The Withdrawal and Damage I Was Never Warned About
Prescribed Paxil at 31 for situational depression, injured twice by withdrawal and akathisia, now tapering Effexor 3–5% every 8–10 weeks after two decades.
Akathisia Stories
First-person accounts of akathisia after starting, changing or stopping a prescribed medication
134 first-person accounts of akathisia linked to antidepressants, benzodiazepine withdrawal, antipsychotics and other prescribed medications. Akathisia is an intense inner restlessness, often with an urge to move, pace or stay in motion. People in these stories describe how it began, how it was first misread, and what the recovery looked like. For the clinical literature, see the akathisia research summary.
Related: Akathisia research · SSRIs · Benzodiazepines · Antipsychotics · Report an adverse event
More story collections: PSSD Stories · Hyperbolic Tapering Stories · All stories
SSRI Turned on Me
On sertraline since high school. After years of tapers and reinstatements, a 2026 dose increase brought insomnia, mild akathisia, and adrenaline surges. Now stuck.
Akathisia Hell
Paxil and Klonopin from 2005 to 2007. Coming off to try for a baby brought akathisia so severe she barricaded herself in a room to stay safe.
How Am I Still Alive
A one-week Xanax taper sent me into akathisia and a psychiatric ward. 25 months into a slow taper, I don't know how I'm still alive.
Akathisia or Akathisia-Like Symptoms: Hydroxyzine
After one dose of hydroxyzine I developed unbearable restlessness. I paced for hours a day through the most excruciating year of my life.
6 Months of Hell
After 25 years on SSRIs I tapered off with my doctor's guidance. Six months of panic, akathisia, and suicidal ideation forced me back on.
Latuda Caused Immediate Akathisia During Pregnancy
Switched to Latuda in my second trimester, I developed full-body akathisia almost immediately. My psychiatrist didn't even know the term.
I tried 4 times to get off these meds and almost died
After four attempts to come off SSRIs and SNRIs over two decades, akathisia and severe withdrawal nearly ended my life. Now five years free.
A Healthcare Provider's Account of Long-Term Antidepressant Use and Withdrawal Injury
A nurse practitioner who once prescribed psychotropics describes how 22 years on antidepressants led to akathisia, miscarriage, and protracted withdrawal.
(Akathisia) Risperidone 4mg 12/25 TERRIBLE EFFECTS
After a single 4mg dose of Risperidone for psychiatric symptoms, akathisia and extreme discomfort lasted 16+ hours. Sent home from work, dumped the rest.
US Navy Veteran and the Price of Asking For Help
I'm a US Navy veteran. I've been a professional psychiatric patient for 33 years on 19 psychiatric meds plus 28 more for the side effects. I asked for help and lost everything.
Motherhood Interrupted
Postpartum panic from a copper IUD led to Zoloft, then Seroquel, Lamotrigine, Abilify. After 12 years and a brutal taper, I gave birth to a healthy boy in 2025.
Neurological Damage from SSRIs / Living In a Nightmare
12 years on Paxil, then a doctor told me to stop cold turkey and start Prozac in 3 days. I now live with irreversible neurological damage 5 years off.
My Mom's Story
My mom has been sent from doctor to doctor for 5 years, prescribed drug after drug. Lexapro, Bupropion, Abilify, Pristiq, Zoloft, Prozac, Wellbutrin, Lithium and more.
Love Beth, my sister Beth Winter story about how she died from Paxil
My sister Beth was prescribed Paxil after a 5-minute visit for anxiety and mild insomnia. She hung herself 7 days later. She was not depressed.
Completely lost my ability to feel joy, got permanent tinnitus, got my metabolism ruined and spent my 20s being disabled from severe anxiety and OCD
Sertraline at 16, olanzapine added at 18. By 30 I had reversed the metabolic damage with keto, but I'm still on the SSRI and still anhedonic.
Numbness at 29
I was emotionally and sexually castrated at 29 by Lexapro for stress while in law school. 14 years later, my husband never met the real me.
A new level of discomfort brought me here
After 10 years of polypharmacy for bipolar, I lost count of the jobs I lost. My cognitive functions are slipping. I just stopped 150mg Wellbutrin overnight.
Nightmares
Forced onto Invega antipsychotic for what was actually my internal monologue, not voices. The auditory hallucinations during withdrawal felt like a haunting.
No story
7 years after one drug, the NHS still refuses to treat me. I've lost two businesses. The Maudsley Centre is fighting to take my care.
Benzodiazepine and Antidepressant Harm
Nefazodone 25+ years, Klonopin 30+ years. Cut from 200mg to 75mg in 2 weeks. Lost my husband, home, and son. Trapped bedbound, reactive to water and food.
Flung off a cliff into hell
Sertraline at 25 for mild anxiety, including through 3 pregnancies. 17 years later I came off and slowly unraveled into 14 months of terror and akathisia.
