Deprescribing: The Long Road off Antidepressants

Hello, I’m new here and was given your name as someone to follow. I have been on antidepressants for 26 years. I’ve tried many times over the years to get off. No doctors will help. Their answer is always the same- increase my dose or switch. In January of 2025 I discovered the surviving antidepressants website and decided to navigate this on my own. I am down to 4 beads of Effexor from 37.5 mg. The withdrawal symptoms are ferocious. I’m stuck here. Contemplating increasing. Feeling lost. The panic some mornings is terrifying. I have autoimmune issues. Hashimoto’s for about 6 years. And about a month ago I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. I believe the stress my brain and body have been under during this journey may have triggered this autoimmune disease. I found a doctor on Talkiatry who has agreed to help me with a Prozac bridge. Her plan is to take 10mg of Prozac for two weeks and stop the 4 beads. Yesterday was the two week mark and I’m terrified. I went down to 3 beads instead. The doctor admitted that she has no experience with desprescribing venlafaxine and bead counting. Not very encouraging, but I was desperate for the Prozac and the possibility this was the answer. Do you have a doctor helping you? Any thoughts?

Hi Laura, I responded to another one of your posts and gave you information about bridging onto Prozac. There are some things to consider. I was a member of Surviving Antidepressants and it really saved my life when I needed it. The most important thing is for you to be stable and functional, even if that means having to increase your dose a bit and just holding for a very long time. We can't rush this process, especially for people like us who have been on these drugs so long. In general, doctors are clueless about how to get off these drugs. The Prozac bridge might work for you, and if you decide to pursue it I hope it does. Some people do have success with it. However, it doesn't always work or prevent severe withdrawal from the original drug. If you find that you're getting worse with trying to do it this way, you may need to stop and just get stable on the Effexor until you can very slowly taper off. It's up to you what you want to do. Really listen to what your body is telling you. Currently, I'm getting my prescriptions from my family doctor who - surprisingly enough - understands the need to slowly taper and supports my doing it how I want.