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I went off my meds, how do you manage

Clintos

Well-Known Member
I have a number of co-morbid conditions such as anxiety,depression,adhd, schizoaffective etc and I also have aspergers

Has anyone went off their meds and how do you manage?

Here is a video that caused me to throw all me meds in the garbage, I am tired of the side effects:


"There Is No Such Thing as Mental Illness"

Is this true?
 
I would urge you not to just quit taking your medication. This can be harmful to you. If you want to stop, you should talk to your primary care physician about this so you can gradually wean yourself off of your medication.
 
It's too late. I am going cold turkey I know I will go through withdrawal and I am trying to manage at the time, its not that bad.
 
clintos, i hope you are ok,going off meds can make things like pyschosis worse, i know the side effects suck big time,i keep wanting to refuse my 5pm meds [sertraline] because it does naff all for me and im seriously depressed but ive been told its best to see my pyschiatrist to taper it off and get it changed to something else-for you it might mean lowering the doseage to stop the worst of the side effects.

what are the worst side effects for you clintos?
for me it is sedation,i am so sick of napping because of the sedation.
 
When I was taking the meds it was sedation for sure, I slept like 10 hours a day. I want to be back to my regular 7 hrs daily. I also put on 70 lbs and feel light headed/dizzy when I get up real fast I see stars. also my hair is falling out above my ear on one side of my head. and my vision is blurry.
 
I did the same.

Lots of water!!! Lots of fish oil. Try to avoid self harm. I had a TBI made worse by hitting myself in the head. Hard.

Vit C. Music. EXERCISE!!! Loads of that. Meditation never helped. Made it worse. Just for me, I had to stay busy.

Crying in public, like F it. Whatever happened happened. My goal was not to fit it, it was to be drug free.

I cannot even take meds without horror so it was not really a choice. The SPD made meds so much hell I could not take it.

Keep us posted!!
 
Has anyone went off their meds and how do you manage?

Through a sheer force of will.

I wanted "to be me" again more than I wanted to be calm and collective in social situations which no longer seemed as important to me as it once was.

Sadly even though I never took the medication again I found out years later that it was responsible for my irregular heartbeat. A product that since then was taken off the market.
 
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"There Is No Such Thing as Mental Illness"

Is this true?

No it isn't true, and the guy who made this video is questionable to say the least.

From the Wiki page about him...

"According to Steven Hassan, a licensed mental health counselor with experience on cults, "Partly what's going on with the people on the Internet who are indoctrinated, they spend lots of hours on the computer. Videos can have them up all night for several nights in a row. Molyneux knows how to talk like he knows what he's talking about—despite very, very little academic research. He cites this and cites that, and presents it as the whole truth. It dismantles people's sense of self and replaces it with his sense of confidence about how to fix the world."

As other people have stated, I wouldn't ever suggest that going cold turkey on meds is a good plan without at least consulting a doctor, but ultimately that's your decision.
 
There's certainly something to be said for tapering off medications (rather than cold turkey) if you've decided that you need to quit them. Even if you've stopped recently you can start a taper. You'll avoid the worst of the withdrawal, which can be horrible for any psych med. I tried a bucket load of different types of psych meds, unfortunately none of them worked for me (this is not to say there isn't a magic bullet out there that will work wonders for you). I would agree that exercise and mindfulness would help quite a bit, in addition to any supplements. St. John's wort, fish oil, or SAM-e can help with depression, just do research on a good brand. Good luck to you.
 
Oh, and that Molyneux guy. I've watched some of his videos, and I would suggest that you stay far far away from his ideas. I think he's full of crap and dangerous to those suffering with mental illness.
 
It's too late. I am going cold turkey I know I will go through withdrawal and I am trying to manage at the time, its not that bad.

If you're taking antipsychotics as I presume since you have schizoaffective I strongly recommend you rethink that. If you go cold turkey you can end up having a severe psychotic episode which may require hospitalisation. You might even get tardive psychosis, and you do not want that. The higher the dose the worse it can be.

If you want to get off medication that's fine but talk to your primary care doctor about how to do that. Do not do it cold turkey. Start taking the medication again and then ween yourself off with the help of a doctor.

And please, please don't do something because someone in a YouTube video said their spiel about how medication is evil. A lot of the time these people have an agenda not in your best interest.
 
Clintos, my heart goes out to you. And I hope that you are doing well so far...

But...

This is between you and your prescribing physician! Only!

No-one here is a doctor (although @Bolletje is almost there!), you don't even say what meds you're on, not that it makes a difference. Turning to strangers on a forum for medical advice doesn't seem like something that would be the first, best choice.
 
I did the same.

Lots of water!!! Lots of fish oil. Try to avoid self harm. I had a TBI made worse by hitting myself in the head. Hard.

Vit C. Music. EXERCISE!!! Loads of that. Meditation never helped. Made it worse. Just for me, I had to stay busy.

Crying in public, like F it. Whatever happened happened. My goal was not to fit it, it was to be drug free.

I cannot even take meds without horror so it was not really a choice. The SPD made meds so much hell I could not take it.

Keep us posted!!

Good advice. the last time I went off it was hell for only a few days i took fish oil and multi vit And stayed indoors for most of the time. I find bible study helps and praying.
 
Good advice. the last time I went off it was hell for only a few days i took fish oil and multi vit And stayed indoors for most of the time. I find bible study helps and praying.

I do agree with Alcyon--------we are not drs and I don't want you to get hurt. PLease don't just go by what people say on the internet! But I am supporting you whatever you decide :)
 
Good advice. the last time I went off it was hell for only a few days i took fish oil and multi vit And stayed indoors for most of the time. I find bible study helps and praying.

I hope you get what you want because what you're doing is a very dangerous thing to get off medication. And I hope that if you do successfully get off them cold turkey that your psychotic symptoms don't end up coming back in a few months time or if they do it's stuff you can handle.
 
Went back on them but lowered the dose of prozac to 40mg and abilfy stays at 10mg. things are going good now thanks for asking.
 

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