Problem with Akathisia
Postpartum psychosis after my 11th child. Abilify at 15mg gave me akathisia. A 5mg dose later caused uncontrollable lip smacking. Off the antipsychotic now and stable.
I Just Wanted to Sleep — A Poet and Fitness Coach's Life Unraveled by Medication
Lyme and mold illness led to insomnia, then mirtazapine, gabapentin, benzos. A 6-week taper has left me with severe akathisia, daily suicidality, and destroyed sleep.
One Pill Brain Injury
I was a working mental health therapist. After one pill of Lexapro, I woke up with what felt like 56 neurological symptoms. Years later I'm still not fully healed.
A three-year journey through SSRI withdrawal
Five years on Citalopram, then a slow taper triggered visual snow, daily panic, tinnitus, and a four-year recovery. Eventually, our rainbow baby.
I can often barely see
Trapped looking up at the ceiling because of the antipsychotic Clopixol. Without medication I'm a little hypomanic; with it I'm literally disabled.
Effexor Survivor 12 years clean!
6.5 years on 225mg of Effexor. Tapered in 1.5 months. The first day fully off, I could see, smell and hear better and thought: what was I just on?
My experience of antipsychotics and misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder
Every antipsychotic I've tried sent me down the same path: akathisia, parkinsonism, full psychosis. Lumateperone was the worst. Now starting an MAOI.
Everything changed after just one pill
This all started after only 1 dose of Celexa. Never took it again. I am really ill because of this still 1 year later. Please do not ever take an SSRI.
A series of incompetence
Zoloft for stress. It caused panic attacks, so they doubled the dose. Then Lexapro. Within two weeks I was suicidal with akathisia, misdiagnosed as anxiety.
A Life Destroyed
I was put on the contraceptive pill at 14 for bad PMT. Twenty-seven years on psych meds and six neurological injuries later, I'm fighting to recover.
Sprovato Saved My Stepson After Sertraline Almost Took Him
My 23-year-old stepson Jonathan attempted suicide in November 2025 after being switched off Prozac. Esketamine has done what years of SSRIs couldn't.
Olanzapine Hell
I had long COVID and was bedridden. They polydrugged me, then I tried to get off Zyprexa too fast. Now I'm stuck, anhedonic, and afraid I have brain damage.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Diagnosed with "General Anxiety Disorder" in a 5-minute conversation. Six years later, coming off was a 3-month nightmare of body shocks, doom, and brain zaps.
The Patient Pharmacy Complex
I admitted myself to a psychiatric hospital after a drug-induced psychosis. Years of SSRIs and SNRIs followed. Ten years on, I'm just now recovering.
Harmed by Low Dose Abilify
I was prescribed low-dose Abilify for ME/CFS. After healing through carnivore diet and quitting cold turkey, I became bedridden again. Doctors said the ME was back.
SNRIs 100% ruined my life
Prescribed Venlafaxine 225mg as a 15-year-old. Came off to start a family and ended up with akathisia, panic attacks, and ER visits. A year later, semi-functional.
Life Altering
I was prescribed Effexor and put on 25kg, drinking and smoking marijuana to cope. By day 4 of tapering 300mg over 3 months, I was sending psychotic emails. PTSD lasted years.
Sero-Hell
Injured by psych meds from 2000 to 2014 on a bipolar 2 misdiagnosis. Tapered off using a 10% schedule. Then thyroid cancer and amitriptyline brought everything back.
My Stolen Life After Accutane (Isotretinoin)
I took 20mg of Isotretinoin for just over 3 months in August 2021. Weeks later, the side effects began. Years later they continue: joint pain, hair loss, tinnitus, anhedonia.
Medication Injury After Med Changes and Withdrawal
Before all of this, I was stable and living a full life. I was an artist. In October 2025, Lamictal was introduced. By December, I developed severe adverse effects including akathisia, DPDR, and intense anxiety. My condition became so severe that I was placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold.
Benzo and Opioid Addiction
I was a secondary caretaker for my mother who was prescribed Valium for years, setting the stage for general antidepressant addiction going into her 80s. Any attempt to taper off caused severe withdrawals. Toward the end, she wanted to crawl out of her skin with anxiety and pain.
Neurological Injury (BIND or Protracted Withdrawal) from Xanax
I was prescribed a low dose of Xanax for depression, then the dose was increased to 3 mg. I developed interdose withdrawal, became suicidal, and when I tried to stop, an inadequate one-week Librium taper led to akathisia and an ER visit where I was treated as drug-seeking.
A Doctor's Prescription Pad and Knowledge Ruined Me
I went from a 3.75 GPA occupational therapy student, a good dad and husband, to being polydrugged on seven different medications, involuntarily transported to a behavioral health unit, and left with long-term neurological damage. It's now two years off all meds and I'm maybe 20% improved.
