Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal (not a comprehensive) Symptoms List

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 Psych drug withdrawal is a long, tough process. So why do it and how do you do it? In my case, I had no choice. A psychiatrist I'd seen for years, who had me on a nonsensical cocktail of psych meds, cold stopped 5 meds at once. I ended up in ICU for a couple of days, hooked up to a heart monitor and IV, observed, walked to the bathroom the many, many times my intestines let loose, and only discharged from the hospital when I showed I could process thoughts again and walk up and down a flight of stairs. But that's not a way to come off psych meds; that was extremely dangerous. The proper way is tapering. Doctors don't know how to do this properly. Those who have tapered, who you can find online, are the best resource for guiding you through. This post isn't about how to taper though.

This post is about withdrawal symptoms you may expect to encounter. Don't let anyone tell you that withdrawal is your mental illness resurfacing, or that you have a chemical imbalance. These are ways to hook you back into taking the drugs because psychiatrists don't have anything to offer you for withdrawal, and in fact, they don't even want you to know it's part of taking their prescribed drugs in the first place.

But here we go, and I've added pictures so you won't even have to read through that much more here, just some descriptions to clarify the photos, which are (except the last 4) all by me of me depicting my actual symptoms.

First, as I've mentioned, I was transported to the hospital. I returned to the ER over the months with symptoms so bad I was severely dehydrated, blood pressure affected, UTI, and later kidney stones.


My intestines went crazy first. I was running crawling to the toilet constantly and I lost 20 lbs. in the first two weeks.



Sleep was nightmares, body pains, insomnia. Being able to fall off to sleep well took me 15 months.



I became very manic, thoughts rushing, psychotic, and ended up being detained on psych units twice. They couldn't/wouldn't do anything for me except inject me with ativan & haldol, chemical restraints, and then just send me home after 3 days. The psychoactive symptoms eased after 4 months.



Did my long time group of friends help? No, I think they were freaked out. Losing friends is really common in psych drug withdrawal. With the lack of assistance I got anywhere I looked, I rapidly felt as if I'd faded away and no longer existed.


I've also had all of these symptoms, ongoing:

Can't regulate body temperature well, and I especially overheat easily, even just sitting.


My skin is itchy, often with no kind of visible rash, and then it just goes away. For awhile.


Joints ache, and I had to buy braces to wear to stabilize my wrists when sleeping.


My eyes and vision are full of issues, like difficulty focusing, cloudiness, burning, watering, floaters.


My sinuses won't settle down and if I'm not sneezing, I'm blocked up in pain.


I sleep when I can. Mostly I stay isolated, so pandemic with quarantines and lockdowns has not greatly affected me, other than struggling to get groceries being more of a....struggle. Time, though...time has become meaningless. What day is it? What month, year? I've been doing this withdrawal thing since August 2019. Yes, I've had improvements, but not enough to rejoin the world.



As I titled this post, this is not a comprehensive list of all the withdrawal symptoms I've faced, or that anyone faces.

I have been so fortunate to NOT have akathisia as part of my withdrawal.




And I have NOT had Post-SSRI-Sexual-Dysfunction (PSSD).



I have felt suicidal, sometimes seriously so, other times just wondering why I should bother any longer. I accept this thinking, and I have internal conversations about it, and I consider that my cat depends on me, and then I move on. Some of my family provides great support, and my loosely structured online community helps me keep myself glued together.

Withdrawal syndromes when coming off of psychiatric drugs are real, and they're no picnic. Recognize that they will happen and be prepared. I couldn't be ready, didn't have the choice, and so I also offer that I stay as strong as I can and believe in myself.



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