56 minutes ago, Luke said:

I just wanted to add that having periods where you feel normal is a very good sign that things will get better, at coming up to 5 months off.

I wish that to all of us 🙏🏻 i feel normal not every day also just for few hours

Is that a good sign ?

Do i count the first day i left the drugs or the last one when i take just 3 dose's

Thank you for your time ❤️

A few hours is great! Soon it'll be a few more hours. Then, the day, a week. Keep going man.

I don’t know if my opinion is right or wrong but this is how it went:

First, my symptoms were like a solid, continuous rock. Then it became a rock of continuous exhaustion, and during the first 8 months, everything just crashed together at once.

A while ago, it shifted into 3 distinct patterns:

1. An acute wave that lasts for a continuous week every month.

2. A moderate wave that comes for one day every week.

3. Severe, highly fluctuating waves that hit and vanish suddenly on a daily basis.

I got used to this pattern, but two weeks ago or more, I experienced a beautiful sleep wave where I slept over 12 hours (not consecutive, but 6-8 hours, then another 4-6 hours). However, right after this sleep wave, I felt like I crashed straight back to square one.

Now, everything is overlapping and tangled together. I feel fear, and then a strange fear that I can't even describe. Symptoms shift rapidly between physical and psychological. I feel like my brain—which was at least mine to control during the worst withdrawal waves—has completely gone on vacation. Symptoms that had disappeared for a very long time have suddenly returned, like panic attacks, hypnic jerks before sleep, nausea, and abdominal pain specifically on the lower right side, feeling like a pinch or a stinging sensation.

And I honestly have no idea what is coming next.

27 minutes ago, Kahran said:

A few hours is great! Soon it'll be a few more hours. Then, the day, a week. Keep going man.

Thank you so much 🙏🏻

I hope so.

How are you doing?

1. What is the secret behind the initial feeling of relief/well-being right after first stopping the medication?

2. What is the significance of the 18-month mark after quitting?

3. Why do SSRIs shift from causing emotional blunting to causing severe activation/hypersensitivity?

4. What is the relationship between Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and these medications?

5. Why do we experience such identical withdrawal symptoms?

6. Generally, there are two types of responses: one group develops depression and loses all emotions, while the other is consumed by intense anxiety and fear. Why?

7. Could the underlying issue be related to absorption and gut problems rather than just neurological correction/adaptation?

8. Why is every severe wave followed by a noticeably different window of relief (an breakthrough)?

9. Is there a difference between Withdrawal (WD) and Kindling?

10. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is highly successful, but could recovery be delayed for some due to PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) caused by the severity of the withdrawal symptoms themselves?

7 hours ago, lost4ever said:

1. What is the secret behind the initial feeling of relief/well-being right after first stopping the medication?

2. What is the significance of the 18-month mark after quitting?

3. Why do SSRIs shift from causing emotional blunting to causing severe activation/hypersensitivity?

4. What is the relationship between Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and these medications?

5. Why do we experience such identical withdrawal symptoms?

6. Generally, there are two types of responses: one group develops depression and loses all emotions, while the other is consumed by intense anxiety and fear. Why?

7. Could the underlying issue be related to absorption and gut problems rather than just neurological correction/adaptation?

8. Why is every severe wave followed by a noticeably different window of relief (an breakthrough)?

9. Is there a difference between Withdrawal (WD) and Kindling?

10. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is highly successful, but could recovery be delayed for some due to PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) caused by the severity of the withdrawal symptoms themselves?

Thats a lot of questions @lost4ever, questions no one can answer tbh mate. Rather than looking for answers that cant be made for things that won't help you heal, spend the time working on acceptance and peaceful mindfulness techniques to aid your healing journey.

22 hours ago, lost4ever said:

I wish that to all of us 🙏🏻 i feel normal not every day also just for few hours

Is that a good sign ?

Do i count the first day i left the drugs or the last one when i take just 3 dose's

Thank you for your time ❤️

Yes, it's a good sign.

I think it's more sensible to mark the time since you were entirely drug-free.

17 hours ago, lost4ever said:

1. What is the secret behind the initial feeling of relief/well-being right after first stopping the medication?

Nobody knows.