A Journey Through Fire and Back to Herself
After an abrupt cold-turkey from Prozac, I suffered a delayed explosion of symptoms. Doctors restarted me on 60 mg Prozac and added Klonopin. When I stopped the Klonopin four weeks later, I went to three ERs in 24 hours and no one recognized benzodiazepine withdrawal. They injected me with 6 mg of Ativan in one day.
12 Years of Akathisia with No End in Sight
What started as Effexor for depression turned into a decade of protracted withdrawal misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia. After cold-turkeying Cymbalta brought homicidal thoughts, and a three-year bead-by-bead Effexor taper, I've had akathisia for 12 years and counting.
Vraylar, the Devil in a Pill
After two days on Vraylar, I could not sit still and my skin was crawling. By the fourth day I had uncontrollable eating. Four weeks in, I had gained over 40 pounds and developed tics. My psychiatrist told me to keep taking it.
Brief Relief and a Lifetime of Grief: A Young Mother's Story of Losing It All
I went from being a loving stay-at-home mom and wife to divorced and signing a custody agreement of every other weekend, no child support, no alimony. I never abused the drug. I had relief from anxiety for the first time in my life, but it came with a cost. I lost everything.
4 Years of Living Hell
Following a Covid infection, I was prescribed benzodiazepines for insomnia. What followed was 4.5 years of hell: 14 hospitalizations across four countries, 50+ doctors, polymedication, harm-OCD, psychosis, and involuntary distress vocalizations lasting up to 7 hours daily for three years.
I Just Wanted to Sleep
What started as a short-term solution for severe insomnia turned into years of being polymedicated. A six-week taper off mirtazapine, far too fast, has left me with the most severe, life-altering insomnia imaginable, daily suicidality, and severe akathisia.
I Thought I Was Crazy
After tapering off SSRIs before trying to get pregnant, I kept blaming the angst on hormones. Then I heard Mikhaila's story and fireworks went off in my head. The fog, the dread, the light sensitivity, the vertigo — it all finally made sense.
The Gabapentin Nightmare
I was prescribed gabapentin for long Covid neuropathy. After stopping cold turkey on Christmas Day 2021, I experienced myoclonic jerks, suicidal thoughts, insomnia, and akathisia. Almost four years later, I still deal with issues daily. My story on Mad in America has over 215,000 views.
Dystonic Reaction
While at the ER for an anxiety attack, the doctor gave me prochlorperazine for nausea. Within 30 minutes my tongue started darting randomly in my mouth. Days later my eyes were constantly moving upward by themselves and my teeth were clenching hard. The 911 responders were unsurprised.
Gabapentin Took My Husband and My Kids' Father
My husband John was a PE teacher, basketball coach, and present dad. He was prescribed gabapentin for sciatic nerve pain after back surgery. Since then, he has lived in utter darkness in a chair or bed 24/7 with his eyes closed, unable to tolerate any stimulation. He has seen his children once for 20 minutes in the last five months.
Living Hell
I was put on an SSRI as a teen and stayed on it for about 15 years. In 2023, my GP in the UK told me to “taper” over a week or two. What followed was hell on earth—I was unable to function, suicidal, with severe brain zaps and insomnia. I was getting about two hours of sleep a night. I ended up polydrugged on two more medications, then went through another cold turkey experience. I found Dr Mark Horowitz’s work, did my own research, and fought for liquid formulations so I could taper slowly. It’s going to take years.
A Medically Induced Hell on Earth
I was prescribed high-dose combination benzodiazepines from approximately 2002 to 2012. When I became unwell in late 2011, my GP said I was fine. In May 2012, two days before my 40th birthday, I was sectioned and admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of mental illness—despite presenting with severe physical symptoms. My long-term benzodiazepine use was not recognised. A duty doctor suspected toxicity but was ignored. I was detained for nearly two years, during which no meaningful investigation into the physical cause was undertaken. The lead psychiatrist later acknowledged that my benzodiazepine prescription explained my condition.
Gabapentin and Never Got Back to “Normal”
In 2024, I admitted myself into treatment for alcohol use disorder. They prescribed me 300mg of gabapentin three times a day for anxiety. I took it for about six to seven months, then tapered off. What followed was severe insomnia where I couldn’t go to work, akathisia lasting over a year, panic attacks so bad I had to wear a heart monitor, severe tinnitus, and debilitating fatigue that still exists to this day. No one would believe me that gabapentin would do this, and they still don’t.
Childhood Perverted by Psychiatrics
Ever since I was old enough to have a temper tantrum, I would do so. Instead of realising it’s normal for a young boy to not want to sit in a classroom for eight hours, my psychiatrist convinced my parents I had a chemical imbalance. After many different medications, I was given Ritalin at around age eight. Within a month, something flipped in my head. I didn’t know where I was or who my family was. I had a pseudo seizure and spent three months in the hospital. I’m 23 now. All of my emotional instability disappeared after a year of no pharmaceuticals.
