What works

So in a while I'll have a meeting with the shrink because my other personality set it up. I'm prepared to go with the flow because we need to be stable and I'm up for pills if they work.. Usually I'm really against taking pills but for the sake of our ability to mom, I will try to be open minded. My t suggested I need a more quiet mind instead of antidepressants. I was just wondering what kind of pills you're taking and why? And whether or not they work of course..

As someone who used to be really against psych meds due to previous experience with them, I have now ended up with quite a list. Some are daily and some are as needed.

I take:
30mg Escitalopram (above recommended dosage) - this is after two years running through various other antidepressants that didn't work.
27mg Concerta ER ... this was a test that worked out extremely well. I struggle with a lot of depersonalization and focus issues. Since I also have two kids with high levels of ADHD, we decided to try this and it has actually worked really really well for us.
50 mg Seroquel at bedtime. This is an anti-psychotic that also helps us sleep. It also has the ability to boost the effectiveness of the anti-depressant.

As needed:

1 mg klonopin
10 mg propranolol
both to help with anxiety. The Propranolol reduces the flooding of adrenaline. The klonopin is for the panic attacks I get.

It has taken years of trial and error to find the right meds for us. And, we are still open to changes even now. Nothing works perfectly. One thing that has made a huge difference is exercise and getting a dog that makes us get out and walk. It isn't a medicine, but having to get up and out helps us get going and not fold in on ourselves.

Good luck and I hope your psychiatrist is open to listening to you. I ended up going with a nurse practitioner because I found her less med oriented and more patient focused.

TheCollective wrote:My t suggested I need a more quiet mind instead of antidepressants.

Meaning fewer meds, not more meds or other meds?

I have not been on any psychoactive medications ever. I am not against meds; there just was not any DID-aware psychiatrist available to prescribe them to me. I could get prescriptions just by asking, but then I would have been effectively unsupervised.

Thanks am4kds. I would really like being able to take pills as needed and not be stuck with them daily. I doubt I would even remember to take them. Seroquel is not an option. I've tried those twice before with bad results. I understand that it is a trial and error thing. My question would be; how do you function while trying pills that aren't working? Wouldn't it mess up your whole mind? Seroquel did and I didn't even have any responsibility then. Functioning now is so important as a stay at home mom of toddler twins. I have to admit that I'm really scared of that. And back then we detoxed cold turkey and got really sick and the whole thing just really scared me.
I walk 2 hours every day and exercise on and off.

Una I don't know. I'm not on any meds right now. I think she was suggesting something about the type of meds, honestly to me it sounded like she was talking about antipsychotics which is really hurtful! Since that would mean shutting us up because we aren't real. But I'm trying not to come to any false conclusions. And honestly momming I don't even have the time to think about it lol. I just really hope the psychiatrist can even help me since I've only seen him once before. He seemed nicer than the one I had before but who really knows.

The pills honestly aren't for me so I wonder whether I can even describe what we need.. I know some of our personalities are depressed because of being stuck in this life so I assume I need antidepressants. But I wonder what effect antidepressants would have on personalities that aren't depressed?? Are there even any pills that grant someone a quiet mind? Easy as that, right!

we have tried a few dozen different meds.
anti-depressants never seemed to work at all.
we are on very light anti-psychotics now to help with sleep and tension if needed.

there is an index scale that could help you figure out how potent anti-psychotics are.
haloperidol and olanzapin have an index of 50.
seroquel, like chlorpromazin has an index of 1. both have been too strong for us.
chlorprothixen is pretty popular and has an index of .8
promethazin is really popular especially for inner tension and hyper arousal with an index of .5
that is what works well for us when things feel overwhelming.

but you really gotta try things out. i have heard of people who do very well on olanzapin, which was a nightmare for us.
ask your doctor about potency levels of the meds, that helps. there are also slight differences between meds with the same index number, like some making you more tired than others...
try to relax while you test things.

TheCollective wrote:to me it sounded like she was talking about antipsychotics which is really hurtful! Since that would mean shutting us up because we aren't real.

Please talk to her about this. Ask her what she is thinking.

For what it is worth, anti-psychotic medications usually do not work to "shut up" DID insiders and are prescribed to DID patients for their anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) effects. The DID adult treatment guidelines from ISSTD (no-cost PDF available on isst-d.org) include a section about medications.

Thanks birdsong, I'll definitely consider potency, great tip! Una I should have, but the next time I'll see her, the psychiatrist will be joining us already. I guess we'll just see what happens. I might not get any meds, who knows.. But for me it's new to even consider it after our seroquel nightmare.

i just wanted to share with you... maybe to reduce the fear...
the meds we take are labeled antipsychotics, with very low (!) potency levels.
they do not interfere with system communication. they do not shut anyone out.
when the doctor said that they would help with dissociation they were right. they do NOT change anything about structural dissociation though, they dont influence the existence or the communication of parts, they dont "lock" anyone away.
they DO help with depersonalisation and derealization, as they reduce the arousal level that leads to this kind of dissociation.
when you find the right meds for you there is a possibility that you can just take a pill when you feel really stessed and it will help you calm down and clear your head. it might just stop the overwhelming stuff.
its faster than anti-depressants when you need an intervention and not addictive like most anti-anxiety meds.
but please check with your doctor about their goals with the meds. stay critical, dont continue taking something that doesnt feel right.

Hi,

We used to take all kinds of anti-depressants but they never worked very well. Of course Host didn't tell anybody about the DID so maybe they would have done something different if they'd known. Now we use some quiet mind stuff - meditation, breathing, and guided imagery - and it really helps. It even made the anti-depressants work better! So it's not like meds OR quiet mind. You can do the quiet mind stuff with the meds too! Maybe you won't need as many meds.

Just don't let anything stop your communication with your alters. That REALLY SUCKS!

Iain

I was on an anti depressant and a diff med that helped to "quiet the voices" according to the psychiatrist.. I felt some panic when she said that and my alters didn't like it and my therapist said it was bad cause it would disrupt communication with my system so I stopped that one and took the antidepressants a few months longer but my system and therapist felt I didn't need them so we stopped the antidepressants too and it all worked out. What works for me is internal communication and being honest with self and allowing self and system to feel, grieve, mourn etc the past to be able to move on from it. and to keep learning how to live with DID and continued work in integration, etc..