Be careful with these things if anyone ever suggests them to you, guys. I was prescribed citalopram back when I was a depressed teenager to try and get me out of the rut I was in, and they DID work in a certain sense. They kept the intrusive negative thoughts out of my mind for long enough for me to focus on personal improvement, and that naturally helped me get out of the rut I was in.
The doctors will tell you that they are not addictive and there is no danger in taking them long term, however that has not been my experience. I am married now and have a successful career, and my day to day mood is much better than it was back then. Over time I have managed to wean myself off of the pills, but if I don't take at least one a week, I have these awful head rushes that make it hard to concentrate. Perhaps when work dies down a bit I will make the effort to push through the withdrawal symptoms and finally rid myself of them.
Overall takeaway with SSRIs: They CAN help SOME people, but they can also get you hooked if you're not careful (despite what the doctors will say). They are definitely way overprescribed.
I had a similar experience when I stopped taking my Escitalopram after a couple years. The word I found when I looked it up was "brain zaps." I would be sitting normally, playing Warcraft, and then turn my head to grab a drink and I would feel a sort of shock radiating from my brain through my body, very disorienting.
They eventually subsided, but when I reported them to my Doc who I was still occasionally seeing at the time, she denied that was a side-effect from stopping taking them. I found hundreds of people mentioning this feeling when poking around various forums, so guess who I believed? This experience cemented my contempt for shrinks and meds basically permanently. I'll take shrooms or LSD first, and I've never even touched those to begin with.
I find myself repeatedly and increasingly astounded with how clueless most doctors honestly are about their given fields and the treatments they prescribe.
I mean I guess I wouldn't be surprised if an MD would be that clueless, but someone specifically specializing in the psychiatric or psychological field really shouldn't be so clueless. It's not even a remotely newly understood phenomena either.
I've been, hesitantly, investigating the new findings from psychedelic-based treatments. Something I realized, and quickly confirmed, was that a lot of the interest and money is almost certainly coming from pharmaceutical companies who are eager to develop and patent new treatments based off of this stuff, without directly putting themselves at risk during the research phase.
Now, that doesn't negate the possible efficacy currently being tested and evaluated, but it does mean that patients ought to keep both eyes open when they look into what kind of doctor and/or facility they're hooking up with, and what kind of treatment regiment is being offered. Because I think that some of these companies are testing synthetically designed variants that drug companies are trying to build new patented drugs on. And my level of trust in their typical approach to developing reliable treatments is not especially high. And they do love burying side effects and risks under the rug.
I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who has suffered from this particular withdrawal symptom. That's exactly how it feels, a weird rushing sensation that radiates from my head throughout my body. How long were you off the pills before that subsided? It's hard to pick a time to quit because my work requires a significant amount of concentration and I can't be losing focus like that.
It is shocking how little doctors know about the medicines they're prescribing people. I think it's basically a flow chart for a lot of them; 'If A then B'. You would hope that the brightest among us might have a LITTLE intellectual curiosity, but I think the past few years have proved that is wishful thinking.
It's been at least 5 years since then, so I don't remember very well, but it was less than 1 month before I never had another one again (and I was taking roughly 10-20mg for 2 years). I weened myself down to only 5mg a day, then every other day, then completely off them as my bottle ran out, and they just happened less and less frequently, and less severely as time went on.
Who the FUCK knows what it was doing to my head all that time I was on them, or why that was a withdrawal symptom, but it was so much more bad than good that I'll never be convinced to try it again.
This is generally the same kind of advice I've given to anyone who's talked about thinking of trying them. They are not something to get onto lightly. They can be helpful of course, especially for anxiety, but should often be considered a late resort. Even controlled substances like Adderall is easier to go off of.
I appreciate the thoughts. With how little these drugs are understood, it's no wonder that they help some people and do nothing (or make the situation worse) for others.
Nobody wants to be lectured to when they're in a dark place in life, so I won't tell you what you should do, but for me, the takeaway from that whole experience was that circumstances change, often in ways you can't expect. If somebody had told me back then 'Just hold on, things WILL get better.', I never would have believed them. It's so difficult to see things EVER changing when you're in that kind of situation, but life changes whether you want it to or not, and sometimes it will throw you into new situations that will alter your perspective.
Stick around and I can guarantee you things WILL change for you, not necessarily for the better at first, but sometimes you need to hit rock bottom before you start making your way back up. That's certainly what happened with me.
Be careful with these things if anyone ever suggests them to you, guys. I was prescribed citalopram back when I was a depressed teenager to try and get me out of the rut I was in, and they DID work in a certain sense. They kept the intrusive negative thoughts out of my mind for long enough for me to focus on personal improvement, and that naturally helped me get out of the rut I was in.