A Long Walk Home
After being on an antipsychotic for 15 years, I was placed on escitalopram for a few months without being fully informed that it caused suicidal tendencies. In the early hours of January 13, 2025, after undergoing a period of dissociative and depersonalising suicidal thought, I walked to my local petrol station, bought fuel, poured it on myself, and set myself alight. I was airlifted to a burns hospital where I spent 16 days in a coma and had to learn to eat, walk, and talk again. Since then I have come off all psychiatric medications and I’m finishing my degree.
A Decade on Antipsychotics: Finding My Way Back
I was 21 when I was hospitalised during a time of distress and told I had schizophrenia. For over a decade I lived under that diagnosis, taking antipsychotic medication. Three years ago, my psychiatrist said words I never expected to hear: “I’m so sorry. I think you have OCD, not schizophrenia.” By then I had been on antipsychotics for so long that coming off them has felt almost impossible. In one appointment during tapering, my blood pressure surged to 190/145. I now live with metabolic syndrome and cognitive difficulties. I am still finding my way back to myself.
Finding Hope from Years of Suffering
I was on my honeymoon when this took place, Mexico 2009. I had been on Paxil, Zoloft, and Effexor due to my OCD and anxiety. We both blacked out that night. I woke up the next day and had this immediate thought I wanted to jump off the balcony. Something was wrong in my thinking and in my body. I still have never fully recovered.
Monkey's Story: The Battle We Never Saw Coming
This is the story of my daughter, Justine, my "Monkey," and the long, painful medical journey that took years to understand. She went from a brilliant physicist with a PhD to struggling with basic Grade 10-level concepts. Not because her intelligence was gone, but because her brain was overwhelmed, altered, and suppressed.
Worst Time of My Life
In June of 2008, my doctor prescribed me 50mg sertraline and 1mg clonazepam. I stayed on this prescription for 14 years. In May of 2022, his office cancelled my appointment and told me they didn't have a doctor to see me. I only had a couple weeks of medication left. What followed was the worst time of my life.
Bethan
Life was difficult but easier with Effexor for the first six months until side effects started. Eventually I tried to withdraw but it made me scream and pain tore through me. Years later I tried sertraline and Vyvanse but my health has collapsed. I cannot work, exercise, or communicate always.
Droperidol Hell
The anaesthetist said, "I have the best drug for you," and administered Droperidol for nausea. It is an antipsychotic, something I would never have agreed to take. Within 10 to 15 minutes I felt a rising agitation, could no longer sit there, had to move. By the time I got home I was in a state I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
Latuda Hell
I ended up on Latuda for two years or more. It left me so indifferent towards life and so anhedonic that I hadn't got the motivation to even try to get off it. I dreaded having to sleep, so I would stay awake for 24 hours often enough to be sure I was so drained that I could get to sleep before the side effects kicked in.
On the Frontlines of Medical Misinformation
I was first diagnosed with severe postpartum depression after my last child. Then, ten years later, my diagnosis changed to schizoaffective disorder because every time I try to taper, symptoms reoccur within about six months. I never dreamt this would be my life, constantly medicated and living under a stigma.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
I was first treated for anxiety and depression at around 12 years old. Over the years I've been on Lexapro, Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Effexor, and Cymbalta. They did seem to help with my mood, but at the same time I felt constantly nauseous, numb, and like I wanted to rip my skin off. It was this unbearable internal agitation that made it feel impossible to sit in my own body.
I Would Rather Be Depressed, Sad and Anxious
After 4 months of Lexapro, I went cold turkey. I experienced what I call a cognitive collapse. I lost my memory, my life story, my identity, my personality, my ability to read, watch TV, and think complex thoughts. I am 16 months medication free and not a single of these issues has improved.
Forced Medication Destroyed My Life
After a stress-induced panic attack, I was hospitalized and forced to take medication against my will. I have chronic akathisia, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, suicidal ideation, and loss of identity. I live in a constant 24/7 state of fear and panic.
Hanging On by a Thread
For over twenty-five years I've lived on antidepressants. This past year, swallowing them became impossible. I went cold turkey and was off of them for seven months. The withdrawal was hell, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, dissociation, and delusions of grandeur.
Involuntary Internment and Akathisia Hell
A court-ordered involuntary internment was issued against me in September 2021 and I was taken by force to a hospital. I was given medications by force. About 1 month later I developed what I would call akathisia. I was completely unable to function or concentrate on anything for more than a year. Just pure suffering.
