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Thinking of going off antidepressants

vamah

Senior Member
Messages
593
Location
Washington , DC area
So I saw my crazy-doctor yesterday and she wants me to transition from an SNRI back to an SSRI. I am strongly considering just tapering off the SNRI but not starting the other drug. On the one hand, none of the antidepressants have been working because I still get very depressed. On the other hand, they were never prescribed for depression in the first place, but for anxiety and I don't need more anxiety at this point. Not sure what to do.

On a side note, when I saw my doctor she said that I seemed "very angry." I said yes, but that it was rational anger, caused by the problems I have had with my HMO. She then proceded to suggest a drug that would help with my anger issues. That's the first time my HMO has tried to medicate away my anger with them!
 

Plum

Senior Member
Messages
512
Location
UK
I can only speak from my experience. I have taken anti-depressants for anxiety too. And they worked. It was great! For about 6 months! They pretty much stopped me from caring about anything. I came off them and am glad I did. I suffer badly from anxiety but try to deal with it myself. I think ME makes us more prone to anxiety anyway.

As far as anger goes - I have that problem too. My health makes me angry. Life makes me angry. I get very angry very quickly if I don't understand something etc. BUT I feel it's the way I am and that I need to learn to deal with it in a more appropriate manner. Yoga and meditation have helped with this as has trying to see the good in things. I am not a fan of medication. If you find something that works for you and you research it and are happy with it longterm then I think that's great. But sometimes we just have to accept the way we are - at least that's how I view my life.
 

heapsreal

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10,089
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australia (brisbane)
maybe noradrenaline is worsening anger and anxiety, might be worth just trying an ssri. Nothing wrong with having a shot at it as it maybe the thing u need and if it doesnt work then taper off it. I would guess that its frustration thats coming across as anger but just a guess, who wouldnt feel frustrated feeling like crap everyday?? I think antidepressants can help u feel better about feeling like crap but everything is trial and error.

good luck.
 

vamah

Senior Member
Messages
593
Location
Washington , DC area
maybe noradrenaline is worsening anger and anxiety, might be worth just trying an ssri. Nothing wrong with having a shot at it as it maybe the thing u need and if it doesnt work then taper off it. I would guess that its frustration thats coming across as anger but just a guess, who wouldnt feel frustrated feeling like crap everyday?? I think antidepressants can help u feel better about feeling like crap but everything is trial and error.

good luck.

I was on a low dose SSRI for several years with good results. Then in the past year, as my illness has gotten worse, it stopped working and I have tried various different meds and dosages since then. I do believe that medication has its place in helping deal with symptoms, but I think it is time for me to see if I feel the same on no psych meds. If so, then I would just as soon not be putting more stuff into my body. I am trying serequel for sleep problems. I have tried a lot of drugs for insomnia as well. Sleep is my biggest problem right now. In fact, part of my anger was that my doctor wanted to talk about anger (a small problem) instead of sleep (a big one).
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
I was on a low dose SSRI for several years with good results. Then in the past year, as my illness has gotten worse, it stopped working and I have tried various different meds and dosages since then. I do believe that medication has its place in helping deal with symptoms, but I think it is time for me to see if I feel the same on no psych meds. If so, then I would just as soon not be putting more stuff into my body. I am trying serequel for sleep problems. I have tried a lot of drugs for insomnia as well. Sleep is my biggest problem right now. In fact, part of my anger was that my doctor wanted to talk about anger (a small problem) instead of sleep (a big one).
Sleep is a tough one to treat. I usually rotate between a few things for sleep. sleep deprivation can make anyone feel bad, docs just dont get it some times.
 

Plum

Senior Member
Messages
512
Location
UK
Yup! I feel more grumpy and angry when sleep deprived. Sorting that out is such a hard one. I've found an eye mask and a snack before bed helps. Also finding treating my methylation cycle is having the positive effect of helping me sleep more. I often have to stay in bed 12 hours to get 9 hours sleep and often have nightmares.
 

