u/SuspectSignificant59

I am still trapped on the same SSRI I was prescribed at 7 years old because every attempt to come off has resulted in severe, debilitating withdrawal....

At 23 years old, I decided I wanted to come off antidepressants. Despite having been on them virtually my entire life — throughout my childhood and brain development — my doctor tapered me off in just 6 weeks, following the same outdated and dangerous guidance many doctors still use today.

What followed was a severe full-body neurological crisis: nonstop physical, cognitive and psychological suffering unlike anything I knew a human being could endure.

When I went back to my doctor and told him I was in withdrawal, I was told antidepressant withdrawal “doesn’t exist,” that symptoms of “discontinuation syndrome” are “mild and only last two weeks,” and that what I was experiencing was proof I needed the drugs

After months of torturous suffering and countless emergency room visits, I had no choice but to reinstate the antidepressant. But even after reinstating, the neurological damage from the rapid, doctor-directed taper did not go away.

That is why the term “withdrawal” is often deeply misleading. For many people, coming off antidepressants can trigger a devastating neurological injury that persists for years.

I still do not feel normal. I am intermittently bedridden, and even as I type this, my brain feels like it is on fire.

I genuinely do not remember what happiness, love, or emotional connection are supposed to feel like anymore. So much of my cognition, personality, creativity, and ability to access my mind the way I once could feels altered or gone. Some days the suffering becomes so overwhelming that I genuinely do not know how much longer I can continue living in this condition.

Today, at 30 years old, I am still on the same medication I was prescribed as a child. I desperately want to come off, but every attempt has caused severe, debilitating withdrawal that has made it physically impossible.

#MentalHealthMonth #NobodyToldMe #medicationinjury #HHS #HealingJourney #overmedicalization #SSRI