I never had High Blood pressure before starting SSRIs but the whole time I was on them I would get high readings every time I’d visit my GP. Even to the point that I was sent to see a cardiologist who put me on BP medication and then a second one when the first did nothing. I mentioned to the doctors that I never had BP problems before lexapro or Paxil and would always be told they a completely unrelated. I no longer take BP medication.

Funnily enough, each time I tried coming off my antidepressant ( before withdrawal hit hard) my BP went back to normal levels but would skyrocket once in withdrawal.

I’ve always wondered if lexapro made me constantly agitated as a side effect but I just thought it was normal meanwhile my bodily systems where stuck in overdrive.

Now in my very slow taper sometimes my BP is ok and other times I go through periods were it fluctuates a lot or can be very high.

When going through a rough wave I start to obsess over my blood pressure and I’m sure this results in it being and staying high. When I’m feeling good I don’t really think about it.

What’s other peoples experience

Could you share your symptoms? What symptoms do you experience? When did they occur?

I was told I should keep track of my symptoms because it makes it easier to describe to others, track healing, and might be therapeutic? However, I find it really hard to do so.

When I feel like crap, the last thing I want to do is think about how I am feeling. I also hate reading things I write when I am in crisis because it makes me sad. But I can see how helpful it is to see that I did improve.

What are your thoughts? If you keep track of symptoms, how do you do it?

Sleep problems affect most of us in withdrawal, experiencing an adverse reaction or tapering off our Antidepressants to one extent or another. Sometimes it comes just before or part of a fresh wave of symptoms and goes with a window, for others it’s a regular feature of their recovery.

Melatonin and Cortisol levels (the sleep and wake hormones) can be disrupted leaving a signature list of sleep disruptions.

In the acute initial phases of healing, sleep can be very challenging with users often reporting just a couple of hours a night or even no sleep at all.

We sleep in ‘cycles' of around 1.5 hours dropping down through the stages of sleep in the first cycle to stage 4 deep sleep and lifting to the REM stage, the nearest one to awake. It’s here you may find yourself waking up when a ‘normal’ person would just continue onto the next cycle. As the cycles progress throughout the night, the depth of the sleep reduces and you spend more and more time in REM stage, which further increases the chances of waking and can eventually lead to great difficulty getting back to sleep.

Its often reported there is a ‘ceiling’ of around 5-6 hours where after sleep is much harder to achieve and if it happens its more broken and fragmented.

You may find the need to urinate during the night increases. This is again possibly due to changes in hormone levels the body normally makes to reduce urine production overnight so the body can sleep.

Initiating sleep is a common problem. With Melatonin production reduced, actually getting to sleep can prove difficult. Other symptoms can add to this frustration:

-Hypnic Jerks (Where you wake suddenly just as you drop off)

-Hot Sweats or a general lack of ability to regulate your temperature

-Out of character thought rumination

-Nocturia (Constant need to urinate)

-Sensitivity to light and sound

Sleep quality is greatly affected with sufferers experiencing very light, possibly nonrestorative sleep and no dreams or even the opposite extremely vivid dreams.

Others have found that they wake up very early when they do sleep. As well as early awakenings, it’s not uncommon for folk to wake to a surge of energy, panic or find waking triggers symptoms such as anxiety. Others feel their symptoms improve as the day goes on, only to restart all over again after a sleep ‘reset’.

All of this is likely caused by too high Cortisol levels (the body’s natural awake hormone) produced unhelpfully early in the morning making further sleep impossible and creating these chemical symptoms.

We don’t know exactly what happens during sleep, but we know it is important to the healing process and our wellbeing so it’s vital to get as much rest as you can. It’s often observed in the community that sleep is one of, if not the last, of the symptoms to resolve.

Getting enough sleep we can see is a challenge but there are some things we can do help ourselves.

Sleep Hygiene

Creating good routine in WD is one of the keyways to cope whilst we taper and heal from injury. An important part of this is our bedtime regime. Finding habits that help us and sticking to them is very important.