Lotus97

Senior Member
Messages
2,041
Location
United States
I've tried many different kind of antidepressants (both prescription and supplements) and SSRIs were the only thing that helped. With sleep, I've found that consistently getting enough sleep has helped with all my symptoms, but without ADs I'm still depressed even if I get enough sleep. There was one SNRI, Cymbalta, that did make my anger worse. I was getting in a lot of fights with my parents during that time.
 

caledonia

Senior Member
Two points - if you come off any psych drug (SSRI, SNRI, benzo, etc.) you need to taper very gradually otherwise there is a high chance you can get horrendous withdrawal symptoms. It can be very tricky, as the symptoms may not show up for 6 months! The doctor will diagnose you as "having your original symptoms return" and say you need to get back on an antidepressant.

Actually it's withdrawal symptoms from the drug! The drug companies don't want people to know their dirty little secret and very little has been done to study this. This happens to people who were on the drug for reasons other than anxiety and depression - the drug gave them anxiety!

I know a lot about this because it happened to me, and I lost almost a year of my life to horrible withdrawal symptoms. I have researched it extensively. The best advice I can give is if you want to get off any psych drug, go to the Paxil Progress forum and read up.

Now the good news is, your anxiety/depression/sleep problems are likely due to methylation problems, and addressing methylation should restore proper functioning. Read this article regarding methylation and mental illness which explains it all better than I can: http://metabolichealing.com/michael-s-blog/mental-illness-or-methylation-mutation/

What I am doing personally, is very gradually tapering off an SSRI, while very gradually increasing methylation. I figure about the time I'm totally off the SSRI, I will be methylating properly. This whole process is going to take at least two years.
 

Jarod

Senior Member
Messages
784
Location
planet earth
You may want to check and see if your anti-depressant contains Flouride(some do). Flouride ingested probably has zero benefit for your teeth health.

From what i recall, I think the body can't detox flouride and it can build up in various organs.

Never had any luck with those anti-depressants. Only thing they did was kill my sex drive.

Regarding anger. I think messed up sleep, messed up hormones, and doctors that don't understand may cause frustration. I think they are under heavy duty persuasion from all the spin they read and get detached from our reality.
 

vamah

Senior Member
Messages
593
Location
Washington , DC area
Thanks for all your thoughts. After giving it a lot of thought, I have decided that now is not the time to go off antidepressants. I will probably try that this summer, when I am further along with my Valcyte treatment.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
Summer is generally a better time to mess with ADs since quite a few people with depression have some degree of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Have you tried trazodone for sleep? It's often used for sleep in ME/CFS, but also has some antidepressant properties. Based on what I've read here, people either love it or hate it.

Have you had a sleep study? That might give you some clues as to what might help with your sleep problem, which might also help with depression issues since poor sleep can lead to depressive symptoms.
 

vamah

Senior Member
Messages
593
Location
Washington , DC area
Have you tried trazodone for sleep? It's often used for sleep in ME/CFS, but also has some antidepressant properties. Based on what I've read here, people either love it or hate it.

I resently stopped trazodone because it was not terribly effective for me. My doctor has me on seroquel now, which seems to help but leaves me groggy all day. Another drug that was suggested to me is remeron. Anyone have any knowledge/experience with that one?
 

Lotus97

Senior Member
Messages
2,041
Location
United States
This site has information about how lacking various nutrients (mainly vitamins and minerals, but a few other things) can affect depression, anxiety, and a lot of other health problems (both physical and mental). There's a different list for each illness and a short description of why it works.
http://www.spectracell.com/online-library-references/
Some issues are more complicated though and different approaches will work for different people. For example, they say copper deficiency can contribute to anxiety. That's true if you're low in copper and doubly so if you're also low in norepinephrine and dopamine. However, too much copper can also cause anxiety and raise norepinephrine too high.
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
I resently stopped trazodone because it was not terribly effective for me. My doctor has me on seroquel now, which seems to help but leaves me groggy all day. Another drug that was suggested to me is remeron. Anyone have any knowledge/experience with that one?

mirtazatpine can leave u just as groggy the next days as seroquel, both are good for sleep. Initially on seroquel i could sleep 14 hours a day but over time this has reduced but i have also reducued the dose to 25-50mg at a time and dont use it nightly but maybe once a night or twice. probably use mirtazapine on nights u dont use seroquel. Start of using these things when u have no plans the next day but that type of sedation eventually where off where u can get normal sleep without the hang over:thumbsup:
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
Sounds like you need to change doctors. I had a CFS specialist for years who ignored all the ME/CFS symptoms and didnt treat them and rather choose to focus on the psychological stuff those symptoms were causing me to have. I was so so sleep deprived among many other CFS symptoms which should of been being treated and hence making me feel very angry etc.

