Acute withdrawal
In acute withdrawal, reinstating the medication shortly after stopping can reduce or eliminate withdrawal symptoms. This is more likely to work the sooner you do it.
For example, if you stopped a drug, say, paroxetine, a week or two ago, then reinstating is likely to get rid of the symptoms of dizziness, nausea and brain zaps. However, if it was two months ago there is no guarantee whether or not it will give you full relief because more adaptations have occurred in the brain since then. Things are different from person to person. Sometimes taking a smaller amount of a drug can help. Say you’ve been off paroxetine for a few months and you have a lot of debilitating withdrawal symptoms, it is possibly safer to take 5mg or so rather than simply returning to your old dosage. That 5mg may take the edge off things. Then you can wait until you become more stable before commencing a slow and careful taper off the remaining amount.
Long term impact
If you’ve been off of a medication for a significant amount of time and are still experiencing adverse effects it is likely that these will occur in waves. For example, you may have a few weeks when you feel almost back to normal, but then you may get a period of a few weeks where your symptoms are strong again.
Keep your nervous system as stable as possible.
If you are experiencing long-term discontinuation symptoms then you need to be as kind to yourself as possible. You may have a hypersensitive nervous system, so things like alcohol, caffeine, and even certain foods, can have an effect on symptoms. Again keeping a diary here can be helpful. Things like mindfulness, light exercise, and other ways to minimise stress and anxiety can all be of help.
Lifestyle & Recovery Series
To learn more about various lifestyle factors go to our Lifestyle & Recovery course via the courses section of our website.
Exploring Stress
To learn more about managing stress go to the Exploring Stress course accessible via the courses section of our website.
Consider more:
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