Some examples might be:

-Low temperature in the bedroom at night.

-Using your bed for just sleep can help teach your brain that it’s time to go to bed.

-A regular bedtime and awake time to help encourage our natural circadian rhythm.

-No eating or drinking 2 hours before bed. The later can help with middle of the night calls of nature!

-Avoid foods that are high in histamine levels particularly later in the day.

-Reduce or eliminate caffeine intake

-A relaxing bedtime routine, a nice bath, shower, a good book or perhaps a bit of meditation, whatever gets you relaxed and ready to sleep.

-Cutting out screen time an hour before bed or at least utilising blue light filters or glasses to reduce the impact our devices can have on our systems natural sleep/wake cycles.

-Eye masks and black out blinds can be great to stop the early morning light or interruptions from outside such as cars and streetlights etc.

-Ear plugs to reduce the levels of distracting sounds that are not conducive to getting off to sleep quickly and staying there.

-Some people find white noise machines effective so worth considering. There are even apps you can download.

-Weighted blankets or a light blanket to keep you cosy but not too hot! Having a second or third laid out next to you to pull over as the night gets chillier is also a very good system!

Light levels

Our brains naturally respond to light, this stems from caveman days where we didn’t have much in the way of supplemental light. The nighttime was for sleep, and the daytime was for everything else.

We can mimic this by adjusting the exposure we have to different light qualities throughout the day.

Start by getting as much natural day light as possible first thing to signal the new day to your brain. Try getting a walk in first thing and letting your system experience the sun rise!

As the evening approaches reduce the use of ‘big lights’ in exchange for smaller side lights. The colour of the light matters too. White isn’t white. You can buy ‘white’ lights at different ‘kelvin ratings’. Go for ‘tungsten’ lights around 3200k for that warm cosy feel. Avoid the higher daylight balance 5600k bulbs in the evening but these might work well as supplemental light first thing on those dark winter mornings.

Dr Mark Horowitz has said he uses LED colour changing lighting in his house which change as the evening progresses mimicking a sunset! Brilliant!

Supplements

Some people choose to not use any supplements or find them too activating and are generally to be avoided. There have however been others who have found the following helpful during their recovery.

-Melatonin, our natural sleep hormone. Not available everywhere as a supplement but some have found it works very well. Little seems to be the key. Starting with a very low dose of perhaps 0.25mg. Others have reacted badly to taking this so caution is advised.

-Magnesium. Calms our nervous systems and many have found this to be a vital part of their bedtime routine. Again, start with a low dose and see how you get on.

-Omega 3 Fish oil

-Epsom Salt Baths

It’s worth mentioning that, as with all these things, some have seen no benefit and others have even reported reactions to the above so please bare this in mind.

Mindset

Our nervous systems are in a heightened and sensitized state during WD and tapering so we must do what we can to reduce the impact we have on it. This is especially important when it to comes to sleep. Most nondrug insomnia is caused by anxiety and its crucial we do what we can to not add to the sleep issues we face by overthinking or worrying about it. Its counter intuitive. The more we worry about sleep the less we sleep. It’s worth remembering that when you go to bed your only job is to relax and enjoy a rest. You can’t choose sleep, but your body knows how to get it. Remind yourself of this when sleep onset is challenging. It’s not your fault and you will sleep as much as your body needs!

How much sleep should I be getting?

This varies for everyone. As discussed above in acute stage, sleep can be scarce. But as we heal our sleep duration and quality increases, the body will always strive to achieve min sleep of around 5.5 hours. This can be a challenge in WD but trust your body knows how to do it and how much it needs. Some people naturally need less than others but 5-6 hours in WD is good. More is better!

What do I do if I can’t sleep?

