negative thoughts as weaning off tablets

[newyorknewyork]

Has anyone ever been on some tablets then weaned off them and found the whole weaning off process very difficult? I'm currently weaning off some anti-depressants (Efexor). My doctor told me to wean off them slowly over 5 weeks. I'm up to about week 3 or 4 and it just starting to get really really really painfully difficult in the last day or two. Please pray for me. My mind is in so much pain. I am in so much emotional pain. I don't feel like myself at the moment. I'd love to know I am not alone. Tell me there is someone out there who can relate. Suddenly, all these insane fears have just overwhlmed me the last few days. I don't feel like myself at all. I feel like a mental case. I feel insane. I feel so awful. I even got immensely suicidal on friday. Is anyone else going through this? Can someone relate? When you weaned off tablets - did it get easier or harder? I have found that the first couple of weeks have been bearable but the last couple of days as I have gone down to taking an even smaller dosage, my thoughts have gotten worse and worse and more and more painful emotionally. All these fears have just come up out of no-where and they are overwhelming me to the point where I am just standing there shaking and trembling and I cannot hardly function like normal. Please tell me this isn't going to last. Please tell me these withdrawal symptoms are normal. Tell me im not insane. Tell me it's going to get better - please.

 

[newyorknewyork]

bump!

 

[bumblebee62331]

Thread moved to Depression as requested by the OP.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

I think it is normal. Long before I was taken off my meds for good, I had a doctor who changed my medications all the time and whenever he did that, it caused me to just about go nuts.

If you are very concerned and not trusting yourself with your own safety, perhaps you should ask that the doctor slow down the process of tapering your medication. Or maybe even go to a hospital or day therapy or something. Or just be sure there is someone around with you during the day, so that when you start freaking out, they can say to you, "it's alright, this is just withdrawal".

Last year I was tapered off a certain medication and the during the tapering process it actually didn't seem so bad (although now I look back at myself during that time and see how emotional I was). Then, when I had tapered to the smallest amount possible, and had been taking that amount only every other day, they finally said I could just stop taking it completely. I stopped taking it and proceeded to spend the next two weeks feeling paranoid and frightened and being a blubbering, crying, mess. I asked one of my friends, who is in pharmacy school, what she thought, and she said it was not surprising and she believed I would go back to normal -- and she was right, I did get back to normal a few weeks later.

Others have definitely gone through the same thing you are (I know I have and so did one of my bosses). I think that you will eventually be fine, but maybe you are just tapering it too quickly? Talk to your doctor about it.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

Maybe they can switch you to prozac and then wean you off of that? I think I've read about some people doing that because the drug you are taking is supposed to have one of the ones that is more difficult to get off of. Prozac, on the other hand, is supposedly pretty easy to get off of. You could definitely ask your doctor about it!

I decided to do some googling and this is one link I found:

http://depression.about.com/cs/toppicks/tp/withdrawal.htm