Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: Smokey on September 08, 2015, 03:46:21 PM
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I just wondered if you lovely ladies would share any withdrawal symptoms you had when you started reducing your ADs I know some of you have been successful in stopping them.
It would be very helpful to distinguish any I might have between MS and menopause so I have an idea as to what is causing what!
Many thanks
Ann x
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I took 9 weeks to reduce the dosage of one AD [can't remember the name ] - GPs have access to small doses for this purpose. Every few days I would lessen the dose and for 24 hours had 'withdrawal' i.e. similar symptoms to what I had been prescribed them for. Once I realised these didn't continue I relaxed. It wasn't as bad as I feared ;-)
Why are you stopping them?
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I don't take ADs but it does depend on which type you take. I do know that those drugs known as benzos are highly addictive and withdrawal is often only possible by micro-tapering sometimes over a very long period of time eg a year. As CLKD says you can use liquid forms of the drug to do this. I seem to remember there is someone on here who has done this but hopefully she will be along to help you if this is the one you take?
Hurdity x
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Thanks for your replies ladies.
CLKD I'm reducing them because they could be the cause of my liver inflammation but this hasn't been confirmed yet but also with reducing them I hope to reduce the other symptoms I get ,dry eyes , dry mouth and constipation .
I was prescribed them for tension heads originally, that is related to menopause which I now know and still get them usually just before my period, I have found paracetamol gets rid of them so hopefully I won't need the Ads .
They are called Nortriptyline and I was on 100mg each night but have reduced them to 90mg and have been taking this dose for two weeks now my doctor suggested reducing them further to 75mg after this again for two weeks, then to 50mg again two weeks later.
Hurdity I didn't know they can be reduced more slowly by getting smaller doses my GP never mentioned that.
Sparkle how was your mood after you stopped ?
I'll report on how I'm getting on each week, I did have one day where I just felt strange! But that could be just hormones.
Ann x
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I have been taking Cymbalta for anxiety for the last 6 months. My doctor started me on 60mg's which was great for the first 2-3 months but then started messing me up with regard to my appetite which went through the roof. Whatever I ate didn't satisfy me, I was constantly hungry and worried about putting on weight. My sense of taste started to change and everything tasted bland but I didn't want to add extra sugar or salt to things. I was always restless which made me feel uncomfortable even though anxiety was under control.
I then started to reduce the dose to 30mg's a day which so far has not caused any noticeable side effects. My appetite is now under control and my sense of taste has come back. There has been a slight increase in anxiety again but nothing I can't handle.
So for me, reducing my AD's has been good but I will need to monitor it, particularly if anxiety starts to increase.
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It depends on which dose a patient is taking regularly as to how the GP suggests reducing.
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I would say if its not vital to your health right now cut down very very slowly. I was on sertraline for 14 years and took 9 months coming off, I still crashed with serious anxiety and had to go back on them.
I would say 90mg for a month, and the 80mg for a month and so on. A phsychologist I know says we should double if not treble the time a doc says about coming off ADs.
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Hi Smokey....one of the worst withdrawal symptoms I had years ago was brain zaps. I was slowly coming off of Sertraline, they were awful. And also, flu like symptoms but they didn't last long....just a few days. Come off real slow and hopefully you should be ok.
Good luck xxx
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Oh the brain zaps ::) - I get these occasionally, makes me go 'oh' and it's gone !
I found that the withdrawal feelings didn't last more than 24 hours each time I lowered the dose - took 9 weeks. [Effexor]
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I read up on this a few months ago when my friend was stopping another AD Venlaxafine. The rate of tapering down depends on how long you were on them but it did say that you should only cut your dose each time by a maximum of 10% if you have been on them for longer than a year. If it is only a few months then you can taper more quickly. The time between tapers can be anything from a few days to a fortnight, again depending on how long you have been taking the tablets. There is no exact science for it unfortunately but lots of 'advice' on the net.
Bramble
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Thanks ladies for your comments
I have decided to reduce them slowly by 5mg every two weeks, besides what's the rush slow and steady that's what I say I don't want to make myself ill.
Why do I keep being thrown of the website at the moment, it's a real pain having to find password each time as I can never remember it, it seems to happen every couple of days even though I ask to be kept logged in. Anyone else got problems?
