The moment when a person stops taking their antidepressant is fraught. Not only can patients see their psychiatric symptoms return, but they can experience a wide variety of new symptoms in the days and weeks immediately following the medication change.
Symptoms like nausea and headache can be manageable, and typically begin and end within days of ending the medication. But more disruptive effects like insomnia, irritability, and sensory disturbance, or even severe ones like suicidal ideation or lethargy, can lead patients to reconsider their decision to stop treatment, even when they resolve relatively rapidly.