The doctors will tell you that they are not addictive and there is no danger in taking them long term, however that has not been my experience. I am married now and have a successful career, and my day to day mood is much better than it was back then. Over time I have managed to wean myself off of the pills, but if I don't take at least one a week, I have these awful head rushes that make it hard to concentrate. Perhaps when work dies down a bit I will make the effort to push through the withdrawal symptoms and finally rid myself of them.
Overall takeaway with SSRIs: They CAN help SOME people, but they can also get you hooked if you're not careful (despite what the doctors will say). They are definitely way overprescribed.
I had a similar experience when I stopped taking my Escitalopram after a couple years. The word I found when I looked it up was "brain zaps." I would be sitting normally, playing Warcraft, and then turn my head to grab a drink and I would feel a sort of shock radiating from my brain through my body, very disorienting.
They eventually subsided, but when I reported them to my Doc who I was still occasionally seeing at the time, she denied that was a side-effect from stopping taking them. I found hundreds of people mentioning this feeling when poking around various forums, so guess who I believed? This experience cemented my contempt for shrinks and meds basically permanently. I'll take shrooms or LSD first, and I've never even touched those to begin with.
I find myself repeatedly and increasingly astounded with how clueless most doctors honestly are about their given fields and the treatments they prescribe.
I mean I guess I wouldn't be surprised if an MD would be that clueless, but someone specifically specializing in the psychiatric or psychological field really shouldn't be so clueless. It's not even a remotely newly understood phenomena either.
I've been, hesitantly, investigating the new findings from psychedelic-based treatments. Something I realized, and quickly confirmed, was that a lot of the interest and money is almost certainly coming from pharmaceutical companies who are eager to develop and patent new treatments based off of this stuff, without directly putting themselves at risk during the research phase.
Now, that doesn't negate the possible efficacy currently being tested and evaluated, but it does mean that patients ought to keep both eyes open when they look into what kind of doctor and/or facility they're hooking up with, and what kind of treatment regiment is being offered. Because I think that some of these companies are testing synthetically designed variants that drug companies are trying to build new patented drugs on. And my level of trust in their typical approach to developing reliable treatments is not especially high. And they do love burying side effects and risks under the rug.
I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who has suffered from this particular withdrawal symptom. That's exactly how it feels, a weird rushing sensation that radiates from my head throughout my body. How long were you off the pills before that subsided? It's hard to pick a time to quit because my work requires a significant amount of concentration and I can't be losing focus like that.
It is shocking how little doctors know about the medicines they're prescribing people. I think it's basically a flow chart for a lot of them; 'If A then B'. You would hope that the brightest among us might have a LITTLE intellectual curiosity, but I think the past few years have proved that is wishful thinking.
It's been at least 5 years since then, so I don't remember very well, but it was less than 1 month before I never had another one again (and I was taking roughly 10-20mg for 2 years). I weened myself down to only 5mg a day, then every other day, then completely off them as my bottle ran out, and they just happened less and less frequently, and less severely as time went on.
Who the FUCK knows what it was doing to my head all that time I was on them, or why that was a withdrawal symptom, but it was so much more bad than good that I'll never be convinced to try it again.
This is generally the same kind of advice I've given to anyone who's talked about thinking of trying them. They are not something to get onto lightly. They can be helpful of course, especially for anxiety, but should often be considered a late resort. Even controlled substances like Adderall is easier to go off of.
I really hope you can get through, and off, that!
Yeah, I don’t feel any better on it. I honestly don’t feel that it has helped…
I managed without the drugs at all for several weeks at a time, recently, so I guess I’m not addicted yet…
As you point out, it comes down to life situation, in the end. I guess it always does…
Hopefully I can “improve” my life enough for it to become manageable, but, failing that…
I don’t see myself becoming a long-term prescriber, put it that way…
But hell, I’m glad your life worked out, in the end! Unfortunately I just… Don’t see mine heading anywhere much good, anymore. 😔
I appreciate the thoughts. With how little these drugs are understood, it's no wonder that they help some people and do nothing (or make the situation worse) for others.
Nobody wants to be lectured to when they're in a dark place in life, so I won't tell you what you should do, but for me, the takeaway from that whole experience was that circumstances change, often in ways you can't expect. If somebody had told me back then 'Just hold on, things WILL get better.', I never would have believed them. It's so difficult to see things EVER changing when you're in that kind of situation, but life changes whether you want it to or not, and sometimes it will throw you into new situations that will alter your perspective.
Stick around and I can guarantee you things WILL change for you, not necessarily for the better at first, but sometimes you need to hit rock bottom before you start making your way back up. That's certainly what happened with me.
I'll pray for you in the meantime, friend.