17 hours ago, lost4ever said:

2. What is the significance of the 18-month mark after quitting?

Some people are better by then, some are not.

17 hours ago, lost4ever said:

3. Why do SSRIs shift from causing emotional blunting to causing severe activation/hypersensitivity?

Nobody knows. They alter brain function in ways that are poorly understood.

17 hours ago, lost4ever said:

4. What is the relationship between Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and these medications?

I'm not sure, but what is clear is that they interact with gut function and this causes significant gut issues for some people.

17 hours ago, lost4ever said:

5. Why do we experience such identical withdrawal symptoms?

Nobody knows.

However, the range of possible symptoms is very large and although many people have symptoms in common, the outcomes for people can be really quite different.

17 hours ago, lost4ever said:

6. Generally, there are two types of responses: one group develops depression and loses all emotions, while the other is consumed by intense anxiety and fear. Why?

I don't agree with this statement. The harms that can be done by these drugs are much more diverse than that. I know this because I have experienced it first hand.

17 hours ago, lost4ever said:

7. Could the underlying issue be related to absorption and gut problems rather than just neurological correction/adaptation?

Nobody knows, but I have suffered with the harm done by these drugs for a very long time and although I've had various mild gut issues, I wouldn't say that they were a major factor in my own situation.

17 hours ago, lost4ever said:

8. Why is every severe wave followed by a noticeably different window of relief (an breakthrough)?

They are you. Not for everyone. Nobody knows.

17 hours ago, lost4ever said:

9. Is there a difference between Withdrawal (WD) and Kindling?

They are intended to mean different things. Kindling was a term invented by the older SA forum as far as I'm aware and not by anyone on this forum.

We do have a glossy of terms in the FAQ section:

Glossary- Common Terms in Prescribed Harm Support Groups   - FAQs - The Antidepressant Harm and Recovery Forum

17 hours ago, lost4ever said:

10. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is highly successful, but could recovery be delayed for some due to PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) caused by the severity of the withdrawal symptoms themselves?

Nobody knows, but I don't think that's a factor for most people.

@Luke

Thank you so much for answering all my questions ❤️

Good evening, I wish you peace of mind. Today, I had to move from one house to another, which is smaller and further away. Yesterday, I was suffering from pain resembling appendicitis along with mild restlessness. Thank God, this morning I woke up with only some flank/kidney pain. I managed to move half of the house, and tomorrow I will move the other half. In the afternoon, I experienced forgetfulness, drowsiness, and mild hallucinations, which have also disappeared, and I went out to work. Tomorrow, I must move my car from the old house to the new one, but I am very afraid of driving cars as it has been a long time. I decided to be brave and drive it. Is it possible that I might lose control of myself or forget how to drive? I am very sad; I used to be a drift and speed racer, and I had activities in this field. I have previously driven at 310 km/h in a modified car for that purpose, and today I am afraid to be behind the steering wheel😭.

Apologies for the long message ❤️

On 10/7/2026 at 2:23 AM, lost4ever said:

1. What is the secret behind the initial feeling of relief/well-being right after first stopping the medication?

2. What is the significance of the 18-month mark after quitting?

3. Why do SSRIs shift from causing emotional blunting to causing severe activation/hypersensitivity?

4. What is the relationship between Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and these medications?

5. Why do we experience such identical withdrawal symptoms?

6. Generally, there are two types of responses: one group develops depression and loses all emotions, while the other is consumed by intense anxiety and fear. Why?

7. Could the underlying issue be related to absorption and gut problems rather than just neurological correction/adaptation?

8. Why is every severe wave followed by a noticeably different window of relief (an breakthrough)?

9. Is there a difference between Withdrawal (WD) and Kindling?

10. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is highly successful, but could recovery be delayed for some due to PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) caused by the severity of the withdrawal symptoms themselves?

I'm not a scientist or a doctor. I'm going based off after reading people's experiences, listening to every damn expert in the field and my own assumptions. I'm also interested in this topic overall.

1. Initial relief might be a bit of double edged sword. Whenever you start your tapering journey. You are already decided that to want to be off the drug. Assuming your taper isn't catastrophic, you have set expections how you life is going to be when you are done with the drug. That is physiological aspect of it. Biologically speaking it could be due to a less serotonergic pressure. It'swhen people report to be themselves again. Since for most the main effect is blunting...