Conventional sleep therapy suggests a technique of sleep limiting rather lying in bed for hours at a time. During WD we should perhaps be a little gentler than this. Where possible perhaps allocate a period of time for sleep each night and include a little more than you would like to get. This allows for any potential difficultly getting to sleep and stops the worrying at the start of the night. It also allows for some more sleep later on should onset be a challenge.

If you find it hard to sleep and or waking early, just resting in the dark and staying relaxed is in itself beneficial and it’s often possible to grab a few extra bits and pieces during these resting periods. Also, our brains will ‘secret sleep’ without us knowing. By staying in bed (if you can) for a set period of time you maximise the amount of sleep/rest your body will get and lay down the ground works for better sleep as you heal.

Napping

Some find an afternoon nap essential and, honestly, get the sleep where you can if that works for you. Others either can’t or find they wake to a feeling their sleep was somehow ‘toxic’ and perhaps choose to avoid. Overall trying to encourage a ‘normal’ sleep cycle is the goal.

I think everyone on this site has all gone through some heavy stuff, and this idea came to me because everyone’s healing is different. Basically, share your comfort during this time, and see if it can help someone else! It’s somewhat like therapy in terms of coping, or just getting through another day. Maybe we could even share helpful podcasts, calming soundtracks, good books, hobbies for different things, etc.

My history is on my page, but to surmise, anxiety has been the main thing for me. There are a few different things that have helped me.

First, scripture.

It may not be everyone’s cup of tea and I respect that. But a big one has always been the Psalms, where David would lament his trials beautifully.

I am worn out from sobbing. All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble

I’ve taken great comfort and relatability from these for instance. Anxiety can be so isolating and overwhelming.

Second, nature walks or sitting outside.

Nature is therapeutic, I swear. Get out there, get out of your head as much as possible… ground yourself with birds singing, breeze in the air, soft grass, etc.

I’ll think of more later, but for now I just wanted to share this idea! 😊

I have a general question. Has anyone had marked improvement in symptoms and quality of life from limiting sugars? In particular, I have seen a lot of claims out there related to withdrawal symptoms and keto/carnivore/lion diets. I read several older threads on SA but wanted to chat with some individuals who may have tried this path or are currently on it. 

Comparing my withdrawal symptoms I had the first year to my current symptoms after an insanely terrible reinstament attempt (too high and too far out).

Withdrawal symptoms:

Obcessive thoughts, food, sensitivity, sound sensitivity, light sensitivity, volatile emotions, panic over small things, skin sensitivity, smell sensitivity, absurd reactions and moments of extreme despair. I still had the ability to feel cozy and enjoy things, immensely windows and waves. I could enjoy food and sex immensely. My skin was still pretty amazing and hair moist.

Symptoms during the attempted reinstatement: intense out of body derealization, akathesia, brain burning, intense visuals (these died down a few weeks after as I was on them 11 days total)

Symptoms post reinstatement injury:

Brain burning, visual snow syndrome (insanely debilitating and makes it very difficult to do my work), anhedonia (no longer feel human or have any thoughts or emotions or inner dialogue or creative thought). My brain used to be so active. I used to entertain myself. I also used to feel so many different emotions. Music would hit me so deeply even physically. Now nothing. also no ability to plan or execute tasks. I need to move out my apartment and I just can’t.

Derealization (everything flat and two dimensional) I don’t think I could’ve ever imagined the following symptoms until I experienced them because I studied them in grad school and I thought I knew what they were but I did not until I experienced them. You can truly not know about the above symptoms until you have experienced.

Also, I no longer have the ability to feel cozy.

Extreme physical pain, burning, and creaking, clicking in my joints to the point that I can no longer type, I have to talk to text and walking is becoming more and more painful my hips used to feel strong and they are now made of paper. Extreme dry eyes: I cannot sleep more than a few hours without waking up with them burned and glued shut. Another sometime, (you cannot truly know how horrific it can be until you experience it because you relate to the closest thing you can imagine which is having your eyes dry/itchy.)

