Help what happens if i stop taking my meds all of a sudden?

[eddie the freak]

what will happen to me physically and mentally if i stop taking my meds overnight?
i've been taking meds since i was 12 and honestly i'm sick of it; it doesn't help, it always presents side effects and every single time i even look at them whenever i have to take them the only thing i can think about is taking all the blisters i can find and OD.
i am currently taking quetiapine, lamotrigine, venlafaxine and clonazepam, and i've decided to stop taking them because my psychiatrist won't even reduce the dose, so i want to know what will happen to me eventually when i stop taking them, all advice is appreciated

 

[Hope:-)]

I am not pro medication at all....quite the opposite. In fact 16 years of inappropriate medication is the main reason I am ctb if not the only reason really. Coming off meds suddenly is dangerous though. Can cause extreme anxiety, mood swings, loads of things. You shouldn't come off them cold turkey. It's brutal. Are you UK or elsewhere as I know a bit about your rights as a UK citizen.x

 

[AshersGirl]

Can't answer because it's different for everyone but at the very least you'll experience physical withdrawal symptoms (listed generally in the information leaflet).

Possible / probable insomnia, body tremors, increase in suicidal thoughts, mania and / or increase in depressive symptoms.

How long is a piece of string? Also depends what purpose they were prescribed for (ie, things like if you are predisposed to auditory / visual hallucinations and they stop or decrease that, they'll probably come back).

Generally for medication in use over the longterm it is advised to taper down rather than go cold turkey. A little at a time over a period of weeks / months whilst monitoring symptoms. Doing it with a single drug at a time is easier, that way you can assess if that particular one being decreased makes you feel worse or better.

I'm not a pharmacist and I don't know all the effects all the listed meds can have.

I would be more inclined to suggest if you're determined and the psychiatrist won't aid in a trial of tapering dose down, that you find a new psychiatrist who is open to a trial but I don't know your case or your psychiatrists rationale for not wanting to do that.

You have autonomy so at the end of the day you do have personal choice but I would be very wary of just stopping.

 

[eddie the freak]

Can't answer because it's different for everyone but at the very least you'll experience physical withdrawal symptoms (listed generally in the information leaflet).

Possible / probable insomnia, body tremors, increase in suicidal thoughts, mania and / or increase in depressive symptoms.

How long is a piece of string? Also depends what purpose they were prescribed for (ie, things like if you are predisposed to auditory / visual hallucinations and they stop or decrease that, they'll probably come back).

Generally for medication in use over the longterm it is advised to taper down rather than go cold turkey. A little at a time over a period of weeks / months whilst monitoring symptoms. Doing it with a single drug at a time is easier, that way you can assess if that particular one being decreased makes you feel worse or better.

I'm not a pharmacist and I don't know all the effects all the listed meds can have.

I would be more inclined to suggest if you're determined and the psychiatrist won't aid in a trial of tapering dose down, that you find a new psychiatrist who is open to a trial but I don't know your case or your psychiatrists rationale for not wanting to do that.

You have autonomy so at the end of the day you do have personal choice but I would be very wary of just stopping.

i've been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder and adhd.
my psychiatrist won't dose down because i had a critical suicide attempt a few months ago, but i am tired of trying dozens of different meds just to feel all the bad side effects and no actual improvement.
to be honest the only reason i've been taking it so far is to have enough amount to OD if i reach the limit, which i'm not so far away from.
thank you for the advice tho.

I am not pro medication at all....quite the opposite. In fact 16 years of inappropriate medication is the main reason I am ctb if not the only reason really. Coming off meds suddenly is dangerous though. Can cause extreme anxiety, mood swings, loads of things. You shouldn't come off them cold turkey. It's brutal. Are you UK or elsewhere as I know a bit about your rights as a UK citizen.x

i'm not, i'm from Argentina, which is also quite terrible because we have awful medical and mental health service.

 

[chronicallybroken]

Definitely don't go cold turkey. I know venlafaxine is especially bad for this - I knew someone who'd get horrible brain zaps from missing a dose. Clonazepam as well is a strong benzo. You're on a fair whack! Fair enough if you want to do a medication-free trial but please taper!!!