   Anyway, Then brain realise that drug are missing it has start making changes. So plenty of **** go wrong. Many people for some reason assume its only serotonin being affected. Which is far too simplified.

   A Question would be why does someone can bounce back in 1-3 months, barely experience any wd, and the worst of them all go on for many months before severe wd hit. Or for us people experience protracted withdrawal.

   Therefore temporarily greater dopamine release.

2. Its honestly survivor bias topic. It's plausible that slower adaptations are being made during that time and some symptoms seem to lag behind others. Some changes are not noticeable. Again, doesn't explain why Some recover faster though. So no definitive answer.

3. Don't know. I definitely do not experience that at the moment. Best assumption is downstream effects reaching certain threshold. Main theory by Dr. Mark and others for delayed onset wd. Which happened to me after 6 months.

4. This one is easy. Serotonin is heavily involved in the gut, not just the brain, so SSRIs can change digestion quite a lot. It's one of the biggest side effects of those drugs. When you taper or stop them, the gut also has to readjust because it has adapted to the medication too. That can cause IBS like symptoms

   It alters microbiome. Which type of Bacteria thats affected also depends on the drug. Many people have dysbiosis after wd. From anecdotal perspective. Again, not studied.

5. We don't experience the same symptoms though. Everyone is different in which system get ***** up the most. For reasons we don't know. But as main reason serotonin is involved in sleep, digestion, emotions, anxiety, sexual function, pain, temperature, appetite and the autonomic nervous system. You can get symptoms u have never heard of both physical and physiological. Your whole body, mind and spirit is affected basically. So whatever you get is to the gods to decide.

6. Answered above.

7. The original problem might start from nervous system adaptation, but gut dysfunction could keep feeding into it and make symptoms worse or slower to settle. My assumption. Everyone should treat their gut well regardless of withdrawal. Diet and exercise is a foundation of better body,mind and spirit. I just would not assume everyone with withdrawal has an absorption problem though.

8. I think it is because the nervous system is still changing in the background, even when it feels like nothing is happening.

   A bad wave can be part of another adjustment period. Then once that settles, you sometimes come out of it with a slightly better baseline.

9. Withdrawal is self explanatory.

   Kindling is believed to be more like becoming increasingly sensitive after stops, restarts, big dose changes etc. Basically doing yo-yo with your nervous system. Not established in literature for ssri specifically though. But most of us experience this ****. I sure hell did. Best recommendation would be if you decide to go off the drug forever. Please stick to it.

Edited October 9Oct 9 by Vercis

It seems like there is no recovery, everything is staying exactly the same. Damn this life.

Bye

6 minutes ago, lost4ever said:

It seems like there is no recovery, everything is staying exactly the same. Damn this life.

Bye

remember it's only your wd thought loop, people do heal, those thoughts are false ❣️

you did quit the drug only in May, you have a lot of time for healing with you being off only a bit less than 5 months.

You will heal ❣️

4 hours ago, lost4ever said:

It seems like there is no recovery, everything is staying exactly the same. Damn this life.

Bye

You've only been off a few months and have already had brief periods of symptom relief.

There's a very good chance that you'll recover...

20 hours ago, lost4ever said:

It seems like there is no recovery, everything is staying exactly the same. Damn this life.

Bye

Hang in there. You have only been off a short while. Time is your friend. You will get there. I know it seems impossible atm, but it only feels this way, till it doesn't. Chippy x

I have started sleeping 16 hours a day. I’ve started feeling like bears during their winter hibernation. Unfortunately, I cannot upload a picture of how it looks after waking up—you can search for it.

I don't recognize my own face.

Expansion and contraction of blood vessels are very obvious.

There is no air to breathe, yet I am breathing.

Today, my kidney discovered that has the ability to produce urine. I feel as if I have consumed 20 beers, even though I haven't. The bathroom has become my friend.

A sensation of escaping with thoughts, but there is no desire.

One panic attack .

Today, I completed 5 months without any drugs or supplements.

Dozen of brain zaps

That's all for the last 5 days