Despite what you may have read in the furore surrounding Johann Hari’s new book, it’s very dangerous to stop antidepressants without professional advice.
Antidepressants may not be as helpful as you’d hope, but they could be a vital component of a suite of approaches that eventually proves helpful.
Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Please, do not just abandon your medication.
If you’ve been prescribed drugs to treat an illness, suddenly dropping it altogether – for whatever reason – is invariably a very bad move. And this is as true for things like antidepressants as it is for insulin or antibiotics. Antidepressant withdrawal syndrome is a real problem.
It doesn’t effect everyone equally, but that’s always been the case with antidepressants. The effects can be really profound and debilitating though, including a spike in anxiety, alarming “brain zaps”, and more. For better or worse, if you’ve been taking antidepressants for a number of weeks, your brain has slowly adapted to the new chemical levels and balance that they have brought about.
A sudden cessation will rapidly alter this again, potentially causing all manner of problems, and possibly cause the underlying issue (ie depression) they’re supposed to be treating to return with a vengeance. This is why the specific dose and schedule of antidepressants is very carefully considered. If you do genuinely want to come off your antidepressants, please speak to your GP or medical expert, work out a system for gradual reduction and cessation and make plans and preparations for what could happen, as it could leave you unable to function normally.
If you’re going to do it, please do it carefully, and thoroughly.
Continue reading
No comments:
Post a Comment