# Antidepressants Nearly Killed Me (I'm not depressed I'm sick)



## sartre1243 (Dec 22, 2006)

After being on Paxil for four years and then trying to switch to Effexor I ended up in the ER and nearly had a heart attack and died. It took me over 3 weeks to recover, and I'm still suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, or as they use to say back in WW2 "shell shock".I have since fired my psychiatrist, and started seeing new doctors including a neurologist and a psychopharmacologist.The psychopharmacologist has completely opened my eyes to the truth behind antidepressants and their effect on humans, and the United States.I'm tired of being lied to, so here's a potential glimpse of the truth.To put things into perspective, what you and I know of as "antidepressants" is essentially a low dose synthetic version of acid. The pharmaceutical companies don't want people to know that these drugs can actually kill you if you stop taking them. They also don't want you to know that they aren't intended for extended use, and they can actually make people who are bipolar / manic or hypomanic worse, they can also make a normal person exhibit manic symptoms when none existed before.If you have been on any antidepressants for any extended period of time just considering how it made you feel at first, how you can pretty much tell time by when you took your pill last, and when you need to take it again the next day. The onset of withdrawals of these drugs is recognizable daily even if you miss your dose by just an hour. If you ever experience manic, or hypomanic symptoms you may actually be a mixed form of depression and bipolar disorder, thus warranting the use of mood stabilizers and not antidepressants. Antidepressants can actually make people with mixed depression, bipolar disorder, and IBS worse after extended use. These are powerful drugs that are not meant for extended use, but they are being prescribed like candy. To make matters even worse, those of us with IBS are being prescribed antidepressants because we're sick, not because we're always depressed. Almost every person I've ever met with IBS suffers from some form of anxiety, and present with depression, hypomania (a mild but highly functional episode of mania - increase psychomotor activity such as leg shaking or foot tapping is common), and sometimes full blown mania. Many of us cycle through these states, a new condition known as Cyclothymia (A mood disorder in which a person may have repeated periods of mild depression and periods of normal or slightly elevated mood). Antidepressants can make this worse, and cause us to be in a hypotensive state and presenting with extended periods of hypomania.There is a huge difference between being depressed because you are physically sick, and being depressed all the time for no reason. Apparently the FDA decided that they would rather have a bunch of zombie worker drones on acid all day, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes instead of people actually getting proper medical care, and medications.The United States refuses to accept that these drugs are harmful, and instead we make a medically beneficial plant such as marijuana illegal. Our priorities as a country and living a 40-hour work week are simply unrealistic, thus requiring us all to drug ourselves with caffeine during the day to keep us awake and alert, alcohol at night to put us to sleep. Then once we can't take the stress of that anymore we come down with IBS, autoimmune diseases, IBD, etc. and then they wonder why we're all depressed so they decide to sell everyone low dose synthetic acid.Well I for one am done with these drugs. I am now weening off Paxil slowly this time, and weening onto a mood stabilizer Lamictal to help with the cycling of my moods.If you identify with this at all, please talk to your doctor.Recognizing and identifying hypomania can be difficult so be honest with yourself. http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/guid...-mania-symptoms


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## johnsir (Nov 9, 2009)

I was on paxil for seven year and then I developed Crohns but had a very bad lifestyle with that as well.I have been off the paxil for about three years but never fully recovered, but improved the crohns.Recently I started taking the paxil again because my moods were all over the shop and the IBD seems to have returned.What are your thoughts.


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Sarte.. this is your opinion of which you are entitled. But I see many statements made by you that are not backed up by links. *If you have sources for some of these statements, like these:*


> To put things into perspective, what you and I know of as "antidepressants" is essentially a low dose synthetic version of acid. The pharmaceutical companies don't want people to know that these drugs can actually kill you if you stop taking them. They also don't want you to know that they aren't intended for extended use, and they can actually make people who are bipolar / manic or hypomanic worse, they can also make a normal person exhibit manic symptoms when none existed before.


