Yep. After 8 or so years of taking various antidepressants, I got tired of the trial and error of it all. I got tired of being told to just \u201cup the dosage\u201d or \u201cadd Wellbutrin\u201d or just \u201cgive it time.\u201d So after consulting my doctor, he gave me the go-ahead. I was on Prozac and Wellbutrin so he had me just stop Prozac (cause the half life is almost a month, and I hadn\u2019t been taking it more than a few months) and I tapered off the Wellbutrin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And honestly, the first few weeks felt pretty good! I started researching what I could do to help myself with anxiety naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, around day 25, the withdrawals started. Cause that\u2019s how long it took Prozac to leave my body completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Holy. Crap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has not been fun, to say the least. Migraines. Bloating. Extreme irritability. Extreme agitation. I gained 10 lbs and lost all motivation to exercise. Anxiety and panic attacks like I haven\u2019t had in YEARS. I\u2019ve felt horrible guilt, thinking maybe this was selfish of me; my kids shouldn\u2019t have to see me like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one point while I was bawling on the floor of my closet, I told Mark in my best impression of a toddler who lost her balloon \u201cI want my meds back!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However! I\u2019m starting to see a light at the end of this confusing tunnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been studying The Diet Cure and The Mood Cure. According to these books, I\u2019ve got some serious chemical deficiencies in my brain, particularly serotonin and endorphin levels. So I\u2019ve been taking lots of amino acids and herbs and things have been steadily improving (with the occasional anxiety attack). I\u2019m also experimenting with cutting out gluten and dairy in hopes that it may help any other imbalances or allergies making things worse go away. I\u2019m also about to visit an endocrinologist to check out my thyroid, adrenals, and sex hormones to see if there are any links to my exhaustion, agitation, miscarriages, weight gain, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t easy. I miss the days of popping my \u201chappy pill\u201d and going about my merry way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, strangely enough, I\u2019m starting to see this challenging period of my life as a blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m finding myself feeling the spirit more, because I\u2019m more emotionally sensitive. I feel a lot more, and that includes feeling the spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m relying on my Heavenly Father more. I\u2019ve been reminded again and again that I can\u2019t do this without the help of my Savior, and I\u2019m finding myself on my knees asking for His help instead of just handling it all with my \u201chappy pill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m also learning A LOT about the human body, about health, about food and diet and herbs and different things that can help. The more I learn about my own body and what I can do to help myself, the more I believe this is the right thing for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m starting to get back into exercising. I\u2019m eating a lot better, working on my music a lot more for therapy, and taking supplements that really do seem to be helping. I\u2019m doing all I can, and relying on Christ to help with the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve had a lot of people reach out with their own stories of anxiety and depression and SSRI use. Please continue to reach out! I love connecting with others who are dealing with similar challenges and as I learn more, I hope to be able to share more information so that others can hopefully heal their own mental illnesses, too (or at least manage them better).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s to being happy without the happy pill! Or at least trying! Ha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yep. After 8 or so years of taking various antidepressants, I got tired of the trial and error of it all. I got tired of being told to just \u201cup the dosage\u201d or \u201cadd Wellbutrin\u201d or just \u201cgive it time.\u201d So after consulting my doctor, he gave me the go-ahead. I was on Prozac and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ericamccann.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}