SSRIs are no joke. My father took Paxil for several years.
He was a 2 and a half pack a day smoker and a heroin addict in his early days. He got off the needle, he quit smoking for a while after he was diagnosed with cancer (took it up again when he went stage 4). He said heroin was easier to give up than smoking. Neither was as hard as tapering off of Paxil.
They have their uses, but informed consent should be required for long-term use.
Thanks for the kind words. He passed almost 20 years ago. Still miss the old bastard, I guess that never goes away.
He decided one day to quit taking the pills. He started feeling really bad and didn't have a clue why. Wound up in the ER, was admitted and it took the docs almost two days to figure out why he was getting progressively worse. Of course when he hit the ER, and on admission, they asked for his list of meds and he didn't include the SSRI because he had stopped taking it
He gave up the needle cold turkey. That was a rough couple of weeks. He had to use the patch for the smokes, and had a rough couple of months, even with the motivation of getting into a trial for cancer treatment. He tapered off the pills over 6 months and said he wasn't right for a year after that.
Yeah, my wife is on antidepressants and the doctor specifically warned her about how you can't just "decide one day to quit taking them." If you want to get off them, ask your doctor and they can get you off of them over a course of several months. However, it's dangerous to just try to quit.
That doesn't stop my mom from proudly trying to quit without her doctor's help.
SSRIs are no joke. My father took Paxil for several years.
He was a 2 and a half pack a day smoker and a heroin addict in his early days. He got off the needle, he quit smoking for a while after he was diagnosed with cancer (took it up again when he went stage 4). He said heroin was easier to give up than smoking. Neither was as hard as tapering off of Paxil.
They have their uses, but informed consent should be required for long-term use.
I'm so sorry about your dad having cancer.
Now that is terrifying!
I just asked a friend who has taken them most of his life and he says he tapers off.
Thanks for the kind words. He passed almost 20 years ago. Still miss the old bastard, I guess that never goes away.
He decided one day to quit taking the pills. He started feeling really bad and didn't have a clue why. Wound up in the ER, was admitted and it took the docs almost two days to figure out why he was getting progressively worse. Of course when he hit the ER, and on admission, they asked for his list of meds and he didn't include the SSRI because he had stopped taking it
He gave up the needle cold turkey. That was a rough couple of weeks. He had to use the patch for the smokes, and had a rough couple of months, even with the motivation of getting into a trial for cancer treatment. He tapered off the pills over 6 months and said he wasn't right for a year after that.
Yeah, my wife is on antidepressants and the doctor specifically warned her about how you can't just "decide one day to quit taking them." If you want to get off them, ask your doctor and they can get you off of them over a course of several months. However, it's dangerous to just try to quit.
That doesn't stop my mom from proudly trying to quit without her doctor's help.