Absolutely no sexuality whatsoever or ability to feel orgasm in my head. I can still appreciate food but I do not crave it and I do not get thirsty. Hair dry brittle, skin dry crepey aged.

I do not find a lot of people with these intense of injuries. it is difficult to find success stories as I write this I feel panic in my chest and fuzzy emptiness in my brain. Mornings are worse. I feel so broken beyond repair.

I hope one day I can return to write my success story or to share any improvements. I so badly want my very full amazing life back. Even part of it. To feel human at all.

All of you will heal I strongly believe that I have seen everyone heal and I think that I just stayed in withdrawal I would have healed. I think my injury is very acute. I believe I was kindled and then kept throwing fire on the flame.

I didn’t even mention here, but I also did psilocybin therapy in between before the failed reinstatement and although the symptoms weren’t as bad, I lost a bunch of weight after it and would wake up every morning in panic. It was the main reason I decided to go back on my Ssri.

My adult education mainly revolves around children and mental health. I have qualifications in Mental Health but not at health professional level (yet). Holistic approaches are best for treating and supporting those with difficulites as we are but the one unerpinning theme of good recovery is building resilience.

An individual with a strong level of resilience are more likely to recover from ill mental health as well as avoiding it in the first place.

The main pillar central to a person's level of resilience is their self-worth and self-esteem.

Of course this is a lot more turbulent within WD yet it as important as ever during this difficult time.

Firstly: Dropping blame, anger, any and all regrets. What has happened, has happened. No amount of thinking, wishing or praying can send us back in time. We need to accept and move forward.

You can read Chippy's notes here on accepting what has happened.

Yes, the suffering is huge.

But you are bigger.

Focus on qualities of yourself that you like. Are you normally funny? Thoughtful? Brave (already yes to that one being here). What do your familiy and friends love about you? What makes you, you? Self reflection is so important in life and now is a good time to utilise that.

Psychologist Kristin Neff suggests writing a note to yourself as though you were writing to someone you care about who was going through what you are.

• Acknowledge your difficulties

• Resassure suffering is part of being human and that it never lasts forever

• Kind, supportive language instead of critical.

(Link to his book here)

Self Care is important. Whatever you can manage with WD. The main point is to know you deserve self care.

You have people who care about you, both in real life and online in this family.

You can do this.

I have noticed while researching about withdrawal that there is a lot of people who say they have anhedonia when in reality they have emotional numbing.

i just wanted to post this for others to see as I know a lot of people tend to read stories and see how people recover from certain symptoms which trouble them the most.

Anhedonia is when someone has a reduced ability to feel pleasure, interest, or enjoyment from things that used to feel good. It’s not just “feeling sad.” It’s more like the reward system in your brain has gone quiet.

A few key ways it can show up:

What it feels like

• Things you know you should enjoy (music, food, hobbies, sex, socializing) feel flat or pointless

• You might still do activities, but they don’t give that “ahhh” or spark anymore

• Motivation can drop, because your brain isn’t offering that pleasure payoff.

Emotional numbing is when your emotional responses become muted, blunted, or shut down, especially feelings like joy, sadness, love, anger, or fear. It’s less about not having emotions and more about your brain turning the volume way down to protect you.

What emotional numbing feels like

People describe it as:

• Feeling empty, hollow, or “blank”

• Knowing intellectually that something is sad or meaningful, but not feeling it

• Reduced emotional reactions — crying feels impossible, excitement doesn’t land

• Feeling detached from yourself or others (“I care, but I don’t feel it”)

• A sense of watching life instead of participating in it.

Apathy is a state of reduced motivation, interest, or emotional investment. It’s when the “drive” to care, initiate, or engage feels low or absent — even when you want to want things.

What apathy feels like

People often describe:

• “I don’t care” or “It doesn’t matter” — even about things that should matter

• Difficulty starting tasks, making decisions, or following through

• Emotional flatness or indifference rather than sadness

• Low initiative: not because you’re lazy, but because the urge to act isn’t there

• Caring intellectually, but not emotionally (“I know this is important, but I feel nothing”)

Apathy is often quiet and invisible — it doesn’t always look dramatic.