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Years ago when I had PND I was in Sertraline for over a year then changed to Prozac for about 9 months. I dislike both ADs. They made me feel robotic and I found it very difficult to orgasm. I couldn't cry but I couldn't laugh either.
In the end I just went cold turkey and stopped the Prozac overnight. I didn't suffer with any side effects at all. Infact I started to feel better after a week or so. I never looked back.
But I wonder if this was because I didn't need them and shouldn't have been on them in the first place? I have no idea when I would have 'naturally' recovered from PND? Being on ADs probably blanketed any natural recovery process.
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Nope Smokey - we are having problems with e-mail addies though >:(
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GypsyRoseLee
I'm glad you didn't have any side effects, I know a few which are possible and I've had them before when I was reducing them and the HRT at the same time, they were sharp nerve pains, but only lasting seconds and tinnitus which I got when I messed about with my dose, Hormones play a big part in how we feel emotionally I've never had PMT but do have 4 days a month wher I am tearful and anything said in a sharper than normal tone has me crying.
I was put on them for tension headaches believe it or not! It was a very scary time for me as I was dx with MS and Menopause at the same time, I wish my Nuro hadn't put me on them because I wasn't depressed just ill.
Ann x
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I was put on them for tension headaches believe it or not! It was a very scary time for me as I was dx with MS and Menopause at the same time, I wish my Nuro hadn't put me on them because I wasn't depressed just ill.
Smokey - I believe you are on - Nortriptyline?
Nortriptyline is not just used for depression. It is often used for pain relief because it alters the ways the pain receptors in the brain work. Your neurologist will have prescribed it to help with your headaches and not because he thought you were depressed.
I was given Nortriptyline to deal with migraines , my Neurologist stressed it was for the migraines, he did not feel I was depressed.
When I wanted to come off them, I did what the others have suggested, cut down the dose progressively so it became less and less and then was able to stop them completely.
Good luck.
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Thanks for that Limpy.
How are you with your MS these days?
I feel I am copying better with the fatigue now,I use my timer on my iPhone to make sure I stop and rest before I over do it.
I am also using Airnergy therapy 3 times a day since May this year, it seems to have helped only realised in last couple of weeks that I don't feel as bad I. The mornings anymore
Ann x
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I'm in the throes of cold turkey today!
Been taking Seroxat for two weeks but it's made me feel so ill (muscle/joint pains) and made my Parkinson symptoms far worse so I stopped yesterday. I know it's not advised to stop suddenly but any withdrawal effects I get cannot make me feel worse than I already do!
Anyway, so far I've had a few mood swings and felt a bit tearful (but I've had the week from hell so it's not surprising really). Worst are the brain zaps but I think they're starting to ease off. I've kept busy doing normal weekend chores which I think has helped. My joints and muscles feel better already. So far, I don't feel too bad.
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Tabbycat - You've only been taking the Seroxat for 2 weeks so hopefully stopping won't be too bad.
But, if you take an occasional tablet that may work to gradually reduce the overall dose...... Just guessing
Smokey - Thanks for asking, I had a bad day with the MS end of July. Since then I would have said not bad, except I broke my ankle/fibula, and have no idea how or when it happened. I knew my ankle was sore but......... :-\
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2 weeks isn't long for ADs so you should be OK ;)
electric zaps ::) …… I read the leaflet with my meds this morning, all the information has got longer and longer and ::) - and each condition is mentioned, i.e. nausea or not; diarhoohea, constipation - talk about covering all possibilities. There is a yellow card scheme to report side-effects …….
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I just wondered if you lovely ladies would share any withdrawal symptoms you had when you started reducing your ADs I know some of you have been successful in stopping them.
It would be very helpful to distinguish any I might have between MS and menopause so I have an idea as to what is causing what!
Many thanks
Ann x
I was on trazodone 300mg a day and I didn't really plan a taper, I just reduced doses here and there for a good few months and got down from 300-150mg a day.
I've been on it since 2009 starting at 450mg.
Earlier this year, I started tapering, using smaller cuts but I was really lazy and disorganised, and I forgot doses, and I got so fed up of being on it that, from 50mg, I jumped too quickly to 25mg, and too quickly off, and I got attacks of real rage.
I can't remember how long it took from 150mg, probably about 5-6months.
