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Default May 02, 2018 at 09:12 PM
  #21
I will NEVER be off of meds, that is for certain. That said, you fix one thing and break another. So even though my meds keep me sane and functioning, there are some things that I could do without and I have to learn to live with or mitigate somehow. My life off of meds though would be unmanageable.
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Default May 03, 2018 at 01:33 AM
  #22
Because it’s harmful chemicals. Your brain and mind become dependent. It can cause your behavior to change in ways that are risky and deadly, or make you a zombie.

That being said I still take meds, and doubt I will ever be able to quit. Perhaps I need them however I can’t say they have made my life better for sure. Tread carefully and make a journal of how you feel every day and look to lifestyle and diet changes, therapy, meditation, etc before going on meds.
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Default May 06, 2018 at 08:23 PM
  #23
I've been on meds so long now, and on so many different ones, but I feel like they just don't really work. I still take them though, and I continue to see my pilldoc. I have quit Cymbalta twice cold turkey, which wasn't fun, and not advised, but that's the only med I've ever done that with. I have given up fighting the meds, even though I doubt their efficacy. I just do what my therapist and psychiatrist say to do. Oh....and I recently just had a genetic biomarker test done to see what classes of meds are compatible with my body. Haven't got the results yet. After 25 years of taking meds, I'm surprised this is the first time I've ever had this done, but maybe it will shed some light on things.
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Default May 07, 2018 at 03:18 PM
  #24
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Originally Posted by Alex is not my name View Post
I've been on meds so long now, and on so many different ones, but I feel like they just don't really work. I still take them though, and I continue to see my pilldoc. I have quit Cymbalta twice cold turkey, which wasn't fun, and not advised, but that's the only med I've ever done that with. I have given up fighting the meds, even though I doubt their efficacy. I just do what my therapist and psychiatrist say to do. Oh....and I recently just had a genetic biomarker test done to see what classes of meds are compatible with my body. Haven't got the results yet. After 25 years of taking meds, I'm surprised this is the first time I've ever had this done, but maybe it will shed some light on things.
Interesting - I didn't know that they could check your med compatibility via genetic markers. Do you know if it was an expensive test? Please let us know how it goes with respect to determining a new choice of meds.
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Default May 07, 2018 at 04:04 PM
  #25
A lot of people have black and white thinking. It's easier to say "all meds are bad" than to figure out what does and does not work for a particular person. On the other hand some doctors want to medicate everything...because that's what they know how to do.

It doesn't really matter to me what other people think. I'll take medication that I think is helpful and I won't take ones that I think are harmful to me.
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Default May 08, 2018 at 04:59 PM
  #26
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Interesting - I didn't know that they could check your med compatibility via genetic markers. Do you know if it was an expensive test? Please let us know how it goes with respect to determining a new choice of meds.
I will....it cost around $150. The insurance I have doesn't cover it, so it's out of pocket. The p'doc swabbed my inside of my cheeks, then sends the swabs away. I'll get the results next week some time. There was another place that offered it too, but it was over $300. Supposedly the $150 test is just as good. I don't know, so I guess I'll just have to trust what they tell me.
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Default May 08, 2018 at 08:51 PM
  #27
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I will....it cost around $150. The insurance I have doesn't cover it, so it's out of pocket. The p'doc swabbed my inside of my cheeks, then sends the swabs away. I'll get the results next week some time. There was another place that offered it too, but it was over $300. Supposedly the $150 test is just as good. I don't know, so I guess I'll just have to trust what they tell me.
Yes, please let us know what your results are and what you think of the results. I've read (here on PC) that some people find the test helpful, others feel like it was a waste of money. I'm very curious as to how your test results turn out.
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Default May 09, 2018 at 12:11 AM
  #28
I cannot answer why so many people are anti-medication, but I will not take them myself. I have taken meds a couple of times, decades ago, but never for more than 24 hours and frankly, I don't even remember what they were except one - elavil. I took one dose, never again. I think there were two others.

There are a couple of reasons for me. One, the way they made me feel was horrid - like I was wrapped in plastic wrap, and my brain turned to molasses. Second, I hate the message - you don't have the tools, nor the ability to acquire the tools, to live life successfully.

I'm not trying to sell anyone on my thinking, just answering the question the only way I can - by sharing my experience and perspective.

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Default May 09, 2018 at 03:52 AM
  #29
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I cannot answer why so many people are anti-medication, but I will not take them myself. I have taken meds a couple of times, decades ago, but never for more than 24 hours and frankly, I don't even remember what they were except one - elavil. I took one dose, never again. I think there were two others.

There are a couple of reasons for me. One, the way they made me feel was horrid - like I was wrapped in plastic wrap, and my brain turned to molasses. Second, I hate the message - you don't have the tools, nor the ability to acquire the tools, to live life successfully.

