five sixths of that glass per day for a couple weeks, then down to 4 sixths, and so on, slowly decreasing dosage in tiny increments. The same can be done with pills by cutting or breaking them into custom size chunks, or by emptying capsules of effexor/cymbalta and actually counting out how many beads per day. After a long time on meds, or even a short time for that matter, these are all powerful drugs not to be disrespected. The brain needs lots of time to adjust to lower dosages, and tiny drops in dosage to avoid trauma.
>
> As I said, I believe some people can get off meds. But that is only if they have nailed down what it is that needs to be addressed. It might be a straight forward neurotransmitter deficiency, hypoadrenalism, hyperadrenalism, hypo or hyper thyroid, autoimmune thyroid, unrecognized food intolerances/allergies, candida or parasites, heavy metal burden, sleep apnea, low testosterone, low DHEA, or something as simple and unrespected one's diet. Things like poor water quality, inadequate water intake, too much sugar, too much caffeine, not enough magnesium or other essential metals, or inadequate ratio of omega3s to omega6s, or even a lack of GLA oil. All these things cause serious depression and all these things can be remedied. The person who seriously wants to live a life without meds has in their best interest to spend a couple thousand dollars on specific lab testing.
>
> Myself, I had no choice but to quit meds. I did pretty well with prozac/zyprexa for several years, sometimes along with adrafinil. But toward the end, something went drastically wrong. I slowly became hyper to caffeine which I usually drank a lot of with no problem. I became sensitive to various foods. I developed distinct daily patterns of fierce anxiety and severe malaise that were as predictable as the clock. Then I became super sensitive to prozac and zyprexa themselves. In the end, it turned out to be longterm low level chronic exposure to mercury and lead. Everything I suffered was from that. Prozac and zyprexa helped in the early stages, but eventually they were no match for the heavy metal accumlation over time, and the metals even had my favorite meds turning against me.
>
> I am coming up on my first year anniversary of being drug free, after 13 years of powerful meds. Weaning off prozac took 3 months. Weaning off zyprexa took 6 months. The 3 month period following the last dose was scary and lonely. I felt like my security blankets had been stolen out from under me. Nowadays I have some pretty good days and some kind of bad. The best ones are the times I am on a round of the drug DMSA, which is a mercury/lead detox chelator.
>
> The thought of returning to an ssri and zyprexa, or something similar, is always in the back of my mind. I can't predict the future. But for the time being, they are on the shelf.
>
> It can be done. But it takes careful planning, longterm execution, followup labs to target things you sense need it, and some unusual endurance, of which I found God is the only one capable of supplying.
In my search, I found another of your posts. Thanks so much for sharing your information. How did they find out that the problems was with the metal toxicity? I'm wondering because Prozac worked for me so well before I had to have chemotherapy for ovarian cancer and the drug they used in chemo was platinum (carboplatin), so I don't know if this has affected the way the meds are working for me now.Karen
Posted by 49er on February 22, 2008, at 13:46:41
In reply to Re: If i went off antidepressants, posted by KarenRB53 on February 22, 2008, at 11:12:39
Hi,
As one who is slowly tapering off of meds, to add to what has been said already, it is very important to taper slowly. The recommended tapering rate from the Paxil Progress Boards, which is run by an RN, Laurie Yorke, is to taper 10% of the current dose every 3 to 6 weeks.
Yes, to do this is a royal pain in the neck. I am not going to sugar coat that.
But in reading the stories of people who came off these meds, the ones who had the best success stuck to this rate. It doesn't mean your withdrawal symptoms will completely disappear but it will make life tolerable.
Also, if you taper too fast, you may be one of the 30% who doesn't have any problems. But you won't know until it is too late.
Sorry for sounding like a broken records but I worry greatly that people are not getting the word to taper this slowly.
49er
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