• Apathy → lack of motivation or interest

• Anhedonia → lack of pleasure or reward

• Emotional numbing → emotions turned down across the board

Emotions are a normal part of the human experience. Mechanisms built into us, perfectly tuned, a design feature, not a fault. Whilst some emotions can be distressing such as anxiety and depression, others can offer relief like crying or positive feelings, such as joy and laughter. Emotions are not a sign of a human being broken, as is so often portrayed, often they are a sign or signal to us that something is wrong or danger is lurking. Trauma, diet, stress, difficult times at work or in our personal lives’, can all be causes of these emotions. Learning to address the root cause of the problem is the way to deal with these feelings, rather than seek to numb ourselves with drugs that often lead to harm. Good or bad, emotions are part of the human experience, we should learn to embrace them rather than fear them, or even worse, start to consider them as signs of a damaged/broken person.

Neuro-Emotions

In WD or when suffering harm/injury from a psychoactive drug such as an antidepressant or benzodiazepine, we can feel all kinds of heightened emotions. Some of the most common WD symptoms are anxiety, depression, panic, DPDR (Depersonalisation/Derealisation), fear/terror, suicidal ideation & looping thoughts/thought rumination, just to name a few.

Often these feelings will seem very extreme and overwhelming, can be described as chemical or chemically induced. They will come out of seemingly nowhere, experienced at levels that seem as though the volume has been turned up to 11! They will have no apparent explanation for them, not correlate to life events, as emotions would previously be experienced before. They can come out of the blue, often in waves between periods of calm, can be ever changing and evolving and leave a person feeling scared, bewildered and confused! This is understandable, it is a very distressing experience.

Often when these emotions show up family, friends and, more concerningly perhaps, the medical profession interpret them as a worsening of a ‘mental health’ condition and suggest additional drugs or dose changes to help resolve them. Very often this will lead to further problems.

Neuro-emotions are not actual emotions. Actual emotions are the bodies response to an alert, like the fire alarm. When a fire is detected in a building through a series of sensors, wired up to a fire alarm unit, the system will trigger a command and set the siren off to alert of the problem and imminent danger. Neuro-emotions are the alarm sounding without a cause, a fault in the wiring, a glitch in the software. There is nothing you can do stop them from happening in the moment, they are not within your control as there is no cause in the first place to address, other than WD/Injury, which time will fix. They are simply a symptom of a dysregulated/injured nervous system.

Neuro-emotions can present in many ways, sometimes with many feelings coming at once. They could be described as a bag of liquorice all sorts, each one very distinct and different to the next, you never know which one will be pulled out of the bag next!

Relapse or WD/Injury

It can be very confusing for those suffering and everyone around them to understand, if what they are experiencing are neuro-emotions or just a reoccurrence and worsening of their ‘original condition’. The first way to tell is the timing. If you have just made a cut, stopped your drug abruptly or adding in a new drug, then there is a good chance that this extreme change in emotional response is down to your nervous system being dysregulated and you haven’t suddenly gotten a whole more anxious or ‘sick’ out of the blue! Occam's razor suggests the simplest explanation is the right one!

We often experience WD though the lens of our own minds, it can be confusing sometimes whether what we are experiencing is our own emotions or that of a dysregulated nervous system.

Looping thoughts/thought rumination is a good example of this. We can find our minds suddenly uncontrollably latching on to thoughts, now as our thoughts and experiences are still our own, they can feel very familiar. The brain starts to look for things to process, it goes rummaging through the memory banks looking for things to fixate on.

I myself noticed this early on in WD, I found myself thinking obsessively over a problem that I had not thought about for 20 years! I just couldn’t let it go! Why would it be, after all this time, I would think of this event out of blue in such an obsessive way! I would then find my mind would think of just about anything, sometimes not negative things just, well anything that had happened in the past, like a tour of my life, similar to a very drawn-out version of your ‘life flashing before your eyes’.

