Antidepressants

I was going through a hard time a couple of weeks ago and my GP increased my dose of Venlafaxine 37.5mg twice a day to 75.5mg modified release. For the last year or so I had been getting by one 37.5mg once a day and things were okay. I have to be honest, a lot has gone on. However, I want to get off of antidepressants. I am a creative person and as someone who has been on them for nearly 2 years, I feel like they are just making more and numb every day. I have spoken to family but they seem to be reluctant to support my decision to withdraw as they said the tablets keep one level. Please can someone offer some advice?

[Olderal]

It is not the accepted medical opinion but after about 40 years experience of depression I have doubts about the effectiveness of antidepressants.We are all different but understandably the medical profession has to put us into categories to make any sort of treatment possible. The human brain/mind has about 85 billion neurons plus about the same number of glial cells which are also believed now to play a part in the cognitive processes. Just to add to the complication each neuron on average is interconnected to maybe 100 other neurons. So you can bet for sure that if everyones' fingerprints are different then everyones' mind is very different.

The medical profession mean well and try very hard to counter mental illness. I did find the fact that i took antidepressants some comfort in knowing I was doing all I could to counter the condition and was following the recomended treatment. I did realise early on that finding the right drugs or mixture of drugs for me at any one time (assuming there is such a thing) was a trial and error process. I do not believe that any where near enough research has been done into the long term effects of taking mind altering drugs and if they are not mind altering why are we taking them ? Surely thats the whole point.

The bottom line of all the above is to aim ,long term,at eventually stopping antidepressants if possible. However having had a difficult time only two weeks or so ago this is definitely not the time to be doing that or experimenting. Wait until you have been stable and contented for at least 3 months would be my advice and then in consultation with your GP gradually cut down on the antidepressants carefully monitoring any changes in your mood and alerting say a close friend or family member who is aware of your depression and who you see often and regularly to also monitor you as well.

Timescales are long in both treatment ,treatment changes ,and mood change and two weeks is no time at all.

Best of luck, the good news is always that all depressive spells eventually end, I suspect with or without drugs, and that after 40 years of it I've learned to enjoy the positive features of depression (there are quite a few IMO,I have they tell me Bipolar 2) and to put up with and survive the bad spells.Actually bearing in mind my first paragraph I probably have olderal 1. I still take Venlafaxine and Mitazapine as my GP is in favour. Left to me I would probably gradually stop taking them , but prepared to resume them if I felt it necessary. My current GP is not in favour.

Olderal

[Hidden in reply to Olderal]

Thanks!!

[Bonkersy]

I'm nearly 60yrs old, with bipolar and severe depression is my biggest presenting problem at the moment. This is managed by a cocktail of drugs including 375mg slow release Venlafaxine.

Remembering how I was before I started taking this drug, I know that it is contributing to keeping me alive. I no longer have issues with suicidal ideation for example.

I come from a different school of thought to many, I work on the basis o f 'if it ain't broke why fix it'? So if Venlafaxine works for you, do you really want to risk going back to the time th a t led to you starting the medication in the first case?

You are on a baby dose, so it's not surprising that you need to step up to the next dose, you will still be on a very low dose. The important thing is treating the presenting illness, and perhaps sadly it's those close to us who recognize that we are unwell.