Antidepressants Held Me Prisoner for 30 Years

Jane Tholen - after 30 years on mind altering antidepressants

Before antidepressants, I was articulate and accomplished. I could think – I could do anything I set out to do. I was a banking executive and lived in a beautiful apartment in Boston’s Back Bay when a home invasion in 1985 prompted my doctor to prescribe antidepressants for PTSD.

They helped me function for a while, but the debilitating mental and physical side effects of antidepressants held me prisoner for 30 years. They caused cognitive decline and changed how my brain worked. I couldn’t “decide” to get off them.

Ambushed by Antidepressants

Just as my attacker slammed into me, SSRI antidepressants ambushed the neurotransmitters in my brain causing severe anxiety, panic attacks and debilitating depression.

When the antidepressants didn’t “work,” my doctors either upped the dosage of the one I was on or switched me to a different one. They treated the side of effects of antidepressants with more drugs: tranquilizers, sleeping pills and amphetamines for misdiagnosed ADHD. I never got any better.

After three years on Effexor xr (venlafaxine), I hit bottom: panic attacks ruled my days, suicide seemed like the only way out, and I was declared totally disabled. But, I could still remember the old me.

Quitting Antidepressants Gave Me My Life Back

I researched the effects of antidepressants and decided I’d be better off without them. But, my doctors didn’t know how to taper me off: they cut my dosage in half in just three weeks which caused horrendous withdrawal side effects.

But, I got through it, and now I have my old self back at 72. The side effects of antidepressants that plagued me for so long are gone. My muddled brain has cleared, and I can function again.

If you follow a long, slow taper schedule, you can avoid what I went through. Go to How To Quit Antidepressants to learn more.

If you have a similar story, I’d like to hear from you.

Jane’s 30-year journey of prescribed psychotherapy drugs is chronicled in Diane Atwood’s “Catching Health” Podcast and the Bangor Daily News.