4 ms·

Did you stop cold turkey? Both times I've stopped taking meds I've been instructed to do it gradually.

• GordonS 8y ago
  I tapered off over the course of 1 week, but I'd only been taking it for 4 weeks.
  • Cantonese 8y ago
    ????????? You took a drug. Changed your mind. Stop taking it. Had adverse effects. And continued to not take it for 2 weeks of hell. ????? Did you not talk to your doctor? Did you not consider tapering off slower? What the fuck were you thinking??? I know first hand that SSRI withdraw is hard. I tapered off of 150mg effexor. At times, I had to go down to 1/2 mg per day reduction to not get night terrors. That is taking out the little xr balls in the capsule and cutting them apart.
    • schrodinger 8y ago
      No need to adopt such a rude tone; be civil!
    • sctb 8y ago
      If you keep breaking the guidelines we'll ban the account. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  • 6nf 8y ago
    Taping off over 8 weeks or more is much easier. 1 week is just not enough, it's basically cold turkey.
    • GordonS 8y ago
      As I said, I'd only been taking them for 4 weeks. It was also my doctor's advice to do it over 1 week, and I'd come off other tricyclics and NRIs before over the course of 1-2 weeks, so I really had no idea what was coming. If I ever had to come off anything like this again, I'd absolutely do it over a longer period - but I won't; these kind of drugs haven't help me, and after what I went through I will never take another again.
      • DanBC 8y ago
        I agree with what you say. Your doctor didn't give you enough information; then gave you not great advice; then didn't believe you about discontinuation / withdrawal. It's weird that people are questioning your experience here, because what you describe is sadly a common experience. Anti-depressant medication does save life, and hopefully doctors are becoming more aware of the withdrawal / discontinuation effects.
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]