Medication and Treatment.

[GutZ]

I've been on antipsychotics Zyprexa a while, then stopped, They better find a better way to solve alot of these psychological problems because those pills are...unnatural.

 

I'd rather live with my disorders than have to put up with those mental straight-jackets.

 

It doesn't stop there. When I was younger they put me on Zoloft for depression and Paxil for S.A.D.

 

The depression was taken away by me weightlifting (activity). I've been to many doctors/specialists, the works, after 2 sessions I am on some sort of drug I've never heard of.

 

I didn't even know I was on antipsychotics till someone told me (who was in the medical field)...Schizoprenia, or Bipolar? I got 25mg of that stuff. Do these people even know whats it is like to be on that stuff?

 

So are pills the answer?

[ecoli]

it depends upon the person. I don't have very much experiance in these things, but, if I was in your situation, I'm sure I wouldn't want to take pills either.

[badchad]

It's depends on the "severity" of your schizophrenia.

 

Your only other option may be institutionalization.

 

You could try switching your medicatoin to Seroquel (quetiapine) or Abilify (aripiprazole) as they have a reputation for being "milder" antipsychotic drugs.

[scicop]

Seems you like you've had depression for quite a while, however depression is often a sympton of bipolar, at least depressive bipolar aka, bipolar II. Physicians often misdiagnosis bipolar disorder as some of its symtoms mimic depression symptoms, thus this is why the doctor may have put you on an atypical antipsychotic. Or you may have had a manic episode that you're not mentioning.

 

I would not quit the pills without consulting the physician. Often, atypical antipsychotics need to be titrated when switching or stopping therapy. Rapid termination of some atypicals can cause some pretty bad adverse events. More over, failure to comply with treatment protocols may lead to your relapse or sub-symptomatic depression/mania which can lead to relapse as well.

 

There are many atypicals outhere, whose diverse pharmacological profiles underlie their differing propensities to cause adverse events, so you should consult with your physician as to which one would be best for you. This is why there are so many!! Patients are heterogeneous with their response to therapy and it is up to the physician to design individualized treatment therapies.

 

So, definately, until to talk to your physician, stay on your regimen!

[SkepticLance]

Two comments.

First, the concept of 'unnatural' is probably damaging. Replace it with the queries :

Does it work, or does it not?

Does it cause unacceptable side effects?

 

Lots of 'natural' remedies are also in use, and can cause considerable harm.

For example : St. John's Wart, which is prescribed by herbalists and naturopaths for depression, is only mildly effective, and is an ultra violet sensitiser. If you are on this herb, and fail to wear sunglasses, you may even go blind!

 

Second : Drugs for psychiatric illnesses have a history of mis-use. They are still the best way of coping, speaking generally. However, they have frequently been over-used, used in the wrong place, or prescribed when they are totally ineffective. My advise is to be prepared to go for several opinions. Consult as many specialists as you can afford to, and see if they agree with each other.

[ecoli]

 

Lots of 'natural' remedies are also in use' date=' and can cause considerable harm.

For example : St. John's Wart, which is prescribed by herbalists and naturopaths for depression, is only mildly effective, and is an ultra violet sensitiser. If you are on this herb, and fail to wear sunglasses, you may even go blind![/quote']

 

source, dammit!

[Neil9327]

Hello Gutz,

 

Thanks for posting here.

 

Are you are concerned about the pills because you are worried they are unnatural, or because you are experiencing side effects from them (mental straight jacket)?

 

Also could you let us know what mental illness you have been diagnosed with, and how severe, because this would make a big difference to what you should do.

 

Generally speaking, the correct approach is to do things like exercise if you suffer from mild depression (you've found this works for you) but only take medication if the depression is more severe. If you suffer side effects you should try other drugs to find one that does not cause you significant side effects (there are MANY different types of drugs to try).

 

With depression and other conditions such as Schizoprenia or bipolar (manic depression) I think the best approach is to only take drugs if other types of treatment fail, and the illness is significantly affecting your daily life.

 

Although drugs are "unnatural" many things in life today are unnatural. The newer types of Antidepressant (SSRI) often work very well with few side effects, and have vastly enhanced the quality of lives of millions of people.

 

If you are already taking drugs and are considering stopping taking them, then your doctor will be prepared to take you off them if he/she thinks that you can cope without them. Ask them. So Yes it IS possible for many people to live with their disorders without drugs. Its your choice.

