Can I quit depression medicines in between the long-procedural treatment?

Are you taking anti-depressant medicines for a long time? What do you think about your medicines? Do you have the gut feeling that you are okay now? Do you think that you should stop taking anti-depressant medicines?

Sometimes, it may feel like you no longer need antidepressant medicines. This can be because you feel a change in the level of your feelings. But, for the sake of your health, you must stick to the procedure being scheduled by your doctor. If you think that you must quit the depression medicines, you must talk to your doctor at least once. He/she may tell you the plan of action and may give you light doses to stop the effect of antidepressant medicines on your body. However, if you or anyone you know is going through adverse depression effects, you can talk to the experts of Signature Hospital.

Anti-depression medicines and related facts

• Antidepressant medicines help to balance the brain chemicals. These chemicals are called neurotransmitters. These brain chemicals are responsible for the change in your mood, and emotions. An imbalance in the neurotransmitters can bring anxiety. Therefore, it is necessary to correct the mood disorder. But, it may take at least four weeks (minimum) or more than this to change the effect.
• If you think stopping a medicine can bring effective changes in your mood and can help you remain depression-free. You must take note that this is a trial and error method. You cannot stop the medicines of depression all of a sudden until you talk to your doctor.
• Sometimes, you may feel like you do not require depression medicines anymore. But, when you stop the intake of medicines, your body starts having the symptoms in response to it.
• Quitting depression medicines without consulting your doctor can be troublesome. You may not feel like a safe person when you are alone. There can also be chances of suicide, which becomes one of the major concerns. This is because your body starts producing withdrawal symptoms to relapse your depression. If your body starts relapsing to the symptoms of depression, it may take more time to again fight with the balancing of the mood.

What are the side effects of quitting medication?

If you think that you should quit the depression medicines, you must take note that depression medicines have their withdrawal effects. If you stop taking depression medicines all of sudden, it can worsen the situation for you. You may feel the possible side effects like:

1. A consistent feeling that you are sick or may also get sick in real life: antidepressant medicines have their discontinuation syndrome. This is called antidepressant withdrawal which may take place if you stop taking medicines abruptly. People who cut down the intake of their antidepressant medicines may feel like they are sick or may have stomach bugs. They may also have disturbing thoughts and images.
2. You start setting your treatment: Stopping your medicines can bring you back to the earlier position. You may feel like you are better now, but it can actually create hard to identify symptoms.
3. There can be chances of suicide: There is nothing that can help you treat your persistent feeling of having a suicide. But, once you have gone through this situation, and decide to stop medicines, you may increase the risk factor of performing the same task again.
4. The symptoms may get worse with time: Stopping taking antidepressant medicines can worsen the symptoms. It may bring you to change in symptoms also along with headaches, pain in the stomach, or insomnia. If left untreated, this can create problems in the future, bringing additional symptoms of any other major disease.

Other symptoms of antidepressant withdrawal include:

• anxiety
• fatigue
• nightmares
• trouble sleeping
• mood swings
• nausea
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• abdominal cramping
• flu-like symptoms
• headache
• sweating

What if you are pregnant and a patient of depression?

Have you just found out that you are pregnant? Do you think that stopping anti-depression medicines can bring favorable changes in your pregnancy? Did you consult the same with your psychiatric or gynecology doctor?

If you think that stopping antidepressant medicines can be beneficial for you, let us tell you that you are wrong. If you are pregnant plus you are a patient with psychiatric health problems, you should consult your doctor. You may require your psychiatric doctor to know about the situation. Let the doctor manage the symptoms of psychiatric problems with the help of medicines. If you stop taking medicines all of sudden, it can affect your womb and the developing embryo inside it.

It is always better to talk to your doctor

Some people may require to stick to their medicines for an indefinite period. While others are able to stop the medicines after a period of weeks. The best way to stop antidepressant medicines is to slowly tape the results of medications under the supervision of your doctor. This may allow you to slow down the daily dose of medications until you are completely able to cut off the intake. You can talk to your doctor about the change in lifestyle or any other thing that may prevent you from the chances of recurring depression. Additionally, you can work on the following to reduce the chances of having medicines again in your life:

• exercise
• meditation
• getting plenty of sleep
• preventing the use of alcohol and drugs
• eating healthy meals
• Preventing the occurrence of stress and managing the symptoms

No two people show similar signs of quitting antidepressant medicines. Also, it is not necessary that you may develop withdrawal symptoms. You can quit the depression medicines only after it is sure that you will be fine enough to take care of yourself while you are alone. You must take a note here that the doctors have no way to track the withdrawal symptoms. It is you who can tell the difference. But, if you are feeling good from the inside, the doctors can do nothing. Therefore, you should be careful while you want to stop the intake of antidepressant medicines. You can talk to your family members about the change in your behavior so that they can tell you the long-run effect.

wizarticle