Long road to get off medication
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Thank you for one of the most intelligent pieces I’ve ever seen regarding antidepressant withdrawal [“Go Off Drugs, Lose Control?,” Feb. 25].
It’s a huge problem for many people, and sadly, only a tiny percentage of the population is even aware that it exists. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve described the dangers of antidepressants to others, only to be called a Scientologist. (I won’t lie -- I don’t know a lick about their beliefs.)
I have a poorly created (yet terribly honest) video on YouTube that I made while I was tapering off Paxil (www.you tube.com/watch?v=T5X01wv JWPs).
I was on the lowest dosage (10 milligrams), and it took me seven months to fully withdraw.
If I had this much trouble with the lowest dosage, then what about the others who take 20, 30 or 40 milligrams each day?
Summer Beretsky
Kingston, Penn.
You can read Beretsky’s My Turn essay on withdrawing from antidepressants at latimes.com/panic.
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I don’t believe that rapid withdrawal can cause homicidal actions: Evil actions like homicide come from an evil heart.
But thousands upon thousands of us have suffered from the drug withdrawal effects of antidepressant dependency.
Theresa Warren Roberts Oak Park
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I run a website for peer support for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor withdrawal, www.paxilprogress.org. I can tell you, it’s a subject barely recognized and poorly understood.
The members of my site are all SSRI users learning how to get off these drugs safely. It is only through trial and error that members have come up with the plan that we now encourage: a 10% wean off your dose each three to six weeks, depending on a person’s symptoms.
As you can imagine, this can take years, depending on the initial dose.
But we have seen people get through this previously excruciating process with minimal and livable symptoms.
Laurie Yorke
Clark, N.J.