As @Chippy and @Sminismoni said, trying to impose a timeline on yourself based on others' experiences can be counterproductive. I went through several months feeling I was making no progress compared to others on PaxilProgress. It was a tough lesson to learn, but I had to accept my healing would come in its own time. For reference, it took me about three years from the start of my final taper to when I could consider myself recovered, but again that was my specific experience and there were a lot of ups and downs during that time. It would be better to work on acceptance and coping and give yourself space and patience to heal at your own pace. Timelines impose unnecessary pressure on yourself.

@SpiroC I encourage you, if possible, to step back from these thoughts a little bit and notice that you are still reassurance seeking. This is a classic anxiety loop. Years ago I ran a CBT group, and the number one lesson was that checking and seeking reassurance maintains the anxiety in the long run. Try to distract if you can't challenge these thoughts, and avoid triggers. A temporary step away from forums and YouTube might also help manage these thoughts. I get it, sometimes they grip you despite your best efforts. It's fine to post that you are struggling, that you are tormented by thoughts, that you feeld despair. We all get that. But we can't enable the reassurance seeking cycle by giving you answers here.

Personally I think it's mildly irresponsible of these coaches to give timelines. It smacks of toxic positivity in my book, which seems an American cultural phenomenon. I saw a coachlast week who thankfully gave me no such thing. I think that is the right approach.

5 hours ago, Sminismoni said:

@SpiroC I encourage you, if possible, to step back from these thoughts a little bit and notice that you are still reassurance seeking. This is a classic anxiety loop. Years ago I ran a CBT group, and the number one lesson was that checking and seeking reassurance maintains the anxiety in the long run. Try to distract if you can't challenge these thoughts, and avoid triggers. A temporary step away from forums and YouTube might also help manage these thoughts. I get it, sometimes they grip you despite your best efforts. It's fine to post that you are struggling, that you are tormented by thoughts, that you feeld despair. We all get that. But we can't enable the reassurance seeking cycle by giving you answers here.

Personally I think it's mildly irresponsible of these coaches to give timelines. It smacks of toxic positivity in my book, which seems an American cultural phenomenon. I saw a coachlast week who thankfully gave me no such thing. I think that is the right approach.

Noted @Sminismoni - I think that this is just such a scary experience especially when I personally didn’t catch what was happening sooner and ended up with severe pollydrugging that it kinda scares me that I’ll be the guy that dosent heal. Just 8 months ago my life wasn’t half bad and I was quite content. So it’s hard to imagine how bad it’s got so quick and I think that’s why I’m seeking reassurance.

Your insights are appreciated and I’ll try and be more cognizant of that.

I think from the coaches perspectives they have seen hundreds if not thousands of ppl and they can generally gauge a timeline from anecdotal experience based on averages. Thats why I raised it.

You don’t have to explain yourself @SpiroC . We are all desperate for answers.

10 hours ago, SpiroC said:

I think from the coaches perspectives they have seen hundreds if not thousands of ppl and they can generally gauge a timeline from anecdotal experience based on averages. Thats why I raised it.

It is very normal to want a sense of a timeline, give you some hope. We have all been there. Luke and I have talked timelines quite a bit. I am personally more in the 'don't worry about it' camp as I said, but certainly coaches do have a good idea of how long people have taken to recover, but obviously you could be less or more time, and that recovery period varies hugely from person to person. So really it doesn't help you knowing this.

It is so normal to seek this out, but eventually I believe we must all settle on acceptance and stop looking for answers. It's ok it takes you a little time to come to this conclusion, I think it does to varying degrees for us all.

@Chippy - Question for you..

In SA - Alto always speaks about , drug interactions and side affects of drugs.

Being on two sedative drugs like Clonazepam and Seroquel I feel so tired every day like I have lead in my boots. She often advises people to lower the doses to reduce / reverse these affects.

It’s a conundrum because on the one hand the meds are causing these adverse side affects and on the other hand we just have to hold on them to stabilize. It truly is a rock and a hard place situation.

Would like to know your thoughts on this ?

I was reading a paper by Dr Reg Peart and he was speaking about drug toxicity and how drugs can become more toxic the longer you’re on them I.e benzodiazepines.

31 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

Would like to know your thoughts on this ?

in that situation where the drugs themselves significantly impact your life negatively, you just have to balance out wd/drug reactions, if you are very unstable I would tell you to hold.

but let's say you are decently stable, you may see that by tapering 5% or 10% hyperbolically per month, you see you are less tired but your wd is a bit ramped up, you may decide that less tiredness is worth the wd being 1-2 worse on a 1-10 scale.

but tapering faster than that might lead to wd being too strong so that it's not worth being less tired.

Essentially it's all a game of managing the drug effects and WD. and you will have to listen to your body to know how much can you take, and when.

5 minutes ago, Lighty said:

but tapering faster than that might lead to wd being too strong so that it's not worth being less tired

Hi Lighty , yes most definitely hear you there. It can be violent beyond words !

58 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

In SA - Alto always speaks about , drug interactions and side affects of drugs.

Being on two sedative drugs like Clonazepam and Seroquel I feel so tired every day like I have lead in my boots. She often advises people to lower the doses to reduce / reverse these affects.

