In my article, “What I learned as a Moderator for an Antidepressant Taper Support Group,” I described working alongside psychiatrists as a licensed clinical social worker in a psychiatric hospital for 18 years and never hearing one word about withdrawal. Then I tried to go off Cymbalta and all hell broke loose.
I described doing an eight-month taper off 60 mg in 2019 and getting SLAMMED with delayed akathisia so severe that I had a plan to end my life if reinstatement of the drug didn’t work. (Akathisia can be a side effect of medications or withdrawal symptoms. It is a cluster of very distressing physical symptoms and an overwhelming sense of terror much worse than anxiety.) Reinstatement did heal the akathisia and I began a much slower journey to taper off the 30 mg I had reinstated, confident that the very slow taper would be successful.
When I wrote my previous article, I was down to three micro beads, or 0.81 mg, of Cymbalta. I spent the next 12 months tapering off those last three micro beads. I held the last bead for six months. I felt completely normal throughout my taper including on the last microbead. After six months I stopped taking that last bead and felt completely normal for four months. No withdrawal symptoms.
At the four-month mark of being completely off the drug, I burst into tears when I praised a bag boy’s kindness to the store manager, much to his confusion. Crazy lady on aisle 12. I didn’t want to believe it was the warning sign of impending akathisia. Maybe I genuinely felt overwhelmed with emotions by the kid’s kindness and it wasn’t akathisia. I entertained that thought for 24 hours, and then I did the prudent thing and reinstated one microbead.
Bursting into tears while complimenting someone had also been my only warning that akathisia was coming in 2020 after the too fast eight-month taper. I didn’t know what it meant then, but this time I knew. Given that I had been stable on the last microbead of my taper for six months, I thought it would be enough to keep the akathisia at bay. It worked for one week and then the akathisia hit with a vengeance.
When I began to fall asleep my body would jolt awake as if sleep was dangerous. I felt like I was shaking inside. I could not eat food. I forced myself to drink soup and smoothies. My arms felt like they were burning—not painful, but hot and prickly (this burning sensation is called paresthesia). In the pit of my stomach was a ball of fire sending out electrical shards of terror. The ball of fire and the burning on my arms came and went with waves of dread. At times while lying in bed, my pulse was 160 bpm.
The burning, intense fear and inner shaking were overwhelming. All I could do was lie in bed clinging with white knuckles to my sanity like I was a tiny dinghy in the middle of the ocean being battered by waves much too big for my fragile boat, with no hope of rescue.
I had been stable for six months on one microbead at the end of my taper. Why wasn’t it enough now? I didn’t know how much more to reinstate and was afraid to take too much. I had recently read that the dose for late reinstatement should just be a few milligrams. I went to 2.7 mg.
The first time I did late reinstatement due to akathisia, I was two months out. Now, after a five-year taper I was four months out. I emailed two well-known taper experts when 2.7 mg wasn’t helping, but they were unavailable. I didn’t know who else to contact.
Then I had a flash of genius. I remembered an interview with Dr. Stuart Shipko on Mad in America. In the interview he said he would not open taper centers because too many people could not come off antidepressants. I found his phone number on Google and left him a message. He phoned back within the hour.
My original dose had been 60 mg and he said that in his experience people needed to resume the full dose of 60 mg. He knew there was information floating around in taper support groups that only a low dose should be reinstated for late reinstatement, but he recommended against that. He also said he had people successfully reinstate as late as two years after discontinuing a drug and suffering from protracted withdrawals.
He gave me the confidence to go from 2.7 mg to 30 mg. (I didn’t want to immediately jump up to 60 mgs because during my first late reinstatement in 2020, 40 mg made the “active” symptoms of akathisia much worse). The next day, I increased it to 40 mg and that is what I stabilized on. I will be forever grateful to Dr. Shipko. I credit him with saving my life.
Reinstatement is very tricky. Too much can make the symptoms worse, too little will not cure the akathisia. I have read that late reinstatement is unsuccessful for many people because it makes their withdrawal symptoms worse. They have to abort trying to reinstate and are stuck with Protracted Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS).
