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Yes, the brain "jolts" are a known side effect of withdrawing from the medication. Your brain chemistry is changing; your system has developed a dependency on this drug, and is now changing. There's no permanent damage done, as far as they know, from this type of withdrawl, but it is uncomfortable.
I think you should be under a psych-doc's care; you shouldn't have to make that decision to stop the meds alone. You should know what the likely effects are, and if there are any alternatives. If you want to come off the medication, psych-docs will do things like put you on an intermediate alternative med that's easier to withdraw from.
Also it generally takes a longer period of time than 7 days for some of these drugs to really have an effect, and the docs will know what's up with that panic. It may be that you went on them too quickly. Most such drugs need you to wean onto them just like you have to wean off. For the first week you take a quarter dose, second week a half dose, etc. GPs often don't know the details of this, and just write a prescription for a full dose from day one. Oops.
Many times, this is a matter of finding the right thing for you, fine-tuning the meds to fit more precisely what you need. Different brains react differently - different people react differently. Have some patience to find the right levels for you. Of course it's going to take months, take a lot of patience, but at the end of that road is... normal.
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