Phillipa Munari began taking antidepressants back in 2003 after seeking help from her doctor for persistent fatigue. Although she felt it wasn’t effective, she continued using it until she tried to stop a decade later. With her doctor’s assistance, she gradually reduced her dosage.
Initially, everything seemed fine.
But then, about six to nine months later, she began feeling significantly worse. “I had nerve pain and constant soreness in my neck and shoulders. My anxiety skyrocketed,” she recalled—experiences completely new to her.
Living in New Brunswick, Canada, Munari found herself so depleted that it impacted her ability to work at a call center. She often stayed in bed for extended periods. To qualify for disability benefits, she resumed taking Effexor, the medication she’d previously stopped. This time, her withdrawal was managed more slowly.
While her physical symptoms got better, her anxiety worsened.
She described feeling intense panic, saying, “I couldn’t even step outside. I would sit in the car, eyes shut, just trying to manage.” In an emotional moment during a recent interview, she mentioned it took two more years before she finally began to improve.
Munari is among countless others who have sought support through online forums, sharing their struggles with long-term health issues following the cessation of antidepressants. Many of them report that doctors didn’t warn them about the possible repercussions and often dismissed their concerns as unfounded.
It’s well-known within the medical community that stopping antidepressants can lead to short-term withdrawal symptoms such as dizziness, anxiety, and nausea. However, the issue of lasting symptoms is less understood. According to British psychiatrist Mark Horowitz, patients can experience ongoing effects well after discontinuation. One study mentioned that individuals could suffer from prolonged withdrawal for an average of eight years after stopping.
Despite the acknowledgment of such cases over the years, comprehensive studies on this matter remain lacking. Thus, experts still debate the prevalence, prevention, and even the terminology surrounding these conditions.
“It’s concerning that so many individuals are on these medications with unknown long-term effects and withdrawal implications,” Horowitz explained.
Currently, individuals recovering from antidepressant withdrawal are advocating for greater awareness, research, and recognition in the medical community. They emphasize the importance of informing patients about these risks before starting treatment.
Sven Huber, who started antidepressants in 2009 after identifying his own depression symptoms, spent 13 years on them. Initially prescribed a drug that helped his depression but also induced sleepiness, he switched to escitalopram (Lexapro). However, it proved more distressing, leading to numbness and emotional blunting. “It was like a switch being flipped,” he remarked about the impact it had on him.
Upon attempting to taper off, he faced shock-like sensations in his head, overwhelming anxiety, and suicidal thoughts—experiences he had never encountered before.
Huber reluctantly returned to escitalopram, feeling trapped between debilitating side effects and severe withdrawal symptoms. He struggled for nearly a decade to wean off the medication, ultimately managing to stop about a year and a half ago.
While many of the acute withdrawal symptoms resolved, he still deals with blurry vision, emotional numbness, and other issues. “I used to feel—good and bad emotions—but now I feel nothing,” he expressed, revealing that the emptiness has been incredibly challenging for him.
Experts like Nassir Ghaemi, a noted psychiatrist, believe that lasting withdrawal problems, like those Huber is facing, are likely rare but still noteworthy. However, some doctors specializing in withdrawal argue that the risk of enduring severe symptoms may be underestimated as many patients discontinue antidepressants unsuccessfully.
For instance, Horowitz mentioned he’s never seen anyone stop medications like Effexor or Cymbalta without significant long-term struggles, though he has acknowledged lasting issues even with drugs considered easier to stop.
Individuals frequently refer to these ongoing symptoms as “protracted withdrawal,” while specialists like Horowitz suggest terms like “dependent neurological dysfunction” to cover the range of experiences surrounding antidepressant withdrawal.
Both Horowitz and Ghaemi caution those considering discontinuing these medications to do so gradually. Ghaemi maintains they can be effective short-term but are most beneficial in the first few months of use. “We generally shouldn’t be prescribing them indefinitely; that’s where the complications arise,” he noted.
Advocates like Framer have worked diligently to highlight the withdrawal issue. She founded the Surviving Antidepressants online forum, which serves as a space for sharing tapering practices and experiences. One notable resource referred to is a handbook authored by Horowitz that guides a slower, more gradual weaning process compared to typical medical advice.
She acknowledges the profound lack of awareness surrounding proper tapering techniques and expresses that medical education often overlooks these critical details.
In light of growing concerns, organizations like the American Psychiatric Association have begun exploring literature on lasting issues from antidepressants and are moving toward developing solutions.
Depending on ongoing pressures from advocates, the potential for more extensive studies on withdrawal effects might grow, although the future remains uncertain. Horowitz emphasized the need for dedicated research tracking long-term users after they stop taking the medications.