Any amount I took in the beginning, even the one microbead I initially reinstated, made my symptoms much worse, but then over 24 hours the symptoms would sort of subside. That is how I knew reinstatement was working. I wonder if some people abandon trying to reinstate prematurely. The increase in intensity of the symptoms each time I took a dose was very frightening and it is difficult for me to describe how I knew to keep hanging in there because it was a terrifying week of trying to find the right dose and then three weeks of new symptoms each day that made me very sick until I stabilized.
One indicator of improvement was the time in between the burning. There were longer stretches without burning, and then one day was the last time I had to steel myself for the surge of fiery agitation.
Words fail to describe the horror of akathisia and the fears of whether reinstatement is going to work while trying to stabilize. While Dr. Shipko’s experience with reinstatement and his advice were invaluable to me, there are no guarantees; everyone’s brain is completely unpredictable.
Having done a deep dive into the world of antidepressant tapering and withdrawal in the last six years, I know too much. I know akathisia can last years or be permanent. Given the intensity of my symptoms and utter incapacitation I am sure I would be bedbound for years in a dark room, barely able to walk to the bathroom, if I continued trying to taper. I could not bear that kind of suffering. I am one of the ones who can never go off an antidepressant.
I also get withdrawal if I try to switch brands, and I have no idea if my brain would eventually accept and stabilize on a new brand. My brain and my life are dependent upon a pharmaceutical company in India staying in business and manufacturing generic duloxetine until the day I die. A few months ago, Eli Lilly announced it was stopping production of name brand Cymbalta. For someone who, like me, cannot switch brands, this is a crisis and should be illegal. What a terrible unforeseen hold these drugs can have over peoples’ lives.
Akathisia symptoms vary from person to person. The symptom of my akathisia that scared me the most was the fatigue. I have been ill with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) for 18 years. I’ve been disabled by it for 10 years. The debilitating constant profound fatigue, flu-like symptoms and a malaise I can’t describe made me bedbound for years. In the last 3 years I found ways to reduce my symptoms; by avoiding stress and going back to sleep multiple times to get 10-12 hours of sleep, I no longer have the flu-like symptoms. I have to use an electric wheelchair to leave the house because I don’t have the energy to walk and am basically housebound, but no longer feel like I am so sick I am dying.
It’s common for ME/CFS sufferers to lie in bed for 20 years and continue to get worse. The illness has no rhyme or reason, so guarding the improvements in my condition are my highest priority. Despite having an illness that made me bedbound for years with profound fatigue, I never felt anything like the fatigue when I had akathisia the first time in 2020. I felt as though there were lead weights strapped to my limbs and a ton of concrete pressing down on me. I could barely stand or walk.
I know someone who has this fatigue. Her akathisia healed in six months, but a few weeks later she was hit with a profound fatigue. She feels as though she is struggling to walk through mud and has been mostly bedbound for the last six years, only able to do what is absolutely necessary before collapsing into bed again. She found out this protracted withdrawal symptom is called “central nervous system fatigue.” I simply could not go back to that life. I know that life from my illness. It isn’t living.
Studies have found that antidepressant withdrawal can last years and destroy lives. Some people are able to get off the drug, but others—like me—have no real choice but to reinstate it after suffering horrible withdrawal effects.
I have been on Cymbalta for 17 years now and am gutted that my five-year taper did not free me of the drug. I am lucky I don’t have distressing side effects. I can’t even tell I’m taking it. Except for one side effect; I have an enormous appetite and crave carbs. This gradually intensified in the last few years. I’ve had a 56% weight gain and am 70 lbs. overweight. My extremely sedentary lifestyle and 68 years of age certainly contribute to my weight gain, but in the past I did not need to eat another full dinner before going to bed or need to eat again in the middle of the night. I am unable to sleep if I’m hungry and sleep is vital to remaining free of the flu-like symptoms of my illness.
My appetite is a monkey on my back and a monster in my stomach demanding to be satisfied and I resent it. I’ve read that antidepressants can interfere with the signal from the stomach to the brain telling the brain it is full. But again, if this is my worst side effect I am lucky: there are people who have severe side effects from the psychiatric drugs they are on, but can’t get off them because even tapering a little causes them powerful withdrawal symptoms. They are trapped in a living hell. They have both debilitating side effects that sometimes are causing physiological damage and tormenting withdrawal symptoms because once they began to taper they cannot stabilize.
