How do I find a doctor to help me get off antidepressants? If you have reached the point of asking, you have probably already tried to stop on your own. And it probably went badly.
Maybe you skipped doses and felt dizzy, sick, and strangely electric. Maybe you stopped for two weeks, fell apart, and were told the crash proved you need the medication for life. That conclusion is common, and it is often wrong.
An antidepressant tapering doctor knows the difference between discontinuation and relapse, and can guide you off these medications slowly, precisely, and with a plan built around your nervous system instead of a calendar.
Why does stopping antidepressants abruptly cause discontinuation symptoms?
Antidepressants change how your brain handles serotonin and related signals. Take one every day for months or years, and your nervous system reshapes itself around that steady input. This adjustment is called physical dependence.
Physical dependence is not addiction. There is no craving, no compulsion, no loss of control. There is only a nervous system that has adapted to a daily medication and reacts when the medication suddenly disappears.
Stop abruptly, and the system is left off balance. Dizziness, nausea, insomnia, irritability, surges of anxiety, and odd electrical sensations can appear within days. These are discontinuation symptoms, the predictable result of stopping too fast.
Needing a careful way off a medication is not the same as needing the medication forever.
There is a fair criticism to make of modern psychiatry here. These medications are started easily, often in a single short visit, but almost no one is shown how to stop them. Prescriptions come with a beginning and no exit plan, and Dr. Leeds believes the exit deserves the same medical attention as the start. That is what deprescribing means: the planned, medically supervised ending of a prescription.
Which antidepressants does Dr. Leeds help patients taper?
Dr. Leeds helps patients taper selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the most widely prescribed antidepressants. These include Prozac (fluoxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), Paxil (paroxetine), and Lexapro (escitalopram).
He also tapers serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), a related class that acts on both serotonin and norepinephrine. SNRIs are often harder to stop than people expect, and they respond to the same careful methods. If you are looking for an SSRI taper doctor or help with an SNRI, the approach described on this page applies to both.
Antidepressant deprescribing is one part of a larger practice. Dr. Leeds also helps patients reduce or stop other psychiatric medications through his psychiatric medication deprescribing service, and his antidepressant tapering service covers this entire family of medications.
What is the hyperbolic, Maudsley-based approach?
Dr. Leeds tapers antidepressants using the method described in the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines, written by psychiatrists at King’s College London. The method is called hyperbolic tapering.
The key insight is that dose and effect are not related in a straight line. Think of a dimmer switch that barely changes the room through most of its travel, then transforms the light in the last quarter turn. Antidepressant doses behave the same way: the final few milligrams carry far more effect than their size suggests.
Hyperbolic tapering respects this curve. Reductions start larger and become progressively smaller as the dose falls. The last steps may be tiny fractions of a milligram, because that is where the medication does most of its work.
How do small reductions actually happen? Compound liquid dosing.
Tablets are the obstacle. Most antidepressants come in a few fixed strengths, and splitting them produces jumps far too large for the later stages of a taper.
Dr. Leeds solves this with custom liquid formulations prepared by compound pharmacies. A liquid can be measured precisely, allowing reductions of a fraction of a milligram at a time.
This is what makes a true hyperbolic taper possible in real life. Without it, patients are pushed into dose drops their nervous systems cannot absorb, and the taper fails through no fault of their own.
Who sets the pace? You do.
Every taper Dr. Leeds designs is individualized and patient-led. There is no fixed timetable and no deadline. The schedule adapts to how your body responds, week by week.
You meet with Dr. Leeds weekly, by video or audio, in appointments that can last up to an hour. Between visits, you have 24/7 text access directly to him. There are no handoffs to assistants, coaches, or other practitioners at any point.
If a reduction stings, you hold at the current dose until things settle. A hard week is feedback, not a verdict. Some weeks the right move is a reduction, and other weeks the right move is rest, and both count as progress.
Holding is not the taper stalling. Holding is the taper listening.
How to begin with an antidepressant tapering doctor
The first step is the contact form at drleeds.com. Follow-up happens by email or phone, and most patients start with a consultation before any medical care begins.
Prescribing and medical management are available to patients located in Florida. Consultations are different: they are paid sessions, by video or audio, open to anyone anywhere. A consultation is a discussion, not a medical visit, and it does not establish a physician-patient relationship.
You have already done the hardest part, which is deciding that staying on a medication by default is not the same as choosing it. The next step is a conversation with a physician who plans the exit as carefully as anyone ever planned the start.
Frequently asked questions
What does an antidepressant tapering doctor do that a regular prescriber does not?
A regular prescriber usually manages the start of treatment and renews it. An antidepressant tapering doctor designs the way out: a hyperbolic schedule, compound liquid dosing for small reductions, weekly monitoring, and adjustments guided by your symptoms rather than a preset calendar.
How long does it take to get off antidepressants safely?
There is no single timeline. Some people finish in a few months, while people who have taken antidepressants for many years often need a year or longer. The right speed is whatever pace your nervous system can absorb without destabilizing, and that pace is discovered, not assigned.
Does needing help to stop antidepressants mean I am addicted?
No. Antidepressant dependence is physical dependence: a nervous system adapted to a daily medication. Addiction involves craving and compulsive use, and that is not what is happening here. You are a person with a medical condition caused by a prescribed medication, and the treatment is a careful taper.
How can I tell relapse from discontinuation when getting off antidepressants?
Timing and character are the clues. Discontinuation symptoms tend to arrive within days of a dose change and often include new physical sensations, like dizziness or electrical jolts, that were never part of your original condition. Relapse tends to build gradually over weeks. Part of the value of a supervised taper is having a physician who tracks both and adjusts the plan accordingly.
What if I have tried to get off antidepressants before and it went badly?
A rough past attempt usually reflects the method, not you. Most failed attempts involve reductions that were far too large, made with tablets that could not be divided finely enough. A slower, hyperbolic taper with precise liquid dosing is a fundamentally different experience.
About the physician
Mark Leeds, D.O. is an osteopathic physician providing concierge telemedicine care focused on benzodiazepine and z-drug tapering, psychiatric medication deprescribing, opioid dependence treatment, and alcohol use disorder. Dr. Leeds works directly with each patient, with weekly appointments and 24/7 text access between visits. He serves on the medical advisory board of the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition and hosts The Rehab Podcast on the Mental Health News Radio Network. Medical management is available for patients in Florida; consultations are available more broadly.