However make sure you stop taking the pills gradually under the supervision of your doctor - don't just stop taking them.

 

Just because you're on a drug with a funny name that you haven't heard of doesn't mean that there aren't millions of others taking it and getting great benefits from it.

 

Have you been to http://www.depressionforums.com

This site has hundreds of people to ask about every question under the sun.

 

Hope this helps

[SkepticLance]

for ecoli.

 

A source for simple summary of effects of St. Johns Wort is

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/stjohnswort/

 

The key quote is :

 

. "Are there any risks to taking St. John's wort for depression?

Yes, there are risks in taking St. John's wort for depression.

 

Many so-called "natural" substances can have harmful effects--especially if they are taken in too large a quantity or if they interact with something else the person is taking.

 

Research from NIH has shown that St. John's wort interacts with some drugs--including certain drugs used to control HIV infection (such as indinavir). Other research shows that St. John's wort can interact with chemotherapeutic, or anticancer, drugs (such as irinotecan). The herb may also interact with drugs that help prevent the body from rejecting transplanted organs (such as cyclosporine). Using St. John's wort limits these drugs' effectiveness.

 

Also, St. John's wort is not a proven therapy for depression. If depression is not adequately treated, it can become severe and, in some cases, may be associated with suicide. Consult a health care practitioner if you or someone you care about may be experiencing depression.

 

People can experience side effects from taking St. John's wort. The most common side effects include dry mouth, dizziness, diarrhea, nausea, increased sensitivity to sunlight, and fatigue."

 

The last sentence show increased sensitivity to sunlight. In extreme cases, if the eyes are unprotected, it can lead to cataract formation. (This can happen even without medication, to people who are exposed over long periods to strong sunlight, especially in the southern hemisphere, where UV is stronger).

[GutZ]

lol....Ok I am not definitely schizophrenic...lol...nor bipolar, if I am the latter....very low amount.

 

I'll have to give it a brief history since I've seen a few people over time with different outcomes.

 

Age 14: Clinicial Depression *High- Prozac (Not the brand name, I dont know)

Age 16 - 18: Clinicial Depression *Mild - Zoloft (low to high dose)

 

Age 19: *At this time, started wightlifting, depression was gone after 3 months*

 

Age 20: Social Anxiety Disorder (and General Anxiety as well) *High to med*- Paxil

 

Age 20 - 21: My specialist just gave me Zyprexa 25mg with my paxil.

 

So its safe to say I had the S.A.D for at least...since I was 12. Thats all I am certain about, I remember him saying other things too, but I was on those drugs, and I can't remember.

 

The point is though is that Doctors and Specialists most of the time keep people on drugs indefinitely. Take my Social "Anxiety" thing, it would have been fine to say lets try it for 3 months just to get your cognitive behavioural habits (I guess) in line then we can get off it. I was a reck back then so thats understandable. It doesn't work that way....within 30 mins of the first session I can already tell that the person is formulating what prescription drug he/she is going to have me fill out.

 

I think it's more to do with the lack of range or time or whatever...They may have many patients aday so it's easier to talk for 45 mins jot down some progress and feed me some psychological dribble that (by now I am sure I am qualified to do) doesn't help that much, and then give me a sheet of paper.

 

I've worked on it myself, and I've got it down to expectable levels now (whatever the combination I have) with exercise (natural re-balancing of sertoin and such chemicals I believe) and a little pushing, and toughness. It's only after all those years of picking apart what I've been told and reading up on it myself that I could do so, others might not be that fortunate.

 

I am gathering this turned out to be more of rant. I am saying that only because I got out of it, others might be in trouble if they follow that path you know, and it's kinda scary for someone to be on Anti-Psychotics (which is normal now mind you for SAD, I believe) when its meant for higher mental illness. It's ideistically the best to go around to multiple specialists and such, but give the fact that the waiting lists are usually high, for a person who is highly affected by these illnesses, I think a stronger look at proper assessments and methods are due. I might beable to do that, but others may not.

 

P.S.

 

Sorry about my Mind to Text translation/and formating skills. I seem to just blob on a bunch of words with no order or structure...been trying to fix that, but I hope "Ya'll" can understand

 

P.S. 2

 

If your having any reserve to express your opinion because you may feel that I will be offended, dont. I can take it!

[scicop]

A good regimen should not only include effective and tolerable pharmacotherapy, but also a psychosocial therapy that aims to provide you with coping skills as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy. The aim of such combined therapy is to ween you off the drugs while allowing you to return to normal function.

