@samhall404
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Raising awareness of psychiatric drug withdrawal. Sharing the reality, the science and fight for recognition. IG - samhall404
Joined September 2012
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1/ Thanks to @MikhailaFuller for allowing me to share my story. 🧵
My experience sits in the uncomfortable space between what patients are routinely told about antidepressants and what can, in many cases, actually unfold over time. It is not simply a story of adverse effects, it is a story about the consequences of incomplete information, overconfidence in simplified narratives and a medical culture that too often defaults to explanation rather than investigation when things go wrong.
I was prescribed the antidepressant Sertraline for situational panic attacks following a house fire when I was younger and remained on it for approximately 13 years. During that time, I was never meaningfully informed about the possibility of physiological dependence, nor about the potential difficulty of stopping the drug after long term use. The phrase “safe and effective” was presented as if it were a stable, universal truth, rather than a context dependent conclusion drawn from limited and biased data.
There was no discussion of what happens when the brain adapts to a drug over more than a decade. No acknowledgement that removing that drug might not be a neutral act. No mention of protracted withdrawal or that stopping could result in a severe and prolonged destabilisation of the nervous system. Informed consent, in any meaningful sense, was absent.
When I eventually came off the SSRI, it was done through a rapid doctor led taper that bore no relation to the duration of my use. What followed was not a return of my original symptoms, but the onset of something far more severe, complex, disabling and life changing.
Almost immediately, I began to experience intense and persistent surges of physiological anxiety and panic. These were not thoughts or worries in the conventional sense. They were full body events; overwhelming waves of adrenaline that arose without psychological trigger, accompanied by a profound sense of internal threat. They were not responsive to reasoning, reassurance or standard psychological strategies because they were not primarily psychological in origin.
Alongside this, I developed widespread neurological and sensory disturbances. I experienced constant “electric” sensations throughout my body, moving unpredictably through my arms, legs, hands and across my head and face. These were often painful, presenting as burning, tingling or sharp nerve like sensations. My muscles began to twitch involuntarily, with fasciculations and spasms becoming a daily occurrence. At times, my facial muscles would contract and twitch without warning.
One of the most severe and distressing symptoms I experienced was akathisia. It is often described clinically as restlessness, but that description is profoundly inadequate. What I experienced was an intense, unrelenting inner agitation combined with a powerful urge to escape my own body, alongside a compulsion to move that made stillness feel intolerable. At its worst, it generated intense suicidal urges, not from hopelessness, but from a desperate need to escape the sensation itself. It was not psychological distress in any conventional sense, it was a physical state that overrode any attempt at control. It is difficult to overstate how severe and destabilising this symptom has been for three years.
Sleep became almost impossible at times. I went through prolonged periods of insomnia, sometimes sleeping only three hours across several days. When I did manage to fall asleep, I was frequently jolted awake by hypnic jerks; sudden, violent awakenings accompanied by adrenaline surges. The cumulative effect of this sleep deprivation was profound, amplifying every other symptom and eroding my ability to cope.
Cognitively, I experienced significant impairment. I developed …
prescribed-harm.com/stories/…
Sam Hall retweeted
"In our recent study....we showed that adults who start antidepressants for depression are 2.5 times more likely to attempt suicide when compared to those starting placebo. This equates to 1 in every 200 people attempting suicide as a direct effect of taking the antidepressant."
Recently there's been lots of discussion about rising suicide rates, but almost no discussion about this: "1 in every 200 people attempting suicide as a direct effect of taking the antidepressant"
@Mental_Elf @wendyburn @ProfLAppleby @rcpsych what say you?
cepuk.org/2019/09/06/hengart…
Sam Hall retweeted
"A final sample of 19,155 long-term antidepressant users were compared with 20,648 propensity score matched nonusers. After adjusting for covariates, long-term antidepressant use was significantly associated with dementia (odds ratio [OR] 1.92, 95% [CI] 1.72–2.15, p < 0.001)."
Sam Hall retweeted
"I think psychiatrists have been very slow to accept these problems, partly because I think they just can't bear to acknowledge that these very widely prescribed drugs that, you know, all psychiatrists have been prescribing for a long time can be so damaging."
@joannamoncrieff
Sam Hall retweeted
WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES OF ANTIDEPRESSANT WITHDRAWAL:
U.S. STUDY PARTICIPANTS NEEDED
Too much remains unknown about antidepressant withdrawal. Women deserve clear information about how stopping these drugs may affect their lives and reproductive planning—and research documenting their experiences is essential to closing that knowledge gap.
Dr. Laura Farach, a pediatrician with 37 years of experience, is leading a new study with researchers from several institutions. The team is recruiting women living in the United States for research interviews about prolonged antidepressant tapering and withdrawal. To be eligible, women must not have taken benzodiazepines for four or more consecutive weeks within the past two years. Additional eligibility criteria appear in the invitation below.
Participants’ stories can advance clinical recognition of prolonged withdrawal and give women of childbearing age the information needed for meaningful informed consent.
Please read the invitation below and share it with others who may be interested.
Many thanks!
