Aissela is an Italian who suffered from PSSD after taking Prozac from 2013-2014. In 2017 he posted the following update here on Surviving Antidepressants.
Aissela claims:
“Hi all, I’m 24 from Italy and I’m sorry for my English, I’ll do my best. I want to share my story because I think this could give hope to other people.
I’ve been on fluvoxamine for six months in 2013 and stopped in the early 2014 and after a months my first withdrawal started. At that time I didn’t know anything about withdrawal and my doctor told me I was bipolar. So, after three months of strange symptoms, he decided to put me on Paxil. The symptoms subsided very quickly and I took Paxil till February 2015 and again, after a months with no med, I had my second withdrawal. But this time fortunately I found this forum and i’ve been able to understand what was happening to my body. I said good bye to my doctor and I started my healing process alone.
I had a classical withdrawal with the pattern of windows and waves and all those symptoms morphing month by month: Panick attacks, DP/DR, anhedonia, weight loss, couldn’t go out, memory loss, mood swings, sensation of burning brain, no libido, insomnia but also lethargy, light sensitivity and so on…The first year I’ve been like a vegetable, in my bedroom all the day, unable to function and also to empathize with my family or my dog. But I have to say that my first window started very soon, maybe after three months in the withdrawal and I’ve seen a lots of improvement also during the first year. Slowly the windows have become frequent and longer while the waves have become less intense and shorter. Anyway i’m not able to tell you specifically how my symptoms have changed every month because I can’t remember and frankly, I prefer to forget it. All I can say is that during the second year my emotions started to came back and the panic attacks subsided completely, but i’ve seen also a constant improvement of all the other symptoms.
Now I’m on month 23 and I can go out when I want, I’m doing sport, I have my sexuality back, I can empathize with people, I’m sleeping very well. I can hit a short wave every two or three months, especially after a stressful period. It last one or two weeks and generally my only symptoms are extreme tiredness, fatigue and low moods. Of course I’m not completely recovered but I’m also doing a very slow benzo’s taper and I’m sure that part of my residual symptoms are from it.
So, all I want to tell you is that there is hope. It is a long and painful process but as I’ve seen, the brain is really able to heal itself and time will adjust everything.”
“I think I had a lot of cognitive problems. My memory first, then my brain was very slow in processing the information. I wasn’t able to think clearly and to speak properly. I’ve lost my sense of humor and it was surely linked to my temporary “stupidity” . I also had and partially have, some problems with the inhibition and other behavioral abnormalities. Especially in the interaction with people. Something in the ability to understand others and to be understood is not working, but I don’t know how to explain it. The I had problems with my eyes, it was like to look at the world in low definition.”
“Anyway, I started to see cognitive improvements on month 5/6 but it is very hard to remember every step of the process. I think you know how it works, you can have a new symptom on month 9 and then it just disappear. All I can say is that I had constant and gradual progress, especially in the second year. Now I have my sense of humor back, my brain is doing well but not as It was before. I think is 70/80%. But as I told you, I’m tapering my benzos and getting symptoms from it, mainly cognitives. So, I’m not completely recovered but this is not entirely related to the WD.”
“everything has come back very gradually, emotions, sexuality, energy ecc…Even now that I’m recovered, I can see new little improvements month by month.”