 

If you are being administered a drug without proper psychosocial intervention therapy, then your doctor is not doing his job properly.

 

You may wish to discuss the psychosocial aspect with your insurance provider. In the past, such programs were often carved out from member benefits, but now as more drugs are being FDA approved pending an indication for a psychosocial component, providers are starting to include such benefits.

 

Best of luck.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Disclaimer: I highly recommend that you discuss these thoughts with a real psychiatrist thouroughly, rather than asking questionable people on the Internet.

 

Anyways, I'd like to mention that your weightlifting could really be helping you - and I suggest you get more excercise. Physical activity boosts your endorphin level, and endorphins make you feel happier and better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorphin

[iglak]

if it's S.A.D., i can point you to the absolute best prescription.

it's proven, completely safe with absolutely no side effects, and works wonders in the absence of sunlight. and can even save money over time if you get long life ones.

 

a full spectrum light bulb, to be put in every lighting fixture in the house (or at least the one you wake up to).

 

beats the hell out of drugs anyday.

 

 

 

i hate psychiatric drugs, because i've seen far too many people's conditions worsen because of them. in my opinion, never, EVER, take a drug unless you know EXACTLY what it's going to do to you.

(or if your life depends on it, such as it would with heavy depression)

[WillTheNewf]

I volunteer at the local mental institution here and i can say that ALOT of patients there complain about medication. They can't focus, concentrate or even see. They complain that there heads are to fuzzy. All i'll say is that, personally, I would much rather not take the drugs unless my condition was extremly intolerable

[GutZ]

Disclaimer: I highly recommend that you discuss these thoughts with a real psychiatrist thouroughly' date=' rather than asking questionable people on the Internet.[/b']

 

Anyways, I'd like to mention that your weightlifting could really be helping you - and I suggest you get more excercise. Physical activity boosts your endorphin level, and endorphins make you feel happier and better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorphin

 

 

Hehe Disclaimers. Sorry should of been more professional about the topic.

 

Endorphins! yeah I thought it was Sertoin.

 

Anyway I wanted to leave out all personal info out of it, but I thought if I shared my experience with it, it would be more easier for people to understand where I was coming from. I would not consider my PAST disfunctions to be severe comparatively. It wouldn't be safe to quit medication for people. I took that risk though, and it's helped then. I am fine now, I wasn't looking for advice really.

 

It seems I am not alone. I was quite sure of that anyway. My main objective was to create a disscussion about the use of medication with treatment or if other methods out there are worth taking a look at.

 

Are there any psychiatrists on this board? I would like to get their opinion on the subject, maybe I am not fully understanding the bio-neurological advantages.

 

Thanks for everyones concern in me personally. I guess I didn't clearly state that I am fine now, I guess I didnt state my age so my history thing seem to be from past to present, but I am 22 , so no worry...I dont know how else to put it.

 

I doubt I would of made a topic if I was still...in treatment.

[who_knows]

"We are going in there [the brain] with the equivalent of a bulldozer to knock down roads and tear up rail lines and pull down telegraph exchanges. You have to ask, do we know enough to play these kinds of games with other people's brains?"

 

Paul Mullen

Professor of Forensic Psychiatry

Australia (1999)

 

Yes,I've been to Psychiartrists and left not trusting any of them

[speakerguy]

atypical antipsychotics are the new thing, very chic expensive drugs that they are using to treat everything from schizophrenia to bipolar to treatment resistant depression. I was on prozac and zyprexa, zyprexa weight gain +30lbs 4 months, lit says 10, friend is a rep and she said 30 was not uncommon, drugs not working had suicide attempt, new doc switched me to cymbalta and geodon, had extrapyramidal symptoms on geodone - ATYPICALS ARE NOT EPS-FREE DO NOT TAKE UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!! EPS can sometimes be PERMANENT and you do not want permanent tardive dyskinesia or any of that shit. Now on cymbalta and lamictal. finding the right dose of cymbalta took long time, now on 60-90mg depending on how I am doing. cymbalta is SSNRI seratonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, more effective than SSRI but withdrawal is much worse I hear (also true for other SSNRI called effexor). At right cymbalta dose I feel good totally natural no problems other than maybe sleeping little 5hrs or so when I am on too much and slightly manic. Lamictal is anticonvulsant and mood stabilizer, very good drug benign side effect profile. only other true mood stabilizer besides lithium and it doesn't suck like lithium does.

