Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

nytimes ^ | FAPRIL 7, 2018 | BENEDICT CAREY and ROBERT GEBEL

[MarvinStinson]

Victoria Toline needed nine months to taper off Zoloft. “I had to drop out of school,” she said. “My life’s been on hold.”

Victoria Toline would hunch over the kitchen table, steady her hands and draw a bead of liquid from a vial with a small dropper. It was a delicate operation that had become a daily routine — extracting ever tinier doses of the antidepressant she had taken for three years, on and off, and was desperately trying to quit.

“Basically that’s all I have been doing — dealing with the dizziness, the confusion, the fatigue, all the symptoms of withdrawal,” said Ms. Toline, 27, of Tacoma, Wash. It took nine months to wean herself from the drug, Zoloft, by taking increasingly smaller doses.

“I couldn’t finish my college degree,” she said. “Only now am I feeling well enough to try to re-enter society and go back to work.”

Long-term use of antidepressants is surging in the United States, according to a new analysis of federal data by The New York Times. Some 15.5 million Americans have been taking the medications for at least five years. The rate has almost doubled since 2010, and more than tripled since 2000.

Nearly 25 million adults, like Ms. Toline, have been on antidepressants for at least two years, a 60 percent increase since 2010.

[A_perfect_lady]

I’ve never understood if the chemical imbalance is actually real or just a theory. I mean, can they take a blood test and SEE the chemical imbalance?

[cdcdawg]

It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at the research, and there’s a ton of it. Serotonin levels are testable. I think the research has pretty clearly established that depression CAN be caused by lowered serotonin. The problem is that lowered serotonin isn’t the only or exclusive cause, and the diagnosis doesn’t have anything to do with testing the level of serotonin. They just prescribe the meds and wait to see if it helps.

[sauropod]

bkmk

[FrankR]

Years ago a doctor put me on some sort of antidepressant (Effexor, I think), and I took them for a while. But I decided I didn’t need them, and put them down. I was like explosions going off in my head...so here’s what I did.

It’s not quitting them that’s so bad, per se, but “cold turkey” quitting that will get you.

I bought some cheap vitamin capsules, emptied the “vitamin” out the capsule and, refilled it, half-way, with the antidepressant. After a week or so of that, I cut it down to only a fourth of a capsule for a couple of weeks...THEN, I cut them out all together. No more withdrawal symptoms.

You have to wean yourself off these types of drugs. It’s the only drug I ever took that was addictive, and never any since.

[Seruzawa]

The addictive nature of these drugs and the horrific withdrawal effects are well documented. Pharma and their lackies at the FDA and in the press and media work overtime to cover up this multibillion dollar fraud

[VideoDoctor]

HELP FIGHT DEPRESSION... EAT MORE DARK CHOCOLATE!

[null and void]

That being said, Prozac saved my life. It gave me the breathing room I needed and the energy to address other issues.

Haven’t taken (or needed) an antidepressant in long, long time.

The right medicine at the right time in the right dose can be miraculous.

Otherwise, the dose makes the poison...

[yldstrk]

I was on them too for a long time until my son said I was taking too many pills and I thought about it and decided I was setting a terrible example. So I went off everything, the migraine meds, the asthma meds, the anitidepressants. Yes I am better off in so many ways. You have to be able to learn to just deal with the pain and discomfort and dissatisfaction of every day life.

[Magnatron]

My wife was talked into these f’n drugs when she suffered a bout of depression after the birth of our two oldest children. She was given the prescription by an unscrupulous doctor (I do mean unscrupulous, he was later arrested and removed from the profession for molesting some of his patients).

She has struggled to get off of them now years later. She’s in the middle of the latest effort right now. It’s not easy at all.

Our youngest son was born with Autism. I am convinced that it’s not vaccines causing the epidemic of Autism, but rather the over-prevalent use of anti-depressants by so many women today.

It’s a terrible situation that the medical profession has put our people into — especially women, since they make up the bulk of anti-depressant patients.

This is what happens when we incentivize the promotion of prescription drugs, whether it’s opioids, statens, anti-depressants, and many others.

[Architect of Avalon]

Antidepressants are toxic.

People should use natural remedies, from Buffered Vitamin C to Rhodiola.

[b4me]

“Depression is a chemical imbalance”

yes, but many times its caused by the person and their actions or thoughts.

Just supplementing drugs to try to balance is no real (long term) help or strategy for success. Just as supplementing by taking my thyroid Rx daily does nothing to help my thyroid gland - it just boosts/balances the amount of hormone in my system and makes my blood test result acceptable and many days I feel ok. It’s not help, its a bandaid for a bigger issue (thyroid not functioning properly because of a number of factors) just as depression meds are a bandaid for bigger issue of thought and nutrition, lifestyle, sleep etc number of factors. The person is hugely responsible for making improvements in their life - the depression drugs or any other are used as crutch and many people never face the real changes that would actually help them be well.

