Those with experience or knowledge of coming off anti-depressants...

[Shit Good Nose]

As some of you know, Mrs Nose has been on the crazy pills for nearly a decade now - maximum allowable dose with an accompanying opiate to help her sleep - and, when she was originally diagnosed and prescribed them her doc (our town's mental health specialist GP) said that, due to her (Mrs Nose's) particular form of mental health problem (severe depression combined with a form of bi-polar, but without the highs), she would likely be on them for the rest of her life.

Anyway, this evening she had a glass of Martini, which immediately concerned me as we were expressly and firmly told that the particular cocktail and regularity of her pills mixed with alcohol meant almost certain liver failure within weeks.  She then admitted that she had been weaning herself off them for the last couple of months and is now down to one anti-depressant every four days and one opiate a week, down from one of each a day every day.  She tells me she ran it by the doc and was given the okay as long as she kept close tabs on her daily mental state.  I can only take her word for that and believe that she is telling me the truth.

Everything seems to be okay so far, but I'm very aware that, given the amount and length of time she's been having them, they'll take quite a while to work their way out of her system (I assume, anyway).  Is there anything I/we should be aware of?  Any warning signs?

I know this should be a good thing really, but having gone from "you'll be on these for the rest of your life" to one a week and counting down, I really don't want to have to relive all the shit I went through prior to her diagnosis.

As always with my "serious" threads, comedy answers also welcome.

[bgmnts]

I recently got off two months of sertraline as they weren't working, much as the citalopram was, and fuuuuck me I have felt sleep deprived for weeks. I am at the least active, most gluttonous and least healthy i've ever been so obviously that doesn't help but my sleep pattern got fucked up and even when I have 10 hours of broken sleep I feel sleep deprived all day. Maybe light headed i'm unsure.

I suppose my advice would be to either burn her corpse or dissolve in acid.

[imitationleather]

It really depends which specific antidepressant she's on. I was on sertraline for just a few months and stopping that made me feel weird for a good half a year or so. Not depressed or owt. Just really fucked in the head. Dizzy and ill all the time. It was horrendous. The bastard things never helped with what I originally went on them for either.

I think cutting down over the course of a few months is what she's supposed to do and should hopefully be alright. Cutting down on opiates after that length of use must require tonnes of will-power, though.

[pancreas]

I have to ask: have you tried having a word with her and suggesting she ... well ... y'know ...

[Shit Good Nose]

I recently got off two months of sertraline as they weren't working, much as the citalopram was, and fuuuuck me I have felt sleep deprived for weeks. I am at the least active, most gluttonous and least healthy i've ever been so obviously that doesn't help but my sleep pattern got fucked up and even when I have 10 hours of broken sleep I feel sleep deprived all day. Maybe light headed i'm unsure.

I suppose my advice would be to either burn her corpse or dissolve in acid.

It really depends which specific antidepressant she's on. I was on sertraline for just a few months and stopping that made me feel weird for a good half a year or so. Not depressed or owt. Just really fucked in the head. Dizzy and ill all the time. It was horrendous. The bastard things never helped with what I originally went on them for either.

I think cutting down over the course of a few months is what she's supposed to do and should hopefully be alright. Cutting down on opiates after that length of use must require tonnes of will-power, though.

It's Sertraline in this case as well - the only one of the numerous ones she tried that worked and didn't make her feel dreadful (although they did kill off her libido after a few years), and they've worked an absolute treat.  Fuck knows what the opiate is, but it is a prescribed one from the same doctor - not some dodgy thing she's been buying in a back alley or from India on eBay.

I have to ask: have you tried having a word with her and suggesting she ... well ... y'know ...

Have a wank?



I'm knackered and only just clocked what time it is, so I'm off to bed now, but keep the replies coming and I'll check back tomorrow. 

Night all.

[Cuellar]

I'm on an 'anti-depressant in the day then pill to conk me out at night' combo (don't think it's an opiate, but it does the trick) and I tried to taper myself off them a few months ago - didn't last long, as imitationleather says, didn't feel depressed or suicidal or anything, more just a bit 'wired', a bit frantic - bit like a mad hangover when you feel things more acutely and are on the verge of tears a lot of the time. So I caved in and went back to my normal dosage.

If she can/has successfully tapered off WITH the doc's say so then good on her I reckon.

Oh, be on your guard though, when I was trying to come off them I killed a man._{not really}

[Shit Good Nose]

Oh, she's already killed loads of men.

[ZoyzaSorris]

Been on citalopram and coming off had fucking horrible electric shock things in the head for a bit (brain-zaps I believe is the official scientific jargon). They went away after a week or two though.