SSRI Injuries
From the first dose, my anxiety started to spike. At 6 weeks my doctor doubled my dose. Then I had out-of-body experiences where I couldn't control my actions. I saw 17 different therapists and was put on several SSRIs, experiencing injury on every single medication.
Our Ongoing Horror Story
I am an 85-year-old caregiver to my son. He is 54 years old and in terrible ongoing trauma and still suffering horrific daily symptoms, the worst being inner akathisia, anhedonia, and insomnia. Suicidal thoughts are daily, his children being the only thing preventing him from acting.
Akathisia Made Me the Opposite of Myself
One pill of Zoloft gave me akathisia. From making jokes with my husband and zero depression at 10 PM to impulsively suicidal and in terror at 4 AM. They drugged me with 14 different psych meds, each of which worsened my akathisia. It took me five years to get to 95% healed.
An Adverse Reaction That Changed My Life
After just four weeks on Prozac, I woke in the middle of the night with an intense, unrelenting ache in my right arm. My anxiety surged. I was completely incapacitated, rocking back and forth, sobbing, begging for the torture to stop. Two years later, I am living with what appears to be protracted withdrawal.
Insidious Psych Meds
I was prescribed lorazepam for an acute panic episode. I lost complete control of my body and it felt like I had a clamp on my brain. Luckily a mental health nurse recognized it because her mother had gone through it. I tried escitalopram multiple times and each time it caused suicidal ideation.
Benzos and My Recovery
I started with lorazepam and eventually switched to clonazepam to taper off. I took six months to taper from half a mg. I am now 22 months off clonazepam and still dealing with neurological damage. I am not healed.
When Treatment Becomes the Illness
I was prescribed Sertraline for situational panic attacks following a house fire and remained on it for approximately 13 years. When I eventually came off through a rapid taper, what followed was not a return of my original symptoms but the onset of something far more severe. I developed over 30 debilitating symptoms including severe akathisia, widespread neurological disturbances, and prolonged insomnia. Instead of recognising withdrawal, I was cycled through 11 different psychiatric drugs in six months. I have lost my career, my house, my friends, and much of my independence.
My Seroxat Nightmare: Withdrawal, Rage, and Meetings with the MHRA
I was prescribed Seroxat (paroxetine) in the late 1990s for work-related stress and pain, and stayed on it for six years at 40mg. It never fixed the underlying problem—it numbed me emotionally, stole my empathy, and turned me into an agitated, angry version of myself. My 19-month taper was gruelling, and when I eventually went cold turkey, the withdrawal was absolute hell: brain zaps, violent urges, suicidal ideation, and sleep paralysis. I turned that pain into advocacy—a published book, a blog with nearly 4.5 million hits, and meetings with the MHRA that exposed how little regulators were willing to act.
Madisyn Took Her Life After an Adverse Reaction to Lexapro, Lorazepam, and Pregabalin
My daughter Madisyn Solomon died by suicide at the age of 27 in Kitchener, Ontario, on April 13, 2021. She had sought help from her family doctor for alcohol use after losing her best friend. In a ten-minute phone appointment, he prescribed Lorazepam and Lexapro. She was hospitalised two weeks later for an adverse reaction—suicidal ideation caused by the drugs. Despite this, the doctors continued prescribing. We were never told to watch for suicidal ideation. The drugs the doctors gave her to help caused the very thing that killed her.
Metabolic Recovery from Mental Illness
From 2016 to 2018, I had four hospitalisations for manic psychosis. I was on five medications at high doses and still could not get stable. In June 2021, I started a ketogenic diet based on the work of Dr. Chris Palmer at Harvard. Within months, my manic episodes stopped entirely. Over seven years I tapered off benzodiazepines, an antipsychotic, a mood stabiliser, and lithium. I suffered a serious withdrawal injury from an overly aggressive anticonvulsant taper, but the metabolic foundation I had built kept my bipolar symptoms from returning. Five years into a strict ketogenic and now carnivore diet, I have had no mood instability and no hospitalisations.
My Daughter Died by Suicide on 20+ Medications
My daughter Mona Daniella died by suicide on September 26, 2016. She was a brilliant student, always in high honours, and a published author by the age of 10. She was misdiagnosed with BPD at McLean Hospital and prescribed a cascade of medications—Lithium, Fluvoxamine, Seroquel, Klonopin, Prozac, Zyprexa, and many more. When she first went to McLean, she was fully functional. After treatment, she was unable to even comb her hair. Subsequent facilities added still more drugs, many prescribed via text without an in-person assessment. The day before her death, she had slurred speech and uncontrollable leg shaking.
The Akathisia Torture Chamber
Akathisia is a sentence to a living hell prescribed by doctors who will do everything in their power to gaslight you over the torture chamber you have found yourself in. It is like having an exorcism 24 hours a day, seven days a week, combined with pouring hot oil into every muscle and fibre of your body while depriving you of sleep. There is no escaping it. The fact that I didn’t blow my brains out is a miracle—and I only suffered this for two weeks. There are people who suffer for years.
