Anti-depressants - stay on em, quit?

[Nukelavee]

So, I've been on teh same SSRI type med for about 5 years, and been considering going off them for the last year or so.

Well, due to a chain of "oops, really?", I find myself in the position of kinda having to quit them. Well, doing without for a bit.

Question - anybody else have any experience with quitting this type of medication? Not so much any side effects from the drug leaving your system (I already have those, hell, I get em if I skip a day), but longer term, and specifically coming to terms without having the drug as a buffer between you and, well, events.

Bear with me, I'm kinda out of it - Is there a point where taking them is more a crutch than anything? Is it worth going thru a week or more of feeling like this (kinda stoned/drunk, with none of the fun) to test out my capacity to deal with things.

Given a choice, personally, I think I'd prefer to stay on them, but I'm curious to see how others have felt after quitting, long term.

I mean, I had a bad bout of depression, like, a full decade of of it, and, well, not again.

-oh, yeah: basically, I missed a notice that my family doctor is now responsible for my medication, not Mental Health, and discovered it when I went to get a renewal of my prescription. Before the long weekend. So, I ran out, with my doctor unavailable until later today to handle it. So, I wasn't planning on testing things this month, but have been considering it for a while, but cold turkey isn't the plan, nor is it recommended. So, debating just seeing, as I'm already "quitting", but yeah, reservations, and, well, not focused enough to know if the reservations have more to do with, jesus christ, I feel oogy, and I kinda fear the fabled brain zaps, rather than any real "need"-

Also - can you get a psychological addiction to the idea of being "protected" by something like an anti-depressant? (something about that question seems humourous)

[Tears of Lys]

You're in Canada, right? I don't know enough about the way things work up there with the health system to advise you how to proceed. If it were me, I'd call my doctor's emergency number and leave a message explaining things to them. They would then relay the message to the doctor, who'd either call me directly or have the service do it, and they'd call in a prescription to my pharmacy.

Going cold turkey is not a good idea. What kind of SSRI are you on?

[mormont]

If you've screwed up on getting prescriptions (which I sometimes did), I found it better to take a pill every other day and reduce the dosage rather than stop suddenly. If you're going to quit long-term, you need to scale down first anyway.

As for when to quit, it's a personal decision. It depends on how you're coping, whether you've found a behavioural therapy or other non-medication treatment that helps, whether any external stressors have reduced or disappeared, and about a dozen other factors.

[Merentha]

Do not go cold turkey on SSRIs if you can help it. If you're serious about going off them, talk to your psychiatrist about weaning them down. Note that depending on what you've been on, its not uncommon to be placed on a different one at a lower dose to help ease the transition.

Also - can you get a psychological addiction to the idea of being "protected" by something like an anti-depressant? (something about that question seems humourous)

You can, but more commonly, having the anti-depressants leads to you attributing all of your (possible) progress to the SSRIs instead of anything internal. Then, when bad days happen, you end up thinking that you have no coping mechanisms because you're not on your meds, which makes the bad day worse.

[Howdyphillip]

I would highly suggest contacting a doctor instead of just stopping abruptly.

[Sci-2]

I know absolutely nothing about this stuff but I'll say feel free to PM me if you just want to unload. I usually keep a tab open to the forums because I'm an addict like that. :-)

eta: there's also sciborg2 (at) gmail.com

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

Talk to your doctor. I talked to mine when I lost my insurance and couldn't afford them any more. She had me ease off them, slowly decrease the amount I took each day so by the end of the month I was off them. DO NOT TRY AND QUIT COLD TURKEY. (ok, those were the doctor's words)

or what Merentha said :)

[Guest Raidne]

Make a note that some people have an experience where an anti-depressant that worked for them in the past did not work again after quitting the medication for a period and starting up back on it. I have no idea why this is. I have no idea why any of it is, honestly, and nobody else really does either.

I do know that SSRIs seem to have a much stronger effect on people with very serious depression as opposed to mild or moderate depression, so advice people here might give you really won't be relevant to your situation if their depression was mild and yours was serious.

I'd also review this Wiki on SSRI discontinuation syndrome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSRI_discontinuation_syndrome

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

I was on Lexapro for my anxiety for 3 years when I was 16-19. I stopped taking the meds at some point without doctor approval, but it was gradual; basically I started skipping random days and eventually skipped days became the norm. Once I realized that my anxiety was under control without the drugs, I stopped entirely. My doctor later approved the change.