Length of time on a drug is also not a reliable indicator of whether someone will get withdrawal or how severe withdrawal will be. I have wondered if being on the drug for 12 years when I began to taper was part of the reason I can’t go off it and blamed myself for waiting so long. Some sources state people who are on a drug for many years will have a harder time with discontinuation. Still, I know from being in taper support groups, and being a moderator, that there are many people who have been on a drug a short time and experienced severe withdrawals.
In response to a comment I made on their Facebook page, Outro (the taper service offered by Mark Horowitz and Adele Framer) stated, “Antidepressant withdrawal varies significantly between individuals – there’s no direct correlation between time on medication and withdrawal duration. Some people experience months of withdrawal symptoms after short-term use, while others who have taken antidepressants longer may have milder symptoms.” I have to add that in my experience some people endure years of withdrawals, not months, after short-term use.
I want people to have hope that a safe taper of no more than 10% a month can be successful for them. For many people, it probably is. Sadly, I know my story will be frightening to some contemplating starting their taper. But I feel it is important to know the risks—some people, like me, are unable to fully stop the drug and experience agonizing withdrawal.
I’m not sorry I tried. There was no way to know if I could successfully get off my medication unless I tried. It could have been successful as it is for many people. You wouldn’t know unless you try.
HARD TRUTH: psychiatric drugs WOULD BE BANNED if they weren’t produced in a pharmaceutical factory.
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“Most people are doing this wrong when it comes to getting off meds,” a video short from Dr. Josef
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I do primary care with mental health patients whose psych meds are rx’d by psychiatrists & psych NPs. It’s painful to see how casually they’re started on psych meds & left on them for years on end, with no initial discussion of how, whether or when they might stop. Over the years our patients become geriatric, but unlike in primary care, our psych prescribers seem to have no concept of deprescribing as folks get old, frail, more prone to falls – despite their many years of mental stability.
Regarding antidepressant discontinuation syndrome: i took an extremely low dose (25) of zoloft for a very short time (6 weeks?) way back when. When i decided to quit one day, my brain went crazy with electric zaps & i felt frantic, so frantic I couldn’t think logically. Thank god someone gave me the name of a brilliant psychopharmacologist, who when I called & said what was happening, immediately told me to restart the zoloft 25 then do a much slower taper – which I did on my own, by feel, over several months. I’m grateful for that experience for giving me insight into what getting off these meds can be like.
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I, too, had the common symptoms of antidepressant discontinuation syndrome misdiagnosed (according to the DSM-IV-TR at the time). And, I agree, the brain zaps were bizarre, and a physical symptom that made you think it wise to go to a “head doctor.” What a mistake!
I’m sorry you were not able to wean off your antidepressant, Laura, but I’m glad you are stabilized on a low dose, at least that’s a harm reduction approach.
However, it is sad to me that so many of the nurses and non-medically trained “mental health professionals” are so ignorant, and uncurious, about the staggering iatrogenic harm that the psychiatrists have been perpetrating on humanity, for decades … especially the elderly and children.
What is it they say, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by how it treats its weakest member,” so what does the current psychiatric debacle say about the leaders of Western civilization today?
But I’m glad you’ve chosen to start actually helping the people harmed by the psychiatrists instead, Laura.
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Not to change the subject, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the ways in which today’s “mental health” industries are innately un-American.
Like, for example, since the “mental health” industries are “partnered with” both the religions and the governments, that has destroyed our Bill of Rights claim that in the US, there should be a “separation of church and state.” The “mental health” industries have destroyed that right of American citizens.
And, for example, since most of the antipsychotics are dopamine antagonists, meaning they block dopamine. But since everyone basically knows dopamine is a “feel good hormone,” as is also serotonin, which the antidepressants block.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/feel-good-hormones-how-they-affect-your-mind-mood-and-body
Isn’t that actually evidence that the force and coerce drugging psychiatrists, et al have been intentionally taking away American’s right to “life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness,” for profit?
That’s just two examples I came up with for why psychiatry is un-American, but I’m sure there are many more examples. Please give me more examples of how forced psychiatric drugging is un-American, ladies and gentlemen of MiA.
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I share your loathing of the sham mental health profession, but actually I believe that conventional psychiatry as currently practiced is not “un-American” at all, but meshes quite well with the American capitalist tradition, in that it embodies paternalism and the lust for power, profit, and prestige. Unless and until such corporatist values change on a mass scale, this unsavory racket masquerading as a legitimate branch of medicine will continue wreaking havoc on the physical and emotional well-being of the public.
