Life after Meds

Im not sure if this has been brought up before.

Im sure many of you have had similar experiences. I've taken a variety of drugs, from psychotropics to anti-depressants to anti-psychotics to anti-anxiety in a 6/7 month period. My diagnosis seemed to change with every doctor I've visited anything from Bipolar to ADD to mild depression.. After doing some research I realized that these disorders are extremely hard to tell apart and medicine is given out on a guess and check basis. So I've stopped taking the medicine because of side effects about a year and a half ago (the right way , slowly decreasing the dosage).. Since then I've gotten a lot worse than before the medication, I never had anxiety this bad and was never as depressed. I mean they helped while I was on them , but I gained about 30 pounds and now Im in a bigger hole than before
I would rather suffer from the symptoms then take the meds again .

anyone else have similar experiences ??

Yes, I can identify with you. I was on a large variety of pills that caused me to gain over 100 pounds. Then there were other side effects as well. I've been off of meds for many years. I went to self-help groups like Recovery, Inc. and AA. The people in those groups helped me to manage without drugs. I also do a great deal of exercise, especially martial arts. Exercise takes care of my anxiety and mood swings from bipolar disorder. Martial arts taught me discipline that I us to achieve my dreams. I give a lot more detials on my website.

Good Luck,
James

I was on a variety of medication for about 2 years, including zoloft, wellbutrin, buspar, depakote, seroquil, and another one that slipped my mind.

It was terrible when I quit taking them, I was light headed for weeks and extremely depressed. It has gotten so much better and it's so liberating not taking anything like that. I don't know if I'm still affected by any withdrawal symptoms but I'm sure it's very likely.

Unfortunately Psychiatry is not yet a 'precise science' and thus the patients may take a long time until to discover what they really suffer with and may take yet more time to find the drugs that will 'fit' better in them.

I also got weight with psychiatric drugs, but it was good for me since I had always been very very thin.

I have been under treatment with doctors that simply prescribed lots of drugs, apparently not worrying with the side-effects and other bad stuff that they could do in my body and mind. Fortunately about 2 years ago I found an excellent doctor who is very aware and wise about prescribing drugs, that is, he always stays in the almost minimum effective drug quantity. When he prescribed me quetiapine (Seroquel), for example, he started with 25 mg instead of 300+ as other doctors would use to start with. As time was going by, we realised that the quantity should be increased and then I take 200 mg by day currently. He formerly had prescribed me olanzapine (Zyprexa) but immediately stopped it when saw that my glycemia was getting high (which is one of the known dangerous side-effects of Zyprexa, among other atypical anti-psychotic drugs).

That's it.

maxsta wrote:Im not sure if this has been brought up before.

Im sure many of you have had similar experiences. I've taken a variety of drugs, from psychotropics to anti-depressants to anti-psychotics to anti-anxiety in a 6/7 month period. My diagnosis seemed to change with every doctor I've visited anything from Bipolar to ADD to mild depression.. After doing some research I realized that these disorders are extremely hard to tell apart and medicine is given out on a guess and check basis. So I've stopped taking the medicine because of side effects about a year and a half ago (the right way , slowly decreasing the dosage).. Since then I've gotten a lot worse than before the medication, I never had anxiety this bad and was never as depressed. I mean they helped while I was on them , but I gained about 30 pounds and now Im in a bigger hole than before
I would rather suffer from the symptoms then take the meds again .

anyone else have similar experiences ??

This is my first post here having been a viewer for some time.

I was in the same situation as you are. It started with postpartum depression that was pretty dramatic after my second child. The hardcore meds helped with the emergency situation but doctors never think to take you off them. When ever i began to feel bad again, they would just up the dose or add more. I believe now that there was a time when a threshold was reached and perhaps a decrease was in order. But that was never advised. I got to a point were I was no longer myself.

The only thing that worked for me in a complete way was Mindfulness based stress reduction/meditation. It has changed my life. I fret over very little now and am off Zyprexa, Abilify, Lamictal, Geondon (the worst drug in existence!) forever.

I do still take Paxil because my body is completely addicted to it. It has a fairly benign effect on my mind when on it meaning I still feel like myself but gives my body withdrawls if I miss a dose that I can't afford to experiment with at the moment. I do plan on coming off it slowly when I have the time and energy to devote to it.

Mindfulness starts as meditation training and seems pointless at first. You may think "Why should I spend so many minutes of the day focusing on bodily sensations in the moment." But what you learn is that it is an instant way to escape the dark recesses of the mind, or any major or minor discomfort. Because you learn to just "be" with whatever sensation you are experiencing for that moment in the body. You train yourself to focus on how you are physically feeling that very moment you are sad and bring gentle curiosity to it. It may sound like a silly and fruitless idea now, but after a few weeks of practice it make total sense.