[Shit Good Nose]

Yiesh, that sounds dodge.

Mrs Nose hasn't mentioned anything like that or the being wired (yet...), and I assume it's the sort of thing you'd notice.

I do wonder if her libido will come back to life.

[imitationleather]

I do wonder if her libido will come back to life.

I BET YOU DO YOU DIRTY OLD BOLLOCKS

[Rocket Surgery]

Mrs Nose'll wanna be careful with that shit. Even if it doesn't feel like it's doing anything while she's on 'em it'll be an unpleasant business coldturkying off of them - not fatal or owt, but nasty all the same. Zap and yikes aplently, no fucking about. Slow process. All the best.

[Kryton]

Been on citalopram and coming off had fucking horrible electric shock things in the head for a bit (brain-zaps I believe is the official scientific jargon). They went away after a week or two though.

Yep i got exactly the same. Every time I rolled my eyes up or down I'd get an electrical jolt in my brain. Coming off them was tough. But due to my current life situation, it seems as from next week I'll be going back on the damn things.

[LanceUppercut]

I have been on all the antidepressants that the doctor can prescribe. Sertraline slowly turned me into a zombified state, so i threw the lot in the bin which was a bad idea as the withdrawals were horrendous.

They then put me on Mirtazipine which made me sleep like a baby with no nightmares, but i was also sleeping whenever i sat down anywhere, so i weaned myself off them.

I feel miles better now i dont have any SSRI's in my system, they just all seemed to dumb me down.

I have a meeting with my shrink next week as im weaning off diazepam as well, he wants  to stick me on bursipone,  but reading up on it, im going to refuse and just wean myself off everything.

The last 5 years for me have been hell, with them throwing different drugs at me, making my mental state steadily worse.

So im gonna go clean for 2019 and see how that goes, i appreciate that may not be possible for everyone but i think the biggest mistake of my life was going to the doctors, because they just chucked pills at me and never looked into why i felt why i felt.

[Zetetic]

I'm very aware that, given the amount and length of time she's been having them, they'll take quite a while to work their way out of her system (I assume, anyway).

Sertraline largely clears in a week or two, I believe - although that doesn't mean that the 'discontinuation' effects won't take longer.

I suppose it's heartening that she's been able to so radically reduce the dose over the last few months without any great ill effects. Not everyone does get the 'zaps' or anything like that - I never did.

Are you okay that you weren't aware that she was changing her medication?

[ZoyzaSorris]

*Personally* I feel SSRIs are good for limited periods to tide you through the worst and get you back on your feet, help you get some positive life-habits going, but do weird (and not in a good way) things to your brain chemistry long-term (I have always wanted to get off after a few months the few times I've given them a go, after an initial honeymoon period). Obviously for some people they do seem to literally be life-savers.

From obsessive interest in the subject over the years I've come to the conclusion that fiddling with serotonin doesnt seem like the holy grail it once did. Also there is the problem with any drug taken over long periods of time - at some point homeostasis kicks in and your body adapts to the new input, leading to diminishing returns and long-term changes in the makeup of the target receptors and related systems that can take a while to reset if the drug is removed. This is annoying but obviously overall a good thing in the sense that we'd all be dead without such negative feedback processes.

I'm hoping the new wave of research into more acute targetting of different systems like NMDA (ketamine etc.) and kappa opioid (dynorphin), and the renaissance of research into psychedelic therapies bear some fruit.

Speaking personally I've found periods of fasting and a ketogenic diet the most effective depression-buster, but that may relate to my own metabolic peculiarities (such as whatever caused my childhood epilepsy).

[Shit Good Nose]

I BET YOU DO YOU DIRTY OLD BOLLOCKS

They haven't had an airing for three years, so they are INCREDIBLY dirty.

Mrs Nose'll wanna be careful with that shit. Even if it doesn't feel like it's doing anything while she's on 'em it'll be an unpleasant business coldturkying off of them - not fatal or owt, but nasty all the same. Zap and yikes aplently, no fucking about. Slow process. All the best.

She hasn't gone cold turkey on (off) them - a slow withdrawal over about six months in total.  Just under four months left I think, assuming it continues to go okay.

So im gonna go clean for 2019 and see how that goes,

Sincere best of luck to you - I empathise and sympathise.

