Antidepressant withdrawal while taking them?
I’m not very confident anyone else has experienced this, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. I’ve been dealing with a really weird “thing” for about 3 years now. No doctors seem to know what’s causing it & I can’t find anything about it online. Little backstory, I was on Paxil for about a decade for depression & panic attacks. Worked great. Then, 3 years ago I woke up one day & started having the dreaded brain zaps & my emotions were all over the place, I was having panic attacks again, crying, depressed, flat, crying again, etc. I was withdrawing but I hadn’t changed my meds in any way, took them like clockwork every day. Doctor changed my meds to Prozac. Same exact thing, withdrawal symptoms while taking the meds religiously at the same time daily. Fast forward to today, I’ve been on every antidepressant known to mankind, every dose, same exact outcome.
It just doesn’t make sense. Am I metabolizing them too fast or not absorbing them or…..? I’ve tried to taper off of them completely so I can go another route but it’s been absolutely impossible each time. It’s the same withdrawal symptoms but times 1000.
We don’t have good resources here in Arkansas but my insurance doesn’t really do much out of state, so I have no choice but to continue researching it on my own. Mayo Clinic would be a dream to get into but realistically, this is the closest I’m going to get. Anyone experience these issues too? Any good resources or recommendations or suggestions?
I’ve also done the GeneSight test as well. Tried the meds on the list, no change.
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I have not had any good results with antidepressants in many years, only once when I was given Paxil for anxiety and it helped a lot, I felt like a new person rather quickly but after six months I couldn’t cope with them anymore, they just stopped working and I felt worse. I tried numerous brands that had no effect and other brands that caused bad side effects. They found a brand that I use regularly at a very low dose and it helps a little, many people have difficulty with antidepressants.