Thank you for allowing me to post.

I am having difficulty grasping the technicality of how to post on this forum - formatting, correct place to post etc. So, please forgive me if I'm not doing this correctly.

Reinstatement of Last Dose

I've been experiencing horrible Akathisia symptoms a week after I dropped from 50mg to 45mg. It's been profoundly debilitating. First and only drop on 25th July 2026 - one month ago.

Yesterday I increased by 2.5mg (now 47.5mg total)

I feel somewhat better today (still awful) but the overwhelming depression was intolerable. It seems to have slightly improved on waking today.

Question: Is it possible that the 2.5mg increase yesterday has improved my dark mood in one day? Note: this increase or reinstatement is half of the original taper decrease amount of 5mg.

I'm finding this all very confusing. Thanks for your thoughts.

Edited Saturday at 01:27 PM4 days by SarahMc

I have experienced ongoing and debilitating insomnia ever since I started the SNRI - Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) 20 years ago.

As a result I started taking Stilnox (Zolpidem) five years ago every night.

I've had to include 25mg of antihistamine Promethazine on top of the Zolpidem as that medication alone stopped being effective (I know it's stupid, but I've been desperate.)

Could someone please explain the adverse effects this could be having on my acute withdrawal symptoms? Thank you.

PS: I've searched for the topic but couldn't find anything.

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 withdrawal 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.

 

Please familiarise yourself with the forum rules and the disclaimer located here: Guidelines

 

Please make sure your signature is kept up to date with your drug history. This will allow members to see some basic information about your drug history and situation so that they may help you best. Information on how to do this is located in the FAQs section above, but here is a direct link: Update Signature

Once this is done, future posts made by you will have this signature turned on by default. For this reason please keep it clear but condensed as possible.

Please use the format outline here Preferred signature/drug history format

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

15 hours ago, Katrin said:

I am having difficulty grasping the technicality of how to post on this forum - formatting, correct place to post etc. So, please forgive me if I'm not doing this correctly.

This is the right place for your intro post. We'll generally keep all of your questions about your own experience on this thread.

15 hours ago, Katrin said:

I've been experiencing horrible Akathisia symptoms a week after I dropped from 50mg to 45mg. It's been profoundly debilitating. First and only drop on 25th July 2026 - one month ago.

I'm so sorry to hear this. As you may know, we recommend tapering by a maximum of 10% of your previous dose per month: Tapering Information. Many people need to go more slowly than this. You've been on Pristiq for a very long time and the SNRIs are notoriously hard to come off. Based on your severe reaction to your first 10% cut, it sounds like you may need to taper much more slowly.

15 hours ago, Katrin said:

Yesterday I increased by 2.5mg (now 47.5mg total)

I feel somewhat better today (still awful) but the overwhelming depression was intolerable. It seems to have slightly improved on waking today.

Question: Is it possible that the 2.5mg increase yesterday has improved my dark mood in one day? Note: this increase or reinstatement is half of the original taper decrease amount of 5mg.

It's possible that the 2.5 mg increase helped quickly. It's also possible that this is just the normal ups and downs of withdrawal. Many people experience waves and windows while stabilizing: The Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

If I were you, I would hold at your current dose until your symptoms settle down. This could take a little while. I would then make tiny cuts each month to try to figure out what I could tolerate. You could start at as little as 1% just to see how you react.

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!

 

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

15 hours ago, Katrin said:

I've had to include 25mg of antihistamine Promethazine on top of the Zolpidem as that medication alone stopped being effective (I know it's stupid, but I've been desperate.)

Could someone please explain the adverse effects this could be having on my acute withdrawal symptoms? Thank you.

Hi @Katrin -- I've moved your question about antihistamines to your intro thread.

We generally recommend against using antihistamines in WD because of observations in the community that it can make folks worse. However, like most things about WD, we don't really know why people can react badly to using antihistamines. We do have a thread on this in our Symptoms & Coping Strategies section: https://antidepressantrecovery.org/topic/354-antihistamines-good-or-bad/#comment-23279

Can I ask how long you've been taking promethazine? If it's been a while, it may not be a good idea to stop it cold turkey since you're in quite a sensitive state at the moment.

I'm sorry this has been such a rough journey for you. Glad you found us.

Edited Saturday at 01:49 PM4 days by SarahMc

Thank you, Sarah. I will reduce the amount of Promethazine as I've been using it regularly for 20 years! I'm between a rock and a hard place. PS: I'm finding navigating and using this forum very confusing. Is it just me?

How do I delete a comment of mine? Thank you.

Edited Saturday at 09:59 PM3 days by Katrin

Hey @Katrin Welcome to the forum. I am so sorry you are having a hard time atm. Glad you found us.

Save this thread page as a favourite in your phone or computer so you get back here easily. As Sarah has said just post on here any questions you have and we can answer them for you. As you get more confident you can go and say hi to others on their pages :)

You can't delete a post, you have 60 mins from making a post to edit it. x

It sounds like to me updosing has eased this for you imo, I think you did the right thing and choose the correct dose to go up by. I would leave things just as they are until everything settles down for you.

As you have been taking Zopidem for a long time you will need to continue to take it every night now, until you are stable enough to taper off it. You have gained alot of dependance on it and WD could be a real issue for you if you try to stop atm. As you have noted you will have built up tolerance to the drug and it won't be helping you sleep anymore unfortunately.

The antihistamine I would also be very cautious with stopped quickly too. I would actually be inclined to keep taking them for a bit until you stablise. Then look to reduce them once things have settled down for you. Wouldn't want you to rock the boat at this stage.

I really very sorry about your sleep, I know how hard this can be. We all do to some extent as sleep is a big issue in WD.

We have a post about it actually which you might like to read. Sleep in WD

Chippy

Thank you for replying. I appreciate it very much.

Welcome to the forum.

Try not to worry about difficulties using the forum too much, you'll get the hang of it in time. We can help with moving posts and topics if they end up in the wrong place.

Once you have hopefully stabilised, we can share information on alternative tapering methods that you will hopefully find more tolerable, but we can get to that down the line. For now, let's see how you do on this dose for a time.