Hello

I am coming over from SA. Thanks for having me. I am quickly setting up an account and will be back with more information about myself.

Found SA while in Protracted Withdrawal in 2013 from Pristiq. Had years of intense side effects from meds prior, so decided to taper off and went too fast, not knowing so. Slowly recovered over some years. Was prescribed meds during withdrawal. I am still on 3 meds and plan on tapering when that is reasonable to do.

DC

My Thread on SA;

Hi @DCod

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for joining and making your intro topic. Do let us know your sa user name and we can link to your thread there?

I look forward to hearing some more about your journey so far.

Chippy

Hi Chippy

My SA user name was DC112.

1 hour ago, DCod said:

Hi Chippy

My SA user name was DC112.

Thanks. I found you on SA and linked to your thread above. I shortened your signature a bit for you.

When you have a minute be great if you could write a little intro and let us know more about your journey so far, and tell us how things are at the moment.

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for crossing over.

You said you're planning to taper the drugs that you are taking when it is reasonable to do so. How are you at the moment?

My story is very long so I'm going to really shorten it for now and might add on down the road a bit. I was in PAWS from around 2013-17. I was in withdrawal really intensely for a year and a half. Of course the intensity did have the windows and waves effect, so some days were ok and others were extremely difficult. Then I started to do magnesium baths about 2 years in and that was very helpful to me. I felt mostly recovered around the 3rd and 4th year after I tapered. Eating clean, lots of salmon for omega 3's cause I couldn't tolerate the vitamin version for awhile, doing yoga, deep breathing, learning to meditate, magnesium baths, these were some of the things I picked up during withdrawal that were helpful. Also, staying with being as active as I possibly could was really helpful. But really the best thing was realizing that I was slowly healing and that it was going to take a long time. I learned radical acceptance.

I was 26 when I started tapering Buspar(too quickly), so I was in withdrawal from 26 to around 30 years old. I recovered at about 3 to years 4 years in and have lead a normal life since. YOU DO RECOVER! It is still challenging b/c I deal with side effects and feel stuck on the remaining meds and obviously do not want to be on them. I am going to need to get on a path of tapering remaining meds.

After about 3 and a half years I realized that most, if not all of my remaining issues were the side effects from the meds that I was put on during withdrawal because docs were not aware of long term withdrawal. (for the most part, some were willing to agree that I had some long term issues from meds but didn't really comment on Long Term withdrawal b/c they probably were not aware of it, but of course should have been with all the obvious issues these meds cause. It seems unlikely that they didn't hear from many different patients all the issues they were causing).

I'm thinking of tapering buspar in a liquid form, making my own liquid doses.

DC

Edited April 20Apr 20 by DCod

8 hours ago, DCod said:

My story is very long so I'm going to really shorten it for now and might add on down the road a bit.

Thats ok, say as much or as little as you like!

8 hours ago, DCod said:

I was in PAWS from around 2013-17. I was in withdrawal really intensely for a year and a half. Of course the intensity did have the windows and waves effect, so some days were ok and others were extremely difficult. Then I started to do magnesium baths about 2 years in and that was very helpful to me. I felt mostly recovered around the 3rd and 4th year after I tapered. Eating clean, lots of salmon for omega 3's cause I couldn't tolerate the vitamin version for awhile, doing yoga, deep breathing, learning to meditate, magnesium baths, these were some of the things I picked up during withdrawal that were helpful. Also, staying with being as active as I possibly could was really helpful. But really the best thing was realizing that I was slowly healing and that it was going to take a long time. I learned radical acceptance.

Sounds like you had quite the journey getting stablised. Im sorry to hear. You have learned some really good coping skills and techniques along the way! So good to hear. They are everything in this!

8 hours ago, DCod said:

was 26 when I started tapering Buspar(too quickly), so I was in withdrawal from 26 to around 30 years old. I recovered at about 3 to years 4 years in and have lead a normal life since. YOU DO RECOVER! It is still challenging b/c I deal with side effects and feel stuck on the remaining meds and obviously do not want to be on them. I am going to need to get on a path of tapering remaining meds.

It's nice to hear your positive message! Yes we do heal! It can take time, but the body is amazing. 😀

8 hours ago, DCod said:

After about 3 and a half years I realized that most, if not all of my remaining issues were the side effects from the meds that I was put on during withdrawal because docs were not aware of long term withdrawal. (for the most part, some were willing to agree that I had some long term issues from meds but didn't really comment on Long Term withdrawal b/c they probably were not aware of it, but of course should have been with all the obvious issues these meds cause. It seems unlikely that they didn't hear from many different patients all the issues they were causing).

I'm thinking of tapering buspar in a liquid form, making my own liquid doses.

Yes, long term use of these drugs does take it's toll, the side effects can be awful. Sadly professionals seem to be so lacking in knowedge in this area, even nowdays.