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Well put my friend.
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I agree! Forced drugging is a human rights violation and unconstitutional under the US Bill of Rights. I would rather feel my feelings even if they are unpleasant and learn what I need to do to lessen the impact. Antidepressants are for suicidal patients for short term until they can get to the root of their issues and learn how to accommodate themselves. I was a psych nurse for 10 years and saw the horrors of indiscriminate psychotropic drug prescription.
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Dear Sheila,
I find it concerning that you would state, “Antidepressants are for suicidal patients for short term,” given that these drugs, often mischaracterized as ‘antidepressants,’ have been linked to an increased risk of suicide. The FDA issued a warning in 2004 highlighting the elevated rates of depression, hostility, and suicidal behaviour associated with their use (https://industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/drug/docs/#id=znbn0225). It is evident that these psychotropic agents, considered neurotoxins, should not be viewed as viable options.
Kind regards,
Cat
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Hi Laura,
I read your story yesterday. I was on Cymbalta for six years including my taper which I did using ‘the Road Back’ useless supplements. I am off it six years and I am not the same person I was before it. I am still not able to read a book – I used to be an avid reader. I had the burning hands and feet too for about two years which started in my taper. I had bad eczema on my hands and feet for three years which started when I was till on the drug – I was told I could just stop it by my psychiatrist because my liver and cholesterol were raised.
I don’t have burning hands and feet since 2020 and the eczema went into remission around 2021.
I am very changed though and have an inner agitation and hopelessness and constant suicidality that was not there before I came off that drug. I am still on Mirtazapine at a very low dose. I was not given a choice about coming off Cymbalta due to the state of my liver – I just had to come off it but it was sheer hell and I am in a very bad place and completely socially isolated due to the what happened in the withdrawal along with the effects of the pandemic. No one around me believed my symptoms were drug related and I was hounded back into the psychiatric system on a few occasions and put on a few other drugs which luckily caused the potential deadly rash so I had to come off them. Neither the psychiatrist nor the GP were in doubt about what had caused the liver issues as I hadn’t been able to drink at all since I started Cymbalta as it made me feel sick and I didn’t smoke or eat a bad diet.
I also had migraines from 2019 to just six months ago when they seem to have stopped. This may sound controversial but I have found that alcohol helps with symptoms – I started to be able to have a drink again around six months ago. Dr David Healy has said this as far as I recall.
I think that your story is very valuable and badly needed to be told and I am grateful to have read it here although it’s shameful that you and so many others had to suffer like this largely unacknowledged. There is I think from online sites a lot of people out there who are having your experience and then they go silent out of shame at not being able to properly ‘recover’ and have a ‘success story’. The more people recount their difficulties even after using a hyperbolic taper and the fact that in your case your symptoms were so severe that the only way to save your life was to go back on the drug, the more the information will get out about what these drugs do. When so much damage has been done and so many lives and potential for life have been ruined by these drugs it may be the only thing left to us.
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Altostrata is my Web pseudonym. My real name is Adele Framer. I am an advisor to Outro Health. I do not offer tapering services through Outro Health (neither does Dr. Horowitz) nor do I run or manage Outro Health.
I am glad to hear Laura stabilized on 40mg and did not have to go to 60mg as Dr. Shipko advised. She might have stabilized on 30mg or less, we can’t tell because we cannot run that A/B split experiment.
Dr. Shipko may have observed that full restoration of the original dose is required to reverse withdrawal symptoms. I have observed otherwise, and clearly Laura has, too.
I agree with Dr. Shipko about many things, but it appears that the effective dosage amount for reinstatement of the drug is individual. Much is unknown about treating the iatrogenic condition known as antidepressant withdrawal syndrome. In the very long history of human use of psychotropics, some amount of restoration of the dose has been seen to at least partially resolve withdrawal symptoms, if they have not persisted for too long (and even then, sometimes partial or full reinstatement can work).