I have read elsewhere on this forum that meditation isnt for every mental disorder. That may be the case. But I think mindfulness based meditation would be great for many, especially the depressed and the addicted.

Hope that made sense.

mj

I've only tried Zoloft and Efexor and quite frankly I've had enough already. I've given them time to work. I came off Zoloft the correct way. I came off Efexor the naughty way but I'm ok.

I was due to go back to my GP ages ago to try another antidepressant but I'm better off without it and as long as I don't go back to having bad anxiety, followed by a hallucination/series of I'll be fine.

I was actually having bad frequent swings in mood, long hard crying spells that took me a good day to get over and not look depressed to a slice of sanity before I started stealing, hurting a particular person, which was quite a while after I went off the Efexor and quite recently.

Efexor made me love to drink just to get to that emotional high so I could fall I swear.

I am not exactly against psychiatry -- just against labeling physical/medical problems as mental illness and blindly throwing psychotropic drugs at it. By definition, a mental illness label means the doctor does not know the cause, which means he/she would also not know what is the best way to treat it (see http://www.ItsNotMental.com )

Even after all the symptoms are cleared up, getting off psychotropic meds can cause horrific withdrawal symptoms. It is best to be done slowly, and shore up with nutrition, such as Genesa Living Total Amino Solution. At least, that is what my family member used. Of course--there is always the option of short-term benzodiazapine use while undergoing the withdrawal effects.

Sometimes it is not necessarily an either-or proposition -- take psych meds OR have symptoms. It is possible in some people to have the symptoms ameliorated with biomedical treatment. That's being done more and more frequently in children (just check out autism and biomedical)

Perhaps we adults can learn a thing or two from what is being done to help the kids.

I left the country for about a year and because I was living in a 3rd world country my wage was only enough for daily food/bus and beers.. lol... But I stopped taking my medication and eventually I fell back into a psychosis then a second time I started taking less medication every other day in hopes I could use less but still get the same results and that was a no 2. I think you need constant work with a doctor to stay healthy and in a good position.

I was diagnosed Bipolar II in 1996 and stopped all meds a month later with no return of depression, or anxiety.

I had issues with panic attacks about 5 years ago, and then eventually took an anti-depressant for 6 months. It really did little for me.

I had a bit of a crash but realized after I stopped the medication there was no need for me to take it.

I would take low doses to cope at work which was alright.

A part of me knew I didn't need it.

I decided to see a talk doc but couldn't figure out my fears and anxiety. I was painfully anxious and phobic.

I saw a psych who tried to get me on meds.

I was so curious about my history. I was essentially un-labeled Bipolar by this point.

I did have shyness and much trouble in public spaces, so I went back to my doctor who was all so quick to prescribe me a mood stabilizer. I just mentioned the class of medicine, and it was scary how quick she pulled out a scrip pad.

I became rapidly non compliant off of the drug, and eventually stopped seeing the psych, who didn't see bipolar. When I came back I think she felt annoyed at the compliance issues with me so she labeled me Bipolar. When I probed her for how she came with this dx, she said she didn't see it in me, but a doctor eons ago did, so that made me bipolar.

I tried treatments with her: this woman was big on prescribing antipsychotics for anxiety. I either barely tried them, or took one minimal dose and decided, forget it. Her lame brained response was- maybe you need to take them everyday. I only had anxiety.

I pushed her to get me into CBT. Nothing fixed the anxiety, it only got worse.

While I was in CBT I got an eval done. The doctor looked at my whole history and said that I only had disconnected signs of Bipolar and nothing to warrant a diagnosis. His notes stated something completely opposite- that I was not believing my bipolar label, and being non-compliant.

In all honesty the only time I seemed Bipolar was when I was mismedicated for my social phobia with topiramate.

A went to get help at another hospital. I discussed my previous diagnosis and my anger at these so called doctors who seem to leave me out of the equation in terms helping me treat whatever it is I got. I said I don't feel I have Bipolar disorder because I've only had one medical reaction, to topiramate.

My notes read something that looked well beyond what was even discussed even though I was judged as being in a normal mood with good eye contact.

This new doctor said she was damn sure I was Bipolar II. Her hunt for my "hypomania" was weird because, we could not find it.

I figure I'll end up cycling worse than without medication.

you wonder what the drugs are doing when they aren't actually balancing out your chemical levels. I am thinking if the levels are balanced and it goes into your system and starts modifying it to a normal level where does it go? It has to go somewhere right? Like a pond without rain a rock will only send ripples through it while a pond with rain it will send ripples through it but with the rain too...