Symptoms: Akathisia, Brain zaps, Emotional blunting, Sexual dysfunction, Cognitive impairment, Insomnia, Depersonalization/Derealization, Suicidal ideation, Neuropathy, Severe anxiety/panic, Muscle/joint pain, Anhedonia, GI disturbances
I am from Chennai, India. Was prescribed alprazolam in the ER for just high BP issue, where I went and they told it's an anxiety attack as I was unable to breathe properly. And then on prescription cascade from cardiologist where I said having palpitations and nauseous in morning, and again an escitalopram was prescribed which induced severe SI thoughts, and then on moved to another psychiatrist who prescribed escitalopram, amisulpride and clonazepam at 20 mg, 50 mg and 0.25 mg dosages for close to 6 months, and then switched over to fluoxetine and got SI thoughts with severe urges and stopped after 3 days of taking, prescribed by another doctor along with clonazepam 0.5 mg, and then again another visit to another doctor landed on fluvoxamine at varying doses from 50 mg to 200 mg and again amisulpride 25 mg and pregabalin 25, and then clonazepam at 0.5 which I was on for 2 years, and reduced clonazepam to 0.25 mg, and then cross-tapered to diazepam on August 2024, and reduced using Ashton Manual every 1 mg every 40 days, and at last stopped benzo on Feb 2025.
And it's almost now 1.5 years, and around August 2025 started taper of SSRI from 100 mg fluvoxamine controlled release, and around April 2026 was on controlled release 75 mg, all went well and suddenly setback came after changing to immediate release 75 mg fluvoxamine. Got severe nausea, severe SI thoughts and severe panic attacks for just 3 days, and again reinstated controlled release after these formulation change and brand change, still stabilizing where sleep is so much disrupted, every day SI thoughts, severe morning anxiety all through the day and only evenings felt good.
At one point they labeled me with OCD which was not right, and all intrusive thoughts are from psych medication induced withdrawal.
These drugs have ruined my life, and parenting of my twin sons is hard. I am fighting just to get through a single day, and I want to still live for my twin sons only.
Here's a link to a podcast with Melissa: https://youtu.be/SF9Q8M61nRY