ICFDA Survivor Stories (2000 & prior)
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12/28/2000 |
No Longer the Same after Six Months on Psychotropics "Where will it all end? He had never even had a headache before all of this!" |
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12/15/2000 |
Falling Apart Withdrawing from Effexor “I know from now on I will check more into a drug before I begin taking it.” |
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12/12/2000 |
16-Year Old Wanting to End it All on Zoloft “...first night I had taken Zoloft I experienced extreme anxiety and mania, I thought I was going crazy.“ |
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12/9/2000 |
17-Year Old Friend Committed Suicice on Prozac “It killed one of my friends and almost killed another. I can’t believe that it is still on the market...” |
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11/29/2000 |
Pharmacist Suspicious Antidepressant Caused Symptoms “...often the negative information about medications is not available to us, at least not conveniently so.” |
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11/16/2000 |
“My doctor said it was clinical depression. It didn’t occur to me that it could be a real reaction to real things, not just a ‘chemical imbalance’. “ |
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11/1/2000 |
My Drug Induced Psychoses on Ativan “To all who read this letter , make no mistake about it . This can happen to you .” |
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10/18/2000 |
"...my husband and I are convinced that going off the Paxil was the core of the |
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10/12/2000 |
“I was all jittery and I just felt weird.” |
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10/12/2000 |
Zoloft Withdrawal--The Darkest Period of my Life "I had all the classic symptoms of a junkie coming off of heroine." |
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10/5/2000 |
"To me, it is poison." |
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9/14/2000 |
"…no one in my family will ever take Profen II again!" |
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8/28/2000 |
Dizzy and Nauseous Withdrawing from Generic Wellbutrin "I am not going to go away! I want some answers!" |
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8/17/2000 |
"In less than a year I have gone from 120lbs to more than 200lbs." |
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7/31/2000 |
Suicidal Wife on Paxil Shoots Husband "I know it's the Paxil." |
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7/25/2000 |
Awake for 800 Hours Straight and Unable to Function after just 25mg of Paxil "Did I undergo a 'chemical lobotomy?'" |
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7/2/2000 |
Is there a steroid effect with Prozac "Wouldn't it be wonderful if I regain my desire to write and paint when I finally get off Prozac?" |
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7/1/2000 |
Staccato Vision, Whiting Out and Brain Shivers on Effexor “Please, unless you are chronically depressed or have something really, really severe, stay away from this class of drugs.” |
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7/1/2000 |
Unprepared for the Horrendous Withdrawal from Effexor (with an update 4 months later) "Sometimes it felt as if my brain was shuddering in my skull…" |
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6/21/2000 |
Withdrawing from Prozac after Eleven Years "I credit (finding the ICFDA web site) with saving my life." |
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6/20/2000 |
5-Year Old's Unusual Reaction to 5-htp "I read about 5-htp and under the recommendation of a friend." |
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5/5/2000 |
Redux caused my Pulmonary Hypertension "I had never been diagnosed with any of these things before taking Redux." |
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5/2/2000 |
Withdrawing from Paxil has been a Nightmare "Feelings of suicide and hopelessness are worse now than ever." |
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4/17/2000 |
Nurse Tells of Horrors after Gaining Weight on Prozac "Prozac is a dangerous drug!!!!! It has changed my body, my health, my financial status, influenced my marital status and almost destroyed me." |
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4/13/2000 |
I" was a very frightening experience." |
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4/5/2000 |
"...the FDA was warned by their own experts not to release this Meridia and it got on the market anyway." |
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2/27/2000 |
My 18-Year Old's Bizarre Behavior on Prozac "At no time…did any one mention Prozac's side effects." |
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11/22/1999 |
I Survived A Cocktail of Anti-depressants and Dexedrine “I progressed to severe suicidal feelings.” |
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6/10/1999 |
Consumed by the Black Hole of Serotonin "…when I looked in the mirror I couldn't see anything. There was nothing there." |
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2/3/1999 |
A Nine-Year Old's Side Effects on Prozac "I am disgusted that Prozac is so readily handed out to children." |
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10/29/1998 |
A Teenager's Journey into Prozac Hell “He was on Zoloft about 5 days when he told me that he now could not distinguish between dreams and reality.” |
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10/29/1998 |