Survival Instincts Pathologized
I told the psychiatrist my life was in shambles because of an abusive partner and the trauma of losing my kids—but those stressors were ignored. Instead, I was labeled bipolar and put on up to eight pills at once for over two years. I was forced to quit my four-year career. Six months off the meds, my gallbladder has failed and I’m now dealing with MCAS.
‘A Powerful Embrace’
I was started on an SSRI nearly 30 years ago while training as an NHS psychiatrist. I have been unable to discontinue it, however slowly I taper. Severe withdrawal symptoms including akathisia and suicidality led to hospitalisation in 2005, multiple psychotropics, and eventually ECT—which caused severe biographical memory loss. I returned to work as an NHS psychiatrist for older adults, but have faced gaslighting and stigma from the profession I gave 25 years to for speaking publicly about these harms.
Lifelong Rollercoaster
I am a 51 year old trying to get off of medication that has kept me in chains since the age of 14, when Prozac was marketed as the latest and greatest medicine for chemical brain imbalance. I was not suicidal until going on Prozac, but while on it I had my first attempt. This would be the beginning of decades of polypharmacy involving over 20–30 medications.
Psychosis from Wellbutrin
I was prescribed Wellbutrin a few years ago while trying to get sober. After about 4 months I started seeing and hearing things. Eventually during Christmas 2023 I had a full psychotic break. I had to research myself that this medication could cause all of this. I had no history of psychosis, ever, with anyone in my family either.
Unheard: My Experience with Antipsychotics and Persistent Side Effects
I am a 23-year-old from Nepal. In April 2023 I was diagnosed with a single episode of psychosis and prescribed olanzapine. I developed severe sexual side effects that never resolved, along with IBS and insomnia. I was forcibly hospitalized after developing suicidal thoughts due to PSSD. There is no psychiatrist who would listen to me in a third world country like Nepal.
COVID Hysteria-Induced Anxiety
When I got COVID in Jan 2021, after continuously hearing all of the horrible stories, it led to extreme anxiety. I went to the ER 5 times within a 2 week time period. Each time except 1 they gave me an IV of Ativan or similar. In this short period of time I developed akathisia. Only after I saw a video of Dr. Jordan Peterson talking about his akathisia did it make sense.
The Many Harrowing Personal Accounts Submitted for Our Scottish Parliament Petition
I am the named petitioner for our Scottish Petition 2017–2021. This is an important resource—a formally published collection of harrowing personal written submissions from people in many countries. We also submitted this to a UK Parliament Committee in 2023.
“I Put Your Foot on This Path”
I had trialed over 20 psych meds during the 10 years prior to my iatrogenic injury. After a 4 month taper off my last med, I started vomiting every day and was admitted to a psych ward for severe suicidal ideation. For 2 years I lived homebound in a constant state of torture. 7 years later in 2026, I finally got granted full SSA Disability.
Akathisia — An Unimaginable Hell
I decided to go off 30 years on venlafaxine when I learned the “low serotonin myth” had been debunked. My med provider tapered me off in 6 weeks after 30 years. The brain zaps started within 24 hours. I ended up in the ER in horrific pain, unable to stand for more than 15 minutes at a time. I thought about suicide every day. I didn’t know it was humanly possible to feel that horrible.
Almost Had It All
It started with Reglan. I didn’t even have a migraine—I had extreme nausea from a counterfeit batch of Botox in 2023. I went to the emergency room seeking help, and instead I was given Reglan, trazodone, and Zoloft. I didn’t know my strong reaction to Reglan was called akathisia. I developed visual snow syndrome and lost everything I’d worked my whole life for.
Living Protracted.
I am two months away from twelve years off all psychotropic medication. Yet I remain housebound. Over twenty years, these drugs didn’t heal me; they dismantled me. Almost twelve years later, I am still crawling my way back. It is the loneliest, most humanely painful experience a person can be subjected to, but I am still here.
Trapped on Olanzapine
I was told I’d only need olanzapine for 12 months and that getting off would be easy. After multiple failed abrupt tapers, I became stuck on the drug for 7–8 years. I was eventually diagnosed with a mild cognitive impairment and given a geriatrician referral at just 41 years old.
Citalopram Cold Turkey
I was given a prescription for citalopram after a miscarriage and redundancy. Six years later, when my chemist stopped opening on Saturdays, I ended up going cold turkey at Christmas. Three weeks later I was hit with severe anxiety, panic attacks, and activation syndrome. The NHS doesn’t have a clue about withdrawal or tapering.
4 Years of Suffering
I was prescribed 20 mg of Lexapro at age 24 for presentation anxiety at university. I stayed on it for 7 years because I couldn’t stop due to withdrawal symptoms, which I didn’t even know existed at the time. Now, four years after stopping, I am left with a severe, lasting injury. Our lives matter too.