I'm not trying to sell anyone on my thinking, just answering the question the only way I can - by sharing my experience and perspective.
I appreciate that you've shared your perspective. May I ask what your diagnosis is and how you cope without medication? Has therapy helped you? I've always been on meds (I mean, since I was 24, 30 years ago), but as I've gotten older I'm more curious about how people cope without meds.
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Default May 09, 2018 at 01:08 PM
  #30
In my opinion, I am very pro medication. I would not be alive today if it were not for Lexapro, Cymbalta, Ativan and Celexa. Those are the big four I have been on over the years.

I think a lot of people who are anti medication have either never been on medication before and are influenced heavily by the media and everyone elses opinion that they are convinced that meds are bad or are dangerous. I agree that any medication can be dangerous if used improperly, however, they are developed to help us. There is also a big stigma towards mental health in general. I spent most of my teenage years in a deep depression and nothing was done about it because my parents (mostly my father) did not believe in "psychiatrists" and "antidepressants" because if you were depressed, it was something you just "got over and worked through it" When I was 19-20 I had my own health insurance and I finally (after almost a year of trying to persuade myself mentally) went to my primary care doc and got on Lexapro (this is back when it was brand new and still brand name) it made a tremendous impact on my life.

I think that a lot of doctors/nurse practitioners/psychiatrists/mental health med providers etc. nowadays are very anti medication. The federal government and the FDA has gotten so strict and is heavily regulating what they can and cannot prescribe and who they can and cannot prescribe it to. They are terrified to prescribe any narcotics/benzos and will only give you enough for a few days if they do give you any. I have been in the ER for psych issues as well as been in both inpatient and outpatient therapy programs. The ER docs where I live are a joke, they will not give any Ativan or Xanax, only allowing Vistaril or Atarax to be given which is nothing but over the counter Benadryl. The inpatient program was run by a psychiatrist that actually knew what he was doing and he actually set me up on the meds that I am on today. The outpatient program at the same hospital got sued because they were taking people who had been on benzos and antipsychotics for years and years and ripping them out of them and slamming them into some stupid generics.

I have worked for years and years to get where I am today. I have been through numerous doctors and mental health clinics. I have even walked out of the middle of an appointment with an embarrassing excuse for a Nurse Practitioner because she didnt want to listen and kept making excuses and passing the buck to other doctors, blaming my symptoms on physiological things that weren't there, despite test after test from my primary care doctor. I am fortunate that I have a very good primary care doctor who I get along with very well and I have been visiting for over ten years now.
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Default May 09, 2018 at 04:24 PM
  #31
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Originally Posted by *Laurie* View Post
I appreciate that you've shared your perspective.
Thank you Laurie, I was a bit nervous about doing so out of concern that it would not be welcome in this thread. Not sufficiently to refrain from posting, but I was bracing myself a bit when I came back to see if there were any responses.

I did think of the name of another med that I was on since I wrote this and it brings up another personal reason for not wanting to be on meds. I was put on seroquel for a schizophrenia spectrum disorder - again, one dose and done. But here's another reason for being anti-meds for me that I didn't think of in my original post: I don't have a schizophrenia spectrum disorder - they know that now. I also don't have BPD, they know that now too - though I have been misdiagnosed with that too. In fact, I've been misdiagnosed and prescribed meds for a dozen or more psychiatric conditions that psychologists have now determined that I do not have. I can't get to the real conditions if I am medicated into a stupor - and too many of them did that to me.

Quote:
Originally Posted by *Laurie* View Post
May I ask what your diagnosis is and how you cope without medication? Has therapy helped you? I've always been on meds (I mean, since I was 24, 30 years ago), but as I've gotten older I'm more curious about how people cope without meds.
We are about the same age by the way... Well, I've been more or less diagnosed with major depressive disorder for thirty years. I am a high functioning autistic, and I have dissociative identity disorder as well.

So what do I do instead of meds? Five years ago I was diagnosed with some physical conditions that don't allow me to exercise at all - literally, at all. That used to be something in my toolbox. However, I still meditate about an hour a day. I have found that for me, a vegetarian diet helps, so I am a vegetarian. I see a therapist who is the best fit I have ever had and yes, she is a big help. I write - a lot. I just shared with someone, about an hour ago, how I recently typed thirty-seven pages over a two week period on 'shame' and how it affects me and didn't stop until I had a life-changing epiphany at the bottom of page thirty-seven.

Anyway, that's about it...but it works for me.

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Default May 16, 2018 at 07:17 PM
  #32
I think it’s a bit complicated.

Based on my experiences with the mentally ill, severely disabled and elderly; the goal of doctors and Pharma is to sedate, sedate, sedate.

The scary thing is that we have been seeing atypical antipsychotics being handed out by GPs as an adjunct to an SSRI for years now. Abilify, Zyprexa. Seroquel?

