Going Off Antidepressants
Long-term users may find quitting harder than expected
by Jennifer Rainey Marquez, AARP, June 22, 2018|Comments: 0
If discontinuing an antidepressant makes sense, be aware of the risk of withdrawal symptoms and learn how to manage them.
Heidi Carlson started taking antidepressants in her mid-30s, when, as she puts it, “Things got to be too much.†She had recently gone through a painful divorce, and in the years following, she went on and off of the drugs. Then, in 2004, her son was deployed to Iraq. “That’s when I started having panic attacks and really significant issues,†says Carlson, now 56. “I’ve been on antidepressants ever since.â€
When, in the last four years, she began experiencing a number of issues — balance problems, spasms, difficulty remembering things — she suspected the antidepressants she was taking could be to blame. So she asked her psychiatrist about quitting. He was willing to let her, but Carlson was thrown by what happened after she stopped taking the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). “I was thrown into such horrendous side effects — crushing fatigue, constant anxiety, headaches, GI problems — that I've been sick ever since,†she says.
https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2018/antidepressants-withdrawal-side-effects.html?intcmp=AE-HEA-R1-C1-ART