I also found these emotions would come out of the blue but sometimes they would be triggered by an event in the day such as eating. I would be absolutely fine, having a walk with my family, we would stop for lunch then 15 minutes later I would be overcome with the most intense, heavy fog/mood, even today I cannot explain it or liken it to anything I have experienced in life before, it would sit with me for hours after. All I could do was distract myself from it, not give it too much attention and eventually it would pass. It is not surprising that eating might trigger something when we know how linked our gut and brain are!

I had another occasion where I received a delivery which took some time to unload, the conversation with the driver was pretty positive but intense and, once he had left, I came over with this incredible sense of anxiety, similar to what I would experience before WD but turned up to 11, it wouldn’t leave even once he had. It sat with me the rest of the afternoon. This isn’t a normal response to a life event. It may have been in the past I would feel a little anxious in a moment like this, but I never responded in such an extreme way.

Other times I would be overcome, out of the blue, with a deep depression for a day or two, then it would lift. Life was good, I had no previous experience of depression, so this was very obviously just WD. During my first 8 months of WD I experienced a whole list of neuro-emotions, all of them very extreme, often unrelated to life around me and none of them like I had ever experienced before.

So, it is clear that, it can be confusing what is ‘you’ and what is WD/injury. However, as with the looping thoughts/thought rumination symptom, we can experience all neuro-emotions through the lens of our own mind. This can make them feel very real!

Second fear and coping with Neuro-Emotions

Firstly, we must learn to accept the neuro-emotions, not fight them, understand they are WD/injury and not something we created. We must accept, float, distract, not resist and not give too much attention to them. They are simply there; they are not dangerous and there is nothing we have done to cause them.

Next, as with all WD symptoms, we should avoid adding any secondary fear to the situation. We are not immune in WD to having our own emotional response to a situation and trying to react or control neuro-emotions just amplifies them and makes them worse.

There are ways to help minimise the frequency or severity of neuro-emotions.

- Avoiding stress and stressful situations/people

- Cut the intake of substances such as Caffeine, Sugar, Alcohol. All good advice in life, but particularly important in WD/Injury.

- In WD we can become histamine intolerant so low histamine diets can help reduce anxiety.

- Exercise can help burn off anxiety, just a gentle walk can help a lot.

- Distraction is key in getting through the difficult days. Finding tasks and a routine that keeps the nervous system calm and helps the time pass.

- Cold showers, Epsom salt baths, meditation, yoga and breathing exercises, all can help regulate the CNS.

This list is not exhaustive but a good reference and one way of monitoring symptoms.

https://media.invisioncic.com/r138344/pages_media/1491703620_WDchecklist.pdf?_cb=1733760981

Making your own spreadsheet with your specific symptoms is another option.

Has anyone experienced this for so long, then had it go away? Need some hope. Thanks.

When supplementing with collagen powder a few years ago, while simultaneously tapering Citalopram, my anxiety, irritability and insomnia went trough the roof. At first I didn’t link these symptoms to the collagen powder, because these are typical SSRI withdrawal symptoms. But when I suspected a causal connection, I decided to stop for a few days. The second day I felt immense relief from the anxiety and insomnia. Because I also experienced some benefits from the supplement, I tried taking collagen powder again after a few weeks. But again, after a few days, the same symptoms appeared. The link between collagen powder and my symptoms were very clear to me and I decided to stop taking it.

After searching the internet, I learned I wasn’t alone. Although these side effects appear to be very rare, some people experienced the exact same symptoms as I did. It’s not quite clear why, and it hasn’t been researched very well, but there are some theories. One of them is that collagen powder is an ‘incomplete amino acid’, and low on tryptophan. Which could potentially influence the uptake of tryptophan into our brain. Tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin, and the role of tryptophan, especially during (and after) tapering of an SSRI could be very important, so be careful with collagen supplements.

