Hi, Anon. So sorry to hear about your daughter's experience. I'm very glad you've gotten her the help she needs, both medically and psychologically.
I have not been on Prozac, but I have been on Zoloft and, later, Cymbalta. I am very sensitive to withdrawal and had to have a very conservative schedule. Often, a withdrawal schedule is basically cutting the dose in half for a week, then in half again, and then coming off it completely. I couldn't do that, I started having withdrawal symptoms about halfway through the process. So I went back up to full dose for a month and we did it much differently, over about six weeks. That worked for me and I had very, very few withdrawal symptoms that way.
Everyone is different; it's just a matter of how ready, chemically, your daughter is when it is time to wean from the medicine. Also, at that time if she is exercising regularly it helps hugely, because exercise stimulates the same chemicals that anti-depressants stimulate.
In terms of how long people are on an anti-depressant, there just isn't an answer. Some people may need it for a matter of months; others for a matter of years. It depends on so many things -- what caused the depression, how the therapy goes, how much support a person has, and their own body chemistry. You're doing all the right things; just trust your judgment, your daughter and her doctors for decisions on the rest.
If it were me, I would prefer to withdraw under the care of whoever the prescribing doctor is. If that is her psychiatrist, that's much better.
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Hi, Anon. So sorry to hear about your daughter's experience. I'm very glad you've gotten her the help she needs, both medically and psychologically.
I have not been on Prozac, but I have been on Zoloft and, later, Cymbalta. I am very sensitive to withdrawal and had to have a very conservative schedule. Often, a withdrawal schedule is basically cutting the dose in half for a week, then in half again, and then coming off it completely. I couldn't do that, I started having withdrawal symptoms about halfway through the process. So I went back up to full dose for a month and we did it much differently, over about six weeks. That worked for me and I had very, very few withdrawal symptoms that way.
Everyone is different; it's just a matter of how ready, chemically, your daughter is when it is time to wean from the medicine. Also, at that time if she is exercising regularly it helps hugely, because exercise stimulates the same chemicals that anti-depressants stimulate.
In terms of how long people are on an anti-depressant, there just isn't an answer. Some people may need it for a matter of months; others for a matter of years. It depends on so many things -- what caused the depression, how the therapy goes, how much support a person has, and their own body chemistry. You're doing all the right things; just trust your judgment, your daughter and her doctors for decisions on the rest.
If it were me, I would prefer to withdraw under the care of whoever the prescribing doctor is. If that is her psychiatrist, that's much better.
Take care, and I hope
July 13, 2009 - 9:04amThis Comment
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