No More Drugs

[Eris]

So I've been on this last general cocktail (with some adjustments) for over 6 months - and "I feel fine". I know that is the general line that one is not supposed to use but when I moved out here and was initially on meds before I came out where I live now I was living with an emotionally abusive husband.

Tired of drugs, tired of hearing people tell me how NORMAL I am - thinking that I probably am just another "normal" person who was in a fuckt situation and got involved with pharmaceutical solutions because at the time that was the only way to keep me alive. How will I know if I don't try getting off of the drugs?

I know people go through this. I have stopped my AD, and am now just on the Lamictal, desyrel, and klonipin - and synthroid.

I don't think I'll go crazier, maybe I'll go saner?

Anyone out there quit their meds (in the appropriate manner, of course - NOT cold turkey) and felt better for doing so, or discovered that they were less fucked up than when they started them?

I only worry because I am a public health care system case that if I go off and want back on that they will mess with me or refuse service...

[Batou]

Always remember that you "feel fine" and "sane" because you have been taking your meds and they are working. Regardless of why you had to start taking meds, you needed them. They helped you to get to the place you are now.

If stopping your meds without the consent of the public health care doc, you say it may jeopradize any further treatment, it would be foolish to risk future treatment. Once your doc thinks you are stable you may be able to reduce the dosages of your meds or even come of of some of your meds, or you may be taking just what you need. This is something you can discuss with your doctor, e.g. "When you think I am stable can we re-evaluate my current cocktail"?

Erika

[lilie]

No no no please don't give up your meds. I'm sure a lot of us has tried to give up meds at one time or another but believe it or not they really ARE helping and without them you'll probably ramp back down and you don't want that. Stay on your meds and talk to your doc if you don't like your meds and need a change. Even talk to him/her abut wanting to go off your meds.

Don't quit now you can do it

Lilie

[wifezilla]

"Always remember that you "feel fine" and "sane" because you have been taking your meds and they are working"

EXACTLY! Print these words out and tape them to all of your mirrors. I may have this carved into my husband's forehead

[pacanuck]

Have you been talking to my husband?

[Fiona]

I'm going to add to what others have said -- you're feeling well because the meds are working.

Talk to your doctor about this plan, especially if going off them on your own can result in difficulty getting treatment and/or meds again in the future. You may not need to take the meds in the long term, you probably do in the short term. You've said you've recently moved, that's a lot of stress, even if it has improved your living conditions, and the stress alone seems like a good indicator to stay on meds.

Usually, people stay on meds for about 18 months to 2 years before they start to lower them. If you discontinue the meds too soon then you greatly increase your chances of an immediate relapse (that is, you go back to where you were before you started meds, possibly worse).

Please, reconsider this decision.

Fiona

[Mark]

So I've been on this last general cocktail (with some adjustments) for over 6 months - and "I feel fine". I know that is the general line that one is not supposed to use but when I moved out here and was initially on meds before I came out where I live now I was living with an emotionally abusive husband.

...

[tigrre]

I've felt like I needed to go off my meds before, but only when I was severely depressed and was convinced that the medication was pointless.  You should definitely talk to your doc about your desire to go off meds.  Obviously you would have never started these meds without consulting a doctor and I think the decision to go off of meds should also not be made alone.

[WholeNewHomeBody]

I'm not going to regurgitate what everyone else has said here. I'm a pro, and I'm going to  get off the puter and watch an episode of NIP/TUCK and stuff my face and regurgitate in my bathroom in about an hour.

YES. HELL YES, THANK GODDESS, PRAISED BE TO THE MAIDEN MUSES WHO WATCHED OVER ME. There were some really dumb shrinks walking around licensed in the late 80s. When 100mg prozac (bulimia) didn't cure me, it was time for desipramine. Or something. That's when I wondered just how hard it would be to slice through my wrist with a kitchen knife. So back  on the the little SSRI that coouldn't. Within a couple of months I was institutionalized and got lithium thrown in.

Ssmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrt.

Because people with serious eating disorders so often tend to have a stable blood composition, making it a breeze to stabilize their litium levels..

So I had a lithium toxicity seizure. At 15, and I wish I could think now of somethiing violent and poetic I did to get rid of all those bottles, but I don't remember.

Until I was about 24 (9  years)  I "lived mostly happily ever after."

And now that they are running out of drugs to try on me,  maybe it's time to have a grand mal seizure, quit all my meds, and move into my car agaiin. CCause, boy-oh-boy, this is not working.