topic Difficulty Coming off Medication in Treatments, health professionals and therapies

Difficulty Coming off Medication

ZyGirl_DogLvr3 — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 00:09:29 GMT

DAMN! I'm having a hard time weaning myself off of medication! 😡☹️😩

When I don't take it, I have bad withdrawals e.g. Stupid, racing thoughts, hyper mental sensitivity etc

If I do take it however, I get really depressed, anxious,
Irritable etc.

What the hell am I supposed to do??? 😫

I can't contact my Psychiatrist due to the holidays so....😫😖😖☹️

Difficulty Coming off Medication

Zeal — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 02:39:56 GMT

Hey ZyGirl,

You sound so distressed, and not being able to contact your psychiatrist is difficult. Did you start weaning off your meds with your psychiatrist's guidance before the Christmas period? Taking a dose of medication one day and then skipping it the next is problematic. Meds must be weaned off gradually and consistently, without skipped days in-between. Could you contact your doctor (GP)? If not, try ringing the local hospital to enquire about medical services that are available now. Has your psychiatrist given you other contacts?

It would be great to hear back from you 🙂

Best wishes,

Zeal

Difficulty Coming off Medication

ZyGirl_DogLvr3 — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 06:23:08 GMT

"You sound so distressed, and not being able to contact your psychiatrist is difficult. Did you start weaning off your meds with your psychiatrist's guidance before the Christmas period?"

Yes.

"Taking a dose of medication one day and then skipping it the next is problematic. Meds must be weaned off gradually and consistently, without skipped days in-between."

I didn't know this. My Psychiatrist didn't tell me.

"Could you contact your doctor (GP)? If not, try ringing the local hospital to enquire about medical services that are available now. Has your psychiatrist given you other contacts?"

I rang a support helpline earlier and they suggested I do ^this and gave me some resources. I will try to get an appointment with my GP ASAP and get my meds sorted.

Thank you for your input Zeal. 🙂

Difficulty Coming off Medication

Doolhof — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 07:17:26 GMT

Hi ZyGirl,

Coming off medication can be troublesome for some people while others have no trouble at all.

As Zeal has mentioned your GP will be able to help you with this. The people at the chemist may have some great suggestions as well. I go to the counter and ask for information. Usually if they don't know, they will suggest where to get the help and information I need.

It is wonderful you managed to find a phone help line that could offer some advice. Also as Zeal mentioned, phoning the hospital can help as well.

I don't feel so good starting or stopping medications, and not just anti depressants. I find that the ginger travel sickness tablets from the chemist help me with feelings of nausea and dizziness. Not sure if you have these side effects or not.

Eating small amounts of food regularly can also help with the nausea if it is a problem.

Hope you manage to receive the help you need. There are lots of threads here if you would like to join in with any other chats to distract yourself for a while.

Wishing you well, from Dools

Difficulty Coming off Medication

MsPurple — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:27:28 GMT

Hi ZyGirl

I know your struggle as I am in the same boat. I am on dose x and I want to reduce it to dose y. My psych at the time said dose x (which I gradually went up to) was good for me in that moment when my anxiety was quite high and so was my depression. She suggested I could go down to dose y after a bit of time and once I feel more settled. I thought that time was now. I have attempted dose y (which is the next dose down) but after a week I get elevated anxiety, racing thoughts, less deep sleep and lack of concentration again, to the point that I feel I need to go back up do my dose x because it was affecting my engagement with others and I lacked motivation again. I need to find a new psych as I have moved so I have decided to wait till then before I attempt to go down to dose y again. Maybe I need another strategy. This story is to just make you feel less alone. I wanted to reduce some of the side effects, however the pros out way the cons for me. I also recently (in the last 9 months) changed my medication. If you are concerned that the pros of the medication are not outweighing the cons I suggest you discuss this with your psych when they are back from holidays. It is annoying having to wait (trust me I've been there too) but it is probably the best thing to do at this point.