Mrs Nose tried all the other ones you mentioned and at best they did nothing, at worst made her incredibly ill and bed bound.  I guess everyone reacts differently.  Never having been on them myself (although one of my GPs did suggest it whilst I was going through a rough patch some years ago - I turned him down, and am glad I did in hindsight), I can only speak of Mrs Nose's experience, and the Sertraline has been brilliant, to the point of lifting any preconceived ideas and stigmas I had attached to antidepressants.  But, as I said, being free of them can only be a good thing as well.

Are you okay that you weren't aware that she was changing her medication?

I think it's the opiate or the particular cocktail which requires a slow withdrawal.

But mixed feelings about her not telling me.  I understand that she doesn't want to get both our hopes up, only to have them dashed IF it all goes down the shitter again and she has to go back on them.  On the other hand it now feels like she's keeping major secrets from me and doesn't trust me.  But I know better by now than to take a person with major mental health problems to task, so I have to be both diplomatic and pragmatic about it - focus on the positive and keep in mind she's doing it for both our benefit. 

Absolute truth be told, I'm fearful that the shit she put me through for a few years (before diagnosis) will rear its ugly head again, and I REALLY don't think I can live like that again.  But I have to remain positive, so we'll see.

Interesting stuff

Yes, diet is the one thing she needs to majorly address - she put on a LOT of weight during her worst periods, and has slowly been putting more on since taking the pills.  In a way it's just as well her libido was killed off as I honestly don't think I could get in there.  I'm not blessed with the largest cock, and she's approaching twice the size she used to be.  It's a conversation I'm really not looking forward to having and i'll have to choose my moment VERY carefully.


And all this from one small glass of Martini...

[Emma Raducanu]

As someone who has probably always suffered with anxiety, it has in recent times occurred to me that it causes me to become depressed. Since the new year began, I've felt at an all time low. I felt so bad some days, I hid away from my partner and I've never done that. It got me reading into therapies and to be honest I'd be too frightened to go to the doctor in case they prescribed medication as I'm fuck scared of what it'll do to my brain and the whole process of weaning myself off them when they decide not to work.

I've always been semi into fitness but in recent years have drifted away due to being so busy
Anyway, with the help of someone, I'm getting into healthy eating and weight training and it's turned things around. I'm happy again. The anxiety remains though. My question is, is this treatable or am I just being a loser. I'd be tempted by cognitive therapy if it could help. Sorry to hijack but don't want to start a thread about depression.

[Shit Good Nose]

I don't think that suffering from anxiety makes you a loser - it's a recognised condition, no?

As for treating it, I shall leave the floor open to far more knowledgeable CaBbers...

[Zetetic]

I'd be too frightened to go to the doctor in case they prescribed medication

You can go to the doctor and tell them that you have no interest in medication. And if they ignore you and write out a 'script, then you can stick it in the bin.

I won't pretend you'll necessarily have trivial access to excellent talking therapies on the NHS wherever you are, but it's worth a shot.



I feel I should be open that I take Lofepramine - a satisfyingly rare and expensive tricyclic - and will do so until I'm dead, with any luck.

[jobotic]

I found coming off sertraline much easier than citalopram. The first just made me feel sick, which is what it did when I first took it.

After citalopram I'd get crashing depressive moments and I couldn't tell if they were real, as it were, or a reaction to coming of it. Eventually I rode it out and after a month or so felt much better so I guess it was coming off them.

Now I'm a happy-go-lucky sort of fellow with a permanent goonish smile.


Not that any of that helps.

[Cuellar]

They then put me on Mirtazipine which made me sleep like a baby with no nightmares

Really? Did it not give you completely mad dreams for a while? Certainly did me - feverish stuff, waking up soaked in sweat, vivid and brutal scenes. Hard to explain what they were about but they were intense. Luckily that's stopped now.

[chveik]

hey Shit Good Nose, did your missus ever try lamotrigine? (it's not an anti depressant, it's for people suffering bipolar disorders) I've been diagnosed with a bipolar type II disorder (combined with severe episodes of depression) and after trying a few pills, a psychiatrist suscribed me this one, and it really helped me a lot. I haven't experienced any serious side effects (for now) (and my libido is alright :)). also, it hasn't made me a zombie, I can be (relatively) cheerful without experiencing the 'downs' afterwards. and apparently, from what I've read on fora for people with bipolar disorder, I'm not the only one that did get better with it. maybe she should mentionned it with her gp, I'm not a professionnal obvs, but it might help her.
anyway, best of luck to you both

[canadagoose]

Coming off sertraline was pretty yucky. I was also on the maximum dose, way back when (2012?) and it had to be tapered off. Weirdly, I don't think I got "zaps" too badly, but I definitely got an uncomfortable, clogged feeling when I moved my eyes, and things just generally felt more difficult.

