What happened when you stopped your meds?

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I am currently in a gluten exposure episode. I have celiac disease (see any thread on gluten free diet for more info). Meds don't work because I don't absorb them.
Not a disaster, but very bad.

If you're gonna do that, you have to expect things will be a mess at least for 6 yo 12 weeks, maybe even longer if you've been on em for years.

My personal story is I was on Haldol at age 11, prozac soon after, got off Haldol and onto Risperidal maybe arround 14, and was on risperidal, some SSRI, and usually an anti anxiety (3 meds) up untill I was 19. Overtime my congniscience was waining, my brain was going to mash, my IQ felt like it was steadily dropping, I had akasthesia 24/7, was sitting in a pool of my own sweat - I was on all the worst stuff that I could have been given and it was amazing that none of the psychs I saw were catching on to that.

Getting off did help me a LOT. However, the first 3 or 4 months after taking a good 6 weeks to ratchet them down were really rough and you know what, I think it took almost 3, 4, maybe 5 years for me to shake the effects of them - even now I'm not 100% sure I have.

If you know you don't need em or have a real strong suspiscion that they're going in the opposite chemical direction of what you need then keep it in mind that you'll wannastick it out and that it all will come arround in the end. Otherwise, I really don't know what's gonna happen - it really depends on you and how much your own personal discipline can control what your started the meds for in the first place once the chemical imbalance caused from the medication wears off.

I plan on talking to my shrink soon about switching from Lexapro to Symbyax, and I'm concerned about getting off of the Lexapro.

Have read whole thread, but unsure-was going ON the Lexapro problematic, symptom-wise ? Going ON different drug at same time might make coming OFF the Lexapro less of a thing.
Not an expert, just took it for several months. Under-informed, but have "been there" in recent past, for what that's worth.

Me? I crash, and I burn. For those who know me, I do a Mrs. Tap-esque crumble. Irritability, hypersensitivity, emotional chaos, the whole nine yards. That was when I was on Strattera, I was withdrawn, it was turning nasty. But it is a l ot harder without my meds.

When I came off citalopram last year it was very painful for about three weeks. I stopped dead rather than tapering, resulting in horrible shock sensations every time my eyes flicked from one view focus to another, as well as hot flushes and sweating and highly unstable emotional reactions to events.

It died down in time and I feel better for not taking it - it kind of muted all sensations and seemed to make any rational thought more 'fuzzy'. While I still can get painfully depressed, that pain - highs and lows - is part of who I am, and I'd rather have that than the nothing that I felt on the drug.

Thanks for writing this. That is the same experience i had with citalopram and overall im glad i came off it though wouldnt rule out going on if i got very depressed again.

Wondered if anyone had this experience: while I am having problems absorbing nutrients (and also meds), I forgot to take them occasionally. Now I am noticing, that as I recover, I am not needing as much. I had been on twice a day, now once a day seems to be working.
There is some theory out there that as you use a dopamine enhancer, your brain adjusts so that eventually the difference once caused by the meds becomes permanent.
Has this happened to anyone else?
I am thinking of asking for another reduction. This would be great, as I would like to not be on meds at all.
Not sure that can happen, but sure would be happy to have less.

I did build a reverse tolerance to ritalin over the course of about a year or so but at the same time that was a while after being on haldol or risperidal and lots of various SSRI's and antianxiety stuff for a space of about 8 years. All that stuff I was on before took me in the exact opposite direction of where I needed to go and my guess was that the ritalin helped bring my chemical balance back in line with what my genetics kind of determined.

As for bringing dopamine levels passed that and leaving em up even higher, I'm really not sure. I think they'd probably be treating Parkinson's with the stuff and treating it successfully if that were the case.

Before meds I had so much discipline I looked like OCD. Now I have none, and as i put it back into my life little by little I think I will be able to let go of some or all of the meds.