Girlfriend Self-Destructed on Prozac--A Police Officer's Story “Please let people who are out there know that Prozac is bad medicine.” |
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10/29/1998 |
Two and a Half Years Later--Problems from Three Zoloft Tablets "…I only want to resolve these problems so that we can return to our life prior to taking Zoloft." |
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10/29/1998 |
Five Weeks to Psychosis on Prozac "It was close to 2 years before I could laugh again." |
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5/20/1998 |
My Trip through Hell on Prozac “By my 9th week on Prozac I felt suicidal.” |
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11/1/1997 |
If you have or know of teens or pre-teens struggling with depression or hopelessness, or if you know someone on anti-depressants, I hope this account will help you. I believe that if I had read a story like the one you will now read, it might very well have saved our son. My wife would still have her little boy. My daughter would still have her little brother. And I would still have my best companion and friend in the whole wide world. |
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9/1/1997 |
Cushing’s Syndrome on Prozac--A Nurse’s Story " (I) thought it was saving my life, while all the time it was insidiously and slowly killing me." |
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8/25/1997 |
Heart Problems from Four Years on Prozac "I was a very well person prior to taking the Prozac and am now exhausted all the time." |
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1/10/1996 |
"...Prozac destroyed my life." |
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6/12/1995 |
"But how do I live with the fact drugs took away five years of my life???" |
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All Hell Broke Loose When I Quit Cold Turkey 'I began thinking and doing things that I normally would abhor. I became unable to feel spiritual feelings.' |
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"I have seen four eye doctors and they all are stumped as to why I got cataracts." |
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Suicide after One Month on Celexa and lorazipam "I do wonder just how often suicide, attempted suicides and murders are committed by people who are taking SSRI drugs." |
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Antidepressants for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome "It was truly the worst experience I've ever had and will never blindly take those drugs again..." |
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"I decided it was time for a drastic change or I would end up dead." |
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Son Convicted of Murder while on Paxil "I was frightened and bewildered. Nothing like that had ever happened before with any of our children." |
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"If I waited 2 more weeks my mother would be dead." |
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"I am feeling so angry and deceived by the medical profession." |
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Uncontrolled Crying Withdrawing from Effexor "Two days after my last dose was hell." |
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Kerri's Story--My Dark Place on Psychotropic Drugs and ECT "I had the "electric jitz which feels literally like hot coals inside your back." |
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Paxil, Klonopin, Zyprexa and Cough Syrup-A Deadly Mix "I am not so sure which was worse--depression or psychosis." |
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"...my experience with aspartame was awful... This stuff is DEFINITELY poison." |
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Young Son's Frightening Reactions on Zoloft, Prozac and Luvox "I just know they will want to give him SSRI's and I can't let him go through that again." |
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Prozac, Effexor, Klonopin, Serzone, Zyprexa, Neurontin, and now Celexa-and Hospitalized Seven Times. "I sometimes am so sorry I started him on this medication journey," |
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Klonopin...The Nightmare That Never Ends "My fantasy is that there is a cure. I want my brain and my life back." |
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I survived Zoloft, but I lost a good friend. "I will do anything I can do to get these drugs off of the market." |
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A Living Hell Coming Off Paxil "There needs to be so much more information available to a patient." |
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A Nurse's Story: On Paxil, I Lost Interest in Everything. "Never again, Paxil. Never again." |
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"...there seems to be a screaming, and I have begun pulling my hair out, one strand at a time." |
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Four Weeks after Luvox, I Feel Dizzy, Lethargic and Fatigued. "I still feel terrible - a lot worse than I did before ever taking it." |
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"We need to let people know what is going on with these drugs before more lives are destroyed." |
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Marge's Story--Her Fateful Experience on Paxil and Effexor "...this stuff has to come off the market." |
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Memory Loss on Zyban (Wellbutrin) "I just wanted to share this, so sister/fellow sufferers won't have to settle for these drugs." |