I can't see myself ever coming off my current one (duloxetine), not without some other kind of medications, so I don't puke constantly and so my weird pain thing doesn't come back and turn me into the mardy old version of me from 2014.

Edit: And if she's anything like me, she'll get some hellish headaches. Might want to stock up on co-codamol or something.

[metaltax]

Zetetic already asked the thing which was at the forefront of my mind while reading your OP, namely are you OK with her doing this. And you've answered that, which is good. Would it be worth suggesting a joint appointment with her GP, where you can both talk through the plan and what to watch out for? Because a. that's probably a sensible idea and b. her reaction to the suggestion might be an indicator as to how...legitimate this plan might be. Because announcing that she's part-way through withdrawal by chugging a Martini doesn't really come over as the most appropriate way of dealing with it.

(But if it is all above board and works out then fair play and hoorah for both of you)

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm on Sertraline but have been on it since May so don't know what it's like to come off, but I wish you all the best SNG and hope it goes well. And when it comes to the sex thing, when I was a thin chap many moons ago and slept with a larger lady I found her going on top was the easiest way to do it. Plus I'm lazy so all I had to do that there was lie there and occasionally go "Oh, that's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh " every five minutes or so and everyone was happy.

[royce coolidge]

I've been prescribed most anti depressants over the last 20 years,and moving from one type to another has minimised withdrawal symptoms,but the last 5 years I have been on Duloxetine,and foolishly trying to come off that by tapering the dose led to the first time in my life where I felt truly "mad",could hardly remember my name,real suicidal thoughts,absolute rock bottom mood etc.

I've felt since I shall never be able to stop taking it,even though it doesn't help my depression at all,i think it is a chemical that my brain needs to keep on an even non psychotic keel.
Anyway that's my story,good luck SNG just keep a close eye on mrs SNG (i'm sure you are)but it sounds like she is doing pretty well
to be honest withdrawing gradually on her own.

[Sherringford Hovis]

mrs SNG

Wait, I thought she was the one with the bionic arse?
I don't come here often enough these days, can't keep up with all the goings-on.

[hermitical]

You can go to the doctor and tell them that you have no interest in medication. And if they ignore you and write out a 'script, then you can stick it in the bin.

I won't pretend you'll necessarily have trivial access to excellent talking therapies on the NHS wherever you are, but it's worth a shot.

Yep, a friend refused medication, was out of work and it took the system years to offer him counselling/cbt - but they were a turning point for him. So much wasted time.

[Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle]

A very good mate of mine decided to taper himself off his anti depressants a few months back. He felt fine in himself but he went through a real sticky patch with his long term partner, turns out he wasn't really fine, he just thought he was and couldn't see the wood for the trees. 

Thankfully he went back to his doctor and went back on his pills and all is well again.  Not sure this applies to you but make sure your mrs keeps on contact with her doctor.

[hermitical]

I've been prescribed most anti depressants over the last 20 years,and moving from one type to another has minimised withdrawal symptoms,but the last 5 years I have been on Duloxetine,and foolishly trying to come off that by tapering the dose led to the first time in my life where I felt truly "mad",could hardly remember my name,real suicidal thoughts,absolute rock bottom mood etc.

I've felt since I shall never be able to stop taking it,even though it doesn't help my depression at all,i think it is a chemical that my brain needs to keep on an even non psychotic keel.
Anyway that's my story,good luck SNG just keep a close eye on mrs SNG (i'm sure you are)but it sounds like she is doing pretty well
to be honest withdrawing gradually on her own.

I was on duloxetine for about three years after being on venlafaxine for a long time. I then decided to come off it as I had not improved in around a decade or so - bar the initial uplift of starting a/d, the rest of the time was pretty numb and duloxetine had no effect on the pain (it's also used as a treatment for fibromyalgia)

Coming off duloxetine took me months. I did a lot of reading first, forums and the like (it's a known issue amongst those that have tried to come off the drug, Lilly, the manufacturers settled a class action lawsuit a couple of years ago but denied any wrongdoing). As it has such a short half-life tapering by dropping one day etc can lead to horrendous symptoms of withdrawal as you ride the rollercoaster. My method was to open a capsule, count all the tiny little time release beads, and then day one remove a very small amount, then slowly gradually increasing the amount of beads you remove from the capsule.

It took me ages to reach the final capsule but luckily I didn't get any side-effects from the withdrawal, no head shocks or emotional crashes etc. I'd missed the odd dose of both venlafaxine and duloxetine in the past and had all the zaps etc.

I hope you find a way that works for you...