If you need any help, let us know. We have guides on safe tapering and making liquids, but can help you, in the tread if you need.

Tapering Information

Micro Tapering

Preparing Doses for Tapering - Weighing & DIY Liquids

Chippy

Thank you for sharing your background.

The hope would be that if you do taper the other meds, this time you're doing it armed with the knowledge that going too fast just isn't worth it, and that this makes it much more manageable for you.

Meant to refer to and say I tapered Pristiq too fast in 2013, not Buspar.

Thanks for the responses, and for the info.. I actually have a question out the gate here.

I am having trouble getting my viibryd brand name here in Denver. I think I need to switch to vilazadone (viibryd generic). I switched buspar (to another manufacture last year using the tapering method that I learned on SA and had minimal side effects). Do either of you have info on tapering viibryd brand to generic vilazidone? I was gonna to the 1/3 new for a week, 50-50 for a week, 2/3 new for a week, transfer like I did with buspar.

Thanks

DC

9 hours ago, DCod said:

Do either of you have info on tapering viibryd brand to generic vilazidone?

If you have to switch, we would recommend similar to as you have said. We suggest 25/75, 50/50, 75/25, 100/0, 4-7 days at a time.

Thanks for getting back. I thought on SA they recommended 37.5/66.5, 50/50, 66.5/37.5? I might be wrong on that, but I am gonna check.

DC

Edited April 23Apr 23 by DCod

7 hours ago, DCod said:

Thanks for getting back. I thought on SA they recommended 37.5/66.5, 50/50, 66.5/37.5? I might be wrong on that, but I am gonna check.

DC

Any kinda crossover is better than none for sure. Some switch direct, with no issues at all. There are no rules. Our guides are as stated above. But obviously you should do what you think is right.

I agree.

Do you know if cutting into the viibryd brand pill messes with the absorption of the med? b/c I would have to do that to do the transfer.

DC

8 hours ago, DCod said:

I agree.

Do you know if cutting into the viibryd brand pill messes with the absorption of the med? b/c I would have to do that to do the transfer.

DC

Yes its fine to cut or crush your tablet.

There is a thread on sa about it which might be useful. https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/forums/topic/4318-tips-for-tapering-off-viibryd-vilazodone/

Thanks for the info.

I seem to be having symtoms doing the cross over. I'm sure its 'normal' to have some anxiety, slight tight throat when breathing, slight difficulty breathing, irritable, etc. Just making sure, cause it does seem like its effecting my histamines. I'm about 4 days into the 50/50 split.

Best

DC

1 hour ago, DCod said:

I seem to be having symtoms doing the cross over. I'm sure its 'normal' to have some anxiety, slight tight throat when breathing, slight difficulty breathing, irritable, etc. Just making sure, cause it does seem like its effecting my histamines. I'm about 4 days into the 50/50 split.

Best

DC

Did you go 75/25 first?

It’s not uncommon for the transition to be destabilising. I’d hold at the 50/50 point till it settles down. Then proceed to 25/75

Ok. I seem to be having major issues now. Dealing in some really intense anxiety, insomnia, I think it triggering severe agitation. It’s my 4th day on 50/50. How do u know if you’re allergi to the new one? I might need to stop this all together, but I don’t know if I can get enough of my old brand name viibryd.

4 minutes ago, DCod said:

Ok. I seem to be having major issues now. Dealing in some really intense anxiety, insomnia, I think it triggering severe agitation. It’s my 4th day on 50/50. How do u know if you’re allergi to the new one? I might need to stop this all together, but I don’t know if I can get enough of my old brand name viibryd.

This is a tough one, sometimes people do react to the change in brand quite badly. I have seen it before. Did you do a 75/25 before the 50/50?

It is your call, if you can't get enough of the old brand you don't have much choice. I hate it when they do this to people. It may be you just need to give it some time and move over more slowly the rest of the way.

I started doing 25/75, then 50/50. On the 4th day of 50/50. Should I go back to 25/75 at this point?

4 minutes ago, DCod said:

I started doing 25/75, then 50/50. On the 4th day of 50/50. Should I go back to 25/75 at this point?

That is entirely up to you. Perhaps you could and see if it eases things for you. Then when things have settled down move more slowly still over. Sometimes we just have to try things. Are you changing from the Original brand to a generic I assume?

In doing a magnesium bath at the moment to try and help. Seem to be having tremors and I think akathasia.

Yes. Original brand to a Cipla generic.

2 minutes ago, DCod said:

Yes. Original brand to a Cipla generic.

And the orignal brand is discontinued?

I don’t think viibryd is discontinued but it’s really hard to find. Sometimes my pharmacy gets it sometimes it doesn’t. A Walgreens says they can order it but I figured it would be smart to change to cause it’s challenging to get