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My Husband Just Lost His Life on Meridia. "I don't want anyone else going through the pain I have been through." |
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Health Deteriorated on Meridia "I am very angry and scared. I may not be out of the woods." |
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Mother of Four Suffers Extreme Anxiety on Prozac "Please God, let people learn about this so that it does not happen to others." |
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"Nothing is as awful as life was on Paxil." |
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"I have lost all contact with my body." |
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Numb on a Cocktail Mixture of Medications "When I read the accounts of others who were having almost identical mental states, I began to cry and felt like the world was lifted off my shoulders. I wasn't crazy or insane!" |
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One Woman's Experience with Prozac "I feel that many women get drugs [because doctors] cannot spend time over a period of several years with a patient to discover what is really wrong." |
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A Nurse's Panic Attacks on Prozac and Paxil. "I am terrified of these meds, and hope I can be emotionally healthy again." |
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"Has psychiatry's faith in medication become so strong that the last thing they can imagine is that medication might be what is causing a problem?" |
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"Please get this message out..." |
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Ph.D. Plans Derailed on Zoloft "Being "Zoloft free" has allowed me to see the negative side effects not easily seen while on the medication." |
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My Son's Experience on Ritalin "So many times doctors are drugging our children when they could be helped with proper nutrition, discipline and/or counseling." |
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"I know with absolute certainty that he could not have committed this act on his own."--by Richard Schultz, his brother |
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My Zoloft and Serzone Nightmare "I have a Zoloft problem, and I am prepared to tell anyone that this stuff is deadly." |
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"I thought maybe that I was nuts, because the doctor just looked at me like I was imagining things." |
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Going Through Withdrawals on Mind-Altering Meds "...I was sent to see a psychiatrist who said it was anxiety and depression, and for the following 4 years prescribed 22 different types of mood-altering drugs..." |
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"I believe that any innocence that I held before these events occurred has now been dashed but I am never without hope." |
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St. John's Wort and Acute Insomnia "SJW must be as powerful a serotonergic as Prozac." |
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Prozac prescribed for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome "It was, by far, the most terrifying experience of my life; I literally felt like I was losing my mind, being taken over by an alien force." |
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Klonopin, Paxil and Depakote prescribed for Stress and Anxiety "...there seemed to be some kind of psychological wall in my mind, and I couldn't get any words past it." |
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"...an incredible journey into another world." |
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Between Laughter and Tears on Zoloft, Prozac and Wellbutrin (Zyban) "...drugs are always give and take. This is not worth the take." |
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"I took one look at the prescription and shoved (it) back across the desk toward the doctor." |
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Tegretol Destroyed My Life And My Family "I wanted to withdraw from life on this drug." |
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"I could not even go out to my car to go to the hospital. I became terrified, I could not leave the house." |
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"Paxil should be yanked from the market immediately." |
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My Side Effects from Prozac (Prescribed for Unipolor Depression) "... more than 10 minutes passed and she whipped out her prescription pad..." |
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Two Months of Hell on Luvox, Effexor, Paxil and Zoloft. "Why don't they tell people? What are they trying to do to us?" |
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"..a dozen or more therapists all missed the signs and symptoms..." |
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"I hope this story will help remind people of the serious nature of medication..." |
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"I think at this point the only thing that will save us is knowing about any medications before we take them." |
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My Reaction to Zyban and Wellbutrin "When my husband came home from work, he found me on the bathroom floor unable to move my left side, babbling and drooling, having difficult breathing." |
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After 3 months on Paxil, my hell started. "Anybody who is thinking about taking medication for depression should think again." |
