coming off antidepressants....

Korea

I'm on week 3 of the 6 week winding down cycle coming off 10 mg of Lexapro.
Been on them for a year, even people who dont know I was on them have remarked that i look happier and healthier than I was this time last year. I've just started having doubts the past few days, and think I've noticed old habits and patterns of thoughts returning. e.g withdrawing into my own thought's a little bit, being a bit less chatty in social situations than normal. Am I seeing/thinking things that aren't necessarily there? Is this just me being worried about the old dour/withdrawn person returning?

So basically does anyone have any experiences or advice they would like to share about coming of antidepressants?

Also, how much time did people take winding down off a similar drug.

Thanks

workaccount

I can imagine it would be quite easy to start thinking that alright.

I came off them in January but only to continue my therapy. My psychologist describes anti-depressants as cement between you and those feelings.

The tablets won't actually cure the problem...the problem being usually an emotional problem aswell so talking will not usually solve it for you.

There are emotional therapies....I have been doing chen for the last 3 months. It helped abit I think. I have start becoming more aware of what's inside me rather than running away all the time. It helped for a good while but at the moment I've hit a plateau so now's a tough time.

I've been feeling suicidal alot recently because of this but you have to dig up this emotions I think, experience them and let them go which is certainly not a ABC process like it sounds.

I have alot of **** working against me...mainly myself....I have a strong type 4 personality which makes it extremely difficult to do nearly everything without sabotaging it for myself while in an unhealthy state. It seems impossible to break out of this loop.


How did you get depressed?

Moss

workaccount wrote: »

I can imagine it would be quite easy to start thinking that alright.

I came off them in January but only to continue my therapy. My psychologist describes anti-depressants as cement between you and those feelings.

The tablets won't actually cure the problem...the problem being usually an emotional problem aswell so talking will not usually solve it for you.

If your psychologist said that then he is a total charlatan. The problem is not emotional. There has now been 60 years of scientific research into mood disorders. Research from twin and adoption studies have shown conclusively that mood swings are primarily genetic. I refer you to Professor Patrick McKeon’s book ‘Coping with Depression and Elation’ . He writes:

“One of the most striking aspects of manic-depressive illness is that it tends to run in families; whereas 1 per cent of the population will develop this illness, some 15 per cent on average of the immediate relatives (parents, brothers, sisters and children) of a person with manic depressive illness will have a mood swing at some time in their lives. But does this necessarily mean that mood swings are inherited rather than acquired?

“This question can be answered by two ingenious types of research: twin and adoption studies… Research of mood swings has produce very interesting results. The essence of these investigations is that if there are 100 pairs of identical twins where one of each pair has mood swings, some 70 of the 100 fellow twins will also have a mood swing, whereas a comparable study of non-identical twins only 15 of the fellow twins will have a similar mood disorder. In other words, the closer one is genetically to a person with this disorder the greater the risk of suffering a mood swing.

"It might be argued that the very close relationship which exists between identical twins and, thus, their very similar environments, would explain the high rate of mood swings in fellow twins. However, studies of twins who were separated from birth and reared apart show the same results: the fellow twins of identical pairs with manic depression have a five times higher rate of mood swings that the fellow twins from non-identical pairs whether the pairs were reared together or separately. Furthermore, findings from adoption studies generally concur with these results. They show that the rate of manic depression is considerably higher in the natural than in the adoptive parents of those who have mood swings in adult life. So whether we are prone to mood swings depends to a greater extent on our natural parents than on the environment in which we grew up.

“These interesting and clear-cut findings indicate the reason why mood swings tend to run in families is that they are passed from one generation to the next in the genes. However, this is not the full story. Whereas twin studies show that genetic inheritance accounts for the development of 70 per cent of these mood disorders, in the remaining 30 per cent heredity is not the determining factor. Here, childhood experiences, head injuries, stress, seasonal variations, medical disorders of the brain and other, as yet unknown, influences are the deciding forces.”

Furthermore, using neuro-imagining technology (PET and MRI scans) doctors can see abnormalities/ imbalances in the chemical interaction of neurotransmitters in the brain during an episode of mental illness. These chemical imbalances remit when an antidepressant, mood stabiliser, anti-psychotic or some combination of the three is prescribed for several weeks. The remission of the chemical imbalances correlates with a remission of symptoms. This evidence, together with the twin and adoption studies, is enough to convince any reasonable person that there is a significant biological and genetic component to mental illness.

workaccount wrote: »

There are emotional therapies....I have been doing chen for the last 3 months. It helped abit I think. I have start becoming more aware of what's inside me rather than running away all the time. It helped for a good while but at the moment I've hit a plateau so now's a tough time.

I've been feeling suicidal alot recently because of this but you have to dig up this emotions I think, experience them and let them go which is certainly not a ABC process like it sounds.

I have alot of **** working against me...mainly myself....I have a strong type 4 personality which makes it extremely difficult to do nearly everything without sabotaging it for myself while in an unhealthy state. It seems impossible to break out of this loop.

How did you get depressed?

It doesn't sound like therapy is working very well at all. Yes it will be impossible to break out of because you may have a genetic predisposition to depression which no amount of therapy can fix. As for medication not being the cure, it is the best medicine has to offer until gene therapy takes over.

LegacyUser

Korea, Ive come off efexor a couple of months ago, it was quite possibly the most horrific experience of my life, was even off work for two weeks I was so ill.


I know exactly how ya feel with the thoughts coming back etc, for me my mood being less stable as well. But I think give it a chance, your body is bound to react not having the chemical supplement its used to. I was only off mine a week and I wanted back on them because I felt everything flooding back. I was upset and felt I couldnt cope, I thinks its all part of the come down to be honest. Id be wary of trusting how your feeling right now. Im not saying dont mind how you feel or not take it seriously because you should but bear in mind that your going through a transition right now so not everything will appear accurately in your head.

I feel so much better now, I really do. but those few weeks coming off the meds I felt as bad as I had in a long long time.


So give it a chance, have a lil patience and best of luck (also be glad your not puking! I was, horrific I tell ya, my poor doc had never seen someone react as bad!)