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I've only ever really taken them in the morning, I typically risk forgetting to take them in the evenings causing a headache for myself the next day. Beyond that I assumed most people took them in the morning.
Certain meds can make you drowsy and others can make you groggy but restless, the former are better before bed, the latter are better had in the morning.
What changes if you do not take the SSRI at all for a week or so?
So you normally can be ok for a day or so, might be a little bit more sensitive, some people get panic attacks/heightened anxiety, some get a feeling of emptyness or depression. It really varies on the individual, where they are and what's going on in their life.
There were days were I'd have a meltdown if I missed a day. By comparison; one day about a month or two after having stopped smoking tobacco due to having COVID, I felt like I didn't need it and just stopped with basically no negatives, though I was also in a good place in terms of my life which likely helped.
Personally if people are curious about SSRIs, I'd suggest they look into Vortioxetine, it's technically not an SSRI, which means it has much fewer side effects, but still does the same job as them, just with less foggy cognition/groggyness
If you quit SSRIs cold turkey then you're going to wind up with discontinuation syndrome (aka withdrawls). This is going to vary depending on the person so I am just speaking from personal experience. Typically this will mean your depression or anxiety comming back with a vengance. In my cas it hit way harder than it normally does when I'm just at my baseline unmedicated. I also got extremely agitated over the most minor things. Plus you've got all of the physical symptoms such as tremors, nausea, and bouts of cold sweats. Then you have the one withdrawl symptom that is unique to meds like SSRIs which is brain zaps (aka brain shivers, brain flips brain shocks). Brain zaps are really hard to describe. The best equivalent that I can think of is when you get your reflexes checked and you feel that reflexive muscle twitch; it's basically that feeling except it feels like its comming from right in the middle of your brain and it happens about once per minute for the entire duration of the withdrawls (1-2 weeks). It's not something that is painful but it is annoying, constant, and highly distracting. Basically every time one hit I would lose my entire train of thought which made it impossible to focus on even the most basic things. From what I understand noone knows what actually causes the brain zap sensation but one of the leading theories right now is that they're basically just micro seizures.
This is a very intriguing account, particular your description of the brain zap is highly interseting!
This can literally kill people.
SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome is a massive problem that can lead to severe lasting neurological and psychiatric effects. Starting from Tics, motion deficits, sexual dysfunctions to severe and life threatening mental health episodes (extreme episodes of depression and suicidal thoughts, mania, etc.)
Furthermore sudden intake of the old dose can elevate the risk for the acute life-threatening SSRI syndrome.
Guys and Gals, seriously:
Don't fuck around with SSRIs.
They are absolutely dangerous stuff and messing around with them without experience and training can absolutely ruin the rest of your life.