Benzo and antidepressant interactions

[[Br...]]

 

Hi. I've been holding for 3 months. My physical symptoms are not bad, big fatigue and maybe some other things here and there I don't notice. Mental stuff like brain fog, derealization, anxiety, ocd rumination is causing me issue. Because of this I've been thinking I need a different antidepressant because I took a genesight test and my current AD, zoloft 25mg, doesn't mesh well with my DNA. I was looking for something specifically for ocd, so was leaning towards prozac. Someone here golf me to go to surviving antidepressants but they aren't accepting new members until the new year and I need to figure this out before my appointment tomorrow.

On SA I learned some startling news, apparently antidepressants are just as bad as benzos and everyone's trying to get off?!? AND AD create anxiety and shit so doctors give you the benzo to calm that down so I've been tapering off of the thing that is intrinsically linked to my antidepressant. They suggest getting off your AD before your benzo because of this. I think this needs to be talked much more about here because this is dangerous. 

Now I'm left with the fear that I will never have a pharmaceutical crutch/help even though I feel I desperately need it. I don't understand what to do. Sure, chemical imbalances aren't real or whatever, but my brain does not enjoy being alive a lot of the time so taking medicine helps that, but apparently all the medicine is bad, and maybe it doesn't help at all? 

I could chalk up my current negative experience to benzo withdrawal, but what about before I ever touched a pharmaceutical? I still suffered horribly. I've been in therapy for more than 10 years on and off and I'm still like this so idk.

 

[[Pa...]]

I’ve heard members say their A/D has quit working for them and they feel better after switching to another one so maybe your doctor has a suggestion for you.

 Do you think you would benefit from resuming your taper, I wonder if you’d feel better? 

[[Br...]]

But the SA page is the same as this one. I don't think people here would suggest me go from klonopin to Valium right? They are both bad. That's what I'm saying. I'm so confused. If I didn't know what I know from this page I wouldn't have continued getting off of klonopin, and now I know similar things about AD so it feels like a bad idea to just hop to another AD. What I really want is an educated professional to help me with all of this. It's ridiculous I have to do this all alone with a tiny bit of peer analysis. And I think the symptoms are partly due to the klonopin sticking to the bottom of my jar so I'm not getting the full dose. 

[[Li...]]

1 hour ago, [[B...] said:

But the SA page is the same as this one. I don't think people here would suggest me go from klonopin to Valium right? They are both bad. That's what I'm saying. I'm so confused. If I didn't know what I know from this page I wouldn't have continued getting off of klonopin, and now I know similar things about AD so it feels like a bad idea to just hop to another AD. What I really want is an educated professional to help me with all of this. It's ridiculous I have to do this all alone with a tiny bit of peer analysis. And I think the symptoms are partly due to the klonopin sticking to the bottom of my jar so I'm not getting the full dose. 

@[Br...] I can understand your frustration.  I believe that benzo wd can absolutely attribute to the depression you have been experiencing.  My life is pretty stressful and that with all the benzo wd in May of this year I asked my doctor to put me on something for my really bad depression.  He has had me on 2 deferent medications a the first one helped me for a few months and then stopped and the second one has not helped at all but has given me other side effects that I do not like.  He has asked me to read up on a third medication that he wants to try but for me I am finding it hard to tell between the wd of the benzos and side effects of the new meds.  For me, I have decided to stop the depression meds and take some other approaches to help myself manage the depression.  The question I asked myself in the beginning was is this helping me get through this?  As long as the answer was a "yes" for me I continued.  We must all evaluate how our body handles everything we do and put into it.  I get your comparison between the Klonopin and the Valium, however, they both serve a purpose.  I was on K for almost 20 years and have been tapering for over 4 years....  My body is very sensitive to decreases in the medication.  Klonopin doesn't come on small doses so it was hard for me to continue using it to taper so my doctor put me on the equivalent of Valium to be able to taper in much smaller doses.  So although they are "the same" there is a method to the madness of switching.  I am not an expert but I know how this journey has been for me.  I hope that this helps you in some way.