@SpiroC I would also add that fatigue or exhaustion can also be a symptom of a destabilized nervous system. I'm struggling a lot with fatigue, especially mental fatigue, and I'm only on 12.5 mg of seroquel so I doubt very much it's a drug side effect. On better days my brain clears a little bit and I have a bit more energy. You're taking more sedative drugs than me so it's certainly possible you're experiencing fatigue as a side effect, but you're also very destabilized so it might be hard to know for sure what's causing you to be so tired.

I'd be really cautious about starting a taper while you're still quite unstable. Just my two cents 💜.

22 minutes ago, SarahMc said:

I'd be really cautious about starting a taper while you're still quite unstable. Just my two cents 💜.

Completely agree with you here Sarah and thank you for your thoughts. I’m not suggesting taper I’m just thinking why I’m always so lethargic - it’s part drug / part withdrawal

14 hours ago, SpiroC said:

@Chippy - Question for you..

In SA - Alto always speaks about , drug interactions and side affects of drugs.

Being on two sedative drugs like Clonazepam and Seroquel I feel so tired every day like I have lead in my boots. She often advises people to lower the doses to reduce / reverse these affects.

It’s a conundrum because on the one hand the meds are causing these adverse side affects and on the other hand we just have to hold on them to stabilize. It truly is a rock and a hard place situation.

Would like to know your thoughts on this ?

I think you have answered your question a bit, reducing one of the more sedative drugs is a good move if you feel a bit sedated, but you might want to wait to do that until things have settled down before you try would be my thought. Use it more as a guide as what to taper first.

I also agree with @SarahMc it could be perhaps this is a WD effect rather than a drug interaction/side effect.

On 7/12/2026 at 4:55 PM, Sminismoni said:

Personally I think it's mildly irresponsible of these coaches to give timelines. It smacks of toxic positivity in my book, which seems an American cultural phenomenon. I saw a coachlast week who thankfully gave me no such thing. I think that is the right approach.

It's difficult, as when people book appointments with them that's often the main thing they want to know, and it's a question that comes up time and time again in all of the prescribed harm communities I've been in. In many ways, it's natural to ask "when will I be better?". People are typically not good at dealing with the unknown, whereas a fixed amount of suffering, even if it's long, is easier to begin to come to terms with.

That said, you're right, in that it's not necessarily helpful either.

15 hours ago, SpiroC said:

It’s a conundrum because on the one hand the meds are causing these adverse side affects and on the other hand we just have to hold on them to stabilize. It truly is a rock and a hard place situation.

Unfortunately it's very difficult to know what to do and there isn't always a "right answer". People can give you their thoughts, and they might be based on what they've experienced or seen others do, but that's all we really have. You're right, it is a conundrum and I sympathise a lot with feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Hey @SpiroC how are you doing these days?

1 minute ago, SarahMc said:

Hey @SpiroC how are you doing these days?

Hi Sarah, thanks for checking in. I’m surviving- still housebound and scared for how long things going to take. I still have a feeling that these meds are making me feel terrible but all I can do is hold my doses.

How’s everything your side @SarahMc ?

17 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

Hi Sarah, thanks for checking in. I’m surviving- still housebound and scared for how long things going to take. I still have a feeling that these meds are making me feel terrible but all I can do is hold my doses.

I'm sorry Spiro. I also hate being on the meds and am worried about adverse effects. Have you had any windows at all?

18 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

How’s everything your side @SarahMc ?

I've been in a really bad wave the last week and a half or so. Feeling really beat down and disheartened. Before this I felt like I was making progress, even if it was really slow. But we'll get there together 💜.

6 hours ago, SarahMc said:

I'm sorry Spiro. I also hate being on the meds and am worried about adverse effects. Have you had any windows at all?

Night times are a bit better Sarah…

6 hours ago, SarahMc said:

I've been in a really bad wave the last week and a half or so. Feeling really beat down and disheartened. Before this I felt like I was making progress, even if it was really slow. But we'll get there together 💜.

Really sorry to hear that … I pray for you soon it lets up.

19 minutes ago, SpiroC said:

Really sorry to hear that … I pray for you soon it lets up.

Thanks Spiro. Glad to hear you at least get a bit of relief in the evenings. One day at a time, I believe we will both heal.

2 minutes ago, SarahMc said:

Thanks Spiro. Glad to hear you at least get a bit of relief in the evenings. One day at a time, I believe we will both heal.

From your lips to Gods ears my friend 🙏

@SpiroC Good to hear you get some relief in the evenings. Hang in there, healing is happening.

Hi All,

Very confused by this.

So what he’s saying is that holding isn’t always your best bet? Like I’ve been severely injured

16 hours ago, SpiroC said:

So what he’s saying is that holding isn’t always your best bet? Like I’ve been severely injured

Good question @SpiroC, I can see why you'd be confused. It seems to me like Dr. Josef in this video is talking about a pretty simple scenario where you come off one drug, then reinstate that same drug pretty shortly afterwards but don't get noticeably better within a couple months. I'm not sure to what extent that would apply to a more complicated situation like you or me since we've been cycled through a bunch of different drugs and our nervous systems are very unstable.

Have you ever talked to Dr. Horowitz? It might be worth setting up an appointment with him if you're worried that holding isn't helping you.