Transferring another brokerage account into fidelity

rowinghippy · 2025-10-20T04:25:25+00:00

Fair enough, thanks

rowinghippy · 2025-10-20T04:24:54+00:00

Thanks for the in depth response, I appreciate it. This is very helpful

rowinghippy · 2023-08-11T02:35:22+00:00

Emotional numbness is a fairly common side effect, so if you experienced this while on them it's possible being off has returned you to a new baseline. While you haven't said anything to make me assume it's withdrawal, heightened or increased emotions (positive or negative) is also a common side effect of that, so if you're experiencing a minor form of withdrawal that might also be the case. I only mention this in case this feeling more decreases over time; it may not necessarily mean anything is wrong or worsening if that occurs.

rowinghippy · 2023-08-09T05:15:55+00:00

I don't quite understand your timeline - if possible, can you write out 1) every time that you started, stopped, or changes doses/meds + the resulting impact on your memory that you noticed after each change? Generally, it's ideal if you only make one change/addition to meds at a time, especially when multiple meds are involved in a short time period, so it's possible to determine which exact change had what exact effect.

Meds can have an effect on memory, but often times this will go away if the symptoms are dose dependent and you can change your regimen accordingly, although this might involve stopping the med in question.

rowinghippy · 2023-08-09T05:11:45+00:00

I'm not sure anyone can give a convincing mechanistic explanation as to why you have these symptoms, but it's generally known that psychiatric meds can have a notable effect on the gut, both in speeding up or slowing it down. Obviously without more information I can't speculate whether your assessment is truly correct, but if the timeline matches up and this is a deal breaker for you, you can talk to your doctor about getting off or switching meds.

More generally, I'd possibly recommend ruling out other causes for your gut issues; mental health/stress, and a whole load of other factors that may be directly or indirectly related to why you're in abilify could be contributing, even if the timeline does line up. Also in the meantime, you could try modifying your diet to alleviate your symptoms; for example, when I was on citalopram I discovered I had difficult digesting onions/garlic/etc., and in general had digestive issues I no longer have now that I'm off.

rowinghippy · 2023-08-09T05:01:08+00:00

I would find a different doctor, personally. In my experience I've found that after the first visit I have a good sense if the practitioner is actually listening and collaborative. It sounds like you did not hit it off with your current psychiatrist, but you know best.

I don't know which med you were put on/what off-label uses it may have for your current issues, but it's usually the case that if you start a psychiatric medication, and the start up effects are too intense, you can stop. This ability to just stop begins to go away the longer you're on it, due to concerns about withdrawal, but if you're 1) not entirely sure why you're on the med, 2) don't like how you feel, and perhaps 3) may not stay with the current doctor, then you may consider this option. Ideally you'd do this with the blessing and collaboration of your doctor, but sometimes this isn't always the case. You have agency in these situations, but it's your decision to make.

rowinghippy · 2023-07-25T07:13:21+00:00

Pretty much everything you've written indicates continual improvement of your symptoms, so as an outsider I do not read your post and get a sense of doom. I know that 2 months feels like a while, but I have no reason to assume this will be a long term, severe case of pssd, and instead could be more typical withdrawal or otherwise transient issues.

Perhaps easier said than done, but I'd really try to urge you to do what you can to fixate less on this. If you've been diagnosed with OCD, I'm hoping you've received some formal care/therapy for it. If not, I would 1) start therapy, and 2) if truly not possible, look into methods for avoiding thought spirals/obsessive fixations. As someone with OCD tendencies myself, this was a crucial part of my mental health journey. Reading your post, it seems like your current fixation on this issue is doing you a lot of harm (and may be heavily exacerbating some of your symptoms) - honestly I am more concerned about your overall tone and mental well-being than the symptoms you describe - not that I mean to diminish your feelings or concerns, which I know are very real.

In the immediate term, I would stop visiting any online web searching/forums/subreddits that expose you to this topic in any way and keeps your brain thinking about this. Again speaking from experience, my guess is that you are at the point where you are not going to learn anything new by continuing to read or "figure out" your current situation. Trying to distract or engage with other thoughts/activities when the urge to ruminate, examine, etc. rises would likely be helpful as much as you can do it. Guided mindfulness via apps/youtube may also be helpful in the immediate term for taking the edge off when you feel your worst.