Maybe these side effects are extremely rare, but I wanted to bring some awareness about this subject. Perhaps my (our) central nervous system is highly sensitive, especially during withdrawal, that we are more prone to the potential negative side effects of collagen as a supplement.

Thanks for reading,

Endgame

It may be worthwhile to consult your GP to discuss HRT. Sometimes adding HRT may help. 

Oral micronized progesterone has  metabolite that is called allopregnanolone that impacts GABA receptors (does not bind to them in my reading so it is not the same as benzos) and can have a calming effect that can help you fall asleep. Estrogen can impact life zest. 

Beware: 

Progestins - artificial progesterone-like molecules often found in birth control pills may cause psych issues in many women. 
A smaller percentage of women are also sensitive to bio-identical progesterone - their own and the one taken in pill form - they may have paradoxical reactions (increased anxiety) or they may have enhanced reactions - too sleepy/too tired which can bleed into depressed/fatigued. 

There is more information on https://menopausewiki.ca/ 

This is not medical advice. Please do your own research and listen to your own body. 

I did not know where to put this question, so I created a new topic for general questions. But please let me know if this should be put somewhere else. 

I see that anti histamine tablets are often not recommended. Why is that if I may ask? 

Talked to a few people who told me they found significant relief from these tablets in withdrawal as they suspected MAST cell activation causing symptoms. 

Just wondering what the thoughts are on this? 🙂
 

Luke: Namastejen1 (Jen) has kindly shared her guide to nervous system regulation exercises with the community here. The contents of this guide are copied in below.

These exercises will help with ventral vagus nerve stimulation. The vagus nerve is a part of the parasympathetic nervous system. Unlike the unmyelinated dorsal vagal nerve, the ventral vagal nerve branch is a myelinated nerve. Myelination means it can be strengthened with repeated exercises like weightlifting to build muscles. Utilize these exercises when feeling collapsed (overactive dorsal vagal state) or agitated (overactive sympathetic nervous system state).

Remember to take slow, deep, and even belly breaths while doing these exercises. Extend the exhale, without jerks, pauses or forcing, for more of a parasympathetic nervous system response (rest/digest).

Head and Neck Exercises to Stimulate and Strengthen Vagus Nerve

• Look side to side slowly with your eyes 3x, then up/down 3x, on diagonal both ways 3x

• Massage the forehead from center outward, to temples, and passed the ears, 3x

• Massage from bridge of nose, over cheekbones, to jaw, and passed the ears, 3x

• Open and close jaw 3x, then take jaw side to side, 3x

• Massage outer ear with opposite hand, pull on lobe, rub the nub by cheek on each side

• Massage around both ears: ring/little fingers in front by jaw, index/middle fingers in back

• Listen to the nearest sound, then the furthest sound you can hear

• Turn your head slowly from side to side 3x

• Bee’s Breath of humming where you feel it in different areas of the face, 3x

• Hum or use a lower pitched /vooo/ sound for 10 seconds or to your capacity, 3x

• Make a “rowr” sound slowly while opening and closing mouth and jaw, 3-5x

• Take a sip of water

Hand Hold Sequence for Nervous System Regulation (Hold each for 1-2 minutes)

• Hold forehead with one hand while holding your brainstem (base of skull) with the other

• Continue to hold brainstem, take other hand to heart center

• Continue to hold heart center, take other hand to your stomach above belly button

• Rest hands in lap

Other Exercises for Nervous System Regulation

• Kidney-Adrenal Hold: hold right adrenal for 2 minutes, then the left adrenal for 2 minutes

• Connect to sensations with the emotion you are feeling, observe what happens next

• Shift to a place where there is less activation in the body

• Do the opposite—if feeling down, get up and move your body, stand up with arms outstretched in a victory stance (V-shape); if feeling agitated, stand or sit still, root through your seat (if seated), legs, feet, and feeling support at your back (if seated)

This could have really helped me early on, letters written from anonymous strangers across the internet of “reasons to stay” and keep going. I have balled my eyes out this evening reading some of these. It shows such beauty and care in the world.

