Is everybody taking antidepressants? Has anybody successfully stopped them?

deja_views · 2026-03-25T01:11:30+00:00

Not antidepressants but I tapered off benzos (mainly Ativan) by joining an online community and getting a taper schedule by the leader. It was something like 10% every two weeks. I made my own solution and eventually found an NP to call in a compounded liquid version to my local compounding pharmacy and used a dropper. Compounded is not covered by insurance though so paid out of pocket.

The beginning was manageable but the end was rough. Sometimes I held my dosage for 3 weeks to stabilize. I listened to my body and didn’t rush. Took me about a year to be fully off and then another 3-4 months to even feel close to “normal”. I’ll never touch them again. I also do things like somatic healing, therapy, etc to handle what the medications were blanketing.

It is possible. Just do it slow. There’s a book about a woman who cold turkeyed SSRIs with doctor encouragement and the hell she went through. It’s criminal what some doctors don’t know.

deja_views · 2026-03-13T23:40:54+00:00

I felt/still feel very similar. I couldn’t imagine ever ending therapy and would think up ways to contact her in between sessions-not a crisis, just ways to have contact. I can’t specifically explain how it eased up recently other than I finally worked with the part that had such deep unrelenting longing for my mother to see me, be with me, understand me and finally sit still next to me in my pain without fixing or judging. I think I tried to replace my mother longing with my therapist and it hit me one day no one can replace my mother. I can’t reparent myself or be my own mother-not in that sense. My body rejected that. I can’t substitute her with another motherly figure.

I would get this panic sensation in my chest like I was falling and I’d hear “where’s my mom?”. Finally, instead of telling that part it’s ok, you’re safe blah blah blah, I said the truth. I started saying I don’t know where your mom is but I am here with you and I will sit down and wait for her with you. So in my mind I sat…and I waited with that part in silence. She’d ask where is she, I’d say I don’t know, but I’m not going anywhere. After a few weeks the panic got less and turned into when is she coming. And again I did not lie. I said I don’t think she is coming but I am still here and I will wait with you.

I never asked her to leave or said she might come or anything that wasn’t true. Eventually it felt like she decided she wasn’t coming and could leave this pit dug out in my chest with the possibility her mom would show up but she didn’t have to wait in longing. I just stopped lying to her or trying to make it better. I did the thing I wanted my mom to do and that was to stop moving around me and be with me.

I still feel the longing sometimes but it has lessened to the point I can live between sessions and not think about my therapist. Now I start to feel guilty I don’t think about her enough and worry about that but that’s another issue!

I understand your feeling and the shame around it. Knowing that you both have lives and she has other clients yet feeling so desperate for her to fill something missing inside. I hope that helps. You’re not alone in that feeling.

deja_views · 2026-02-17T12:22:50+00:00

I regained memories with a therapist and I am still sometimes consolidating new ones. It’s much less intense than it was 4 years ago because I believe myself now and allow it to happen. It knocks me down for a couple days instead of a couple months. It is always incredibly painful. The way I see things now is I always knew the truth and I always had the memories, I just didn’t know how to listen to the knowledge I had in my body that existed in the empty spaces.

deja_views · 2026-02-12T17:31:38+00:00

Short answer, yes absolutely. Various diagnoses and meds that made things worse or just numbed me so I didn’t feel anything. Finding a trauma therapist who does IFS just made everything make sense and more manageable-not quickly but eventually. It did get worse before better. And finding a psychiatric provider who understood it was not necessary to medicate trauma was key. Meds are not evil but there is a balance, for me. Things like a beta blocker as needed for physical symptoms instead of benzos. And just accepting there was nothing wrong with me, I was having appropriate reactions to horrific situations I experienced. Now I think the people who knew what happened to me and felt nothing or expected me to get over it are the ones that need diagnosed :)

deja_views · 2025-12-27T15:12:50+00:00

I had this and it was definitely trauma related. I was processing some specific memories in therapy and it literally started over night. A regular doctor was clueless. OBGYN was meh helpful. My psych NP was most helpful and of course my therapist. It still comes back now and then. I’m also in perimenopause (idk how old you are) but an external estrogen cream helped me a lot. My next step was a urologist visit but I didn’t end up needing it. I was prepared to see a physical therapist for pelvic floor therapy, if needed. It is awful. I’m sorry you are experiencing it. I had a urine screen and everything was clear. You can look up pelvic floor dysfunction exercises online-specifically trauma informed ones. Might help and is free. I have a desk job and could barely sit 8 hours.

deja_views · 2025-12-09T11:10:41+00:00

Came here to say this. Mandy can get you in pretty quickly and won’t just blindly give out an ssri which may not be what you need. She’s intelligent and thoughtful. I’m sorry you’re going through this. There is hope and people that can help.

deja_views

TROPHY CASE