So glad to have found this forum. I have been on Pristique since Oct 2012. I started it b/c of perimenopause and several life stressors piling up, culminating when my father passed away. My family has a history of depression and I hated thinking I had it as well. Pristique certainly got me through - felt just numb enough to carry on and I could just drop off to sleep again and not be waking up at 4 o’clock in the morning. And I enjoyed eating, which isn't always a good thing. I still have little motivation outside of work and difficulty maintaing exercise, but I do it about 3 times a week.
I was taking 50 mg and so are several friends around the same age....with great effects they claim.
I have decided to come off of this for several reasons. I have gained weight and don’t feel good about myself physically and at 50 I need to be more physically conscious, I also have no libido left – but I’m cheeryish? My Mother has been on antidepressants for almost 40 years and has never been able to function without them (which is fine for her, she’s never questioned coming off them). My concern is that at 71, she has had elevated cholesterol, IBS, and arteriosclerosis. The sad part is that she is very active, biking, walking, works out 4x a week and teaches yoga and she eats like a saint. She has not been in a long term relationship for 25 years (I don’t think she misses that part 🙂 BUT I have to wonder if all her physical issues are not directly related to the 40 years of antidepressant use.
I do take depression seriously as my profession is in psychiatric nursing, but I have to wonder about the effectiveness of long term use of antidepressants? There is new work now with neurotherapy showing that altering brain wave function can have very positive effects on the three types of depression. I am trying this myself and even with only four treatments I am noticing differences in my mood, clarity and depressive tendencies.
Some research is now showing that these medications are not effective long term and may even cause rebound depressive symptoms. And that using pharmacological interventions is most effective for people that suffer from the most extreme major depressive disorder. The scary facts are that most research is funded and driven by the pharmaceutical industries so how are we getting the best information when that is the case?
My withdrawal from Pristique has been similar to others here, the dizziness, brain zaps, and a rushes of sensitivity with my feelings. It’s been about 7 days now and I quit cold turkey as I wasn’t on for that long and I was only taking 50mg. I have felt angry and really sad but honestly I hadn’t cried more than twice since October being on Pristique – and I was in some really sad places? I’m not sure that was a positive effect. I’ve cried 3 times this week – I think because of coming off Pristique and my brain readjusting. Life is sad and hard a lot of the time and I hope to have the fortitude and personal relational support to make it through – and maybe with some other methods of treatment like neurotherapy, yoga, breathing and other self-regulating techniques my brain can heal from whatever it’s set up was to begin with. I believe we can change our brains, but not just with cognitive techniques because the symptoms we deal with are in the limbic system and that needs help in gentler, physical ways. For me the jury is still out on pharmaceuticals, I am very skeptical about them for sure where women’s health is concerned.
Heres a couple of resoruces FYI:
CBC Ideas – Rethinking Depression parts 1, 2, 3
Swingle and Associates (Vancouver BC) – have a good website on neurotherapy

Thanks for posting all you brave people and I’ll let you know how long all this annoying zapping goes on for…hugs Sorry this is so long...
EJean

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