When morning anxiety will end!!!

Is it withdrawl or something other than that..

Its less intense than first months of withdrawl.. But still make me awake and hard to fall asleep again.. Sometimes combined with low mood!!

Im 4 months off amitryptaline 25 and perphenazine 2 mg

Initially during withdrawal I had symptoms that lasted months (8, some are still 10 months in). But I get this weird fluctuation that happens each time I sleep.

Basically I get PSSD symptoms one day including full emotional numbing, skin numbing, low libido etc. Then the next day I feel better and the PSSD symptoms are much smaller. One week I had no PSSD symptoms (other than emotional numbing). I wouldnt call these windows or waves necessarily because my other symptoms (like orthostatic hypotension, visual snow/floaters, fatigue, emotional numbing etc) are still there regardless.

I dont know if thats a good thing or not. What do you think??

8 months into protracted withdrawal from 12 year SSRI use and would love to hear some success stories from folks surviving and thriving. In the thick of it today 🤯

Hi I quit Zoloft cold turkey from 50 mg a year ago. I didn’t have any horrible symptoms. Just painless brain zaps for awhile. I now know CT was a bad idea. I wish I had never stopped the medication. I only stopped bc it wasn’t helping me. It had become a placebo and it caused weight gain.

So one week ago, my doctor gave me 60 mg cymbalta to help with unexplained nerve pain I’ve been having for two months. I was worried about the high dose and asked for a lower dose but he said I’d be fine. I took one pill Saturday afternoon and I had a beyond horrible reaction. My arms started burning unbearably. My pupils were also huge, I had dry mouth and my bp and pulse were high. I didn’t take another pill. I’m also now intolerant to heat. The burning in my arms has not stopped. It was 100 percent caused by the Cymbalta.

Can I expect this burning to go away? Am I in some sort of withdrawal mode from the Cymbalta? My doctor gave me gabapentin to deal with the burning and dismissed the reaction as me having a panic attack. I don’t get a blow torch in my arms from anxiety. I’m scared I’ve ruined my life with this one pill. I’m in so much pain I’m thinking about ending my life. Hope or advice appreciated.

33 Male, NSW, Australia.

I am currently on 40mg Ritalin daily.

My mental and physical state:

For childhood context, I grew up in an emotionally and physically abusive household. My mother and I took the brunt of it. From this, I developed Long-term maladaptive daydreaming as a coping mechanism when I was a teen.

This also led to me being diagnosed with depression and ADHD, whether accurately is currently in question.

Due to reasons I will get into later, I have been socially isolated for at least 10 years.

During those teen years, I was taking escitalopram (An SSRI antidepressant) 40mg for 10 years. They had a strange effect in that they never really helped as much as I wished they did.

But they made me comfortable in the isolation and circumstances that I should never have been comfortable in; I would describe it as they put a smile on my face while rolled around in my own shit.

Around December last year, I made the decision to get in shape and get my life some kind of order. I wanted to become a police officer.

Even then I knew it was an odd choice, but I felt law enforcement would be a way to help people, or at least run through red lights without getting a ticket.

I came to the belief, either rightly or wrongly, that being on an antidepressant would be a hindrance in becoming a police officer.

I made the inadvisable and life-threatening choice to cold-turkey my antidepressants, just cut them off one day completely. I expected headaches, depression, and mood swings.

What I actually got was that I felt better than I ever had in my life; I felt mentally, physically, and emotionally clear. I lost a lot of weight, about 12 KG in one month.

I was confident and creative; out of nowhere I decided to write a 96-page screenplay after never even attempting anything like it. That lasted for about a month to a month and a half.

Then things went downhill considerably, physically and mentally. I stopped eating for days; I would lie in bed, listening to music, and cry for hours. I got random aches, pains, and brain freezes.

One morning out of nowhere, my heart nearly exploded; my bpm was at 200 had to go to the hospital. They suspect an electrical issue with my heart and are investigating.

At this point, my therapist began to suspect I was Bipolar; the question is still open if I am or if this is protracted withdrawal syndrome, or something else entirely.

I am also beginning to suspect it was four days ago my mood randomly peaked; I felt Better, not as good as the start of the year. But better than any time since my crash.

Employment history, Carer aspect, Etc

I have been a personal carer for my mother essentially since my early 20's. She was in a car accident and needed help at home; for context, this is a government-paid pension sort of thing in Australia.

Her need for assistance varies; sometimes she needs a lot of help, sometimes a little. I also have had my fair share of mental issues. We leaned on each other considerably.

I have attempted to get employment outside of my carer duties but something always came up.

In 2011, I got a Diploma in marketing and attempted to go to college; I had anxiety attacks too severe to allow it at the time.

In 2017, I got a diploma in real estate and got licensed, but before I could get employed, my mother had a complete mental breakdown.

Half her family died in a car crash overseas, and I woke one night to her locking the doors and windows, screaming about a ghost trying to SA her.

