Medication withdrawal and feeling better

[kirsada]

Hi all, I've recently weaned off an antidepressant that I was taking for depression/anxiety/stress, and would like some feedback on withdrawal and how long it takes. My Dr said the drug only remains in the system for 24hrs and I shouldn't be experiencing withdrawal symptoms now. I'm not so sure. I've been particularly snappy and short-tempered, tired and generally restless. How long will this continue, is it withdrawal or am I just going back into my pre-treatment state? Thanks 🙂

[White_Rose]

Dear Kirsada

Hello and welcome. 

Withdrawal symptoms are a bit tricky. Your doctor is right in saying chemicals leave the body fairly quickly. But it's not all the chemicals. They have a half life, so think of it as half the drug has left, then of the remaining drug goes and so on until there is so little it's not worth worrying about. Often people are prescribed another AD but are told to wait for one or two weeks before starting the new drug to allow the old drug to be completely cleared.

That's one part of the story. The other part is how you are feeling now without the AD. Your body is missing the chemical that made you feel well, that activated a reaction in the brain. Now that's no longer available your brain wants to know why. Well, sort of. So you are left feeling cranky etc while your body adjusts to a life without drugs. It's similar to people who stop drinking for example. The alcohol from the last drink or drinks has left the body but the person still wants the effect the alcohol produced, but can't get it. No booze.

I'm sorry you are feeling this way. I wish doctors would explain a little more clearly to people when they wean them off ADs. However slowly you go there is invariably a time when your body is on its own and must adjust. Weaning slowly does stop the worst of this. At a guess I would say the feelings or moods you are experiencing are part of the withdrawal. I would expect your doctor not to take you off medication unless he/she was certain you could function without it.

However, I do suggest you keep track of how long you feel this way and how intense these feelings are. They should slowly go away, decreasing in frequency and intensity, but I cannot tell you how slowly. Hopefully within a week or two of ceasing the AD. If you still feel this way, even if not often, I suggest you go back to your doctor and talk about this.

I hope you will feel much better soon.

Mary

[kirsada]

Thank you so much Mary for your detailed reply. I feel better knowing that I may still be feeling withdrawal, and I wish the Dr had explained it better too! I weaned off the AD very, very slowly and had some irritability etc the whole time. My last dose was only last week, so I will monitor things as you suggested and try and be patient!

[Dwwmills]

Hi karsida.

 

It could be you reverting back to your pre-treatment state
and some of it could be withdrawal. Being completely out of your system in 24
hours seems amazingly quick. I hope you didn’t go cold turkey because that can
be quite stressful in itself. From my understanding that withdrawal symptoms
aren’t caused by some medication still left in your system they are caused by
the lack of the medication in your system and your body trying to adjust to
this. Are you seeing a psychologist as well as a doctor? The psychologist maybe
be able to help you to discover if your symptoms are withdrawal or your
pre-treatment state returning.

 

I was on a fairly quick acting SSRI and it took me nearly 12
months to withdraw. I dropped down in very slow steps. With each step I would
have some re-occurrence of my old symptoms and also withdrawal symptoms from
the medication. E.g. headaches. Headaches would go away in a couple of weeks
but I would need to work on my old symptoms with CBT as they occurred. Once I
had my old symptoms under control on a lower dose I would then drop the dose
again and repeat the process. I was amazed at how sensitive my body was to very
small drops in medication. It adjusted quickly but I felt it every time. The
re-occurrence of the old symptoms took longer to deal with than and my body
adjusting to the lower dose of medication. In the long run I managed to get off
of the medication and have my symptoms treated by CBT. The medication help this
process as it assisted with the anxiety so I could use CBT more effectively.

 

Cheers

Dean

[kirsada]

Thanks for your helpful post Dean. I weaned off the medication very slowly to limit the effects, but like you, I had a re-occurence of old symptoms/withdrawal symptoms along the way. I too am amazed how sensitive my body is! I did do CBT when I first started taking the meds a few years ago, and the psych was happy for me to stop. Maybe I should go back. I have the problem of two very busy and stressful jobs, plus a young family, so I guess it is to be expected that I will struggle coming off the meds. I was hoping to feel better quickly, and reading posts in this forum/website has educated me that it may take a bit longer. I think some of the GPs need to get educated too!

[AustraliaDisplayName]

Withdrawal symptoms start when your body/brain isn't getting as much of the drug as it once was.

And the symptoms will be the worst once all the drug is out of your system.

So if it's out of your system after 24 hours, that's when you well feel the worst.

As it appears you did, you slowly went of the medicine, not just stopping it all at once. So that should make it not as bad.

As was said above, there are two causes to while you'd feel bad.

First is the antidepressant discontinuation syndrome. Your body has become uses to this drug, and note that the drug has been stopped, you will feel bad, experiencing various symptoms (lookup Antidepressent discontinuation syndrome or antidepressant withdrawal).

The other is that, if the medication was dealing with a problem, like say depression or anxiety, that problem can pop back up again, now that you're no longer taking the medicine which treated it.

It might take some time for the withdrawal symptoms to go away. Speak to a doctor about that. And you might also have to work on the issues for which you originally took the medicine. You might have been working in those issues anyway, or they might have gone away, and if so, the badness you're feeling might be completely the result of withdrawal. In which case, the solution is just time. But you can always go back on the medicine in the withdrawal is too much (and maybe more slowly move off it), or if you still need the medication for the issues you originally took the medicine for.