As Laura notes, with even taking one microbead “over 24 hours the symptoms would sort of subside”. With the exception of fluoxetine (Prozac), antidepressants have half-lives of about 24 hours. The biochemical effect peaks and then fades out over that time. One microbead per day may not be enough to sustain “steady state”, a relatively consistent blood level of the drug over 24 hours, but 10 microbeads or 5mg or some other amount short of 30mg might have been enough to more consistently reduce Laura’s systems.
Reinstating a relatively high dose of antidepressant has risks as well — it may cause activation or other dramatic adverse effects. Lower doses usually have lower risk of serious adverse effects.
It’s always prudent to start low, allow enough time to see what happens (usually about a month for the dose to fully take effect) and very slowly increase if necessary. “Low and slow” and not exceeding the minimal effective dose are basic principles in psychiatric prescribing, much ignored but very important when one’s nervous system has been sensitized by withdrawal and may react badly to doses that were previously tolerable.
After someone goes off a long stretch of psychotropics, one probably should expect a period of convalescence of a year or more. There are many things that might cause a resurgence of withdrawal-type symptoms after a successful taper. We might view the nervous system as still vulnerable while it consolidates the change from steady input of a drug to zero drug.
Often, such resurgence of symptoms occurs after ingestion of even a small alcohol, taking another drug, overexertion, physical stress, etc. Sometimes, there’s no apparent cause. However, it’s not inevitable and when it occurs does not require life-long reinstatement of the full drug dose. I have seen that such resurgences when left to natural recovery will resolve in a few weeks or so.
I hope that people take from Laura’s fortunately positive experience with reinstatement that tapering is possible, but the changes wrought by psychiatric drug treatment and going off the drugs may have long-term neurobiological repercussions, and to take care of themselves accordingly. They look like tiny, harmless pills but they are very powerful.
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“They look like tiny, harmless pills but they are very powerful.”
Most doctors seem to think they’re as harmless as birdseed.
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Do you offer any coaching? My wife is medicated, and Id love to have a one hour call with you to tell you our story and just ask for some advice.
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I should have mentioned in my comment above how much I appreciate Laura telling her story & how much I’ve learned here on MIA over the years (& decades – not retired yet!). At our clinic, it’s really the social workers & case managers who are the salt of the earth. They know our patients, visit them in their homes (which are sometimes spots on the sidewalk or SRO rooms), care for them, help them navigate life. The psych prescribers are well-meaning (most of them; a couple are arrogant) but so profoundly ignorant of the issues discussed on this site; I’m constantly having to advocate for my patients without being the one who actually has control over their psych meds. One person I’m thinking of recently abruptly stopped his psych meds of many years, was restarted by his psych prescriber on just one of them, & now hasn’t been able to sleep for the past month (never experienced this before). Every new symptom like this the psych prescribers want to turf to primary care – “refer him to neurology!” – & my suggestion that he may be experiencing some version of discontinuation syndrome fall on deaf ears.
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Thank you for this article. I am doing a taper that will take a total time of approximately 10 years to complete. I am down to 9% of the original dosage with approximately 4 to 8 years of taper remaining. Knowing what you said, I plan to taper extra slow at the very end, even if it takes a couple years longer than I had hoped. Hopefully more information about tapering rates will become available.
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The term “protracted withdrawal symptoms” or “discontinuation syndrome” should be accurately designated as chronic brain impairment rather than “central nervous system fatigue.” Research indicates that individuals will develop significant cognitive deficits after only one month of using neurotoxic psychiatric pharmaceuticals, exhibiting symptoms comparable to those found in traumatic brain injury patients. Over an extended period, this cognitive impairment will become chronic. Such impairments are frequently misdiagnosed as “mental illness” or classified as “Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome.” Those who have been prescribed these drugs will demonstrate a restricted capacity for cognitive and emotional responses due to the cognitive dysfunctions induced by these substances (Breggin, P. 2012). Reintroducing neurotoxic agents will not mitigate this condition; on the contrary, it exacerbates the existing brain damage since the injury has already occurred.
It is crucial not to allow negative narratives, such as Laura’s, to deter progress. Numerous individuals have successfully withdrawn and rehabilitated their lives following the inappropriate prescription of psychiatric neurotoxins, often with little to no support from their prescribing ‘professionals’. After a twenty-two-year regimen of fluoxetine, lamotrigine, and quetiapine, I undertook a six-month withdrawal process supported by microdoses of CBD and THC oils. This experience underscores not only the feasibility of such withdrawal but also its desirability, especially when weighed against the ongoing brain and central nervous system damage linked to these inadequately researched pharmacological toxins.