Speak with your doctor. But i know from my experience that even years later when my once-severe clinical anxiety is not bad, very stressful events can still have an effect. It just doesn't shut me down like it used to.

(null)

[Robin Of House Hill]

From webmd.com

"SSRIs do not cause addiction in the way cocaine, tobacco, or heroin do. After a period of exposure to SSRIs, however, the brain does adapt and get "used to" the medicine. For this reason, you shouldn't stop taking an SSRI suddenly without talking to your doctor. After completing treatment, the SSRI dose is tapered and stopped, and the brain readjusts."

[Greywolf2375]

I would highly suggest contacting a doctor instead of just stopping abruptly.

Talk to your doctor. I talked to mine when I lost my insurance and couldn't afford them any more. She had me ease off them, slowly decrease the amount I took each day so by the end of the month I was off them. DO NOT TRY AND QUIT COLD TURKEY. (ok, those were the doctor's words) or what Merentha said :)

What they said about contacting the Dr.

[Kalbear]

I don't understand why this is being asked on the board. Or rather, why someone would ask a bunch of Internet strangers whether they should continue their mind altering medicine usage and if so, what dosage to use.

Call. Your. Doctor.

As to what it feels like afterwards, this is where anecdotal evidence is useless - most everyone responds differently to antidepressants, even moreso when quitting. The only advice I'd have is to know that you're in an altered vulnerable state and not make big decisions that will affect you for years to come.

[JamieM]

As others have stated - please do not stop cold turkey. The brain zaps are horrible....

You have my empathy here, it's a very hard situation to deal with, but it can and *will* get better if you stay the course.

[Robin Of House Hill]

I don't understand why this is being asked on the board.

Because not everyone enjoys talking to their doctor? Because some people here are smarter than most doctors? Because some people don't Google?

[Kalbear]

Because not everyone enjoys talking to their doctor? Because some people here are smarter than most doctors? Because some people don't Google?

None of those are good reasons. All of them are potentially hugely stupid reasons.

Regardless of their intelligence, no one on these boards knows the OPs medical history. No one knows what the diagnoses have been. No one knows the additional meds he's taking.

Heck, I doubt many even know how old he is.

Put it another way - do you think it would be a good idea to ask your best friend how to take out your appendix?

[Sci-2]

I think there's this idea that you can wing it when it comes to medicine, which many people have noted is a bad idea. No matter what, talking to your doctor is imperative IMO.

However, I can also see Nuke's reasoning, in that sometimes circumstances lead one to problematic situations where they need advice on how to handle issues like lack of access to medication. There's also something to be said for understanding that your experiences are not isolated and others have had them as well.

But, to reiterate, definitely discuss this with medical professionals. I can't think of single instance of someone winging medicine without professional advice going well.

[Robin Of House Hill]

Kalbear,

Considering that most of the responses were not to go cold turkey and to contact his doctor, I would say your point is moot.

[Young Wolf]

Put it another way - do you think it would be a good idea to ask your best friend how to take out your appendix?

Hhmm...I once asked Lev what the best way to get women was...and that went quite poorly. We ended up in Thailand talking a bunch of kathoey and spending time at a "buy me drinky" bar.

[Nukelavee]

Well, actually, the cold turkey thing isn't what I want to do, it's more just a case of terrible timing on some factors, centered on a holiday weekend just passing.

I am going to call the doctor....in an hour, when he's in the office. That's part of teh issue today, in that I can't reach him outside office hours.

Kal -I agree, relying on the fine people here on topics like this seems a bit silly, but, meh, there's a benefit (to me) in having people say the obvious, because I can't think for shit right now. I'm using this topic as today's short-term memory and better judgement reminder, so I don't lose track and do something silly, like just quit.

Long-term - yeah, what was said about attributing any or all improvements to teh meds is a major concern. I think most of the progress is actually due to DBT and CBT programs, and putting a lot of work into putting the material into actual practice, I think I want to try reducing or removing the effects of the SSRI to see if I really do have a better grasp on things, I'm just nervous as hell about committing to the course of action.

As a side note (45 minutes til Dr Garry is available, lol), I tend to think a certain amount of anecdotal discussion, on something like dealing with depression, isn't a bad thing. At least, for me. Depression left/leaves me feeling pretty alienated - being reminded others deal with it as well, and knowing certain things to watch out for.

[Guy Kilmore]

do you think it would be a good idea to ask your best friend how to take out your appendix?

Well, crap, there goes my friday night.