Coming off the meds is a nightmare - because they don’t belong in the body in the first place and coming off any drug/mind altering substance is gonna effect the mind and body hugely because the person faked a “balance” by using it to begin with.

[tired&retired]

Antidepressants block the retrieval of emotionally disturbing memories that are causing depression. It’s as though your consciousness is a radio tuner and when you recall traumatic events or worry, it drags you to the lower frequencies where one experiences depression. Antidepressants blocks the neural transmission, thus blocking the ability to retrieve the troublesome memories.

Antidepressants do not resolve traumatic issues that bother us. They merely block them. When you stop taking the drugs, the unresolved issues return.

People become psychologically addicted as when they stop taking the medications, the floodgates open and the unresolved issues return, creating the psychological need to take the drugs again.

(Just in the middle of typing this message I received a phone call that a friend took his life by hanging himself late yesterday....) Darn...

When a person prays, it raises their consciousness to a higher level out of depression. When a person prays that is on antidepressants, it is as though the knob is off the radio tuner and the person’s consciousness can’t tune to higher levels.

People should never quit antidepressants cold turkey. It should be done gradually under the supervision of an MD, and with a psychologically trained person to help the patient learn tools to deal with the unresolved issues surfacing.

[tired&retired]

“Why would you need to take them in the first place? Hillary lost the election.”

There was a great surge in antidepressants when Hillary lost. That did not happen when Obama won!!!

Emotional thinkers have a much more difficult time dealing with reality.

[ctdonath2]

Yes. Clinical depression is real. And coming off antidepressants is a ****ing nightmare.

[Pride in the USA]

ping

[ripnbang]

I do not wish to generalize as there are real people with real problems causing depression, both physical and psychological, but, IMHO, prescription meds are given out like candy and people think they’re depressed because their internet speed is too slow (yes, sarcasm). Sometimes I think people just need a little reality check and realize life is not all about you, your feelings and your “happiness”.

[redcatcherb412]

they need comfort gerbils

[tired&retired]

"CAN be caused by lowered serotonin."

The underlying cause of depression is almost always unresolved psychological issues. Thus the best treatment, and the only one that resolves the issue rather than blocking it is psychotherapy. However, this is also the most expensive.

The psychological issues creates a biochemical imbalance in the physical body that is associated with the depression. There are about six different categories of depression. Most people are familiar with B-12 depression, and serotonin/dopamine deficiency. There is also a copper toxicity depression that happens to women postpartum and during PMS when the hormones are out of balance. (I'm only mentioning biochemical causes)(Hormones acting as neurotransmitters are more difficult to treat as there is no reuptake in the presynaptic neuron for hormones as their is for serotonin, dopamine,....)

Several years ago I attended lectures at a psychiatric conference on genetic testing to determine the most probable type of depression and the best treatment and dosage. I was amazed at how accurate it was as a diagnosis tool.

Genetic testing can provide a personalized approach for clinicians to treat patients’ depression. It can help them prescribe an even more individualized treatment plan, taking into account a patient’s own genetic makeup, in addition to the medical history, environmental and lifestyle factors that clinicians already consider when treating patients.

Since every patient is unique, personalized medicine, including genetics, can help provide a treatment plan for depression that is a better match. The Genetic Assay results report includes a listing of all of the variations detected in the genes analyzed on the test. It also includes the therapeutic implications of each genetic result, potential gene-drug interactions, and the overall clinical impact of each variation detected.

Here is a partial sample report...

Liver enzymes, especially the cytochrome P450 group has a lot to due with reaction to various medicines.(these enzymes detox the body and thus create the half life of medications.) Thus they also issue a report similar to this sample report.

[DIRTYSECRET]

No mention here of the effects alcohol have on the drugs. I would think that cutting off consumption would help get one off the drugs.

[antidisestablishment]

Doctors are prescribing antidepressants for all sorts of conditions beyond depression. I have chronic arthritis and have sleep problems due primarily to pain, and doctors keep trying to give me all kinds of meds from antidepressants to anticonvulsants and I keep refusing. I have seen what these meds did to some of my adopted kids.

Too many doctors are just pharma salesmen. I am tired of having various Frankenstein’s cocktails pushed on me. Yes, I’m in pain—a lot at times— but the answer isn’t likely to be found in contracting cancer (#1side effect) or becoming addicted to a chemical that loses efficacy in direct relation to increased dependence.

You don’t have to be a conspiracy nut to see neither the pharmacy companies nor the federal government have our interests at heart.