Medicating Normal Outreach Team
------------------------------------
STUDY INVITATION
You are invited to participate in a research study about antidepressant tapering or withdrawal experiences. Before you decide whether to participate, please read the information below carefully.
Dr. Laura Farach and her co-investigators are conducting this study. This interview study is for women who began antidepressants before the age of 24 and who are currently tapering for more than one year, have completed a multiyear taper, or report a prolonged tapering or discontinuation process that the study team determines is relevant to the study aims during screening.
The purpose is to understand and document participants' experiences, perspectives, and decision-making about antidepressant tapering and how, if at all, it relates to family planning and reproductive decisions. The interview will include questions about medical history, social history, medication history, tapering history, sexual functioning if relevant, and family planning
history. Questions about sexuality are optional and may be skipped. The interview is expected to take approximately 60 minutes, with an optional follow-up if needed; interviews may occur over multiple sessions if preferred.
If you become upset or distressed during the interview, we can pause or stop, and you will be encouraged to seek support from your established healthcare providers, crisis resources, or trusted supports as appropriate. If you disclose suicidal thoughts or feel unable to stay safe, the interview will be paused or stopped, and you will be encouraged to contact appropriate supports
or emergency/crisis resources. If you believe that discussing these experiences may cause you significant emotional distress, you may decide not to participate.
This study is for research purposes only and does not involve medical care, diagnosis, or treatment. Participation does not create a physician-patient relationship with Dr. Farach or any member of the study team.
Participation is voluntary, there is no compensation, and you may skip any question, pause, reschedule, or stop the interview at any time. You may withdraw from the study at any time.
If you are interested in participating, please contact Dr. Farach at [email protected] for additional information and eligibility screening. Please write the word STUDY in the subject line. Please do not include medical or other sensitive personal information in your email. Email communication may not be secure; please provide scheduling availability only.
______________________________________________________________________________
To learn more about the devastating physical and emotional toll of psychiatric drug withdrawal, watch our documentary, "Medicating Normal":
buff.ly/3ZQaINI
Sam Hall retweeted
A step in the right direction for antidepressant labelling but informed consent is more than a list of warnings. More on how the updated MHRA guidance came about and what this means for patients. #PSSD #antidepressants #MHRA rxisk.org/mhra-announces-new…
Sam Hall retweeted
Remember, folks: warning the public about real harms from medications is NOT fearmongering.
What IS fearmongering is shaming people for speaking out about those harms by claiming that people might die if they're frightened into not taking their medication.
Sam Hall retweeted
There are healthcare workers who have a front row seat to prescribed harm going on right now. A subset chooses to taunt and harass individuals with drug injuries online. There is something fundamentally wrong with them, and they have absolutely no business being in healthcare.
Sam Hall retweeted
I remember back when we were fighting for the FDA’s antidepressant suicide warnings, groups were emerging with stories of how these drugs had devastated marriages, relationships, and intimacy. Sadly, their experiences were largely dismissed or ignored.
I often wonder now if some of those people were describing what we’re finally beginning to recognize as #PSSD. How many years have these voices gone unheard?
Thanks @NIHDirector_Jay for speaking out about the harms of antidepressants.
If you or someone has a story, please submit to antidepressantinjury.com
Surreal to see the NIH Director @NIHDirector_Jay talking about PSSD—an injury long dismissed, with victims told by doctors their antidepressant induced harm wasn’t real.
For years it was relegated to Reddit forums and hidden corners of the internet: an abandoned community of devastated lives desperately seeking answers, with no one listening.
These are real people unjustly left to suffer, stripped of fundamental parts of their humanity. We cannot leave them behind. We urgently need research into the underlying mechanisms and a path toward recovery. #pssd @PSSDNetwork @elliotbewick @lololizzle
Sam Hall retweeted
Surreal to see the NIH Director @NIHDirector_Jay talking about PSSD—an injury long dismissed, with victims told by doctors their antidepressant induced harm wasn’t real.
For years it was relegated to Reddit forums and hidden corners of the internet: an abandoned community of devastated lives desperately seeking answers, with no one listening.
These are real people unjustly left to suffer, stripped of fundamental parts of their humanity. We cannot leave them behind. We urgently need research into the underlying mechanisms and a path toward recovery. #pssd @PSSDNetwork @elliotbewick @lololizzle
Sam Hall retweeted
ICYMI: For years, people tapering psychiatric drugs have described a “windows and waves” pattern of withdrawal: a crash after a dose cut, then a stretch of settling if the dose is held.
Clinicians have often interpreted that crash as the original condition returning, but a new study followed people through a six-month antidepressant taper and found exactly the same wave pattern.
Led by Michael Hengartner (@HengartnerMP) with Mark Horowitz (@markhoro), the research found people tapering reported their mood dropped after each reduction, then eased when the dose stayed put—even at very low doses.
Notably, the mood changes were aligned with physical complaints. Once those physical complaints were taken into account, the rise in depression scores was no longer significant.
That will not surprise you if you have lived it, but the research is still worth reading. You can find coverage of it including a link to the original paper via the link below.
