I'm looking for people who have been in protracted withdrawal as long as I have to see where they are with their symptoms.

For me, the worst has passed, but I'm still significantly disabled by it.

I'm still intolerant to most foods and supplements, especially anything high in histamine or sulfur. I still experience suicidal ideation, and I still get some akathisia or tics when I'm overwhelmed or under stress.

I'm a bit stronger than I used to be, but I still can't do physical work for more than 2–3 hours before symptoms hit. I still can't work out. I've lost most of my muscle from being inactive for so long.

I also get mentally fatigued and drained very quickly.

For years I was stuck in constant fight-or-flight, with overwhelming emotions and caring too much about everything. Now things have shifted in the opposite direction. I feel emotionally flat, joyless, and have little motivation to do anything. The emotional numbness is so intense that it's frightening. I used to think feeling nothing would be better than feeling everything, but it isn't.

I'm also at risk of losing my partner, which I know I love very much but I don't feel it. she's one of the only things I haven't already lost since developing protracted withdrawal.

Even though I can do more than before, I still overdo things and end up crashing, like I am right now. It's incredibly frustrating.

Has anyone else who is 5+ years into protracted withdrawal experienced similar symptoms? If so, have you continued to improve after this point?

Welcome to the forum!

 

This is a volunteer-run, community forum aimed at helping those who are tapering and/or experiencing difficulties with psychiatric medications and withdrawl syndrome. We are not medical professionals and cannot offer medical advice. We simply offer support and opinions which you could use as talking points with a medical provider knowledgeable in withdrawing off psychiatric medications.

 

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I'm so sorry to read about the tough time you've had, you will find plenty of support here for sure.

 

In the mean time this is what I would do if I were you:

 

-Stay Hydrated 

 

-Eat a good clean whole food diet, avoiding processed foods and sugars.

 

-Stay away from caffeine, alcohol and antihistamines and any other psychoactive substances.

 

Supplements are to be avoided initially, as they often irritate our nervous systems. Try to get your nutrition through food.

 

Down the line, you may wish to introduce Fish Oil and Magnesium. Those who can tolerate them have found them calming to the nervous system. Be careful try one at a time and start low and see how you get on should you choose to try them.

 

A daily walk is very important as much as you can manage, if you can manage it. Gets you your fresh air and Vitamin D does wonders for your mind!

One thing I notice in your post is that you describe a process of pushing yourself too hard and then crashing. Are you aware of an illness called ME/CFS at all? I don't say this to be dismissive of withdrawal syndrome- fatigue has been a major symptom for me. However, it is not so much a push/crash process for me, which is the hallmark of ME/CFS.

It may be that you do not have it, however some of the strategies for preventing crashes and trying to become stable at a baseline with ME/CFS might be techniques you might want to look into.

Just a thought.

As for others who are as far out as you, at the moment this forum is relatively new, we only have a few hundred members. I'm not aware of any regularly posting and active members who are in the same situation as you, however I have seen them in other support groups that I've been in in the past.

 

You are very welcome here and I hope you find the site supportive.

9 hours ago, Boomshiva said:

Has anyone else who is 5+ years into protracted withdrawal experienced similar symptoms? If so, have you continued to improve after this point?

I have been into this so called PW for almost 8 years and I (still) have "everything"....

@Boomshiva welcome to the forum.

I am so sorry things are still very tough for you, Luke made an interesting point, however WD is totally possible this far out.

Do you do everything you can do help, ie all the things in our text Luke posted you, no drugs, no alcohol etc....?

There have been plenty of people who have taken many years to heal, but still do eventually, so don't be too disheartened by your progress. I think focussing you yourself and not others and giving your body the best platform you can, then taking one day at a time is all we can do. I have actually pasted this qoute already twice today so I'll leave it here for you too.

“There is a lot of different language in our community about being broken, being injured, being permanently damaged but there are multiple ways to look at this. I knew my withdrawal from psychotropic drugs as the most intense and severe disruption my nervous system has ever experienced.

So I suffered. And I suffered hard. And there were many days I had zero hope. I was miserable and just sort of put an invisible football helmet on my head, put my head down, and grinded out the time. I was in an invisible prison and didn’t know when the judge would let me out.

There is a magic place where surrender, radical acceptance, patience, distraction, and delusion meet. I was delusionally optimistic as if I had a psychic laser that would take me to healing. I did not want to entertain any other outcome. And would you look at that. All my “delusion” paid off and here I am on the other side, throwing a rope to you to show you how to do this.

And you won’t be perfect. All of this is messy. You will trip and fall and scrape your knees and beg God himself to rescue you from this hell and he won’t, and then you’ll curse his name. You will have hope one day and then not again for a month. And all of this is okay. Because you will heal despite kicking and screaming for it to be different.

So please - FOCUS ON HEALING - start doing healing practices, even if you feel they are not working - they are helping you pass the time and that means it is working - and it’s helping to rewire you so that when you’re done you will be wired and ready to rebuild your life.

So instead of viewing your nervous system as injured or damaged or permanently altered, focus on its healing capacity, that your DNA is wired for surviving and thriving, that you are in a healing crisis, that it is working REALLY HARD for you right now to repair itself. Shift your focus away from the scary stuff and towards healing and where you are headed. Healing is the outcome. Do not entertain anything else.”

To be clear, I'm not saying you aren't in withdrawal.

I'm saying that regardless of whether or not you might be, the protocols for getting crashes under control in ME/CFS might be helpful to you to avoid crashing as much and to get to a steadier baseline, which would hopefully be far less taxing on your body/nervous system than regularly doing too much and crashing.

At the very least, it's worth learning whether the crashing is caused by doing too much and whether you can avoid it.

Regarding the ME/CFS thing, I don’t know if it can be of help to anyone, but the wife of my colleague was a severe case of this. She had developed it after a flu inflection (I think she had some sort of long COVID form the flu). She was bedridden for 10y and unable to do normal daily life stuff or work.

They went to Australia for a very specific kind of therapy (but I am sure this method is also in other countries right now). She has significantly improved after it and regained a huge part of her life back.

For anyone interested it was this therapy;

Ken Ware NeuroPhysics Therapy

Home of Ware K Health Trigger Process® - Ken Ware NeuroPh...

Ken Ware's holistic Ken Ware NeuroPhysics Therapy consistently proves to be the most effective and accomplished form of Therapy in the world.

hello, while i am not 5 yrs off, i am 2 yrs off of Lexapro and struggle greatly with food sensitivities especially and some other symptoms. what are yours like?