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10866337 tn?1413402181

Anti-depressant withdrawal

I am a 63 old male who has been taking ant-depressants for 18 years. My most current medications are :

Anxiety, depression and ADHD related medications are :

1) Prozac (generic) 40 mg daily
2) Wellbrutrin XL (generic) 450 mg daily
3) Vyvanse 50 mg daily (before Vyvnase, had been

Other non anti-depressants :

Lipitor 10 mg three times a week
Trazodone 100 mg for sleep

Approximately 4 weeks ago, I decided to try acupuncture for treating increased non-specific tremors in my left hand. Overall, I had 9 treatments. During the second week (toward the end of the 9 treatments), I decided to begin weening myself from the above referenced anti-depressant medications. Unfortunately, I gave up on any form of gradual weening after a few days and completely stopped taking all of the anti-depressant medications.

After being off of them for around 2 weeks, I contacted True Hope and ordered some of their products. I have been taking their products for approximately 2 weeks now.

I just don't feel right. I am very fatigued, experiencing minor headaches(never experienced headaches before), feeling a little tingling and feeling muscle soreness. I have no motivation and just can't seem to get going or even want to do anything no matter how much self-talk I give to myself. I am also experiencing increased appetite and have gained about 10 lbs back of the 20 pounds that I have recently lost.

I have spent the last 30 minutes online in researching withdrawals from anti-depressant medications and can see clearly that going off of them "cold turkey" was ill advised and largely responsible for the woes that I am now experiencing.

Please shed some light on how long that I can expect to have these feelings, how long these discontinuation symptoms will occur and conversely when I might expect the new true Hope medications to start working.

Needless to say, what I have described above are all negatives regarding the withdrawals. There are some positives worth noting.

I have experienced erectile dysfunction (ED) since age 55. I have long felt that the above suite of anti-depressants caused my ED or at a minimum greatly contributed to it. This has proven itself true over the past several weeks. I can gain an erection often without the magic little pill (generic for Viagra) and can also keep it for longer than I could while using Viagra.

I am looking forward to your response.
4 Responses
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Avatar universal
What I do is when I start to feel withdrawal or when it becomes unbearable I take a very small dose of whatever drug (unless it time released and can't be cut or crushed) .  This eases my withdrawal symptoms and (I think) tricks my body into being happy with a lower dose.  I used this technique to withdraw successfully (and realitivly painlessl) from  four years of Percocet and Vicodin.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
It depends on the severity of what you're going through, but I wouldn't play around with this.  You can still go back on the meds at the last dose at which you felt fine and taper off slowly one at a time, which you know now is how you should have done it.  If you decide to stick it out, there's no way for anyone to tell you whether or how long it will take for your brain to adjust back to working normally again.  Some people have an easy time, some a very long hard road.  So far I'd say you're doing pretty good.  Ultimately, the choice is up to you, and the consequences will only be known in hindsight.
Helpful - 0
10726861 tn?1412304012
hi i think that it is a bad idea to ween your self off them and you may need at lest some of them like a diabetic needs a shot every day you should talk to your doctor
Helpful - 0
1699033 tn?1514113133
I wish I could tell you a timetable for when your body will adjust to being without meds.  I think it is something you should discuss with your prescribing doctor.  

On another note regarding the ED, I'm thinking the prozac and/or the Vyvanse only because I take 300 mg of Wellbutrin specifically because for me at least there are not sexual side effects and it controls my OCD very well.  
Helpful - 0
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