What brought me to psychedelics - Part I of II

Disenchantment with the psychiatric profession, especially antidepressants

Photo by Christina Victoria Craft on Unsplash

Tapering off of anti-depressants such as the Cymbalta I’m currently prescribed is more than challenging; it’s maddening. My physical symptoms have consisted of headaches, being off balance, feeling nausea, then add in the emotional symptoms which for me are extreme mood swings, being flooded with repressed memories and emotions, generally feeling off base. Part of this process is feeling confused, kind of almost continuous brain fog.

My reasons to discontinue these medicines are for an obvious reason: I no longer seem to need them, but the downside to this is the issue that I’ve been on Cymbalta for about 15 years, prescribed both for chronic pain/fibromyalgia and depression. From what I understand Cymbalta can dull the effect of psilocybin, which I’m trying to avoid because I got so much out of just several trips on them.

Out of the maze of pharmaceuticals

After being prescribed about 60 prescription psychotropic medicines for about 30 years of my life, I think it’s way past time I stop taking them. Although these medicines have allowed me to survive through severe bouts of depression, they have given me many unpleasant side effects and generally dampen down my emotional response; it’s like living in a fog, just adjacent to yourself.

I’ve experienced a hospitalization with MS like symptoms (total weakness and inability to talk) with Abilify, and untold negative symptoms from the medicine myself. Just discovered this drug is off the market. I’m relieved.

So, I was prescribed 60 mg of Cymbalta daily. My tapering started with 3 month at 30 mg, the next 3 months I’m prescribed 20 mg. From there I’m on my own. As it is I had to tell the provider what to do with links I have from YouTube. When I asked to take a longer period of time to taper, she said 1 month? And I’m thinking, well, more like a year, given all of the negative withdrawal symptoms I had.

To be continued…..