I ended up finding myself a very nice psychologist to help me to deal with the stress and anger I had over the doctors!! One who listened and encouraged me to seek out better doctors. Dealing with bad doctors will may have you having to unnecessarily be on drugs. Find some good counselling.

The things which have made major impacts on my mood stuff were
1/ I found out I had hyperinsulinemia and that was giving me massive mood swings. That's now treated
2/ I had counselling for the anger issues I had with doctors with a sympathethic person who listened. (I need to go back, Im so angry over the collapses Im having which should be treatable but Im not getting treatment for).
3/ I found out I had very abnormally high noradrenaline.... Im now on clonidine for it. (a drug which lowers adrenaline) Note the clonidine has helped me to sleep and is used off label in people for that among other things.

From my own experience I think SSRIs (I couldnt take any of those anyway.. side effects) and SNRIs arent really dealing with the issues but like applying bandaides and so many of us have missed other issues or things which should be being treated differently. Just giving drugs rather then finding out what is truely going on is a lazy or naive doctors way out.
 

vamah

Senior Member
Messages
593
Location
Washington , DC area
Sounds like you need to change doctors.

You are right about that. I am in a difficult situation vis-a-vis doctors right now. The doctors in my HMO are completely useless. I found a fairly good doc outside my HMO, but I have to pay out of pocket for any office visits, tests, prescriptions from him. I have already spent a lot of money doing this, so I am trying to keep to a minimum until I can change health insurance in a few months.
I agree that SSRI's are just a bandaid, but they help me cope while I work on fixing the underlying problems. It does piss me off that my psychiatrist will give me psych meds as if they are candy but, when I ask about paid meds because part of the reason for my sleep problem is pain, she says she's not allowed (by the HMO) to prescribe them. As if they truely believe that drugs that alter your brain chemistry carry no risks, but if you ask for codeine then you must be a drug-seeker.
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
You are right about that. I am in a difficult situation vis-a-vis doctors right now. The doctors in my HMO are completely useless. I found a fairly good doc outside my HMO, but I have to pay out of pocket for any office visits, tests, prescriptions from him. I have already spent a lot of money doing this, so I am trying to keep to a minimum until I can change health insurance in a few months.
I agree that SSRI's are just a bandaid, but they help me cope while I work on fixing the underlying problems. It does piss me off that my psychiatrist will give me psych meds as if they are candy but, when I ask about paid meds because part of the reason for my sleep problem is pain, she says she's not allowed (by the HMO) to prescribe them. As if they truely believe that drugs that alter your brain chemistry carry no risks, but if you ask for codeine then you must be a drug-seeker.
I agree antidepressants arent going to fix our issues but if one can tolerate them then ssri's can make one feel alot better about feeling like shit, sometimes they can also help turn the dial down on pain too.:thumbsup:
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
It does piss me off that my psychiatrist will give me psych meds as if they are candy but, when I ask about paid meds because part of the reason for my sleep problem is pain, she says she's not allowed (by the HMO) to prescribe them.

How about asking your psychiatrist if you can try Cymbalta (SNRI) which she could prescribe for depression or anxiety? It has the additional benefit of helping with pain for many people with ME/CFS or fibromyalgia. You don't have to talk to her about it as a pain reliever, of course, if you think that might confuse the issue for her . ;)

For me, Cymbalta took enough edge off the pain that I could handle the rest with OTC pain meds. Nowadays the Cymbalta takes care of whatever pain I have in the daytime, but I still take OTC pain meds at bedtime or I can't fall asleep.
 

vamah

Senior Member
Messages
593
Location
Washington , DC area
How about asking your psychiatrist if you can try Cymbalta (SNRI) which she could prescribe for depression or anxiety? It has the additional benefit of helping with pain for many people with ME/CFS or fibromyalgia. You don't have to talk to her about it as a pain reliever, of course, if you think that might confuse the issue for her . ;)

For me, Cymbalta took enough edge off the pain that I could handle the rest with OTC pain meds. Nowadays the Cymbalta takes care of whatever pain I have in the daytime, but I still take OTC pain meds at bedtime or I can't fall asleep.

Thanks. I had read about Cymbalta. Right now I am feeling a bit "doctored out" and am going to take a break from doctors (even the one I generally like) for a while. But I may ask about that when I feel ready to go back.