Temptation to stop anti-depressants

[Redleaf1992]

Hey all,

Just wondering if other people have experienced similar.

Since starting anti-depressants earlier in the year it helped reduce my crazy mood swings and I felt alot less emotional.

However ironically I felt more consistently depressed since taking them, in terms of functionality.

I feel like nothing is changed, that my life is going no where with impending doom bla bla bla. But I have almost have a emotional disconnect to it, I want to break down crying as a release but instead it feels trapped deep in me and just feel depressed. Emotions are whats real and I just want to feel that again, rather than the state I'm in going through the week in the loops.

Has anyone else experienced similar, and gone of the meds for this reason?

 

[alienfreak]

Since starting anti-depressants earlier in the year it helped reduce my crazy mood swings and I felt alot less emotional.
However ironically I felt more consistently depressed since taking them, in terms of functionality.

Coincidentally I felt essentially the same and just a few days ago talked about it with a psychiatrist. I said it made my mood fluctuate less but consistently lower. He said that is a bad thing and you shouldnt take the meds if it is like that. This was sertraline. He then encouraged me to try a different SSRI (paroxetine)

 

[Life_and_Death]

just speculative but i wonder if another medication would help on top of what your taking? (id love to hear others opinions)

it probably depends on the medication, but something like a "top up". like 'this is helping (your specific thing less swings) but i just need that little bit more to feel "right"'.
i know thats how i feel with the medication im on but its "just an antianxiety" (that ironically does nothing for my anxiety)

gone of the meds for this reason

i was on rispridone (an anti psychotic) a while ago. it made me more suicidal and "insane feeling". my psychiatrist tried to tell me "i need to give my medication time", yeah, no, limits and making me more suicidal goes beyond the limits. so i stopped taking it. so not exactly the same cuz im missing the 'less emotional' aspect, but i was 'consistently depressed'

 

[JoysoftheEmptiness]

I stopped mine, they didn't help me.

 

[Regen]

Coincidentally I felt essentially the same and just a few days ago talked about it with a psychiatrist. I said it made my mood fluctuate less but consistently lower. He said that is a bad thing and you shouldnt take the meds if it is like that. This was sertraline. He then encouraged me to try a different SSRI (paroxetine)

Exactly this. I would also try another medication. Sadly sometimes it's difficult to find the best medication.

 

[Hollowman]

The Most Dangerous Thing You Will Ever Do

"I've been watching my profession deteriorate." Psychiatrist Peter Breggin: The most dangerous thing you will ever do is see a psychiatrist.

www.madinamerica.com

 

[whywere]

Well for me at least, I have been on Celexa for 10 years and it seems to help.

now with BPD, I still get the damn "melt downs", where someone is either being a complete jerk to me or jerking me around, like when I went to a doctor's appointment and I was late and got a warning about getting kicked out, then the next time, they were 40 minutes late but that is ok, no it was not, and bang! along came one of my less than famous "melt downs".

I have tried so darn many drugs for BPD, and nothing works, but the Celexa tends to help.

Like one of my mental health workers told me about a decade ago, my brain is a chemical soup, and I am missing an ingredient or two. So, Celexa was added to the soup. Sounds logical to me.

Walter

 

[IrishBug]

I developed a tremor so stopped taking my antidepressants after taking them for 10+ years.

It wasn't much fun withdrawing from them and I still have the tremor.

Now that I don't take them I can see that they did help particularly with the rumination.

I think it's worth seeing what life is like without them before you CTB. I would suggest lowering the dose very slowly as the withdrawal is really bad, I did it over a 3 weeks but I was inpatient at a psychiatric hospital. If I had the time I would have done it over 3 months or so.

Good luck!

 

[Leiot]

If your mood swings are better then they're doing something. Make sure your depression isn't part of you missing the highs. Mine was.

That being said, talk to your doctor. It's possible it's just not the right med for you. They put me on lithium and I completely flatlined. No emotions, no swings.. nothing. It scared the hell out of me. My wife (at the time) spotted it in two days. That was one of those 'if the side effects are severe stop taking it' moments.

 

[Redleaf1992]

Thanks all for the responses"!!

Coincidentally I felt essentially the same and just a few days ago talked about it with a psychiatrist. I said it made my mood fluctuate less but consistently lower. He said that is a bad thing and you shouldnt take the meds if it is like that. This was sertraline. He then encouraged me to try a different SSRI (paroxetine)

Sertaline is actually what I started on, where the effects started wearing of my doc switched me to Citopram, which has had the same effect. I hope the parox works well for you. I can see why it the psy think its a bad thing. I guess in my case I don't lash out with SH since so (except when the effect starts to waver like its starting with the cito now), so think it has it ups n down.

just speculative but i wonder if another medication would help on top of what your taking? (id love to hear others opinions)

it probably depends on the medication, but something like a "top up". like 'this is helping (your specific thing less swings) but i just need that little bit more to feel "right"'.
i know thats how i feel with the medication im on but its "just an antianxiety" (that ironically does nothing for my anxiety)


i was on rispridone (an anti psychotic) a while ago. it made me more suicidal and "insane feeling". my psychiatrist tried to tell me "i need to give my medication time", yeah, no, limits and making me more suicidal goes beyond the limits. so i stopped taking it. so not exactly the same cuz im missing the 'less emotional' aspect, but i was 'consistently depressed'

I actualy have a second part of as asessment with a psych this Thursday, my psychologist thinks mood stabilisers would benifit me so maybe that would helpz. Mostly cos I find the mood swing element comes back after taking a anti depressant for a whiles (feeling my mind starting to race again as I write this lolz). Sometime I feel they name psych medinces ironically lol

Was it a small/large dosage of rispridone. In the last appointment the psych suggested a anti-psychotic at a mid dose to be used a mood stabiliser might be a option. Hopefully dont get a double dose of consitnelty depressed lol

I stopped mine, they didn't help me.

Unfortunaltey they doo seem hit and miss.

The Most Dangerous Thing You Will Ever Do

"I've been watching my profession deteriorate." Psychiatrist Peter Breggin: The most dangerous thing you will ever do is see a psychiatrist.

www.madinamerica.com

Intresting article, certainly can relate with the emtion sestibity obvs. It's always hard to know with these things, some people say one thing other the other.

omg brother in law here, finsigh replying laterx

 

[Life_and_Death]

Was it a small/large dosage of rispridone

small, i think. it was only 5 or 10mg. then i went back and tried again (optionally) saying i wanted 1/2 dose to try it, still experienced the side effect.

 

[PI3.14]

I abruptly stopped taking lexapro few weeks ago. I experienced one of the worst depressive episodes ever. I've gone back to it again a week ago and I already feel better.

 

[vitbar]

Since finding the right meds I feel okay or even good most days. When I do feel depressed it can be frustrating not being able to release those emotions by crying. It was way worse on the other meds I tried. Since finding thes ones not been seriously tempted to stop taking them as things are so much better since.

 

[betteroffthandead]

I've also been considering going off my antidepressants as of late, in my case because I feel like they have zero impact on my mental state in either direction, and are therefore not worth taking. If you do decide to go off them, make sure to either speak to your psychiatrist or do your own research via Google, Youtube, etc. on how to safely taper off your medication. Going cold turkey can give you shitty withdrawal effects, and make you feel even worse than you do right now. Best of luck!