Human physiology includes an endocannabinoid system, which plays a crucial role in maintaining homeostasis, rather than relying on pharmacological interventions typical of psychiatric ‘therapies’. Multiple studies have confirmed the analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects of cannabis (Al-Khazaleh, Zhou et Al, 2024). Instead of considering the reintroduction of neurotoxins, you might explore a tapering strategy while utilizing CBD or CBD/THC oil for support. The U.S government does not hold patent number 6,630,507 for no reason.
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“This impairment does not require prolonged exposure to psychiatric drugs; rather it can manifest as early as one month after initiation of ‘treatment’.”
YES!!! That’s exactly what happened to me after only about a month! The psychiatrist I was seeing passed it off as “just” akathisia.
I kept telling him I thought it was tardive dyskinesia, but he kept saying it wasn’t because my face wasn’t contorting. My gut told he was dead wrong which turned out to be true. Having experienced both, I honestly don’t know how anyone can have tardive dyskinesia without akathisia.
Back then I came up with my own term to describe what happened to me: Chemical Assault.
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“Until there is a comprehensive reevaluation and dismantling of the psychiatric paradigm, respite will remain elusive.”
There’s nothing to reevaluate—lies are lies, and toxins are toxins.
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Your conclusion neatly sums up the fallacious premises and harmfulness of the mental health racket, just as Szasz did in his “Psychiatry: The Science of Lies.” It is futile to try reevaluating or reforming a paradigm based on falsehoods, deceit, and the desire for power, profit, and prestige. All the arguments put forth to defend its legitimacy are ultimately self-serving rationalizations.
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Yes! No field does a better job exploiting power in broad daylight.
It’s truly sickening how it turns a blind eye to the profound damage it inflicts, all while hiding behind its so-called authority.
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I am 71 and have been on a combo of 6 meds for bipolar 1 for 35 years. Before that I had several suicide attempts starting at age 15 and a very low quality of life. My mother was diagnosed with a mental illness and had a completed suicide when I was a child.
I am very lucky that my quality of life is very good. I don’t want to mess with my delicate mix of medications, but find this article poignant and insightful.
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Dear Suzanne,
I would like to address the assertion of having “bipolar I disorder,” considering its categorization as a social construct, particularly in light of the lack of definitive pathological tests to validate its existence (as noted by cepuk.org, Greenberg, G., Burstow, B. et al).
The prevailing psychiatric ‘treatment’ paradigm relies on interventions that result in significant neurological impairment. This includes the use of neuroleptics, antidepressants, lithium, electroconvulsive therapy, and psychosurgery (Breggin, P). The drugs commonly prescribed for conditions labelled as ‘bipolar’ do not represent a “delicate mix of medications”; instead, they amount to a hazardous and inadequately researched amalgamation of neurotoxic substances. This practice raises critical concerns regarding the scientific integrity of psychiatric interventions, suggesting that they instead function as forms of social control and disability.
Kind regards,
Cat
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Cat, your comments are always incisive and spot on. You have a gift for deflating the self-serving, deceptive verbiage so typical of the mental health racket. Indeed, how can there be any scientific integrity in psychiatry, considering that it’s basically a melange of competing cargo cults that misappropriate scientific and medical terms (e.g. “treatments,” “disorders,” “pathology”) but lack verifiable, universally valid criteria.
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Dear Joel,
Thank you so much for your supportive critique. You made my day!
Kind regards,
Cat
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Years lasting or permanent akathisia = Tardive akathisia. Like every iatrogenic syndrome its prognosis isn’t well researched being a taboo topic, but may be similar to Tardive Dyskinesia ( Tardive Akathisia was even called neuropsychiatric Tardive Dyskinesia ). In Tardive Dyskinesia the drugs may cover the symptoms for even longer time but each dose make TD slightly more persistent until being permanent. In the end TD symptoms will overwhelm the drug. More antipsychotic drug usage = worse prognosis, worse TD, more permanent.