How Am I Still Alive
In my twenties I went to my GP after experiencing situational anxiety for my final exams at University. After just one consult I got prescribed Cymbalta and was told I’d be on meds for life. Fast forward ten years, my doctor took me off everything cold turkey. I went from a highly successful C-level executive to someone who lost his marriage, house, and job.
Disabled by SNRI/SSRI and Medical Trauma
Before I took antidepressants I had some mild to moderate anxiety but I was very functional. I am now disabled, had to stop working, move back in with my parents and live in severe and chronic pain due to antidepressant withdrawal. The doctor tapered me off Pristiq in 2 weeks after being on it for almost a year.
Clomipramine Took My Youth and My Life
I was prescribed clomipramine for OCD when I was 20 years old. This drug ruined my life for eight years. When my psychiatrist took me off a very high dose with a three-month “taper,” I went into acute withdrawal. I’m now 90% bedridden with horrifying symptoms, at risk of homelessness—all because I wanted off this terrible drug.
My Benzo Hell Testimony
I never took any meds. She diagnosed me with a sleep problem and prescribed Temazepam. 85 pills over six months destroyed my life. I’m now 72, in my 6th setback, living 24/7 mental and physical torture.
Benzo Hell- 6 Years and Counting
At 20 years old, a 15-minute appointment led to a Xanax prescription that escalated to 8 mg/day in 5 months. After quitting cold turkey in detox, she experienced psychosis, hallucinations, and 6 years of ongoing withdrawal.
My medical nightmare!
After 15 years on 30 mg Valium for chronic pain, I was taken off cold turkey when the CDC added a black box warning. Multiple seizures, 4 years homebound, misdiagnosed with Parkinson’s, lost my marriage, my business, and nearly my life.
26 years and counting
Prescribed clonazepam in the late 90s for bladder pain, I took it only as prescribed for over 25 years. Now at 64, I’ve had to move away from my husband of 45 years because I can’t tolerate noise or stress while tapering.
Stories from Hundreds of Cymbalta Tapering Group Members
A compilation of testimonials from over 45,000 members of the Facebook Group “Cymbalta Hurts Worse” over the last 13 years — documenting bad tapers, cold turkey experiences, and the devastating symptoms that follow.
A polypharmacy Nightmare, Medical Gaslighting reality, to taking things to my own hands and using whatever resources I have to try and claim the 18 year old kid back.
A cold-turkey withdrawal from Flupentixol/Melitracen led to 30 days of total insomnia and constant DPDR. What followed was a polypharmacy nightmare of Clonazepam, antipsychotics, and paradoxical reactions — still tapering years later.
Medical Ruin
After an adverse reaction to Ciprofloxacin that nobody could diagnose for 2 years, I was prescribed a cocktail of antidepressants, benzos, and antipsychotics. The ensuing harm was catastrophic. I am now an emotionless wreck with a body I don’t recognise.
The Benzo Badlands
Prescribed antidepressants and benzodiazepines from the age of 11 instead of psychological treatment. Cold turkeyed off Xanax at 22 — 3.5 months of vomiting, akathisia, constant terror. Now 3.5 months benzo-free and still fighting.
Disabled by finasteride.
I took finasteride for one month two years ago. My genitals, bones, muscles, gut, skin, vision, and hearing have all been devastated. I lost two inches of height. I haven’t been able to leave my house since I crashed.
From Paxil to Forced Electroshock: The Prescribing Cascade Nobody Warned Me About
Put on Paxil at 19, I tapered off and became suicidal — no one recognized it as withdrawal. What followed was two suicide attempts, forced ECT 16 times, years on disability, and decades lost. I finished tapering in 2024, now in my 40s.
When Antidepressants Took My Life Away & How I Took It Back
Prescribed paroxetine in 2008 after a few-minute consultation, I spent a decade on over a dozen drugs. Six years of protracted withdrawal and PSSD followed. Eight years later, I’ve fully regained myself and now help others.
PSSD took my life away from me
From age 19, I was cycled through Lexapro, Effexor, Zoloft, Pristiq, Seroquel, and Cymbalta. Each one made me worse. Now off everything for over a year, I have genital numbness, severe emotional blunting, and can no longer feel love.
PSSD - living hell
I have survived a brain tumour, hydrocephalus, two brain surgeries, and radiotherapy. PSSD is, by far, the worst thing I have ever experienced. After a ten minute consultation and one prescription, my life was altered forever.
Akathisia
At 21, I got akathisia from a stemetil IV but didn’t know what it was. For almost 3 decades I was medicated. In 2024 I was crashed off Lexapro and landed in severe acute akathisia for 8 months with 100+ symptoms. I’m 49 now.
