Every member of IAWP is invited to respond

[deroxat-victim]

how to forgive people who have hurt us, especially during this period of w/d, where rage is at its top.
how to control this rage, we have never experienced

[Cosette123]

This rage often hits me especially when I am in a "wave" and lose hope.I use to say that Paxil has already destroyed 4 years of my life .How many more?
But I know that the rage is not a positive feeling and I try to stay quiet and to accept my condition.I am lucky to have found again my creativity:I love painting and when I am painting I forget the withdrawal.

[Luc]

DV, what helped me was to rationalize it all - I realized how complex the whole situation is. On the whole, most people do not want to hurt their fellow human beings, but if you work in a huge pharma corporation, medical system, etc., it gets terribly diluted and compartmentalized - the responsibility (and knowledge about how this huge systemic machinery really works) is chopped up in such tiny pieces that only some see the bigger picture. That said, of course, there're some psycho and sociopaths who wouldn't care less about whether they hurt somebody or not, but, yet again, on average, I chalk it up to the people's not knowing what's going on, or them being so much apathised by the machinery that they don't believe anything can be changed for the better, which is not true.

What also helps me tremendously is trying to stay active - I believe trying to change the state of things when you're even still in WD helps you to stay motivated, gives you the purpose. Even if nothing makes sense, you are suffering from akathisia, and anhedonia is so profound you prefer to just never breathe again, every day you can tell yourself you have done at least a tiny but a good thing. And this "tiny but a good thing" can be anything - trying to change things, doing some basic every day things, or simply surviving the next day of WD. This will pass and better days will come. There's no doubt about it.

[Sheila]

Good questions, DV!

I have had a very “short fuse” ever since I started the taper. I get angry very quickly, very easily. I also have periods that last a few days of being very angry or irritable.

I have to apologize frequently to the people closest to me!

One thought I have is this – I have become convinced that we are all connected at a level we are mostly unconscious of. We communicate to each other all the time at this level – thoughts, feelings, images. You could call it telepathy, but it may be something broader than that.

So, one thing I am trying to do more is tell people how I really feel about what they have done – I do this just by thinking it or talking out loud alone in my house. You can say things at this level that people would not be ready to hear at the conscious, verbal, conventional level.

Then, I feel I have done something to move the relationship forward and I am more able to let go of their hurtfulness. That doesn’t mean I’m going to be close to them – I don’t think you can be really close to someone unless they acknowledge the harm they’ve done and make reparation. But, it helps move me forward.

[stan]

how to forgive people who have hurt us, especially during this period of w/d, where rage is at its top.
how to control this rage, we have never experienced

i become very isolated before tapering, i was in poop-out tolerance since years, i was used people hurt me,
during my taper, i had 2 or three times rage for common things, but hopefully it has good end, in these moments, i could not control my angry