Withdrawals and Depression

Withdrawals! Yes you heard correctly, I was experiencing withdrawal symptoms form missing two days of my anti-depression medicine. These symptoms included but were not limited to agitation (could not hold still), anxiety, confusion, coordination impaired, dizziness, fatigue, insomnia, nervousness, nightmares, sensory disturbances (including shock-like electrical sensations), and vertigo. The nightmares last night are what made me realize that something was way out of balance. Let me explain in the hopes of shedding some light on living with depression.

Eight years ago I was diagnosed with Sever Clinical Depression and Anxiety Disorder. When you hear the term “Clinical Depression” it merely means the depression is severe enough to require treatment. The anxiety disorder is mostly situational anxiety and is very common when we trust in ourselves and lean on our own understanding and not in Christ.

The road that lead to this diagnosis was years in the traveling and had been traveled my many in my family for at least four generations. Some types of depression run in families and can be traced back generations. There can be a biological or genetic makeup that can allow some to develop more tendencies toward depression than others. However, not everyone in each family will develop depression. Unfortunately I did.

I have been taking the antidepressant medicine Effexor for the past eight years. It has been very effective in helping me learn to manage and live with depression. The problem is that if you miss one day the withdrawal symptoms start. They are fairly mild to start but if you go TWO days, well that’s when it all started. I have now learned that first consult you doctor before you decide to stop taking you medicines and that Effexor is one of the worst for withdrawal symptoms.
If you are struggling with depression or even think you may have tendencies towards it, let me know and I would love to talk with you more about how God has walked me through the past eight years and why I know have such a passion for counseling others.