A Poisoned Life
In 2017, at age 57, the bomb went off after 4 pills of Levaquin. I turned bright red, felt like a spike was in my brain, micro tears in my tendons, hallucinations, and became so painfully toxic — death would be a welcome relief.
Life derailed by Wellbutrin
I took 150mg Wellbutrin for only 7 days for ADHD. I developed almost complete loss of sexual function, DP/DR, emotional blunting, akathisia, and more. Over 4 years later, I still face many of these symptoms.
Severely Harmed by Effexor Withdrawal
I missed one dose of Effexor and experienced severe headaches, dizziness, and nausea for three months. During a hyperbolic taper, my nervous system destabilized causing terror-level anxiety, akathisia, and insomnia. I almost took my life.
Duloxetine Triggered Shingles Which Triggered Encephalitis
I was put on Cymbalta for neuropathy. After they doubled my dose, I got shingles and became a zombie. After years of fighting with doctors, I’m confident I had encephalitis from shingles that was triggered by Cymbalta. I am now permanently disabled and have to use a wheelchair and walker.
Most Traumatic Time of My Life
I was prescribed an antidepressant when I was experiencing a domestic violence situation. I used it for over 25 years. When I decided to come off I had no idea what was coming. I was virtually bedridden for about 3 months. I developed akathisia, I was suicidal, I had brain zaps. It was the most horrific experience of my life.
Tapering for 8 Years and Still Going
In the early 2000’s I was prescribed an SSRI for panic attacks. In 2022, stopping at what doctors think is crumbs at 2mg, I went into severe akathisia. I was bedridden, agoraphobic and lived in sheer terror. Psychiatrists said it was anxiety and kept prescribing more pills. I am still tapering.
Living with BIND
I was on a benzo for 15 years, rapid tapered then cold turkey extremely fast. It almost killed me with a grand mal seizure and a plethora of other horrible things. I’ve been off for 7 years now but still struggle with horrible symptoms.
Paroxetine Withdrawal Hell
I was prescribed paroxetine over 27 years ago. My GP advised me to miss doses to taper. Shortly after, my blood pressure rose to 235—a hypertensive crisis. I developed burning skin, limb jerks, nerve pain, and akathisia. I have totally lost faith in the medical profession.
Seroquel Lobotomy
I was prescribed low dose Seroquel off label for sleep and was not told how this was a dangerous antipsychotic. After just 2 low doses I had an adverse reaction which has left me with total emotional numbing, unrelenting anhedonia, and a blank mind for 9 years.
Teen Life Ruined by SSRI
I was given SSRIs for 6 months at age 17 while in perfect health. After cold turkeying off, I went from a bright, active teen excelling at school and sports to being bedridden and unable to read, write, or feel emotions.
RN Experiencing Severe Lexapro Withdrawal
I started Lexapro at 22 after one panic attack as a new ICU nurse. Years later I was losing my memory, couldn’t focus, and felt nothing. Three years into tapering, my entire life has been derailed — and I still have two years to go.
SSRI Since Childhood
Started on an SSRI at 12 for anxiety and was never told when or how to stop. Every attempt to quit as an adult failed due to severe withdrawal. Now trapped trying to taper off amitriptyline with akathisia, insomnia, and suicidal ideation.
PSSD Within a Month. A Descent Into Hell
Cymbalta for 3 days, then Nortriptyline for 3 weeks. PSSD hit instantly — complete chemical castration and genital numbness. Then came the anhedonia, cognitive dysfunction, and chronic akathisia. Over two years later, symptoms persist.
The Cost of Trusting the System
What began as routine medical care evolved into a cascade of unintended consequences. Severe akathisia, electrical agitation, chronic head pain, and GI distress — my body in a continuous state of distress without relief. I was never warned.
Harmed by Forced Abilify Injections
I was forced to receive monthly Abilify injections after hospitalization. Severe akathisia, cognitive impairment, emotional blunting, and anhedonia hit almost immediately. The adverse effects have persisted even after stopping.
SSRI/SNRI Toxicity Induced Brain Injury
Put on citalopram at 18 for 9 years, then switched to Effexor. Cold turkey led to an electrical neurological brain injury. Reinstating and tapering caused even more harm. 9 years taken by iatrogenic drug damage.
Just One Pill Destroyed My Life
One SSRI pill gave me numb genitals, no emotions, and insomnia within an hour. Years later I’m left with PSSD, survived akathisia that nearly killed me, and developed alcoholism just to cope. PSSD is not dose-dependent.
Escitalopram/Lexapro — A Life Ruined by PSSD
Prescribed 5mg Lexapro for a minor issue. Less than six weeks on the drug, and ten years later I still have complete anhedonia, tinnitus, vision issues, and full sexual dysfunction. These drugs should simply not be legal.