All I have to offer is to say is that if you taper slowly and make suitably sized cuts, it is possible, from my experience to taper off painlessley.
My problems only started when I rushed the taper. If I'd have reduced from 50mg to 0mg over only two or three more months, using smaller cuts, it would have been much easier.
There's a great site dedicated to coming off antidepressants, where people share their experiences.
It even helps you to make a liquid of your medication so that you have more control over your reductions.
It's called survivingantidepressants dot com - I put it like that to avoid spam.
Good luck
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I don't take ADs but it does depend on which type you take. I do know that those drugs known as benzos are highly addictive and withdrawal is often only possible by micro-tapering sometimes over a very long period of time eg a year. As CLKD says you can use liquid forms of the drug to do this. I seem to remember there is someone on here who has done this but hopefully she will be along to help you if this is the one you take?
Hurdity x
Hahahhaha what a co-incidence. It was a microtapering lady on a benzo withdrawal site that lead me to this forum.
I hope this isn't too much of a ramble, but I thought I would share as I enjoy writing.
It meanders on about micro-tapering benzos, the difficulties I had with my GP, the same GP I had hrt difficulties with.
A popular, bubbly, normally nice mannered GP/
I was prescribed valium to take a few times a week. My GP would prescribe 28 x 5mg a month.
She assured me that I would not get hooked if I stuck to a few times a week and refused the shorter acting lorazepam citing it as more addictive.
If I'd taken 0.5mg - 1.5mg lorazepam a few times a week for the time I was on valium, I doubt that I would have got withdrawal when stopping them as they are in the system a fraction of the time that valium is.
After a few years, I got to a stage where I didn't want to take valium anymore, so I just stopped taking them, and a couple of weeks later, I got hit, suddenly, as if overnight, really bad anxiety, sweating, waking up with wet neck, and I believed I was addicted, as valium stays in the system a long time.
I went on various benzo withdrawal websites, while I was tapering down in steps, but only really got any solace and productive help from a lady with a site dedicated to micro tapering.
So, with syringe in hand, and valium dissolved in milk I microtapered my way off it painlessley.
It was a member from a another benzo withdrawal website, that suggested I may be going through perimenopause and to see my GP.
I got the test and over a year later after trying various hrt's, and settling at 100mcg evorel plus utro, my sweats/flushes went, my IBS went, and I felt less anxious.
I admit that I parked myself for a year, on femoston, even though it did diddly squat, as I was not absorbing it, rather than going back and asking for patches, I procrastinated and suffered on for another year, symtoms worseing, because, my normally very pleasant GP, turned into a fire breathing dragon when menopause came into the conversation.
When I told her that my femoston 2/10 was not working, she said that she didn't want me treating oestrogen as if it was valium.
She said that if I was not willing to try the evorel with inbuilt norethisterone patches, I would just have to 'go through' the menopause, and that it was only temporary, and hrt was risky.
She looked up utrogestan but could not find it, and was getting more ratty. As I struggle when dealing with people who get ratty, I just left the subject alone until a year later when I could bare it no more, because by this time, I was walking around in a vest top on a rainy november.
Getting back to this GP who did not want me to treat oestrogen like valium, she was the original prescriber of valium and also, the GP who prescribed me enough valium to taper.
She's known me for years, but now I see her plus others, due to availability, and most are ok, but some are difficult.
One would not give me patches due to my migraine auras but finally, after emails to and fro with Dr Currie, I found one GP who prescribed me utrogestan.
Here's where the saga links to the valium.
Me being in peri from age 42, and not being aware, meant that it took me five years to taper valium
I was still getting periods and I being only 42, I took the IBS, the moods and the hot sweats/flushes to be valium withdrawal symptoms.
It was only at age 47, did fate lead me to the lady from the benzo withdrawal site, who suggested I follow it up with my GP.
What a tapestry of events hahahhahaha
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Tabbycat - You've only been taking the Seroxat for 2 weeks so hopefully stopping won't be too bad.
I've been on ADs since April 2014, had a break between January and May this year and have tried three different ones since then.
Anyway, I'm still alive and fairly together today. Had a headache when I woke up and have been a bit more tearful - although it feels cathartic so maybe it's doing me good.
Still got the brain zaps/ringing ears. ::)