This is his family doctor, not ER. Prescribed 3 different ADs over a 2 year period, NONE of them for depression.
Doctor tried prescribing a 4th one but the person refused.
Apparently anti-depressants are the non habit forming answer to all life's problems.
Typical symptoms of antidepressant discontinuation syndrome include flu-like symptoms, insomnia, nausea, imbalance, sensory disturbances, and hyperarousal. These symptoms usually are mild, last one to two weeks, and are rapidly extinguished with reinstitution of antidepressant medication.
Anti depressants are not habit forming, so long as you never stop taking them. The American Medical industry is not to be trusted, period.
Ahhhhh...where to start...
You've got a lot of semantics going on, some are inappropriate, some are essentially meaningless. I'd rather not
get wrapped around the axle on that stuff, it's not particularly important.
In no particular order:
1. Antidepressants do have effects (or we wouldn't use em for depression, ha) and serotonin rebound is a recognized
effect from sudden discontinuation. You can explore that on your time.
2. Insomnia isn't typically a symptom of endogenous depression (that's depression that has no explicable
external cause, like death of a child, being diagnosed with a terminal condition, etc).
3. Antidepressants are more likely to enhance sleeplessness, than counter it.
4. Psych meds (including antidepressants) are legally prescribable by any MD. Primary care docs are generally
not great at "working" psych meds, and can be pretty awful. It's a specialty--you wouldn't expect your pri-care
doc to treat you for cancer, and psych meds are best handled by MDs that specialize in that field, aka psychiatrists.
5. Don't expect a whole lot of talking from a psychiatrist, beyond diagnosing (titling, classifying) the pt's
condition. In other words, a psychiatrist typically relies on medication, and does not indulge in "talk
therapy". "Talk therapy" is the realm of psychologists and mental health counselors...and "licensed
clinical social workers", kinda-sorta (unless your problem resides in realm of being a member of a
"oppressed and disadvantaged group in a society", pass up the social workers.
Edit: it's not that psychiatrists are prohibited from talk therapy, it's just that they don't do
it, and instead focus their time and effort on titrating (the term is typically used in adjusting
a med to pt's symptoms/side effects/efficacy, not in terms of discontinuation of med) the drug(s)
in use. This is science + art + experience, and it IS the bailiwick of psychiatrists. The one's I've
seen have always had a LINE of pts waiting for consults on med/dosage/etc, and it was purely
med based consideration--no time for doing talk therapy!
Psychologists generally have a doctorate, mental health counselors generally have a masters
degree. Psychologists generally cost more, counselors, less.
6. Most, like >98% of psychiatric issues, benefit from and/or can be solved with talk therapy. There
are a few that ONLY respond to medication (schizophrenia, for one), but for most other situations,
talk therapy--sometimes,
sometimes, assisted with meds (typically
temporarily), is the
route to success.
I could go on and on...but hope that's enough to give you an idea of a better direction, to head.