You will continue to heal, there are so many reasons to stay 🖤

For anyone suffering from SI please know these are just thoughts and they can’t hurt us, we don’t have to act on them. We can just let them move on over us.

Love to you all

Reasons To Stay

It feels as if the ability to speak is failing. My voice has become very hoarse and feeble. Somedays it is somewhat better but mostly not.

Is this also a common withdrawal symptom? What can we expect. I still have to do a lot of tapering.

Yes, the concepts behind the Central Governor Model apply directly to psychological stress, chronic overthinking, and trauma, though the mechanism manifests as emotional and cognitive burnout rather than physical pacing. 

Because the brain is a single, integrated processing unit, it cannot separate intense psychological load from physical threat. It uses the same "governor" mechanism to throttle your energy when your mental and emotional systems face catastrophic overload. 

1. The "Cross-Talk" of Mental and Physical Fatigue

The brain does not have a separate energy pool for running and thinking. A heavily taxed mind directly compromises physical and mental capacity. 

• Shared Brain Regions: The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) plays a massive role in both physical effort and processing emotional pain, conflict, and stress. When overthinking or trauma exhausts the ACC, it triggers a protective shutdown. 

• Perceived Exertion Spikes: Studies show that when individuals are mentally fatigued by stressful tasks before a physical workout, their muscles perform perfectly at a cellular level, but their Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) skyrockets. The brain forces them to slow down early because the baseline psychological load is already too high. 

2. Extreme Stressors and Homeostasis

The Central Governor Model is built on preserving homeostasis (internal balance). Extreme psychological stress destroys this balance by flooding your body with cortisol and adrenaline. 

• The Brain's Calculation: If you are constantly overthinking, experiencing panic, or enduring high-stress environments, your brain views this state as an emergency threat to your systemic health.

• The Shutdown Response: To protect you from systemic collapse, the governor triggers symptoms like profound lethargy, apathy, anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure), or executive dysfunction. It forces a "freeze" state to mandate rest. 

3. Psychological Injuries and Safety Margins

In physical training, the central governor operates with a "safety margin"—it stops you well before your muscles actually tear or your heart fails. Psychological injuries, like PTSD or severe burnout, fundamentally alter where the brain sets that safety margin. 

• Hyper-Vigilance Lowering the Threshold: After a psychological injury, the brain becomes hyper-vigilant to threat. It assumes resources are scarce and danger is high. 

• Premature Fatigue: As a result, the governor resets your threshold much lower. A minor task or a standard daily stressor that you used to handle easily will now trigger an intense wave of exhaustion, as your brain frantically tries to protect your fragile emotional state from further injury. 

It can be tough to practice CBT in the early stages of recovery when everything seems hopeless, but the sooner you start, the sooner you can start recovery. Even little things, like using distraction for just a few minutes per day, can help. For me, its a daily morning routine: my wife is into yoga and energy medicine, and she gave me a series of stretches and exercises to do in the morning. They take about 10 minutes. For those 10 minutes, I make a conscious decision to reserve my thoughts just for the exercises, and no other thoughts or feelings get to intrude into that time. It gives me a peaceful start to the day. Again, anything, no matter how small, can help you make progress. But it requires action on your part and a deliberate move away from guilt, catastrophic thinking, and looking for external sources to blame, or to rescue you. Recovery is within you!

I already have physiological dependence to baclofen and diazepam and thus far have avoided taking any extra. Has anyone else had these problems? Just about to have another epsom salt bath, though they’ve not helped at all before. This is so incapacitating - stuck in bed, unable to leave the house and in terrible unrelenting pain.

Is this a lasting feature of withdrawal, or is this a symptom of brain injury?