Depression and withdrawal can steal a lot. If you’re feeling worthlessness, hopelessness, despair, self-hatred, lack of motivation, a hard time concentrating, or guilt, any of those can be symptoms that come up when you’re getting off psych meds. They can be so painful and confusing, and they can really color your perspective of yourself, your life, and your future. It can be pretty hard to get through a day with those kinds of symptoms.
I’m now offering coaching sessions for those going through withdrawal. If you’d like someone to walk with you through this season, I would love to meet with you. My withdrawal was brutal. I know how dark it can get. I also know how real healing is. I’m now in a place of joy, health, and full life, and I want to support you on your way there.
👉 Go here to see my calendar and schedule a session
Name it as a symptom
What I want to say is they are symptoms. Remember that they are symptoms, they are not you, and they are not reality. Like any other kind of illness that comes with symptoms — a fever from the flu comes with a high temperature — you are not the high temperature. You’re experiencing the high temperature, but it isn’t you. Same with depressive thoughts. The depressive perspective is not you. It is simply a symptom that you’re experiencing.
Labeling thoughts creates distance
Someone in one of my healing groups shared something I really appreciated. She puts negative thoughts in the “withdrawal” category in her mind. She would organize her thoughts as they came up and say, that’s a withdrawal thought. That’s not from me. Then she would label it that way and try to dismiss it, even if it kept coming back. I thought that was so smart, a great way to differentiate herself from the thought. I borrowed that from her. It was a really helpful strategy, and I want to pass it forward to you.
When good news feels impossible to imagine
In withdrawal, you can’t always wrap your mind around good news. It can feel like you’re in a tiny box of terrible symptoms with a tiny window, and sometimes it’s covered in dust so you can’t see through it. You may need to believe others who have gotten to the other side that there is so much good for you and in you. Don’t believe the worst possible thoughts and interpretations of yourself, your situation, or your future.
Don’t accept the identity label
Some of us got on these meds because we were told depression was our identity, part of who we were. Many of us were told that when we were getting off meds, this must be a return of our original illness, that we are deficient in producing certain chemicals, and we need the medication for life. Don’t believe it for a minute. That takes a temporary thing and labels it permanent. It becomes a fixed mindset. In your healing, differentiate yourself from the symptoms. They are not you. They never have been you. They are something you are experiencing and your body can heal from.
Even if you’re experiencing a symptom you had before, like depression, just because it shows up now in withdrawal does not mean it is a lifelong defining feature for you. Not at all.
Brains and bodies can recover
Depression happens in the brain and the body, and people can heal. Our bodies can recover. It’s like getting an injury, healing, and moving on. What we’ve been told about permanence isn’t true. That’s not how the brain works. You can come through this and feel so much better on the other side. Your brain can find a way.
I was put on meds for depression, had a terrible withdrawal, and now I’m off meds and surprised by the joy in life.
So don’t believe that this is permanent. Don’t believe that depression is your identity. Don’t believe that the symptoms are your identity. They’re experiences you’re going through, and there’s so much more to you. You can come through this. You really can.
Hold on to what is helpful and true
Hang in there. Healing will happen in time. You can organize your thoughts: withdrawal thoughts, symptomatic thoughts, and then what’s really helpful and true. Hold on to anything helpful and true, and you’re going to make it through this.