I have been taking imipramine for the past 6 years. I got on the medicine for postpartum depression and it worked great. After having surgery 9 months ago, I found my colon stopped working and I had to take laxatives in order to have a BM. Well, on a hunch, I started lowering my dose of imipramine and I started having BM's again. I am facing another surgery in a couple months and I want to get off this medicine. I am trying to get off real slow but I am having severe withdrawal effects. For the past 6 weeks I have gone from 150mg to 25mg and each time I go down a dose the withdrawal effects get bad. Now, I completely stopped (from 25mg to 0) and I'm really miserable now. I'm wondering when I'm going to feel normal again. I'm shaky, nausated, dizzy, bad dreams, can't sleep, no appetite ... the list goes on. I just don't know what to do anymore - when is it going to end - I'm following my instructions - going slow and I've been miserable - I can hardly function.
Do you have any advice? Please? I wan't to get off this medicine and without having to start taking another antidepressant (that's what my doctor recommended). How long are these withdrawal's going to last?
Thanks for your help.