Posted by Philip N. on September 29, 2006, at 17:43:45
In reply to Re: Withdrawal from long term antidepressants, posted by Philip N. on September 29, 2006, at 17:41:41
Hi johnnyj.
How long have you taken medication and how long have you been able to stay off in between? This was my first real run at staying off and the accumulative effect is warranting that I do resume. I was skipping along OK while on them and time jusy seemed to fly. Now it's like all this has reversed and it's atanding still!
I know that for everyone on the planet time will come to pass and the quality of life certainly matters. In my younger days I used to drink myself into a fog pretty regularly and try to call that living. That lasted until The age of 41 when I landed in ICU for 5 days with a blood alcohol level of .438. That was the end of the booze for me (long overdue). The problems that I'm struggling with now may well call for a return to what was working with medication.
Seems all my life I've been an anxious type and a worrier and it has always had a big impact. I've wanted to be "normal" all my life and my doc says that normal is a setting on a washing machine. At least I'm trying now to look at what will work as I know alot more about what won't work (from over the years).
It may be that now I have to view the Depression in the same light that I view alcohol. They can both defeat me if I let them but that doesn't have to be so. My doc says that I need to look at starting back the meds to pull back and then later on we can attempt another run by slowly tapering. When I stopped last DEcember I simply cold turkeyed and thought that was it until about May-June when I started a slow spiral. It's now been 3 months of fighting and I am longing for a return of just some easy going days.
If that means the medications then at least they are available and according to who you ask are just what the doctor ordered. They did in fact work for a long time so I can't say that I haven't benefitted from them in the past. When I first stated ADs they sure seemed to help me then so who's to say? My doctor asked me if I would want to stop taking high blood pressure medicene if I didn't want high blood pressure? Of course I would want to keep it under control so the answer was obvious.
You know in a way it's hypocritical of me because I sure didn't use to worry about side effects when I was poisoning my brain with the alcohol. And I'm not talking about a glass of wine with dinner either! The booze damned near killed me several times and I would return to it thinking that it would be different the next go-around somehow. At least my time on medication proved to offer stability so I think I need to focus in on that more in my current shape as opposed to what my alternatives are. I'm damned sure not going to go back to alcohol looking for an answer. My doctor is cautiously waiting for me to come to grips so there can be improvement which she is confident of in spite of my stubborness.
Thanks.....let me know.
poster:Philip N.
thread:689668
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20060809/msgs/690273.html