 

[eddie the freak]

Definitely don't go cold turkey. I know venlafaxine is especially bad for this - I knew someone who'd get horrible brain zaps from missing a dose. Clonazepam as well is a strong benzo. You're on a fair whack! Fair enough if you want to do a medication-free trial but please taper!!!

i tried several times to tell my psychiatrist to slowly taper down the dose but that's definitely not gonna happen, same with my previous psychiatrists.
i could try to get a new one but chances are they'll think the same, not to mention that in my country, specially in my city, it's not easy at all to fin a psychiatrist.

 

[Gordy99]

As others have said you should definitely taper the dose for each medication. Don't stop cold turkey as you will experience bad withdrawal symptoms. Everyone reacts differently to withdrawal but it isn't pleasant. I have withdrawn from risperdal on multiple occasions over the last several years but I always taper the dose by 0.5 MG. Once I reduce the dose...I take that reduced dose for at least 3 months before reducing it any further. I'm also on clonazepam (klonopin) but I have never tried to reduce the dose so I can't speak from experience on that drug in terms of withdrawal. Even when I reduce the risperdal dose by 0.5 MG I can still feel mild withdrawal and I just push through it.

I don't know what doses of those medications you are on but the best thing to do if you are going to reduce the dose is to buy a pill cutter.

 

[Jrmull1993]

@eddie the freak

While I can't attest to the bulk of those medications, I am also on Venlafaxine (Effexor) and I get wicked headaches and "brain zaps" when I miss a dose. If you've been on it for awhile I'd wean off rather than go cold turkey.

 

[Fadeawaaaay]

I was on meds for about 25 years and I stopped about six months ago cold turkey… I actually feel better… You should probably taper off

 

[eddie the freak]

As others have said you should definitely taper the dose for each medication. Don't stop cold turkey as you will experience bad withdrawal symptoms. Everyone reacts differently to withdrawal but it isn't pleasant. I have withdrawn from risperdal on multiple occasions over the last several years but I always taper the dose by 0.5 MG. Once I reduce the dose...I take that reduced dose for at least 3 months before reducing it any further. I'm also on clonazepam (klonopin) but I have never tried to reduce the dose so I can't speak from experience on that drug in terms of withdrawal. Even when I reduce the risperdal dose by 0.5 MG I can still feel mild withdrawal and I just push through it.

I don't know what doses of those medications you are on but the best thing to do if you are going to reduce the dose is to buy a pill cutter.

i take 100mg of lamotrigine, 225 of venlafaxine, 100 of quetiapine and 2 of clonazepam, can i reduce the dose like you did by 0.5 but without waiting three months? i want to get rid of it asap, and the only solution i found was just stop taking them overnight

 

[LucieInTheDark]

i take 100mg of lamotrigine, 225 of venlafaxine, 100 of quetiapine and 2 of clonazepam, can i reduce the dose like you did by 0.5 but without waiting three months? i want to get rid of it asap, and the only solution i found was just stop taking them overnight

Venlafaxine withdrawal will be hellish. I stopped taking my 225mg dosage for a month and I couldn't stop thinking on how much I wanted to die, I started cutting and abusing Benadryl to feel pain, also started banging my head against wall and praying to God to please take me from this earth. Mind you I'm an atheist

 

[eddie the freak]

Venlafaxine withdrawal will be hellish. I stopped taking my 225mg dosage for a month and I couldn't stop thinking on how much I wanted to die, I started cutting and abusing Benadryl to feel pain, also started banging my head against wall and praying to God to please take me from this earth. Mind you I'm an atheist

does it take that long for the body to get rid of the abstinence? i really want to stop taking them but i'm seeing lots of people telling me it's not a good idea when it comes to venlafaxine

 

[spacehardware]

I am on a very similar prescription to you, and I had the same idea a couple of weeks ago. I knew the withdrawals wouldn't be easy as I've tried coming off things before, but I figured I'd be able to power through. My main goal was to get "me" back, whatever that means, the "me" before I was a medication zombie with dulled emotions.

