I regret stopping and I am not sure what to do with that

Started 7 December 2025 · 14 replies · 117 hearts · read 2.5k times

Birdie BWhitstable, UK · 7 December 2025

7 months ago

Something I have been sitting with: I regret stopping and I am not sure what to do with that Not looking for advice so much as other people's experience.

Writing this partly to ask and partly because writing it down usually tells me what I think.

My honest position is that I do not know whether to change something or wait, and I have been going round that question for three weeks without getting anywhere.

What I am trying to work out is whether this is a phase with an end to it or the shape of things now, and I do not think I can tell that from inside it.

The practical side has settled and the rest of it has not, and I would like to hear how other people at this stage handled the part that is not practical.

Anyway. Thank you for reading this far. Any experience of this stage gratefully received, and I will come back and say what happened.

TressaSt Austell, UK

The grief part surprised me. I had not expected to grieve a medication and I did, for about a month, and then it passed.

6me too 1

NikoTbilisi, GE

Something practical: I kept everything — the notes, the dates, the letters — for a year after stopping. It made the eventual conversation about restarting take four minutes instead of forty.

BenediktFacilitatorVienna, Austria

Facilitator note: if this thread has landed close to home for you while reading, our support resources page lists the kinds of service worth finding. No obligation and no drama.

DashSeattle, WA

I stopped and did not go back, and I am at peace with it, and I would not present that as a recommendation to anybody. It was my situation and my body.

TedIpswich, UK

Honest note: my first month off was much better than I had feared and my third month was much harder. The order surprised me.

DelythBala, UK

I came off during a pregnancy, on advice, and it was straightforward clinically and complicated emotionally, and I did not find anywhere to say that until this circle.

SinéadCork, IE

What I noticed after stopping was that the habits stayed longer than I expected and then quietly went. That was useful information about which habits had been mine.

BramwellRipon, UK

Gently disagreeing with Ted, or rather adding the other half of it.

I would say do not stop in a difficult week if you can possibly help it. My decision was sound and the timing was terrible and the timing is what made it hard.

GabePhoenix, AZ

This is why I read the boring weeks. Thank you for the boring weeks.

BronLincoln, UK

#10

The tapering conversation was more nuanced than I expected. It was not simply stop or continue; there were several shapes in between and I had not known that.

FenEly, UK

#11

I stopped twice. The first time badly and alone, the second time properly and with support. The second one is the one I would describe as coming off.

FabianBasel, CH

#12

Reading Bron, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

If you are reading this while deciding, the only thing I would push on is: is anybody clinical in the loop. Everything else is genuinely yours to weigh.

BenediktFacilitatorVienna, Austria

#13

Two things, both boring. None of us can tell you what schedule to be on. The conversation you want is with your prescriber, and we can help you write it down before you go.

TillyHereford, UK

#14

I came off because of cost, not because of anything clinical, and it took me a long time to say that without embarrassment. It is an extremely common reason and it is not a moral failing.

6me too 3