happy pill withdrawal

[toonia]

I quit my Zoloft cold turkey because i had taken it twice without water and my entire esophagus and stomach took to burning as a result. I didn't want to take any more until it healed. It's been about a week now, so i'm tempted to just stay off them. I am having exceptionally weird dreams and feel dizzy and tired more during the day. I've known other people with more serious withdrawal.

Anyone out there have some experience with this?

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by toonia

I quit my Zoloft cold turkey because i had taken it twice without water and my entire esophagus and stomach took to burning as a result. I didn't want to take any more until it healed. It's been about a week now, so i'm tempted to just stay off them. I am having exceptionally weird dreams and feel dizzy and tired more during the day. I've known other people with more serious withdrawal. Anyone out there have some experience with this?

Aaaaa, Toonia!

I'm sorry about the Zoloft thing. I messed up my stomach lining for a year once (it took that long for it to feel completely better) by taking naproxen for a few weeks (= ibuprofin) without eating food with it. Medicines can be very ugly sometimes.

I think I mentioned in my blog a few weeks ago how I tried to go off Effexor, cold turkey, and about 24 hours later I started to get VERY spacey, couldn't focus on anything, and felt exhausted. I don't know how long the effects last until your body catches up and compensates, but it is not good, and I had to go back to a half-dose a day later, it was so bad. Some of the side effects from cold turkey withdrawal can be deadly for some meds, I would really talk to your doctor about it and see if there's anything they can give in the meanwhile that would not irritate your stomach lining.

Please be well.

[Wolf]

Ugh...Zoloft... I might as well take it as a recreational drug, that is, provided I'm only after a bad trip.

You'll probably be very low on certain neurological chemicals for a while and need to ride that out as your body slowly recovers and resumes normal operation.

[cafe]

I had some funkiness coming off of Lamictal. Mostly kind of dizzy and light-headed (are those the same things?). I can't remember how long it lasted, but I think I accidentally tapered myself off to some degree because I kept forgetting to take my regular dose.

[Wolf]

It's not a "happy" pill, either. Happy is derived from totally different stuff, or so I'm told.

[targo]

sweetie... I hope it goes okay for you....

[Sahara]

Originally Posted by toonia

I quit my Zoloft cold turkey because i had taken it twice without water and my entire esophagus and stomach took to burning as a result. I didn't want to take any more until it healed. It's been about a week now, so i'm tempted to just stay off them. I am having exceptionally weird dreams and feel dizzy and tired more during the day. I've known other people with more serious withdrawal.

Anyone out there have some experience with this?

I actually felt that way on the Zoloft, which was when I quit all anti depressants completely, no other pill had made me as miserable as the Zoloft, and the eating disorder I had didn't like the increased appetite those pills give.

I have withdrawn from other anti depressants, and the withdrawl symptoms are almost enough to put you off, sweats, shakes which seemed like electronic pulses being sent through my body every time I moved, crazy dreams in which I woke scared and disorientated.....I think all anti depressants have the same problem.

The suicidal thoughts are even a warning on the packet, how can anti depressants increase the desire to commit suicide?

Do you really feel ready to leave them completely though? it's been about 7 ^ months since I stopped, and I think I am just about ready to admit that I have been pretending to be well, when in reality I haven't been coping.

I think that suddenly quitting as opposed to truly being ready to come off them is not going to work.

[Natrushka]

Toonia, it sounds like SSRI discontinuation syndrome, and it can happen when you go cold turkey, or even just wean off a SSRI. I would advise talking to the doctor who prescribed the drug, maybe he/ she can give you something to help until all the drug is out of your system and you can function better.

[Wolf]

Originally Posted by Natrushka

Toonia, it sounds like SSRI discontinuation syndrome, and it can happen when you go cold turkey, or even just wean off a SSRI. I would advise talking to the doctor who prescribed the drug, maybe he/ she can give you something to help until all the drug is out of your system and you can function better.

That's rather pointless, because the only thing they could "give you" is something else that does the same thing. It basically increases the natural amount of serotonin that is "free" in the system by making it more difficult for the neurons to recover that which they released.

The problem is that eventually you need the drug to be normal because the cells just decrease their production even more, so when you go off them you dip lower than you were before you started.

Our world/lives are worse for us as life forms, which is the root cause. We can't enjoy our lives and live the way humans should. Over a couple centuries, accelerating to this point, we've constantly decreased the amount of natural human activities to the point that many of us don't even use those instincts, or they might end up causing 'negative' effects. I'm a firm believer in fixing the underlying reasons that people feel the way they do, and it isn't by giving them a pill.

[Natrushka]

It is not pointless. If it is indeed SSRI discontinuation syndrome it can be dangerous.