[Kristen]

I'm not going to lie and I have no shame. I take antidepressants and have been off and on them for 12 years. (I'm only 22!) My latest one I've been taking is Lexapro. It has very little side effects.....

until you try and quit...

the nightmare begins...

About two days of quitting your head feels a little dizzy, but after three the shocks begin. I eventually feel shock waves in my brain about every ten minutes so powerful i lose balance. I get flu symptoms and its hell.

read about it on wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ssri_disco ... n_syndrome

The thing is ssri medications are considered not addictive. But that my friends is a lie.

[NEOPO]

Yes like methadone is the "cure" for heroin addiction....

Methadone

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ethadone is a synthetic opioid, used medically as an analgesic and in the treatment of narcotic addiction. It was developed in Germany in 1937

[gampy]

I discontinued taking SSRI's about 6 months ago. I was taking them for anxiety, and depression. I experienced some odd symptoms as well. I had headaches, a little vertigo, malaise, fatigue. Feeling better now though. I quit my very stressful job, quit smoking, and tried to exercise and eat better. That worked a lot better than drugs.

My doctor was one of those "medicate everything" doctors.

Eventually, I just said the hell with it. I was having side effects, and it wasn't doing me any real good. I was taking Celexa. Worst side effects were impotence, lack of sexual interest, and a feeling of "dumbness", or "bluntness". Hard to describe.

But it's not wise to go off them cold turkey. Best to reduce the dose by half every 6 weeks.

[I_Like_Plants]

A guy wrote about this, in Salon.com I think, about getting into an SSRI, how easy it was to get it, how it made him feel, I think it was Celexa?

Amazing, very powerful drug available maybe not as easy as candy, but damned easy to get. The guy's whole personality changed.

I want no part of those weird drugs!

[Ayame]

You should try coming off Paxil, they have a whole website dedicated to the horror, it makes ur head buzz none stop for a while so you can't get any sleep whilst some people get 'shocks' through their brains. One guy said it was worse for him then coming off crack cocaine.

[smallpoxgirl]

Uhh...guys, I think there is an obvious solution here....you need to taper off most of these meds. As for medicate everything doctors, what do you want? You're paying $85 for a 15 minute visit to talk about your problems with someone who's job is to prescribe medicines. Most people are pretty upset if they pay that kind of money for a problem and you don't prescribe a treatment. If you wanted acupuncture not medicines, you probably should have been paying an acupuncturist not a doctor.

[NEOPO]

I agree and when you try marijauna dont expect it to work with just one dose

[Zentric]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'A')s for medicate everything doctors, what do you want? You're paying $85 for a 15 minute visit to talk about your problems with someone who's job is to prescribe medicines. Most people are pretty upset if they pay that kind of money for a problem and you don't prescribe a treatment. If you wanted acupuncture not medicines, you probably should have been paying an acupuncturist not a doctor.

[smallpoxgirl]

It's definitely a tight balance. My personal inclination is that less is better, but I definitely end up prescribing medicines for things that I wouldn't take meds for myself. Patients are paying big money to see me, and they get pissed if they don't walk out with a prescription. I had a guy threaten me with physical violence a couple of years ago and throw a big screaming fit because I wouldn't give him antibiotics for his cold.

[Newsseeker]

People should be warned about this stuff before they begin....

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayame', 'Y')ou should try coming off Paxil, they have a whole website dedicated to the horror, it makes ur head buzz none stop for a while so you can't get any sleep whilst some people get 'shocks' through their brains. One guy said it was worse for him then coming off crack cocaine.

[dukey]

the solution is just not to take the drugs in the first place

[gampy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'I')t's definitely a tight balance. My personal inclination is that less is better, but I definitely end up prescribing medicines for things that I wouldn't take meds for myself. Patients are paying big money to see me, and they get pissed if they don't walk out with a prescription. I had a guy threaten me with physical violence a couple of years ago and throw a big screaming fit because I wouldn't give him antibiotics for his cold.

[dukey]

doctors are just trained to sell drugs
it's what they do

often .. there are natural cures, including life style changes you can make to fix yourself. Doctors aren't often even taught nutrition, which is the basic most fundamental thing for good health. The modern american diet in many respects is a disasture.

a quick example
You can treat carpel tunnel with vitamin B6, yet doctors will just want to do an expensive opperation on you (if its bad enough). The B6 solution to the problem is extremely cheap compared to the surgery option. I've had carpel tunnel, it's a real bastard Yet the medical profession simply isn't interested. I could go on, but dont want to bore you.

I've consistantly had more luck research ingmyself than going to the doctors. Frankly going to the doctors is generally a total waste of time. Unless you are in real trouble, I wouldn't waste your time. They will only try to treat the simptons instead of attack the cause of the problem.

[killJOY]

The hysteria around SSRIs is just nonsensical. Was ever there a drug that didn't have side effects, that some people shouldn't take?

I've been on SSRIs since 2000 because I requested them. I got tired of the quackery of "psycho"analysis, dumped the therapist and went to my private doctor. I started on Celexa, which was a revelation, pure and simple. This worked for a couple of years, until my pecker turned numb and I began getting head zaps. Returned to doctor: I would like to try something else (the myth of doctors "pushing" these on patients is not the case here). I tried wellbutrin for another couple of years, with much better effect. It simply wore off after awhile.

I've been on Effexor for a long time now. I have not had any problems. If I do, I'll stop taking it and try something else. If I can't take anything else, I guess I'll live with it.

I'm a materialist. We are chemical beings. It's surely hit or miss, touch or go, to alter our chemistry with substances, but we've been doing it for centuries.

If you don't like SSRIs, then don't take them. If you don't take them and think they are somehow "evil," shut your piehole. Those of us on them with success don't care much what you think.

[NEOPO]

So I can say the same thing about marijauna then?

Shut your pie holes you naysayers until you have got it in your system and settled the F down you simply dont know what you are talking about right KJ? hell yeah!

Entertainment

[mmasters]

Bah, in my teens I was on like a dozen of these things. They marginalized the upswings and downswings and made me feel mood neutral. I mixed LSD with em too for a time, and I was in a perpetual LSD trip of sorts for many years.

Best thing was getting rid of them, getting good exercise, learning to flow with the ups and downs, taking responsibility for the negative patterns in my life and most of all coming to know myself as a person.

I would never go back to them if someone paid me. Natural is the way to go, though the lessons can be difficult for a time.

Above all there is no true solution in the outside world, only in the inner world.

[username]

Depression, like being overweight, is a condition that most people pretend is put upon them because they were born with it but the vast majority of cases are treatable with exercise, a good diet, a positive attitude, and having a good living environment, all of which can you can be trained or control to a large degree. Why risk screwing with your brain's chem balance if you don't have to?

[killJOY]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')epression, like being overweight, is a condition that most people pretend is put upon them because they were born with it but the vast majority of cases are treatable with exercise, a good diet, a positive attitude, and having a good living environment, all of which can you can be trained or control to a large degree. Why risk screwing with your brain's chem balance if you don't have to?

[Kristen]

My doctor is a quack too. I asked him why Forest pharamacueticals hasn't done any research on these kind of risks and he gave me a chuckle and said "if they told people that, they wouldn't make any money." That pretty much says that these doctors are just there for the money.

As far as wellness goes. I've learned self-hypnosis, I've used flotation tanks, I've tried buddhism. The pain is still there.

Tapering off Lexapro is useless, because as soon as you lower the dose, the head zaps still occur.


I just think the FDA should look into it more, I wrote them a letter and please help me and write one too.