I'm sorry I can't give you a definite answer however I hope this helps and makes you feel less alone

keep us posted

Purple

Difficulty Coming off Medication

happyannie — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:35:35 GMT

Hi zygirl I understand how you must be feeling but you must understand by taking meds one day and not the next makes things worse. In November 2016 I was weaned off mine which was a hell time for me, now I am taking a different one and now having the worse time on this med Im in the same boat as you are with my Psychiatrist not back to work until February I was taken to Hospital just before Christmas with Seratonin Syndrome I have never felt so sick in all my life after leaving Hospital I had an appointment with my GP he has reduced my dosage until I see my Psychiatrist and we come up with a new plan.Your GP can help but in a limited way as he is not allowed to under law prescribe SSRIS meds. These type of meds take time to be effective so please be patient I know its easier said than done. I hope you will feel better in a week or two after taking your meds daily until you can see your Psychiatrist. I hope tomorrow will be a better day for you. Take care

Difficulty Coming off Medication

geoff — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 20:23:17 GMT

hi ZyGirl, can I ask why you wanted to come off your medication, wasn't it working or too many side-effects or you don't want to take them, remember if one antidepressant (AD) doesn't help you or there are too many problems there is a huge number for your psychiatrist to choice from.
Most psychiatrist's have a selection they always want to try on you first, these are their favorites or have had more success with them, but not every AD is suitable for another person. Geoff.

Difficulty Coming off Medication

Doolhof — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 21:25:14 GMT

Hi Purple,

Your post here has explained the reaction some people experience with anti depressants excellently.

For some us, we are damned if we take them and damned even more if we don't!

I know I don't do at all well without some kind of medication.

Hopefully you will soon be able to find a new psych and receive the help and advise you need.

Cheers to all, from Dools

Difficulty Coming off Medication

MsPurple — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 10:32:18 GMT

Hi Dools

Yeah I feel ya. I am kinda in a similar boat. For me I seem to function better on medication (as evaluated by my doctor and me knowing myself). I don't know if I'll ever be on 0 medication but I would like to be on the lowest dose with highest functioning, good moods etc. I feel like this is everyones goal. The lower dose I think the lower the side effects as well (such as weight gain, reduced appetite etc). At this point I would rather be high functioning and well because I am gonna be busy over the next few months. So for me being on this dose is worth it.

Difficulty Coming off Medication

Doolhof — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:59:06 GMT

Hi Ms Purple and Everyone,

Getting the right medication and the right dose can be a bit of a trial at times, but it is worth it in the end.

Adding Cognitive Therapy, ways to improve mood, motivation and determination also help, but are not always easy to achieve either.

Wishing you all the best with the business that you are about to embark on.

As you know you are going to be busy, can you make plans in advance to help you cope with the business?

It may help to make a list of "Pleasant activities to do in tough moments" or even have a bit of a meal plan organised. Maybe a time schedule of how and when you will fit things in.

For me, it helps to have some kind of planning sorted to I know how to get through stuff.

Hope it all goes well for you!

Cheers from Dools

Difficulty Coming off Medication

ZyGirl_DogLvr3 — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 00:27:31 GMT

MsPurple said:
Hi ZyGirl

I know your struggle as I am in the same boat. I am on dose x and I want to reduce it to dose y. My psych at the time said dose x (which I gradually went up to) was good for me in that moment when my anxiety was quite high and so was my depression. She suggested I could go down to dose y after a bit of time and once I feel more settled. I thought that time was now. I have attempted dose y (which is the next dose down) but after a week I get elevated anxiety, racing thoughts, less deep sleep and lack of concentration again, to the point that I feel I need to go back up do my dose x because it was affecting my engagement with others and I lacked motivation again. I need to find a new psych as I have moved so I have decided to wait till then before I attempt to go down to dose y again. Maybe I need another strategy. This story is to just make you feel less alone. I wanted to reduce some of the side effects, however the pros out way the cons for me. I also recently (in the last 9 months) changed my medication. If you are concerned that the pros of the medication are not outweighing the cons I suggest you discuss this with your psych when they are back from holidays. It is annoying having to wait (trust me I've been there too) but it is probably the best thing to do at this point.