I take quetiapine, venlafaxine, lamotrigine and mirtazepam. Without the quetiapine, I cannot sleep. I lie here, tired, sleepy even, but I can't sleep. If I drift off, I'll be awake again within 10 minutes. It makes it hard for me to function as I'm so exhausted. This happens after one missed dose. The venlafaxine withdrawals are horrible, but took a couple of days to kick in. I get what I can only describe as brain zaps, like whenever I move my head, my brain takes a millisecond to catch up. It's disorientating and makes me feel dizzy. After 24hrs I was having fever type symptoms, really hot then really cold, and I have no idea which of the medications I stopped caused that. I had headaches that wouldn't go away with painkillers, and it was just a rubbish experience. I did experience more emotions than my default medicated state, but that could have just been the lack of sleep. After 4 days I gave up because I couldn't function at work, so I started taking my meds again. I am assuming that these withdrawal symptoms do lessen/cease with time, but I couldn't tolerate it enough to carry on. I've been on quetiapine for 15 years (half my lifetime!) and the others for 10+ years. Maybe the better way is to come off meds gradually (like you're meant to haha) but I'm not actually under a psychiatrist anymore, and the GP doesn't want to touch my dose.

Maybe you will have more luck with this than I did. I evidently do not have much staying power. I don't recommend doing it the way I did, stopping without tapering down, but I understand why you would want to. The problem when you're on multiple psych meds, that I've found, is that it's incredibly hard to tell which are working, and which aren't. I wish you the best though, and I understand how you feel.

 

[AshersGirl]

@sohosquare i have the exact same problem with quetiapine and insomnia as you do and I've only been on a small dose for a relatively short period. Tried stopping, didn't sleep for 3 days and couldn't get any sleep til I took it again. Irony is that they gave me that for insomnia because they were worried about sleeping pills being addictive and won't prescribe them longer than a few weeks. But I'm now reliant on quetiapine to sleep at all

 

[Sadness20]

what will happen to me physically and mentally if i stop taking my meds overnight?
i've been taking meds since i was 12 and honestly i'm sick of it; it doesn't help, it always presents side effects and every single time i even look at them whenever i have to take them the only thing i can think about is taking all the blisters i can find and OD.
i am currently taking quetiapine, lamotrigine, venlafaxine and clonazepam, and i've decided to stop taking them because my psychiatrist won't even reduce the dose, so i want to know what will happen to me eventually when i stop taking them, all advice is appreciated

I'm taking lamotrigine and quetiapine as well. For me it doesnt make a difference. I've tried putting them off and felt just the same

 

[Jessycat2000]

what will happen to me physically and mentally if i stop taking my meds overnight?
i've been taking meds since i was 12 and honestly i'm sick of it; it doesn't help, it always presents side effects and every single time i even look at them whenever i have to take them the only thing i can think about is taking all the blisters i can find and OD.
i am currently taking quetiapine, lamotrigine, venlafaxine and clonazepam, and i've decided to stop taking them because my psychiatrist won't even reduce the dose, so i want to know what will happen to me eventually when i stop taking them, all advice is appreciated

what will happen to me physically and mentally if i stop taking my meds overnight?
i've been taking meds since i was 12 and honestly i'm sick of it; it doesn't help, it always presents side effects and every single time i even look at them whenever i have to take them the only thing i can think about is taking all the blisters i can find and OD.
i am currently taking quetiapine, lamotrigine, venlafaxine and clonazepam, and i've decided to stop taking them because my psychiatrist won't even reduce the dose, so i want to know what will happen to me eventually when i stop taking them, all advice is appreciated

I were you I wouldn't do that, stopping them suddenly is going to be a hell...That's how I felt when I withdrawal from my deroxat. I understand it's a pain but you really need toi stop them progressively and with someone you trust. Can't you find another psychiatrist? Btw she seems completely careless. All psys are bastards