Anything i should be prepared for getting off this pill?

[h3llo]

i'm taking 200mg of luvox and me and my psychiatrist decided i should go off it. that means that besides remeron for sleep, and sometimes vyvanse, i won't be taking anything long term. is luvox bad getting off of? for me, cymbalta and effexor were actually physically painfull getting off of, i had brain shocks and was emotionally confused. is there any technique or anything to getting off it? next week im taking 100mg in the morning all week, then next i stop taking it. should i split it in half, halfway through the week? im worried withdrawl effects will suck. thanks!

[meg]

if you aren't having any intolorable/dangerous side effects that require you to go off of it quickly, then there's nothing wrong with taking longer to taper down, imo. I'd check with the doc to be sure there's not a reason for going off of it that quickly and if not, take your time--

I'd at least do 100 for a week and then 50 for at least a half of a week, ideally I would take longer than that and do steps of 50. 200, 150, 100, 50, done over the course of at *least* two weeks. That said, I don't have any experience with Luvox personally so I'd certainly still do a bit more research and talk to the pdoc.

Luck, I haven't heard anything bad about getting off of it btw, unlike effexor which is known for it, blah.

m

[meg]

this is (some of) the advice for luvox on crazymeds.us

"How to Stop Taking Luvox: Your doctor should be recommending that you reduce your dosage 25-50mg every 4 days if you need to stop taking it. Because its half-life is so short and the steady state is non-linear, best to go for 25mg."

and as always, it's usually a good idea to try and remember how you titrated up in the first place, and go from there.

hths

[Mindful Momma]

luvox? i took that back in 97 and just rememeber stopping completely because it wasn't doing anything. don't recall any withdrawals but hereagain that was a LONG time ago.

if you are concerned talked to your doctor about it.

oh and i seriously doubt that coming off luvox will be as hard as coming off the effexor. i do believe that effexor and paxil are the hardest ADs to come off of and i can tell you from experience that they both suck ass and leave you feeling like shit for over a week.

[h3llo]

this is (some of) the advice for luvox on [link=http://www.crazymeds.us/luvox.html" target="_blank]crazymeds.us[/link]

"How to Stop Taking Luvox: Your doctor should be recommending that you reduce your dosage 25-50mg every 4 days if you need to stop taking it. Because its half-life is so short and the steady state is non-linear, best to go for 25mg."

and as always, it's usually a good idea to try and remember how you titrated up in the first place, and go from there.

hths

what does titrated mean?

[tryp]

titrated just means how you got onto the med in the first place.

A titration is sort of a slow, step-wise increase. So I'm titrating up to 20 mg of Celexa - I'm going to take none for a while, then 10 mg for a while, then 20 mg for a while. That's titrating up.

The opposite of titrating up is tapering down - I'm tapering down from 45 mg of mirtazapine, so I'm going 45-30-15 etc. You get the idea.

[h3llo]

titrated just means how you got onto the med in the first place.

A titration is sort of a slow, step-wise increase. So I'm titrating up to 20 mg of Celexa - I'm going to take none for a while, then 10 mg for a while, then 20 mg for a while. That's titrating up.

The opposite of titrating up is tapering down - I'm tapering down from 45 mg of mirtazapine, so I'm going 45-30-15 etc. You get the idea.

oh...gotcha. i just dove into 100mg first week, than 150 when i told him i still felt OCD. but im taking my last pill nxt, 100mg, then im off.

in other news, i read ths book, "comfortably numb", and its really interesting. i didn't know luvox works almost the same way as prozac,and that noone knows how our seratonin is "re upped". its a feeling kind of like betrayal to be honest. i was NEVER once told about the side effects, or how it works by my psychiatrist! just like i wasn't told effexor or cymbalta would make me suicidal! this makes me really angry. but what can i do? lol...nothing.

[meg]

I wouldn't say that you can't do anything about knowing about what meds you're being given-- if that's what you're saying?

Ask your doctor questions. Just because they hand you a prescription doesn't mean that you need to take it blindly, you can also talk to pharmacists-- helping you understand meds is part of their job, not just counting pills.

If you have a doctor who isn't sharing information that you think is important and you are angry at him/her for not explaining anything then perhaps you should look for a doctor who cares more about informing their patients?

Your pharmacy should always give you a PI (Patient Information) sheet with your Rx that has the basics in terms of side-effects and warnings, you can always request one if they fail to do this or get the info on the manufacturer's website.

There are also websites like this one with tons of back posts on many different people's experiences with most of these meds..it takes some reading but is worth it to get an idea of what you're getting into.

Did you get a chance to go to that website that I linked you to?

crazymeds.us

Seriously, it's pretty straightforward info and he breaks things down (including trying to explain basically how each med works in layman's terms) and there is also a message board on crazymeds specifically to talk, ask and share about medications.

I hope you have more luck with future meds and maybe decide to get into researching meds for yourself now that you realize your doctor isn't going to help you understand them. Eep, I hate the thought of taking a medication without knowing what it is, what it does, what the risks and side-effects tend to be, what I need to do to help it work to its best potential, etc...I'm so glad that research is so easy and quick these days.