Tardive Dyskinesia have nothing in common with a withdrawal. It is not caused by a withdrawal, but as research points the leading cause are accumulated neuroplasticity changes to brain from continuos drug use. That harmful term “withdrawal” to describe all what drugs cause should really be put down to sleep given how it confuses audience. It may explain some, but doesn’t explain a great amount of iatrogenic neuropsychiatric injury. If someone suffer from Tardive akathisia then it is not a withdrawal, but rather separate neurological syndrome. If we take TD as comparison then someone taking drug to cover the symptoms may decrease symptoms short term but worsen prognosis to permanent. Due accumulating changes to brain, homeostasis and tolerance the drug will stop covering up akathisia in some moment and what are you gonna to do ? Like Tardive Dyskinesia the Tardive Akathisia may be constant or episodic with temporary flares lasting days to weeks which needs to be waited out without a panic. Use the drug to cover symptoms only as palliative care. It doesn’t matter then if drug would be reinstituted 1 year, 2 years or 10 years later.
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Get well soon… If you allow me, I’ll make an addition. Akathisia and tardive dyskinesia are movement disorders that include the same symptoms. Although the factors that cause them vary widely, these disorders are most commonly caused by psychiatric medications (and other harmful psychiatric treatments, including ECT).
Nowadays… There are people with ‘akathisia and tardive dyskinesia’ among the residents of mental hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, ‘mentally disabled’ rehabilitation centers, nursing homes and retirement homes. The reason why these people have ‘akathisia and tardive dyskinesia’ is probably due to psychiatric drugs (and harmful psychiatric treatments such as ECT). But most commonly, psychiatric drugs can cause it.
There are an untold number of tens/hundreds of millions of people on ‘psychiatric drugs’ worldwide. And all of these people are probably being subjected to Chemical Lobotomy, silently (in their own homes).
Psychiatric drug-induced chemical lobotomy is the primary cause of very serious brain damage. (Usually after months and/or years of long-term psychiatric drug use…)
Chemical brain injury is the primary cause of extremely critical physical brain and body disorders and mental disorders such as ‘akathisia and tardive dyskinesia’. Chemical Lobotomy can cause serious damage not only to the brain (brain chemistry) but also to the body. (For example, it can cause various diseases.)
And the terrible possibilities that are still happening in the world…
My guess is… It is probably not hard to guess that it is psychiatric drugs (and other harmful psychiatric treatments such as ECT) that cause people with mental disabilities (perhaps not all, but the vast majority) to live in mental health facilities such as ‘mental hospitals, rehabilitation centres, nursing-homes and care-homes’ for the rest of their lives (until they die). The things that make these people this way (experience brain damage) and keep them here until they die are psychiatric drugs. This is very clearly evident. This is very clear… it is obvious… Who will defend their ‘legal (judicial, law) and human rights’?
There may be those who say, ‘We will defend!’ or ‘We will defend, right!’ But they are not actually defending. Because, no one is looking out for them. Even their families have abandoned them. As for states and governments, it is as if they are waiting for them to die.
As a final word.. The situation of people getting into this state is not over yet. Every year tens/hundreds of thousands of people in the world fall into this bad situation. Their brains have now gone bankrupt. (Serious chemical brain damage. And this brain damage is still happening. (Chemical lobotomy) Quietly (In a silent way).
So much so that… We must also assume that the (unknown number of) millions of people worldwide who are taking psychiatric medications may have been subjected to some form of chemical lobotomy in their own homes.
If this continues like this… We can think that soon ‘mental hospitals, psychiatric hospitals and mentally disabled rehabilitation centers, nursing and retirement homes’ will be overflowing. Where are we headed? What are the politicians doing? Best regards.
With my sincerest wishes. 🙂 Y.E. (Researcher blog writer (Blogger))
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Dear Yildirim E,
The etiological factors for Akathisia and Tardive Dyskinesia are not as divergent as one might think; both are drug-induced movement disorders primarily caused by the antagonism of dopamine receptors in the central nervous system, which is a common mechanism associated with many psychiatric drugs. Notably, neuroleptics (often misclassified as ‘antipsychotics’), ‘antidepressants’, anticonvulsants (falsely prescribed as ‘mood stabilisers’), and sedatives are well-documented contributors to the development of both iatrogenic disorders (Penn Medicine, 2025; Breggin, P., 2017).
