Alternatives to Psychiatric Medication

I would like to get a list here of alternative treatments that people have found helpful when they have chosen to not go on psychiatric medications.
As always, you are advised to continue taking your medications as prescribed by your doctor

I had a co worker come up and ask me about alternatives to psychiatric medications, as they are currently going through a difficult time and my co worker feels like everyone is pushing her to go on a psychiatric medication which she has personal issues with. I gave her a few suggestions, but I think having a list here would be a good resource for people to have if with their doctor they choose to go off of psychiatric medication, or if they choose to not start psychiatric medication in the first place. These may also be good things to look into even if you are on medication. Perhaps they will help you find additional relief from distressing emotions.

So here's my list:

Chiropractor
Accupuncture
reiki
homeopathic/naturopathic doctor
regular massage therapy
reflexology

Your list looks pretty complete to me. I'd add help from a competent psychic healer to the list. Stylianos Atteshlis was reputed to be excellent. Alas, no living ones come to mind, but then they're often not well known. Finding one, that's the problem.

The book "What Really Causes Schizophrenia?" examines a couple of naturopathic (I think) approaches. Not sure I'd take it too seriously though. Pretty much any crap you put in your body in high doses tends to show therapeutic effect in a significant percentage of test subjects from time to time. You can really only begin to trust those studies if there are thirty of them and you know others haven't been hidden somewhere because they failed to produce any statistical evidence of the desired sort.

Even then you'd have to read through the studies to be sure there are no obvious flaws in them. You'd be surprised on what flimsy evidence popular memes, even in science, are often based, and how much incompetence and corruption there is both within the community and on the fringes, at least from what I've read and observed.

I think you left out one of the biggest ones: Hypnosis. I know, I know, not everyone will agree with this one, but done right it has its place, along with major benefits.

Hypnosis done by a caring knowledgeable practitioner can go a very long way. If thats not the best option there is also self hypnosis. Self Hypnosis has worked the best for me maintaining calm and sequencing through logic rather than jumping onto something impulsively.

The others are great, hoping to try them as well at some point.

Ayurvedic medicine was used since 1000BC for mental illness, I am yet to test it with preventing psychosis but am confident....rauwolfia is major herb were Reserpine extract came from and is antipsychotic, rauwolfia has no side-effects in contrast.

sarcosine...and all the other stuff that works on NMDA receptors

The following listings provide information for people looking for alternatives to conventional, medication-focused care. www.Madinamerica.com does not endorse any of the listings here, but provides this information simply as a resource for madinamerica.com readers.


http://www.madinamerica.com/resources/#non_drug_therapies

Copy_Cat wrote:The following listings provide information for people looking for alternatives to conventional, medication-focused care. http://www.Madinamerica.com does not endorse any of the listings here, but provides this information simply as a resource for madinamerica.com readers.


http://www.madinamerica.com/resources/#non_drug_therapies

Don't you love it when people have to tiptoe around an issue and add all kinds of dishonest reservations just to communicate their opinions?

Seriously though, I'm glad I live in a country where I'm free to speak openly about which substances I think are beneficial and which harmful. It seems unbelievable to me there are countries that are different in that respect.

Hey, it's almost as if people were being forced to shut up about information that might hurt the revenue streams of the big corporations. But that couldn't be, now could it? Instead, it must be that humans are merely being protected from their own stupidity and credulity by some sort of angelic sages for whom the words 'profit' and 'selfishness' are unknown. They are called legislators. Does that sound about right to you? Remember, if you disagree you are subject to penal code # 129387913847.

My preference is for solutions with also non-placebo positive effects, like physical exercise, healthy diet, education, employment and social activation. They probably work best when given on prescription, like physical exercise for depression in Britain: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anx ... ssion.aspx
It is important that there are many options so that one is selected in which the patient can believe and they can be tried one after the other. The last also holds for antipsychotics: In the CATIE study 74% discontinued their drug in 18 months (http://www.robertwhitaker.org/robertwhi ... better.pdf).
The intervention should be carried out in the community so patients can continue on what they have built up during the therapeutic phase.

Razael wrote:...rauwolfia has no side-effects ...

Rauwolfia is an old neuroleptic with side effects:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/drug-information/DR602143/DSECTION=side-effects
http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-53612-Rauwolfia%2FBendroflumethiazide+Oral.aspx?drugid=53612&drugname=Rauwolfia%2FBendroflumethiazide+Oral&pagenumber=6

There are also a range of placebos adapted to the individual patients possible, like mass demonstrations against the voices, petitions and court action in the hope that, when they end up at the Supreme Court, emotions have sufficiently calmed so that they will not take justice in their own hands.

I have used diet - extreme diet modification - as an alternative to very heavy psych meds.

My diagnosis has been schizophrenia, bipolar, delusional disorder, and schizoafective, depending on what I said on various hospitalizations.

As a treatment I have been prescribe 700mg of seroquel a day, (morning afternoon and evening doses), plus abilify (1 small blue one), plus ativan 1mg at night, plus doxepin 25 mg, and haldol in reserve for when none of that other stuff worked.

My problem was I can't stop hallucinating. Whatever with the demon world and their horrific torture movies, I can handle that, but what I can't handle is the constant tactile hallucinations of bugs crawling all over my body biting and stinging. It is what the demons can do to me if I don't carry out the murder and torture and mutilation of mysle and others, which in this world I am not allowed to carry out or I will be prosecuted and incarcerated.

I quit all the stupid meds, as none of them have any effect on the demons or the bugs they control, the bugs doing schizophrenic manic dances all up and down my body surface. No effect on the bugs, the drugs just make me tired, which just makes me mad cause now I'm tired and there are still bugs all over me.

What I use to manage myself instead of the meds is extreme diet. Only raw vegetables and protein, the raw vegetables are onions, garlic, brussel sprouts, and radishes - crunch crunch crunch 3 times a day, plus a sheet of fish or chicken or hamburger meat once every couple of days, early in the morning after the vegetables.

Any deviation from this extreme diet causes such intense and long lasting distress that I end up in the nearest emergency room with hives and scratches all over my body.

but on the diet, I'm fine, live a normal life, have a job and a wife and hold it together.

Gotta figure the mind is the brain but it is also the gut, and some people have unbalanced flora in the gut, from eating the american diet of processed foods and grains, which to me are basically demons, or demon infested. Permeable bowels or something. The doctors say the drugs don't work cause I've been "very very sick for a very long time" (27 years of ghost bugs); they say science has nothing else to offer, and tell me that I should stop coming to them or they will just call the police and have me incarcerated for being a nuisance or a threat. The shamans say "the veil between the worlds is thin for you". The city services recommend suicide by cop with a wink and a nudge. I just go to the farmers market, spend 40 bucks a week, plus another 20 a week on protein form the chinese grocery store, and I'm fine, the demons still talk to me and show me movies, but no bugs crawling atleast.

onderdonk

Burger diet is the answer.

I'll be more carefull then to say rauwolfia has no side-effects, still not sure specifically what those pages were talking about I never heard of "Rauwolfia/Bendroflumethiazide Oral" and the other page stated that it was isotopes of rauwolfia...the isotopes are very powerful yet work in synergy together for fewer side effects of the raw herb....rauwolfia also contains yohimbine to balance the effect on sexual function from reserpine that acts the same as typical antipsychotic