*please post them.* ALL antidepressants are not illicit drugs, (like "acid) and to suggest anything like that is inaccurate & misleading to say the very least. I am sorry you had a negative experience with antidepressants. And it is true they do not work for everyone. But also many people have been helped by them. If anyone is on them currently and has questions about them.. please ask your Dr.Sarte I hope you continue to feel better.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Um, the drug companies have to put the withdrawal symptoms (like any side effect ever seen in any clinical trial with it) in the PDR and other information about any drug. They don't get a pass on some drugs.There are a wide range of drugs in the "antidepressant" class and they all have quite different chemistries. This effects both the side effects while taking it and the withdrawal effects. Some, like prozac, have very long half lives so you don't get the take a pill an hour late and feel the effect of it thing like you see with some of the other drugs. They often transition people to prozac to taper down if they have withdrawal issues with other medications. I thought LSD was synthetic to start with? It is derived from ergots but it isn't natural. The antidepressants range in chemical action by a wide margin, I don't know how many, if any are all that similar in chemical structure to LSD. Now my migraine pills probably are similar, but they are also an ergot derivative, but can't cause the hallucinations or all that. There are a lot of other drugs much more likely to kill you if you stop them cold turkey and how hard it is to taper off them varies a lot with the different classes of antidepressants.Like any drug some people have very severe reactions and other people do just fine. You can't assume everyone will always be the worst case scenario even if every so often someone has every single bad thing that can happen all at once.For the most part for IBS they use sub-clinical doses of these medications. Doses that are too low to elevate mood but can effect the nerves in the gut that use all the exact same neurotransmitters and a lot of the same receptors as the nerves in your brain.The drug doesn't know if it is marketed for something in the brain or something in the gut. It just acts on every nerve it finds.There certainly are a lot of IBSers who do not have any mental health issues, we aren't all manic.


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## overitnow (Nov 25, 2001)

I am not at all sure about the LSD connection, either. My experience with that never led to withdrawal symptoms nor the need to redose. Still, it is good to remind people that the side effects do not just happen to a small number of people, somewhere on the other side of the earth. They can happen to anyone, even you or me; and when they do, it can be very scary and even fatal. It is a dangerous world, out there. I don't drive fast, I don't carry a cellphone, and, personally, I would try every other kind of treatment before going on pharmaceuticals. So far, that approach is working ok. When it stops, then I will see my doctor. I hope you find an approach that works for you. Thanks for the reminder.Mark


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## misime33 (Nov 5, 2015)

It is 4 a.m where I am and I am too tired to really type. Yet I have not got proper sleepy feelings. I stumbled into this website looking despartely for help for yet another night of waking up feeling sick. Tonight after drinking so much ice water during the night the night - I still wake up with unbearable dry mouth and too too hot even though it is a lovely cool night of 16 degrees celsius.

Effexor is an evil drug.

I have been on it too long and have been trying to get off it too long. Worried too that ibs symptoms returning worse again. Tonight I feel like my lungs have forgotten - while I am sleeping - how to breath properly on their own. I was healthier before I ever made the devastating mistake of trusting the doctors opinion about going on "antidepressants" - my first instinct said "NO!" - too many years ago. All those years on health supplements and keeping fit through swimming and aerobics and yoga and massive amounts of walking - ruined by trusting a doctor. Then I come across the post by "sartre 1243" telling me more scary news - and in line with so much other devastating reports I come across - about the true evil nature of "antidepressants" How in the hell do doctors keep on prescribing these poisons ? ! ? ! ? Or the pharmaceutical companies get away with what they do - HOW ???

I used to be intelligent. Now I have so many problems with short term memory. And so many other health issues I never used to have. I am too young for this. And I feel as though I have been in some kind of drug haze coma all the years on "antidepressants" The name is an outright LIE. They are killing me. They have been killing me all along. I just didn't realize it yet. Now trying to wean off. Having no hope of ever really living again at this stage.


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## MBT (Dec 20, 2015)

I think SSRI antidepressants are just fantastic. They are the most helpful drugs I have ever taken, and I know many other people who can say the same.

I do hear bad things about Paxil, to be fair. It has notoriously bad withdrawal.

Sartre, how did Paxil "nearly kill you"? You really glossed over that. You said you were hospitalized, but what exactly happened? What was your dose of Paxil and Effexor at the time? Were you cross-tapering between them? What symptoms got you admitted to the hospital?


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