I'm sorry I can't give you a definite answer however I hope this helps and makes you feel less alone

keep us posted

Purple

Thank you very much MsPurple. 🙂 *^_^*

Difficulty Coming off Medication

ZyGirl_DogLvr3 — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 00:30:45 GMT

happyannie said:
Hi zygirl I understand how you must be feeling but you must understand by taking meds one day and not the next makes things worse. In November 2016 I was weaned off mine which was a hell time for me, now I am taking a different one and now having the worse time on this med Im in the same boat as you are with my Psychiatrist not back to work until February I was taken to Hospital just before Christmas with Seratonin Syndrome I have never felt so sick in all my life after leaving Hospital I had an appointment with my GP he has reduced my dosage until I see my Psychiatrist and we come up with a new plan.Your GP can help but in a limited way as he is not allowed to under law prescribe SSRIS meds. These type of meds take time to be effective so please be patient I know its easier said than done. I hope you will feel better in a week or two after taking your meds daily until you can see your Psychiatrist. I hope tomorrow will be a better day for you. Take care

Thanks HappyAnnie. I'm going okay and will keep tabs on how I'm going.

Difficulty Coming off Medication

ZyGirl_DogLvr3 — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 00:34:42 GMT

Geoff, I came off of my previous AD since it wasn't doing me any good anymore. It basically 'didn't work as it used to' even with an increase of the dose.

Difficulty Coming off Medication

MsPurple — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 11:37:43 GMT

I'm glad I made you feel less alone 😀 I wish we could find the one that works straight away but unfortunately it doesn't work like that.

I was just wanting to check in on you and see how you are feeling? have you seen your gp? just wanting to see how you are

Difficulty Coming off Medication

Doolhof — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 05:48:35 GMT

Hi All,

Just wanting to support people taking medicating for the first time or finding they need to change to something different. It can be a bit of a difficult time, finding out what will work well and what needs to be changed.

It can be a difficult journey. There are people who can help, Drs. Chemists, hospital staff and mental health professionals.

Hoping you all manage to find the support you need.

Cheers for now from Mrs. Dools

Difficulty Coming off Medication

ZyGirl_DogLvr3 — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 00:59:16 GMT

MsPurple said:
I'm glad I made you feel less alone I wish we could find the one that works straight away but unfortunately it doesn't work like that.

I was just wanting to check in on you and see how you are feeling? have you seen your gp? just wanting to see how you are

Hi MsPurple. I am officially off medication! 😄 I did get to see my GP and he gave me the prescription for a new med that my Psychiatrist said I could try. After a couple of weeks, I kept getting extreme hot flushes & heat sensitivity so I went back to my GP and he instructed me to keep going on my meds but that I should gradually increase the dose this time and see how the hot flushes go.

I am doing okay thanks. 🙂

Btw, Is there a way to subscribe to forums replies so I get notified via email?

Difficulty Coming off Medication

Sophie_M — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 01:01:50 GMT

Hi ZyGirl, unfortunately we don't have a subscription function on the forums at the moment, but we hope to have one introduced later in the year. We hope you'll keep checking in with us in the meantime!

Difficulty Coming off Medication

Doolhof — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 07:12:38 GMT

Hi ZyGirl,

Hope you are still doing okay on the new medication. It can be a bot of trial and error. The Drs. do the best they can, we all react differently.

It may help the Dr. if you are able to write down when your symptoms happen, see if there is any pattern to them if they are bothersome.

My Dr, suggested I change the time of day I was taking the medication due to some of the side effects.

Lately I have been doing some online searching about dealing with unhelpful thoughts, beliefs, actions and understanding physical occurrences in the body which may be caused by depression.

Hope you are doing okay. Cheers from Dools

Difficulty Coming off Medication

ZyGirl_DogLvr3 — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 07:04:36 GMT

Sophie_M said:Hi ZyGirl, unfortunately we don't have a subscription function on the forums at the moment, but we hope to have one introduced later in the year. We hope you'll keep checking in with us in the meantime!

That's good to hear Sophie! 🙂

I will definitely check in here regularly and see what advice I can give to other members. ^_^