Depending the doc you talk to, many will say SSRIs and SNRIs are little more than placebos. So it would make sense something else is needed. Throw in some APs and you have a nice numb soccer mom or middle management dad.

And don’t worry, there will be another set of drugs with the slogan “although we don’t know how this BS drug, that we rushed through like a 250 person test in order to get it to market this quarter, actually works...it appeared to help 37.9% of 250 depressed people. Honestly, it’s just lexapro with an extra carbon tacked on somewhere. So ask your doctor a about it and pay top tier prices cuz youre worth.”

I only trust opiates, stimulants and benzodiazepines - as well as, hallucinogens and MDMA that are being tested for public treatments.
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Default May 17, 2018 at 11:59 AM
  #33
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I think it’s a bit complicated.

Based on my experiences with the mentally ill, severely disabled and elderly; the goal of doctors and Pharma is to sedate, sedate, sedate.

The scary thing is that we have been seeing atypical antipsychotics being handed out by GPs as an adjunct to an SSRI for years now. Abilify, Zyprexa. Seroquel?

Depending the doc you talk to, many will say SSRIs and SNRIs are little more than placebos. So it would make sense something else is needed. Throw in some APs and you have a nice numb soccer mom or middle management dad.

And don’t worry, there will be another set of drugs with the slogan “although we don’t know how this BS drug, that we rushed through like a 250 person test in order to get it to market this quarter, actually works...it appeared to help 37.9% of 250 depressed people. Honestly, it’s just lexapro with an extra carbon tacked on somewhere. So ask your doctor a about it and pay top tier prices cuz youre worth.”

I only trust opiates, stimulants and benzodiazepines - as well as, hallucinogens and MDMA that are being tested for public treatments.
Interesting, considering the myriad of potential risks associated with those meds.
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Default May 17, 2018 at 03:26 PM
  #34
This bears repeating:

Research, research, research. When you get to a point where you can weigh the risks and benefits of ANY treatment, do your homework. A lot of people on the interwebz are self-proclaimed experts. Please do not take anyone's opinion, bias or personal experience as gospel when it comes to treating your own illness.

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Default May 17, 2018 at 03:36 PM
  #35
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This bears repeating:

Research, research, research. When you get to a point where you can weigh the risks and benefits of ANY treatment, do your homework. A lot of people on the interwebz are self-proclaimed experts. Please do not take anyone's opinion, bias or personal experience as gospel when it comes to treating your own illness.
Why are so many people anti medication?

Sorry, couldn't resist...

Totally agree, though - make your choices based on as much information as you can get from multiple sources.
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Default May 17, 2018 at 03:51 PM
  #36
The first step is being diagnosed correctly and I don't think psychiatrists do that. On average it takes 8 years to be diagnosed bipolar correctly. I was misdiagnosed for years and consequently took a lot of meds which had horrible side effects. I'm diagnosed correctly now and luckily found good medication (with side effects of insomnia which I've been fighting for 3 months).

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Default May 19, 2018 at 01:52 PM
  #37
Because, by far, the majority of people who post are those who have had problems. The thing is, aside from some initial side effects for a small number of patients, far less than 10% of users have effects that require stopping their medications...and most stop without professional advice from their doctors.
The other 90+% of users are too busy enjoying healthy, happy lives to be spending much time on forums...especially those sites where people scare you half to death with tales of their heads spinning in circles while they spew green vomit like the Exorcist!!

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Default May 20, 2018 at 05:01 PM
  #38
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Interesting, considering the myriad of potential risks associated with those meds.
In the words of bill burr....yeah that sounded like I went to www.imright.com and wrote my post.

My point is there will always be a new ailment and a new drug. Remember when SSRIs got black boxed? I just can’t get past the “we don’t know how it works” thing.

At this point, I trust what works immediately and that has science backing up its pharmacological actions.

PS - I love the word myriad. It was the first intelligent spelling word I learned. Will never forget it.
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Default May 20, 2018 at 06:30 PM
  #39
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In the words of bill burr....yeah that sounded like I went to www.imright.com and wrote my post.

My point is there will always be a new ailment and a new drug. Remember when SSRIs got black boxed? I just can’t get past the “we don’t know how it works” thing.

At this point, I trust what works immediately and that has science backing up its pharmacological actions.

PS - I love the word myriad. It was the first intelligent spelling word I learned. Will never forget it.
Whilst the chemical actions of most meds are more or less understood, I'm not sure that anyone is yet fully on top of how any of the mentioned drugs known chemical effects directly translate into psychiatric effects across all patients - psych meds are used based upon empirical observation & theoretical analysis. The exact mechanics of brain function relating to mood disorder are not yet understood to the same level as say, treating a cut or a burn.

Myriad is a lovely word.
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Default May 21, 2018 at 10:36 AM
  #40
Also, because I think they refuse to accept that they have an illness...because of shame because of society's negative view of MI.

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