The term “psychiatric induced chemical lobotomy” you mentioned aligns more closely with chronic brain impairment (CBI). This impairment does not require prolonged exposure to psychiatric drugs; rather, it can manifest as early as one month after initiation of ‘treatment’. Individuals exhibit cognitive and behavioural alterations reminiscent of those seen in traumatic brain injury and, over time, develop a sustained chronic brain injury (Breggin, P., 2012).
Your observations are accurate; the psychiatric field continues to inflict substantial and irreversible harm on a significant number of individuals. Until there is a comprehensive reevaluation and dismantling of the psychiatric paradigm, respite will remain elusive. It is concerning that numerous national and international entities continue to support pharmaceutical conglomerates and psychiatric practices as mechanisms of social control. Those who resist or fail to conform to these oppressive frameworks are silenced and faced with inhumane treatments, such as neurotoxin administration, incarceration, electricity (misleadingly termed ‘ECT’), torture, and social suppression.
Your question, Who is defending the victims of psychiatry? is astute. More importantly, why are the majority of psychiatry’s cult members continuing to abide by their fictional ‘disorders’, neurotoxic drugging and worldwide domination? Money and power! What a sick, sad world influential humans have created.
Kind regards,
Cat
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These contributions are wonderful. Thank you for your contributions.. 🙂 Best regards.. Y.E.
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Thank you for your detailed report.
I have no experience with antidepressants, but I did suffer from akathasia during chemotherapy, Akathasia stopped after the therapy was finished. However, I suffered from CFS for five years after this therapy, My body was only pain. I also was able to manage this situation, without any help. That was 20 years ago, and the doctors treating me in these times completely failed me in my situation. What I learned about neurotoxins, their side effects, and their consequences, I learned from MIA, many years later. I assume my central nervous system was poisoned, as the symptoms after the second dose suggest this. Trauma followed, as this situation of this night stood again and again in front of my eyes. I felt better when I understood what they had done to me and above all why there was only silence.
But I’m only writing this to say that I can at least partially understand your situation.
Something caught my attention in your report. You write:” I felt as though there were lead weights strapped to my limbs and a ton of concrete pressing down on me. I could barely stand or walk.” I read exactly the same in a book by Arthur Firstenberg, “The Invisible Rainbow.” Firstenberg deals with the history of electricity, including its use in medicine and its negative consequences.
He writes about Dr. Margaret Abigail Cleaves (1848-1917), a physician who worked extensively with electricity, as was common at these times. At the age of 46, she was diagnosed with “neurasthenia.” In addition to a very problematic physical condition, this doctor also describes many of the symptoms you are also experiencing, and she wrote of the impression of “a crushing weight bending me to the earth.” Today I believe, the polarity of body electricity is changing, but I am not a scientist, I only try to understand what I read.
This diagnosis of “neurathenia” is no longer known in the Western world today. It has been replaced by the work of Sigmund Freud, who argued that there are no neurotoxic environments (electricity and today drugs), but rather that symptoms are caused by human thoughts and emotions. That’s why we administer Xanax, Prozac, and other neurotoxins today.
I’m increasingly suspecting that these neurotransmitters alter the body’s electricity in such a way that these serious symptoms arise. It seems to become even more difficult when you go into withdrawal. I have a picture in my mind of an electromagnetic field completely thrown off track throughout our entire body.
I read more: Dr. Robert O. Becker, “Cross Currents.” It’s an older book, but he conducted interesting experiments, including on healing with electricity through polarity reversal.
Then I read: Dr. Carolyn McMakin, “The Resonance Effect.” You can also find her online. She heals fibromyalgia with specific frequencies. From this book I learned that these frequencies have to be sought out, a long process. You can’t just shoot electricity into the body; it have to be in very low doses and very specialized.
I’m becoming more and more convinced that this must be the new medical approach, very effective and, above all, fast.
I wanted to share this with you, perhaps adding another piece to the puzzle to clarify these horrific conditions.
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A live human body is a conduit/conductor of bioelectrical energy. Some call it spiritual energy, but either way it’s very real. Even realer however is the way psychiatric/psychoactive “medications” muck up this very delicate process throughout the entire body down to the cellular level.
What’s the obvious lesson? Don’t play with fire.
P.S. It’s taken almost 10 years for the horrible inner tension of akathisia to subside to the point where I feel anything close to the way I did before ever going on psych drugs.
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