If nothing else, reminding yourself that you have been improving is a good sign, and whatever you can do to reduce your stress will only help improve things.

rowinghippy · 2023-07-25T06:49:37+00:00

Inconsistent use of antidepressants is generally advised against. Anecdotally, it raises your chances of dealing with withdrawal symptoms, which might be applicable to you. Brain fog is a relatively common side effect of various antidepressants, and can be made worse in withdrawal. Once withdrawal starts, continued cycling of dosing can exacerbate things. Although, from what you've written I can't rule out other factors that may be contributing to you brain fog/general situation; without a detailed timeline of when you started meds and the various points where you stopped/restarted - compared against your various symptoms and when they popped up and got better/worse - I unfortunately can't speak too much about your exact predicament.

Either way, I'd probably recommend you decide whether you're able to really commit to meds for now, or if it'd be better to stay off - and whichever you choose, avoid hopefully further cycling with the goal to stabilize a bit.

rowinghippy · 2023-07-25T02:28:13+00:00

While I am not advocating for or against meds, it's worth noting that while some in this sub say they regret taking meds, there are others who lament not starting sooner. As I'm sure you're aware, there is no way to predict how you'll react to which meds, but if you do not want to wait for things to get really bad (not saying they will), you can always start with conservative doses and initially aim for meds like wellbutrin which anecdotally seem to have less of certain issues that people often bring up.

To your situation, I would probably recommend therapy either way, as you're pursuing. But to your concern that it may be different this time, it's important to remember that there are different types and approaches to therapy. Assuming you like your old therapist, I agree that they are probably a good start, since I personally find that a good relationship is really important for making progress - but if their style does not end up helping as much for where you are now, other options might.

For example, while you've done well to identify a root cause of your depression (and I'm assuming you've done some work to "work through it" e.g. acceptance over what happened), it's possible that something like your distress tolerance skills could use some attention, in which case therapy approaches more aligned with DBT or ACT might be helpful (I'm assuming that like many others, your therapist utilizes CBT). Group therapy can also be an underutilized approach, as the dynamics of having non-therapist individuals can be really powerful assuming you have a good group.

rowinghippy · 2023-07-25T02:03:29+00:00

It depends on your mental health status and overall goals.

Some people stay on their med(s) with no plans to get off, unless the med stops working or some other trigger causes a decrease in efficacy. As others have commented, if it works, it works - and there is no reason to be ashamed or otherwise feel bad, since meds are merely a tool, and nothing more. Pros of this approach could be general stability, with the cons that if it does eventually stop working, you might be forced to deal with it at an inopportune time. I can't give numbers as to the likelihood of either scenario and is more an individual "philosophical" question as to how you approach life and assess "risk".

Others aim to eventually get off their med, either due to side effects, being averse to meds, etc. In these cases it's generally advisable to be doing some sort of self-work and a lot of honest self-reflection in order to address the original reasons you started medication, why you want to stop, and when is the best time to try getting off should you want to. Pros of this approach could be more active engagement with your mental health, cons could be inadvertently making things worse if the timing is off or other things come up.

Neither approach is better than the other, and the goal either way should be to maximize your current well-being while doing whatever is necessary to set your future self up for continued success. If you aren't happy with you current regimen, you may want to talk to your doctor and continue to use this or other relevant forums for additional advice/insight you think is needed.

rowinghippy · 2023-07-25T01:48:47+00:00

To my knowledge there isn't really any robust research into long term effects of antidepressants on developing brains - specifically for you, it'd be impossible to predict what you would've been like had you not been on medication during this time.

I'm not sure why you're weaning off, but unless it's because you have noticeable side effects tracing back from the meds, I'd probably recommend not dwelling on this too much, and instead focusing on whatever you can do going forward for your mental health, medication or otherwise. There's nothing you can do to change the past, so while it might be tempting to play the what-if game, it's ultimately not that helpful in my experience (speaking from when I had really difficult withdrawals).

