How to get off SSRIs? My mother has been taking them for years without my knowledge, originally had them prescribed for a f***ing headache

[Juri]

trying to stay practical, not rage and dive into murderous ideas about what i would do to her doctor, who prescribed her that sh** because of a longer-lasting headache.

Anyway, how does one wean off of SSRIs? My understanding is that you can‘t just stop taking them… i was thinking cyproheptadine?

 

[Michaelk3]

Taper the dosage slowly depending on how much she takes it can be achieved in a few months at most. Talk to her doc about tapering.

 

[Truth]

Hi, @Androsclerosis might have some experiences to share

 

[Androsclerosis]

Truth is right. I will share some experiences
I've been around 3 months on them, first month was very Nice but it went downhill till I got no emotions no thoughts no nothing
I went cold turkey off Lexapro 20mg a day
I cried all day for 2 weeks. I felt strong fear and huge insecurity. I couldn't be a friend to someone . Paranoia everywhere.
And then I started for a few weeks tianeptine which helped a lot with sadness but I was more anxious.
I left tianeptine after a month and then I became again sad, tired and unhappy.
Things went for the better after months of no drugs. After half a year I was still insecure but at least sadness was gone and emotions existed

I don't recommend anyone to stop cold turkey, step by step. if the dosage is 20 mg first week 15 mg second week 10 and so on.

 

[Greg says]

trying to stay practical, not rage and dive into murderous ideas about what i would do to her doctor, who prescribed her that sh** because of a longer-lasting headache.

Anyway, how does one wean off of SSRIs? My understanding is that you can‘t just stop taking them… i was thinking cyproheptadine?

​

Ray's email exchange.​

Anti-Depressants​

[Decreasing SSRI dose] It takes time to adapt to decreasing those drugs, keeping sugar up and inflammation down, including bag breathing, should help. Starting with a little, a sixth or fourth of a tablet, of cynoplus in the evening would be the best way to try it.

[Weaning off anti-depressants] Keeping the metabolic rate and cholesterol up is important, so that repair and adaptation will be quick. Progesterone reduces pain and anxiety, and pregnenolone would be the most convenient supplement for men, but it's hard to find products without allergens. Combining progesterone and DHEA or testosterone can produce the stabilizing effect without suppressing the libido. Benadryl and cyproheptadine are probably both helpful. Withdrawal from morphine and SSRIs and migraine involve some similar processes. (Reference)

[continued] It depends on how much pregnenolone you can assimilate. People would use progesterone in amounts needed to stop the withdrawal symptoms, but pregnenolone doesn't have the powerful effects of progesterone, even in multi-gram quantities, so it's just a matter of seeing what it can do. As I understand the mechanism (migraine, withdrawal, etc.), estrogen-histamine-serotonin rise on a background of hypothyroid liver malfunction, cytomel (and/or sugar, selenium, B vitamins) allows the liver and other detoxifying systems to lower them, and the lower they are, the less progesterone or pregnenolone it takes to block the symptoms.

[Long-term antidepressant use: Permanent damage to the brain?] [Peat sent this reference: "exposure to inescapable stress, but not escapable stress, caused a decrease in T(3) levels"]

 

[charlie]

Niacin as nicotinic acid will make this much easier.

 

[Juri]

Truth is right. I will share some experiences
I've been around 3 months on them, first month was very Nice but it went downhill till I got no emotions no thoughts no nothing
I went cold turkey off Lexapro 20mg a day
I cried all day for 2 weeks. I felt strong fear and huge insecurity. I couldn't be a friend to someone . Paranoia everywhere.
And then I started for a few weeks tianeptine which helped a lot with sadness but I was more anxious.
I left tianeptine after a month and then I became again sad, tired and unhappy.
Things went for the better after months of no drugs. After half a year I was still insecure but at least sadness was gone and emotions existed

I don't recommend anyone to stop cold turkey, step by step. if the dosage is 20 mg first week 15 mg second week 10 and so on.

Hey, thank you first of all, and thank you @Truth
I‘ll look for a way reduce the dose gradually. Is there anything that helped you, in particular at mastering your emotions, be it simply in overcoming negative ones or recovering emotions in general? I just don’t want my mom to cry…

 

[Juri]

​

Ray's email exchange.​

Anti-Depressants​

[Decreasing SSRI dose] It takes time to adapt to decreasing those drugs, keeping sugar up and inflammation down, including bag breathing, should help. Starting with a little, a sixth or fourth of a tablet, of cynoplus in the evening would be the best way to try it.

