Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Symptoms
If you search online for what symptoms are possible when taking or coming off psychotropic medications, you will find little to no information about what symptoms are possible and how long they can last. Most articles will say that symptoms can be mild and short-lasting, but online communities of people who have deprescribe share a much different experience of psychiatric drug withdrawal.
What I tell the people I work with is to always get medically checked and cleared if you have any concerns about your symptoms. This can add a measure of reassurance if you are worried and is just a smart thing to do every so often to monitor your health status.
Among the symptoms people experience, some while still taking medications used to treat some of the symptoms below, I most often I hear the following when working with clients either tapering or in withdrawal:
High levels of panic and anxiety like none they’ve experienced prior to medication
Restlessness and agitation: sometimes in certain areas of the body, sometimes all over the body
Nerve or Muscle Pain: pressure in the head, pain in joints or muscles
Fatigue: this is not an “I’m just tired feeling” it can feel like if you close your eyes, you will drop dead. It is a cellular-type fatigue
Paresthesias: tingling sensations, prickly feelings, numbness
Mental symptoms: trouble watching TV or reading, remembering simple things, intrusive thoughts and impulses, suicidal ideation feeling numb or cut off from who you were and the people you love, depersonalization and derealization
The confusing part is that some of these symptoms can be pre-existing or signs of a relapse for some and often, it’s hard to tell what is what. It can sometimes lead to further polypharmacy if the practitioner and patient are not clear on what is what.
Personally, the danger for me was in reporting the symptoms to my medical professionals and being given more medications to treat the symptoms. I was clear I wanted to take less medication, not more. But, there was a failure to recognize that my symptoms were coming from the medications and that I didn’t need more, I needed less. What I really needed was a safe deprescribing plan to let my body return to health with the lowest amount of medication possible. For me, the medications were preventing my body from being healthy!
As with what happened in my case, many people I work with have run through the gamut of mental health treatments: years of therapy, TMS, ketamine, medications, and alternative treatments such as chiropractic and acupuncture, only to find that the medication they were taking was the root cause of their weird or worsening symptoms all along. Many more have been or will be diagnosed with functional neurological disorder, borderline personality disorder, or pain and fatigue syndromes. For many, these are “trash can diagnoses” where it just really means, they don’t see anything wrong on blood or imaging tests and they are not sure what we have, so they call it what they call it. Physicians have little in the way of meaningful treatments to offer and patients will inevitably come to the understanding that the medication they are taking could be what is causing their symptoms. Many will plan to come off medication or take harm reduction approaches in order to feel better.
The way I approached my symptoms was to try to get a checkup and blood tests every 6-12 months to monitor my thyroid, B12, Vitamin D, blood glucose, and other tests to ensure I knew that my levels were okay. After screening myself and speaking with a physician I trusted, I was able to be more level-headed about all the symptoms I was experiencing, knowing that I ruled out anything serious.