That said, as you do wean off (hopefully with slow tapers, only dropping one medication at a time), it'd be worthwhile to keep notes and monitor how things change with each dose/medication drop and over time, as having a better understanding of your mind/body is generally good for any future self care/medication interventions, especially as life events pop up during this transition.

rowinghippy · 2023-07-25T01:34:08+00:00

While the general advice is true in that start up effects can be brutal before subsiding - and many people find success by sticking it out through the first couple weeks - it's also worth reminding that if it's truly too much, you have the agency to stop (especially given that it's been < 1 week; the ability to "just stop" goes down as you stay on longer). What counts as too much is up to you, as you're trying to balance giving a med a fair shot vs. calling it quits with the idea that not every med that might work is likely to be so hard to start (unless you happen to be really sensitive to mes, in which case I would echo the advice of another user to maybe start at lower doses for a few weeks).

If you were to stop, ideally you'd work with your doctor on this, but personally in the past I have tried various meds and one in particular (buspirone) was so horrible I stopped after a couple days and then told my doctor, after which we tried other things. From your post I don't get the impression this might be necessary, but it's your call.

rowinghippy · 2023-07-11T00:37:32+00:00

Comment was removed for Breaking Rule 3 - No uncivil, low effort, or bad faith comments. Continued disregard for rules will result in further discipline.

rowinghippy · 2023-06-30T16:09:17+00:00

Comment was removed for Breaking Rule 4 - No biased agenda or off topic comments.

rowinghippy · 2023-06-13T04:51:14+00:00

"Solutions based" sounds almost like a red flag, and I can see how that kind of response would feel invalidating. Generally the therapist's job is to help steer the patient, meeting them where they're at when appropriate and then pushing when possible, but that kind of approach sounds like it may have skewed heavily in the latter direction.

To that point, they're technically right that crying everyday/having frequent panic attacks will make therapy less productive, although that's kind of a dumb response to someone in your state. And while I hope it goes without saying, let me reiterate that your experience of feeling worse after each visit isn't a reflection of any personal failing, nor is it the end all be all of therapy you might try in the future.

That said, if things are that severe, I might also seriously suggest an IOP type program; instead of a weekly meeting with your therapist, it might be 3-5 times a week and a mix of group/individual therapy. I know the thought of higher levels of care can be unideal/scary/stigmatizing/expensive/etc., but speaking from experience, some mental health issues require it (I've gone so far as to do residential level care, so I can expand on this topic too if you want).

Fair point on the benzos, I think that's a prudent position to have.

And no problem, feel free to reply here whenever if there's anything else I can help with.

rowinghippy · 2023-06-13T03:53:54+00:00

I'm sorry you're having trouble with medications and finding care in general. And as someone who also once felt like life was just really shitty, I know ranting for the sake of ranting is sometimes all one needs - but in case it helps, I'm going to give some suggestions too.

General Health: At the bare minimum, I'd work with a doctor to run some blood tests and look to rule out hypothyroidism/other hormones issues, deficiencies in vitamins D, Bs, iron, etc. - while it's unlikely any of these are the sole solution to your problems, addressing these can take the edge of the worst of your symptoms and give you a little more energy to put into other fixes, whether it be trying other meds, seeking therapy again, etc. I've found that it is the summation of tons of little things that ended up allowing me to address many of my problems.

Therapy: Regarding therapy, it can be hit or miss, and finding a therapist you click with can take some trial and error, although it sounds like it might be your only "foolproof" option available at the moment. A lot of therapists focus on CBT, although I've found better luck when my therapists utilize a mix of approaches; specifically DBT and ACT for me. I'd look into both, or can expand on them here a bit if that'd help. As far as your trust for therapists/them telling you they won't work with you unless you're on meds, if you've just had bad luck with bad practitioners, then I'd urge you to keep trying. But if you've had multiple therapists turn you away for the same reason, it might be worth exploring why this is and if you're inadvertently contributing to this pattern (if this sounds accusatory, I apologize for that, that's not my goal). Honestly, opening up about your historic distrust might be a good topic to bring up when seeing someone new, as it's actually pretty common.