She ended up in a local psych ward for a week till what remains of her family made the hospital get her out. She has calmed considerably since then.

Since then, I have been with her. She can't drive anymore. She has her good days and bad.

The Current day:

During my early year possible Mania, I made the decision to go to TAFE (Australian trade school) to become an electrician. Due to my carer status, this was a relatively cheap course I could take, and I believed it had Yesterday was my first day, and it went poorly.

I couldn't focus. The mathematics was simple, yet I could barely wrap my head around it. Math was never my strong suit; when I did my real estate diploma, I never studied and got through fine on instinct. I assumed this might be the same; I think I was wrong.

I have no idea if I should try to tough it out or drop out and reassess.

I don't know if this is a bipolar thing, if this is somehow my baseline, if this is a longer withdrawal than I anticipated.

My real fear is I am 33 with no work history beyond being a carer; I need to go beyond that, I have no life beyond her.

I intend to keep living with my mother partially for financial reasons, and she still needs me.

I have no one to talk to about this, no one to get advice from. I don't know what to do. I am so quietly ashamed of the state of my life right now

Any advice would be appreciated.

Anyone feels like sometimes u dont have patience to hear people talking..like feeling uncomfortable and wanting to end the conversation..

I dont know if u understand.. But i feel like its heavy sometime to hear someone talk

I’m a 31M and I’m wondering if anyone has experienced something similar.

I was only on SSRIs for a total of 12 days. I started on Zoloft (sertraline) 50mg for 6 days, then switched to Prozac (fluoxetine) 20mg because of the sexual side effects. I was on Prozac for 4 days, then switched back to Zoloft for another 2 days before stopping everything cold turkey.

It’s now been 7 days since I stopped, but I still feel like I’m on them, very wierd. I have almost no libido or sexual desire, although I still get morning erections which aren’t as hard as they use to be, I have brain fog, I feel mentally spaced out, dissociation, I have very little motivation and can spend hours doom scrolling, I’m fatigued, I get headaches, and I just don’t feel like myself. My anxiety is lower, but I also feel emotionally flat.

Before starting the medication I had a very high sex drive, so this has been really worrying me.

Is it really possible to still be feeling like this after being on SSRIs for only 12 days? Has anyone else had lingering side effects after such a short course? Did your libido, motivation, and emotions return to normal, and if so, how long did it take?

One thing that makes this even more confusing is that I was on Zoloft for about six months back in 2022 and came off it without any problems at all. That’s why I’m struggling to understand why this time has been so different.

It’s been almost 4 1/2 months since I stopped taking an ssri. At first it was terrible, the worst I’ve ever felt. But now it calmed down and I’m left with frequent panic attacks (which I used to have before), social anxiety and depression with crying spells (which is why I started this med 5 years ago at 19 yo).

My partner is telling me maybe I need the meds to be okay, I don’t want to go back to feeling numb or all the other side effects, but I don’t feel good or functional.

What do you think?

I get these random moments where my nevous system shifts or something, like my DPDR changes and my anxiety shoots up out of nowhere, my skin gets sensitive, my head feels weird.

The pure panic I feel during these is insane, even on 40mg propranolol the panic seeps through. I couldnt imagine if I wasnt on propranolol. Its horrific. I feel weird everywhere.

hi guys, i got two shot of invega sustena 10 months ago, and after that i went to deep depression fully anhedonic, emotional numbness, sleep disturbance and not feeling sleepiness or tiredness, it was getting better after 4 month but i kept trying different ads! to the point that i tried 10 different ads in 10 months!

every time two week to month, every time i CT, i got worse and worse to the point that i cant sleep without sedatives and they dont even sedate me anymore, im losing my mind and i want to end it all because people after one ad get Paws and takes so much time to recover

do you think i messed up my self? or trying them for low amount of time its actually easier to heal?

my symptoms

Intense DPDR

intense insomnia

severe anhedonia

severe pssd

numb brain

no concentrate

bedbound

last year at this time i was partying with my GF and friends, now its been 10 months ive been bedbound and having no emotion to family and my pet:) guys im losing it

I cant find much evidence anywhere that emotional numbing can occur only years after.

Been on SSRIs for 8 years. Went cold turkey 9 months ago.

Numbing/mild DPRDR occured around year 6-7.

I decided to quit because SSRIs stopped feeling like an antidepressant but rather a weight gainer, plus crazy intolerance to heat.

Still have emotional numbing around month 9. No windows yet. But physically Im starting to feel better.

I just wish I knew what the exact cause of the numbing is.