[Weaning off anti-depressants] Keeping the metabolic rate and cholesterol up is important, so that repair and adaptation will be quick. Progesterone reduces pain and anxiety, and pregnenolone would be the most convenient supplement for men, but it's hard to find products without allergens. Combining progesterone and DHEA or testosterone can produce the stabilizing effect without suppressing the libido. Benadryl and cyproheptadine are probably both helpful. Withdrawal from morphine and SSRIs and migraine involve some similar processes. (Reference)

[continued] It depends on how much pregnenolone you can assimilate. People would use progesterone in amounts needed to stop the withdrawal symptoms, but pregnenolone doesn't have the powerful effects of progesterone, even in multi-gram quantities, so it's just a matter of seeing what it can do. As I understand the mechanism (migraine, withdrawal, etc.), estrogen-histamine-serotonin rise on a background of hypothyroid liver malfunction, cytomel (and/or sugar, selenium, B vitamins) allows the liver and other detoxifying systems to lower them, and the lower they are, the less progesterone or pregnenolone it takes to block the symptoms.

[Long-term antidepressant use: Permanent damage to the brain?] [Peat sent this reference: "exposure to inescapable stress, but not escapable stress, caused a decrease in T(3) levels"]

Thank you, i love the email exchanges, should have went there first. I‘ll keep all of this in mind, i figured pregnenolone would be especially useful, so i have put her on a reasonable transdermal dosis for now. She has already been taking a massive dose of progesterone for years, which probably made sure that this crap hasn’t turned her into a vegetable by now. I also have ordered some cyproheptadine for her, but isn’t that potentially problematic since it depletes dopamine?

 

[gunther]

I've been dealing with antidepressant withdrawal (ADWD) from Effexor in one form or another since 2018 and here are my findings:

Not everybody gets symptoms from ADWD. Some are able to taper down and feel more or less fine and others get horrible symptoms of flu and/or EXTREME anxiety, agitation, fear and terror. Without reinstating the AD, withdrawal symptoms often last months to years.

Of those who get harsh withdrawal symptoms, most are able to find relief by reinstating there dose, some are not. Some are trapped in months to years of chronic debilitating withdrawal symptoms.

Sensitivity to withdrawals increase as the dose decreases. People often find that they don't get symptoms while cutting from large doses, but do get symptoms while cutting at lower doses.

Tapering advice for those sensitive to ADWD: The self-help community recommends cutting your current dose by -10% and holding for four weeks. Repeat this until dose dips below 1mg. This taper schedule will take a few years, but it greatly reduces the possibility of triggering withdrawals.

Withdrawals are often delayed by weeks or months. Some experience ADWD months after last dose.

Recommended things to treat symptoms: Omega 3s, magnesium and antihistamines.

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Personal notes:

The severity of ADWD can really suck. Personally, I was completely unable to function for about 90 days and generally miserable for well over a year. I'm pretty much over symptoms at this point, but sometimes struggle with motivation.

The only thing that reliably helped to alleviate my symptoms was Benadryl and cyproheptadine. I stay away from omega 3.

B3 and other things that consume methyl groups gives me extreme night terrors making it very difficult to sleep. The night terrors went away when I began an undermethylation protocol: SAMe, methionine, B6, B12, TMG, NAC, Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium and Vitamin C. I'm actually am doing pretty good over the last few months. I've tested B3 twice and both times it gave me night terrors, someday I will test it a third time to confirm, but I'm in no hurry to do that, lol.

I've been cycling Biocidin, which is a SIBO cleaning mixture. This seems to be normalizing my bowel movements.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some speculation:

Due to the fact that benadryl and other antihistamines help with my symptoms, I'm guessing that the anxiety from withdrawal is caused by a glutamate storm. Histamines -> Glutamate -> Anxiety.

I wonder if ADWD is triggered somehow by a SIBO type reaction. I've read a paper stating that Effexor acts as a digestive disinfectant suppressing many microbes, the chief suspect being Tyzzerella, which I've seen linked to anxiety and depression. Withdrawals are often delayed as are the effects of antidepressants in general. Slowly killing out species of gut microbes would partially explain this.

The alteration of gut microbiota in venlafaxine-ameliorated chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced depression in mice - PubMed

Depression is associated with intestinal dysbiosis. Venlafaxine is a commonly used antidepressant in clinical practice as a serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor. However, its effects on gut bacteria in depression remain unclear. Here, we established a mouse model of depression induced...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Androsclerosis]

Hey, thank you first of all, and thank you @Truth
I‘ll look for a way reduce the dose gradually. Is there anything that helped you, in particular at mastering your emotions, be it simply in overcoming negative ones or recovering emotions in general? I just don’t want my mom to cry…

Just accepted the faith
I didn't know anything about supplements back then
Negative emotions are a consequence not a cause of a problem. Blocking it or trying to regulate it with your mind will disrupt the energy flow leading to suppressed emotions, excessive logical thinking and anhedonia.

 

[Richiebogie]

My friend was on aropax for 14 years and then changed to escitalopram for 3 more years.

When he wanted to stop each one he reduced the dose by a quarter in the first week, then to half the original dose in the second week, then to a quarter in the third week, then to an eighth in the fourth week, then to progressively smaller specks for another month.

The theory was that even tiny doses have an effect and going to zero is the biggest jump of all, so delay that and make it as small a change as possible!

He didn’t have any withdrawal problems.