Hi JJ
Welcome to Radiant Recovery
I was taking anti-depressants when I started the program. I didn’t stop them until I had been steady on step 6 for 6 months, and I didn’t have a problem, but I tapered off gradually, my food was really steady, and I actually think that my problem wasn’t serotonin anyway.

I noticed a huge difference from doing the food. Before I started the program, I always ate breakfast, but it was all carbs. I would be ravenous an hour or two later - hungry enough that I felt like gnawing on my desk. Then, even though I ate meals at pretty regular intervals, I didn’t eat enough food or enough protein. I felt awful. My blood sugar was crashing continuously, I was hungry all the time, and I was very depressed from having very low beta endorphin. I felt defective, unlovable, on the outside of every group, cursed, ugly, stupid etc. I even had a voice in my head that was always telling me what a loser I was. IN addition, I was hyper all day and then so tired at night that once I got home from work, I hardly ever did anything.

Once my food was steady, and I was eating enough food and plenty of protein, my meals held me much longer, my mood steadily improved, and I started noticing more of the world around me instead of always being inside my head (where things were not very pleasant.). I remember one day I noticed that the mean voice in my head was gone. My compulsive shopping cycle stopped without any effort on my part, too.

The changes didn’t happen overnight, but things did begin to improve as soon as I started the steps. I’ve been doing the program for over 20 years now, and I can’t imagine not doing it. I would never want to go back to the way things were before.
Allison

: Hi all...I'm a newbie here! I was
: wondering if anyone has dealt with
: stopping anti depressants and had
: to deal with discontinuation
: issues?
: I was on effexor since about 1995,
: and have FINALLY been able to
: break free. My doctor switched me
: to prozac for a year before
: helping me stop. I have been
: medication free since march this
: year....i had gotten to a point
: where i knew i did not need this
: drug any more, and now am
: realizing my brain has no idea how
: to behave. Emotions allll over the
: place, even 4 months out. I
: happened to come across this book,
: and felt like it was my story.
: Not only had the meds masked
: emotional and physical pain, it
: also masked my sugar issues.
: Have you gone through this challenge?
: How long til you noticed
: improvement in emotions being more
: balanced through working with
: diet? I am very convinced sugar is
: very influential in having (or not
: having) stability....anything else
: that might help?Thanks for any
: tips!