Sam Hall retweeted
This time 5 years ago I was in a psych facility after becoming suicidal from tapering Effexor too fast, which gave me akathisia, terror-level anxiety, and insomnia. Worst time of my life.
It's scary what rapid tapers can do. How many don't survive?
I almost didn't.
Sam Hall retweeted
All these “anti psychiatry” patients
and critical psychiatrists meddling to get proper safety warnings for antidepressants. How awful of them.
On a serious note, remarkable work by patients and their families in getting this implemented.
The MHRA is introducing a series of new measures to strengthen how risks associated with antidepressant medicines are communicated to patients, carers and healthcare professionals. Read the full drug safety update here: brnw.ch/21x6qlr
Sam Hall retweeted
The vague post by the MHRA I've quoted below doesn't mention the actual risks the strengthened warnings for antidepressants are about, so I will:
One of them is increased risk of suicide. The warning about it is going to be updated to say the risk is increased in people of ALL ages, irrespective of diagnosis the antidepressant is prescribed for - eg the risk is increased for people prescribed antidepressants for non-mental health conditions. (People can be prescribed antidepressants for things like IBS.)
As a teenager I was put on paroxetine for crying to my GP about being bullied at school and a few days into starting it, I developed what I later learned to be akathisia and I tried to take my life. I'd never been suicidal once in my life before that, including five years of being bullied.
How many other people are out there like me? And how many people aren't here today because they too were like me?
The MHRA is introducing a series of new measures to strengthen how risks associated with antidepressant medicines are communicated to patients, carers and healthcare professionals. Read the full drug safety update here: brnw.ch/21x6qlr
Sam Hall retweeted
How many deaths/injuries can be attributed to:
Ghostwriting of pharmaceutical clinical trials?
Non-publication of negative studies?
Miscoding of data?
Use of statistics to obscure?
Lack of access to data?
Healy, Herxheimer, and Menkes, 2006.
"an amotivational syndrome"
Sam Hall retweeted
The "loudest takes online" are harmed patients, who, up and until the advent of social media, didn't have a platform. In recent years, they are the ones who have been ignored, belittled, and vilified, in the name of trying to improve patient safety.
From "Prozac Backlash".
Sam Hall retweeted
youtube.com/watch?v=ywOt23Je…
We're a relatively small channel dedicated to sharing the stories of people whose health and lives have been devastated by SSRIs. Many of those we've interviewed have faced dismissal, ridicule, and gaslighting, often from people more interested in defending these medications than listening to those harmed by them.
There are countless spaces where people can discuss their positive experiences with these drugs, and far fewer where those harmed can share their stories without being overshadowed or met with demands for "balance." The imbalance has overwhelmingly favored the former.
The MHRA is strengthening risk warnings. Yet even in response to an announcement acknowledging the need for better risk communication, the conversation is being redirected toward concerns about excessive negativity. That speaks volumes about the very imbalance we're discussing.
Sam Hall retweeted
We've been here before. What 'pseudo addiction' was to opiates 'discontinuation syndrome' it to SSRIs. It's clearly a euphemism- it was invented by Eli Lilly to position its product favourably against Paroxetine.
This is what the UK's Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) said about the term back in 1998:
"The Committee were asked whether they thought that a change in terminology from withdrawal reactions to 'discontinuation reactions' would be appropriate as suggested by Lilly. It was agreed that it would be inappropriate to change medical terminology in this way.”
When they can't fight on the facts they resort to legalistic arguments.
Sam Hall retweeted
What ‘pseudoaddiction’ was to opioids, ‘discontinuation syndrome’ is to SSRIs.
Both are Pharma backed terms with questionable scientific foundations, used to downplay drug harms and protect commercial interests.
Both are clearly euphemisms which protect profits over patients.
Fucking unbelievable. For some historical context, pharma led a campaign nearly 30 years ago to frame antidepressant withdrawal as "discontinuation" rather than withdrawal to characterize it as more benign and self-limited. "Withdrawal" has since become the accepted terminology. Goldberg and several coauthors used “antidepressant withdrawal” in their own consensus statement earlier this year, yet here they are, retreating to old propaganda techniques.
psychiatrist.com/jcp/physica…
Sam Hall retweeted
For prescribers …
mims.co.uk/warnings-risk-sui….
Sam Hall retweeted
German regulators initially refused to approve Prozac in ‘84. Lilly's own studies showed previously nonsuicidal patients had 3x the rate of suicides and attempts vs placebo, and 5x vs older antidepressants.
If I'm rolling those dice, the drug better work miracles. It doesn’t.
SSRIs aren’t turning people into zombies. Untreated depression is. They’re among the best studied treatments we have for moderate to severe depression and anxiety.
Most people tolerate them well and many improve significantly when they’re used properly and monitored.
Real risks exist, including sexual side effects and a higher chance of suicidal thoughts early on in younger people, and those should be discussed clearly before starting.
But the loudest takes online usually skip the people who get their lives back and downplay how dangerous the illness itself can be. Balanced information helps patients make better decisions. Pure fear does the opposite.