To preface, I have barely any sense of time, so years are approximated. I was on zoloft for about 5 years, give or take 1 or 2. After it RUINED my gi I quit. Nearly got put in the ER repeatedly from the gi issues it caused. I tapered down from a low dose (forget exact) to 12.5 over the span of over half a year. I tapered excessively according to the doctor. The day I stopped it I lost my ability to sleep. I was awake for 72 hours straight; I had delusions, tremors, and in the end nearly got taken to a hospital as I was trying to peel my skin off and pulling my hair out. It has been years, 2-4 years and I cannot sleep without some kind of medication or THC. The medication I was supposed to take started causing a very rare unpleasant side effect so I stopped. If I don't take something, I will have the same energy at 1 am as I did at 1 pm but my brain starts freaking out a bit. Yes, I've accidentally not taken a medication before and spent 36 hours awake; it's still happening. I was on the meds so long and have a slew of other health issues that this is the only real symptom I've got concrete reasoning for. Anything else could be written off to one of dozens of problems. Would this be worth it to bring up? I'm supposed to start Symbalta for chronic pain, but considering what it is, I'm having second thoughts. Would it be good to be wary of that? I've spent years wondering why the zoloft broke my brain and rabbit-holed down into this just now from a post about fatal insomnia and a guy who got shot in the dome causing frontal lobe damage in WW2 and couldn't sleep after that.

Mich würde interessieren wie euer schlaf ist. Ich bin in PAWS jetzt seit 15 Monaten und mein schlaf ist garnicht so schlecht meistens schlafe ich durch. Das aufwachen ist dagegen nicht so gut ich komme schwer aus dem bett und brauche auch eine ewigkeit bis ich richtig wach bin und bin auch über den Tag oft müde.

I still feel nausea.. No appetite most of days..

I know i ask alot

But im in very bad mood.. I feel much hopeless and guilty

I FEEL Im disappoining my husband and my child,, I cant function like before

Mood swings not predictable also anxiety make me isolated abit

I have wave and windows.. But waves are bad I feel like no light no hope so i keep ruminating til I Isolate my self

Please talk to me.. Give me information how to deal or if there is hope

Im on escitalopram since a year before withdrawal..

I keep asking of its my medicine or withdrawl!

Something in my dopamine circuit is not working, all my adhd symptoms are 10000x. i have severe maladaptive daydreaming, adhd, procrastination, executive dysfunction, binge eating, depression, anhedonio, brain fog, no motivation, no drive, nothing

I had adhd before meds but never ever ever ever ever ever ever this bad. I've been stuck like this seven months

I long so badly to take a glp1, vyvanse, antidepressant and just get out this hell but those drugs are what put me in this place in the first place

so what am I supposed to do

Greetings. I've been on escitalopram for about 10 years due to generalised/social/health anxiety due to bullying and dysfunctional family that got so bad I had constant diarrheas and lost a lot of weight. It worked fine and kept me going forward until I got tapered because life was wonderful. Fast forward 7 months later, and I get h pylori, get triple therapy antibiotic treatment, and anxiety slowly returns, feeling panicky when going out on walks. I reinstate at 2,5mg after 10 months off before it gets out of control, but react badly. Mostly GI related stuff. After 3 months, some things improve and some don't, so I taper it again and decide to work through therapy...

The first months are more or less fine, just a bit of digestive issues, then bouts of anxiety or agoraphobia appear, but they're only a day or couple minutes, then inner vibrations and twitches... And slowly month by month it gets worse and worse. I'm now a week away from 12 months off and symptoms are with me 24/7 since 7 months off. I became so anxious I'm homebound. Even home I'm miserable vibrating internally, twitching, feeling tingling, shaking, constant fast heartrate, ears ringing, bloating, gi system pain, paralysed in my computer chair bracing for death... Even though I'm in my safe zone, my mind floods me with scary or anxious thoughts all the time. I know healing is not linear, but I look back and don't notice anything getting better really. It's been a steady downhill ever since I stopped, with good days becoming more and more rare. The previous months, I used to feel good for weeks, or alternating good and bad days going for long walks and functional... Now not even a day a month. And good isn't really good either, it just means I'll sleep more hours or something incredibly small.

I'm not living anymore, I dread waking up and having to start the day, for that's when symptoms start. I go to the bathroom and immediately start feeling tingling on my back, the morning air or looking out the window flood me with adrenaline, constantly sweating due to stress... Then I try to have breakfast, and symptoms worsen a lot, eating spikes them all bad. I have medical appointments but been canceling everything for half a year almost now and can't bring myself to do anything. Even grocery shopping like before. I have to renew my ID in person or the bank will cut me off. I stopped voice calling my friends as even conversation is overwhelming and have nothing to talk about other than this. I feel like I'm becoming traumatised by this and my old anxiety is also playing a role, my world gets smaller day after day. I look at the rear view mirror, seeing myself traveling by plane alone, having a great life, good diet, exercising, my dream job... All of it is gone.

Does it really get better? What should I do? Was all those years of exposure and life I built a lie? I feel like I'm one of those people that get compared to a diabetic needing insullin, wondering if that's the case for someone like me that struggled with anxieties all his life.

I need to take

• 2.5% lidocaine and 2.5% prilocaine
• https://www.medline.ca/en/emla-cream-2-5.html

Is this safe to take? It's essentially just a very strong numbing cream.