Doctors are people, not gods, lol...if I'm ingesting a potent psych med, I want to know about it!

m

[h3llo]

I wouldn't say that you can't do anything about knowing about what meds you're being given-- if that's what you're saying?

Ask your doctor questions. Just because they hand you a prescription doesn't mean that you need to take it blindly, you can also talk to pharmacists-- helping you understand meds is part of their job, not just counting pills.

If you have a doctor who isn't sharing information that you think is important and you are angry at him/her for not explaining anything then perhaps you should look for a doctor who cares more about informing their patients?

Your pharmacy should always give you a PI (Patient Information) sheet with your Rx that has the basics in terms of side-effects and warnings, you can always request one if they fail to do this or get the info on the manufacturer's website.

There are also websites like this one with tons of back posts on many different people's experiences with most of these meds..it takes some reading but is worth it to get an idea of what you're getting into.

Did you get a chance to go to that website that I linked you to?

crazymeds.us

Seriously, it's pretty straightforward info and he breaks things down (including trying to explain basically how each med works in layman's terms) and there is also a message board on crazymeds specifically to talk, ask and share about medications.

I hope you have more luck with future meds and maybe decide to get into researching meds for yourself now that you realize your doctor isn't going to help you understand them. Eep, I hate the thought of taking a medication without knowing what it is, what it does, what the risks and side-effects tend to be, what I need to do to help it work to its best potential, etc...I'm so glad that research is so easy and quick these days.

Doctors are people, not gods, lol...if I'm ingesting a potent psych med, I want to know about it!

m

i get really nervous when i talk to my psych doc. i don't feel anyconnection, not that he can feel how i feel. but he has such a hurried vibe to him. whenever im with people, i can sort of "feel" what their going to do next, usually. like its a sixth sense. but i dont know. i think its because i don't know what i want, and i get distracted telling him how i feel. like i TALK how i TYPE, anyone else do that? even if i wrote it out, i quickly get super anxious and forget things, and just end up nodding my head to whatever he is saying.

I SUCK! haha

oh and anyone who can prescribe you pills which alter your moods and personality are pretty close to gods, in my book.

[null0trooper]

Eep, I hate the thought of taking a medication without knowing what it is, what it does, what the risks and side-effects tend to be, what I need to do to help it work to its best potential, etc...I'm so glad that research is so easy and quick these days.

I've done that a couple of times - once when I didn't read the PI sheet until the consequences hit, and once when I did read it but didn't quite understand as well as I needed to what one of the side effects listed really meant. There's a difference of opinion as to which incident had the higher risk of a fatal outcome.

[h3llo]

so if you don't feel any different on medication, besides being more depressed, you never had a problem to begin with? or a mental illness?

[tryp]

I personally think it means that you haven't found the right meds yet. Or that you need therapy. Or both. But that's just me.

I think it's pretty sucky to blame the patient because the meds won't work.

[h3llo]

I personally think it means that you haven't found the right meds yet. Or that you need therapy. Or both. But that's just me.

I think it's pretty sucky to blame the patient because the meds won't work.

thanks for replying. i have thought it was my fault antidepressants did nothing, or make me flat. makes me wonder why no one noticed that before? my therapist was like "if antidepressants dont work, thats a sign your bipolar" i was like "FUCK!...wait a minute, jimi hendrix was bipolar! sweet! wait a minute...he died of a drug overdose! DAMN!"

and then lamictal did nothing and lithium. really...am i just beyond repair? all i ask for is the anxiety and confusion to go away. and to not feel so tired and confused all the time. today i woke up after 11 hours of sleep, with a sleeping pill and still felt sleepy.

[null0trooper]

so if you don't feel any different on medication, besides being more depressed, you never had a problem to begin with? or a mental illness?

This is why I keep telling new people that just because they've had poor results with a couple of SSRI's that *doesn't* mean they've tried all the antidepressants. There are multiple neurochemical systems that can be involved in depression, and that's why there are multiple classes of meds used to treat clinical depression.

That's also why "My AD didn't work" is such a useless complaint. Some folks with bipolar disorder will eventually go hypomanic from being on an SSRI. Not all. Some folks with clinical depression will get much worse on an SSRI. Some folks with anxiety disorder or symptoms will have a horrible time on an SNRI like Wellbutrin. Other folks find that med to be calming, even sleep-inducing.

[h3llo]

i have a lot of anger towards most antidepressants, and mostly my psychiatrists, who never warned me i could be suicidal when on them. seriously, ok heres my story: after a few weeks of being on effexor, i'd go home from work and listen to some really depressing music, like nine inch nails and nirvana. then i wrote down what i was going to do, and im serious: i was going to register to buy a hunting rifle, and either find, or buy from a pet store animalsu and kill them. i'd keep killing animals until i was "ok" with a gun, then i'd leave a note, making it seem like i was either kidnapped, or lost. then i'd drive down to detroit and shoot myself, so it'd look like someone else did it.

now tell me THAT is fucked up. its terrible i was never told. so its already in stone, im never taking an antidepressant again, not just cause they don't work, but they make me want to die. not ALL of them of course just, that one. I STILL can't believe it man i wanted to sue the psychiatrist so badly...but it seems too late. i just hope karma gets him.