 

i am bpII misdiagnosed as depression with associated anxiety disorder for many years. been on prozac, wellbutrin, lexapro, buproprion, klonopin, zyprexa, geodon, cymbalta and lamictal. i found that of all those cymbalta works best for depression and klonopin helps with anxiety and mixed states but is highly addictive. you might try one of the newer multiple reuptake inhibitors i had much more success with one and it doesn't feel unnatural at all. i agree i felt zonked out on the antipsychotics and mom said i just sat on the couch for four months watching tv.

 

good luck and never admit to taking psyche meds to anyone. even doctors attach stigmas to mental health probs, any time i have listed my meds on the intake sheets i get really shitty care when i don't i get really good care. good luck and i hope you get to feeling better.

 

also it is easy to distrust psychiatrists, i know i often do, but they are scientists and the good ones aren't just tools of the drug industry. it took me a long time and a lot of work (almost a year) to get to the point where I wasn't suicidal and I owe it all to my shrink. you have to remember that the brain is evolved, not designed. It's not like a circuit where all the wires are color coded and you have to fix the right one and it's easy to find. Your brain is the equivalent of a giant ckt where everything is wired together with red wire, and the only tools you have can't discriminate which wire is which so you have to mess with them all. Some areas of the brain rely more on noreiniphrine and seratonin, others on glutamin, but they are all used everywhere. that is why psychiatric drugs are so blunt and have so many side effects but it's really not the fault of psychiatry such as an unguided evolution. remember ****ed up psyche people would just die before, so evo didn't have to care how the brain was designed, it's not like people with more fixable brains survived more.

 

just find a well respected shrink who is conservative and informs you about all the meds you will be taking and side effect profile. I was very pissed when I got EPS since I had never been told about it and I am very glad it finally went away. sometimes I get a few jolts every now and again but I think those are brain zaps from when i miss a cymbalta dose (google brain zaps, they are one of the side effects of SSNRI discontinuation syndrom that sucks donkey balls. not looking forward to quitting cymbalta ever but boy is it working for me now).

[who_knows]

it is easy to distrust psychiatrists

 

And there are very good reasons to as well.

 

They don't know the cause of any so called mental illness yet,let alone the treatment.As for the medication: quote royal college of psychiatry "we are not sure how they work but we believe......." not really concrete scientific proof is it?

Also if they knew what they were doing I wouldn't have been given

Anti-Psychotics for a condition which I never had,and supposedly the best drugs for Anxiety (Benzodiazepines) they are not allowed to prescribe for an Anxiety condition because they got that wrong as well after it passed the guinea pig tests in their labs

I wouldn't give them 2 minutes of my time again.

I don't really need some rich kid who spent a few years at med school with a a pile of books to tell me about Mental Health issues

I've had far better results with exercise and group self help methods

I believe there are cures for most if not all Mental Health problems if they only took the time(which none of them are willing to give their patients) to help solve the underlying Psychological issues which triggered it all off

[Hmmp]

I've had far better results with exercise and group self help methods

I believe there are cures for most if not all Mental Health problems if they only took the time(which none of them are willing to give their patients) to help solve the underlying Psychological issues which triggered it all off

 

 

Yeah...

 

I was on Zyprexa back in 2002. They prescribed them to me when I was staying at the ward for about 2 weeks. During the time before they start feeding me Zyprexa, they fed me different pills each day. Some makes me feel relaxed, some gets my mind racing... others makes me feel so zonked out.

 

I wasn't properly assessed and because I never took medicitations for mental illiness before that time, and because of the side effects I felt... I decided on my own to stop taking the pill after a month of out of the ward, without professional advice.

 

4 years later. Now and then I still get paranoid, anixous and depressed... but not as much as the early days in 2002.

 

I do feel I need some help... but I am not interested in taking medicitations prescribed by some professional's guess work to fix my head. I want emphasis it was their guess work, because I am deaf... I barely told them anything when they questioned me in a small boxed room (there was no interpreter, we had to rely on paper and pen to communicate). They didn't tell me anything, like what I was diagonised with etc.... nothing at all, just said something like "yeah ok boy, you can go home tonight -- but u gotta take this medicine for the rest of ur life".

 

The trust between me and any doctor is stuffed up >> I only see them when I need a medical certificate for sickies from work... lol