I would NEVER suggest that anyone with true clinical depression try to go off their meds without medical supervision. In my case, my doctor prescribed them to me like candy without any warnings about how to stop them, and when I asked, he advised me to cut the dose in half for a week and then stop. I mostly just suffered from blues in the morning and a slight excess of anger/frustration/anxiety/blues in my life. I felt great on Prozac, but didn’t like what it did to my sex drive. Weaning too quickly though, I had crying jags which are no fun. So I did it gradually this time and am proud to say that I think I’m not only truely off em, but have trained myself to cope better with lifes stresses because of my memory of how I did it when I was on SSRIs.
Anyone else go through this?
Again, I don’t mean to suggest that anyone is weak for taking SSRIs. They are a lifesaver for those who need them.
I wrote above: "I mostly just suffered from blues in the morning and a slight excess of anger/frustration/anxiety/blues in my life. "
To clarify, these were my symptoms that caused my doctor to prescribe SSRIs, NOT my symptoms when I tried to wean too fast. The crying jags were from weaning too fast.
Damn DAMN DAMN! I fucked that up! I am SUCH a loser, I can’t do ANYTHING RIGHT! WAAAAAA!
I was on Prozac for a while, then switched to Welbutrin. Did just great for several years, finally got weaned off of it. Then about a year and a half ago, my life went to utter hell. I had to go back on it. Still am. I guess the lesson here is, even if you get off of the meds, keep an eye out for symptoms, and don’t be afraid to start again.
Me, too. Tried Prozac, turned to zombie. Effexor, nothing. Now on Welbutrin. No depression, just an underlying sense of sadness, and lack of any ambition.
I was on Prozac for a few months. For the first few days I felt a little better, then a crashed harder than ever. Now I’m on a cocktail of various medications (Risperdol, Seroquel, and Lexapro, if you must know), which work much better, though they do mess up my sex drive. Still, it’s better than trying to off myself every few weeks.
Someone should actually ask a question in an “Ask the…” thread, so…
You said you didn’t like what it did to your sex drive. Did you become anorgasmic or lose interest in sex completely? I was on Zoloft for nine months and never lost a bit of interest in sex but it took hours for me to get off. My girlfriend at the time took about five minutes to come and then was too sensitive to continue, so we had a bit of a problem.
I stopped Zoloft cold turkey. The major withdrawal symptom was a strange sensation that mine brain was not inside my head. It seemed like it was off to the side. That lasted a week or so. It took quite a while for my sexual response to return to normal so I could have sex that was pleasurable again.
To everyone who had side effects, sexual or otherwise: do you feel you were sufficiently informed? For instance, isthatsowrong writes that he experienced delay for “quite a while” after going off Zoloft. Were you warned that the side effect might continue even off the medication?
I love my prozac. I was warned of the possible side effects, and I have experienced a reduced libido, but not by much, really. Getting off is no more difficult then it was, I just feel like doing so less frequently.
It’s amazing how differently the same substance can treat the ingestor. It must feel like a crapshoot sometimes being a prescribing Doctor.
I love my prozac. I was warned of the possible side effects, and I have experienced a reduced libido, but not by much, really. Getting off is no more difficult then it was, I just feel like doing so less frequently.
It’s amazing how differently the same substance can treat the ingestor. It must feel like a crapshoot sometimes being a prescribing Doctor.
This may be naive, I don’t know, but I am jealous of people who get to be on prozac. I wish I was on prozac. I feel like I need it. But I am probably not depressed enough in medical opinion.
I was on Prozac a few years ago, and now I am on Zoloft. Prozac helped me feel much better, but it did kill my sex drive. But it was totally worth it–it was worth having no sex drive in order to function and feel OK. Zoloft is working great for me now too. I feel so much better than I felt a few months ago. I was so depressed for months, then finally got on Zoloft. There is a little bit of a difficulty orgasming, but like I said it’s a small price to pay…
Lobsang all the SSRI’s are generally over-proscribed in USA, but in UK there seems to be a variance from area to area. Try talking to you GP about your depression and how it effects you. Ask your GP if you can get a referal to a psychiatrist.
You probably do need help if…
You have often considered suicide,
You have made a suicide plan,
You have attempted suicide,
You are effected by your depression nearly every day.
If your GP isn’t knowledgeable about depression get him/her to refer you to someone who is.
Finally if you don’t actually need SSRI’s then you really really don’t want to take them. They can have a large variety of unpleasant side effects, and coming off of them can be a bitch and a half.
Kite I didn’t have problems coming off Prozac, but Paxil was very difficult for me to come off, I had to reduce the dose by 25% every week to keep the withdrawl down to a survivable state. Even then I was getting what I call zzaps every few minutes (zzaps: a feeling like you would imagine a small electric current run between your ears would be).
