I thinking about stopping mine, but of course am worried I may fall back into a pit of despair. Does anyone have any wise words or experience of stopping ADs once they felt more normal again? Obviously I will be stopping with guidance from my doctor if I do.
P.S. I'm not asking with regard to whether the tinnitus got any worse after stopping, just about how robust people felt when stopping.
I have a mild bipolar issue (no mania, mostly depressive episodes) and I got off an anti-depressant (serotonin drug) by taking 4 softgels (3 or less wasn't strong enough) of Barlean's flaxseed oil (used for ALA Omega 3 fatty acids) every afternoon with some bread and fluids. I eventually started taking one a day with bread, cut my dose down for a while, then added two, cut my dose down for a while, added three cut my dose down for a while and then once I got to 4, I stopped taking the anti depressant. It's possible I may could have used a smaller amount in fish oil but when I took just one softgel it spiked my tinnitus. (I don't think it would spike most people's tinnitus though, I'm just one of the unlucky people).
Flaxseed oil was great for me for depression. I actually tried it for a while recently, skipped a couple of days and then took 4 softgels with bread one night when I wasn't feeling well. I wasn't expecting anything instant to happen because I was trying it for digestive problems. Well, within 5 minutes (it seemed like) my vision suddenly brightened (it was night time in my kitchen) and I got a huge mood boost. For a long time I had told people that I thought the colors weren't as bright and vivid sometimes but I didn't know if it was all in my mind or not. I looked up online and saw that dopamine can make vision brighter so perhaps flaxseed oil is increasing my dopamine among other things.
For regular people, I would suggest trying a smaller amount of fish oil (because of the EPA and DHA Omega 3 fatty acids) with bread first to see if that helps, then if that doesn't work you could try flaxseed oil. It's important to take flaxseed or fish oil with food because otherwise the stomach or intestines can get upset. I also wonder if there is some synergy in taking it with carbohydrates because I seemed to feel better if I took with bread than with some kind of protein like chicken.
Here was the pros and cons for continuous flaxseed oil treatment for me:
Pros:
Felt much better
Much easier to get over depressing thoughts and when negative thoughts did come in, they were much less intense
No mind numbing affect like SSRI's
Made my eyes very white, moist, and healthy (even my eye doctor was blown away)
Cons:
Cause me to lose a lot of hair
Caused me to pee more often
Of course people's bodies are different and not everyone has those "side effects".
Anyways, I hope that was helpful and I hope you get better soon.
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