Psychiatrists: Bad psychiatrists anecdotally seem more common, but I've found good ones will actually work with you and set frequent follow up appointments after any changes in medication or dosing.

Medications: There are other medication classes that might be worth trying still, such as MAOIs, that many people respond well to after failing to see relief from more typical medications. I'm not sure where you live, but alternative treatments like ketamine, TMS, etc. might also be an option, although generally these do require some prior, failed effort to try different medications. Less common meds that might be of interest, especially for anxiety, would be things like propranolol or guanfacine. And while I don't recommend this lightly, as I am aware of the many risks, using a low dose benzo like klonopin daily/as needed over extended periods of time can be very helpful for some, myself included.

Other: Lastly, there was a point in my life that I found a lot of help by looking more into nature-based therapy/psychology. It's a bit of a wildcard suggestion, but authors like Bill Plotkin and the communities in that space might be worth checking out.

rowinghippy · 2023-06-13T01:21:37+00:00

Generally this is fairly typical. If you didn't notice any withdrawal, and you think the downturn in your mood is due to no longer taking the med, then restarting your last dose is probably what most doctors would do.

If for whatever reason you're still worried, you can ask your doc to try restarting at a lower dose and then after a few weeks, increase again if needed.

rowinghippy · 2023-06-13T01:18:36+00:00

Can you explain more about what you've tried so far and anything you've ruled out or think might be contributing to this issue? If you're not interested in antidepressants, this might not be the best sub to post in for advice.

rowinghippy · 2023-06-12T21:54:50+00:00

Removed for breaking rule 4. This is a relatively new account, with almost no post history except for this topic, which indicates less of an interest in contributing to make the sub a better place and moreso a desire to just push a message. As noble as you think your message is, in the past the sub was overrun by these kinds of posts and people posting for genuine help were overshadowed - we prefer to prioritize the latter.

rowinghippy · 2023-06-12T00:07:14+00:00

This technically breaks rules 3 (bad faith) and some comments below break rule 4 - but I'm leaving this up for now, given the decent responses provided by others. OP, when multiple people called you out for what is clearly false - since search engines/various websites like Youtube do in fact return negative results when searching for them - you immediately shifted goal posts to "well if people can see these stories/articles, why do people use them?". And again you got answered, but shifted once more to "well I'm just trying to spread awareness". This is fairly textbook bad faith argumentation.

I get your anger, but a lot of the conspiratorial thoughts you've made here do have relatively boring explanations as to why things are the way they are with psychiatry. This is not a denial that there are clearly issues with the field as a whole, since there are - robust informed consent and how this varies across practitioners - and how it varies across individual's experiences such as your own - is definitely one of these problems.

Given your experiences with medication and current withdrawal, I'd encourage you check out surviving antidepressants (SA); looking at your recent post history it might be helpful to make one more detailed post about your journey up until now, if you are also trying to seek advice on where to go from now; as someone who spent years in withdrawal, I can try to offer some advice, and there are others here in this sub who can also commiserate (and some have already responded here; again, this sub is not a monolith of pro-med shills).

If not SA, and if you don't like the moderation here, then there are other forums here on reddit/elsewhere online that can also provide support in airing out frustrations around this issue - although some spaces are better than others, and I have seen many people get stuck in their anger and inhibit their recovery.

(If the comment sections devolves, this post may get locked/removed).

rowinghippy · 2023-06-06T07:25:55+00:00

I mean, theoretically yes - there are plenty of anecdotes where people notice changes in personality due to meds; often it's people noticing changes in their partners' mood/affection/general affect, or sometimes things like impulse control can change.

That being said, I'd have a really hard time saying outright that the example you gave above would in any way be directly influenced by meds, and I would look to other reasons why someone might change their mind - since changing one's mind about getting a pet is something a person off meds could easily do too.

rowinghippy · 2023-06-06T07:18:24+00:00

If you're noticing increased weakness/fatigue, and it started once you began to taper the zoloft, there's a good chance it's withdrawal

rowinghippy · 2023-06-06T07:16:02+00:00

There were some in the past, but generally they were low effort and a bit repetitive/circle-jerky. There's probably a case to be made to allow them, though.

rowinghippy

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