Is Anyone Choosing To Deal With Ptsd Without Meds?

[Justmehere]

If you are still not comfortable talking to the prescribing health care professional about how to stop the medications, another option is to call the pharmacy or poison control. They can't advise you on how to stop the medications safely, but they might be able to tell you if there is any danger or risk in stopping or skipping doses.

 

[Anarchy]

(@Anarchy - the 'brain zaps' you mentioned, as far as I am aware, are actually associated with SNRIs, not SSRIs; there are pretty big differences between the two).

I may well have mis read those posts. thanks for catching.

The SSRIs still take a month or so of tapering down to get off safely. An ex used to go cold turkey on them, that wasn't fun.

 

[EveHarrington]

I think if it's up for debate, then you're possibly a candidate for not taking medications and coping solely with skills.

There are indeed people out there who cannot function without medications or cannot get symptoms under control just enough so that they can engage in therapy. For this reason alone I think that the "all psych meds are bad" rhetoric is extremely dangerous as it can put unnecessary fear into the minds of people who truly need medication in order to move to a better place in life.

I know that I've only taken a few meds over the years that I can say truly helped, and one was a godsend.

Do I recommend meds long term? No, not if you can learn coping skills and stabilize (in regards to PTSD)------with a functional way of life.

I always want to cringe when I read anti-medication replies that dissuade all medication use as they're not giving a balanced view on the subject. Listen to those who have actual first hand experience of taking good meds and bad meds as these people can give a balanced view of the issue. People who solely quote articles and studies and have no clue how medications can truly pull someone out of the gutter because they've never experienced it for themselves------I advise taking what they say with a MASSIVE grain of salt. No, I am not trying to silence anyone as we're all free to voice our opinions. However, it hurts to see other people who are suffering and could be scared out of using a very beneficial tool for healing when meds helped to turn my life around. (This includes those who will read this thread in the future after doing a "PTSD without meds" Google search.)

Just my opinion.

 

[heyheyhey]

If you are still not comfortable talking to the prescribing health care professional about how to st...

Thanks for your care :)! I spoketo someone and they said it's fine as I only took one. Thank you ^_^

 

[Deleted member 541]

@heyheyhey Honestly, I can't remember what the BP meds name was, cause I wasn't taking it anyway.... Actually I agreed to TRY it, (knowing I have very low blood pressure). So I reminded him that I have LOW blood pressure, but if he wanted me to do a face plant on the floor, I would try it. He suggested that my BP was to be taken 3 times a day for 3 days and then he would make a recommendation.... Hahahahahah. I don't think my BP rose above 107/55. It's a bit higher these days, but BP is about the only thing that has gone North. Everything else is going south!

Make the best decision for you....

 

[Anarchy]

For this reason alone I think that the "all psych meds are bad" rhetoric is extremely dangerous as...

I don't think anyone has advanced such an argument in this thread, let alone stoop so low as using rhetoric.

People who solely quote articles and studies and have no clue how medications can truly pull someone out of the gutter because they've never experienced it for themselves------I advise taking what they say with a MASSIVE grain of salt.

I've (thankfully) never experienced a plane crash, what seasoning do you recommend for any reports of such occurrences which may come my way?

You are correct that healthy scepticism should be used, and I have stressed that Meta analyses are inherently biased, as no one publishes or reads papers about trials which failed to show any clear result, and those negative results may have been the valid results - that there may be no phenomenon to be measured.

In the meta analysis which I mentioned, the SSRIs did have an effect, but so did the sugar pills, and the difference between the totally harmless sugar pill and the active compound which does have side effects, some of them potentially harmful - is so small it is probably due to random factors in the sample of participants. Dead Link Removed

typically high thirties to around forty percent of people in the trials which get published, felt a benefit from their pills (whether sugar or SSRI). an example of such a trial would be Bessel van der Kolk's trials with Prozac. He's got the paper posted on his academia.edu page https://www.academia.edu/3741467/EMDR_vs_fluoxetine_in_Treatment_of_PTSD

 

[joeylittle]

The SSRIs still take a month or so of tapering down to get off safely.

Oh, for sure - I didn't mean to discount that. Getting on and getting off SSRIs can be best compared to going through a really hellish flu or bout of food poisoning. The SNRIs are a more complex mechanism, which I think is why they work better, but also where the 'brain zaps' come from. I'm lucky, for some reason I never got the brain zaps discontinuing cymbalta, nor have I gotten them decreasing Effexor.

I'm glad of this thread, if for no other reason than to have another chance to remind people that there are multiple kinds of 'anti-depressants'. So, when you are looking to research the options that are out there, it's always good to know to ask your doctor, really ask what the options are, and why they recommend what they do. And it's hard to make generalizations about drugs, but there are a few that can be made:

• Older is usually better - because there is more data on long-term use, and more data on their application to different symptom sets.
• They won't fix your life - psychotropic drugs for treatable conditions should be thought of as temporary helpers. They will make it possible for you to do the harder work you need to do in order to process your trauma. They won't erase anything, or 'treat' your condition. You are going to need some kind of therapy, also.
• They are a commitment - you need to give them four weeks to really establish in your system, and getting off of them can take four weeks to six months, depending on the drug. Ask your doctor about what it's like to come off of them; some are harder than others, and it's good to be informed. But you can't just think 'OK, I'm gonna take zoloft' and then feel all better in a week. It doesn't work that way.
• Consider genetic testing - The tests they can do will not literally tell you what drugs to take; but they will determine what a range of medications and dosages has the bestir chance of success. They can also tell you if the psychotropic drugs will 'work' for you or not. It's not an iron-clad thing, but it's not a waste of time, especially when you are just starting out.

Like anything in life - there are no guarantees, and everyone's experience is going to be different. But for the right person at the right time, the right medication can be a life-saver.

 

[xraydave]

Had PTSD for years. Never needed* a pill but i was forced to take it because of societal expectations. Sometimes, it can do more harm than good. My psychdoctor supports my decision, as I am making serious progress without antidepressants or medication and he also states the reason for it being it is inferior to psychotherapy. Psychopharmacology such as antidepressants has a rate success rate of something very low like 5% for patients .

Although, it is entirely your choice to choose to take antidepressants, not anyone here can tell you otherwise. I personally find psychotherapy more enlightening and easier, but that's just me. I would recommend psychotherapy though. Particularly psychotherapy such as psychoanalysis or CBT + psychoanalysis under a qualified psychiatrist.

Anti depressants on the other hand, led to serious lapse of consciousness and a fail grade, and the dosage should have been corrected to a better dosage, but it was the same effect as anyone would have to antidepressants according to the literature. After I stopped taking it, all those negative consequences went away. Are you on sertraline? There is a serious backlash against this medication, same with drugs like Keppra for Epilepsy, for some reason, doctors and "psychdocs" have this compulsion to prescribe these medications - they deal with more patients easily that way. Something I am not fond about in our community.

I had taken antidepressants for major depression which i still see the effects of now. I also had OCD. The OCD was still horrifying under antidepressants, but after ACT and CBT with psychoanalysis, I was able to recover from OCD almost completely now. I have no shame or fear in that area compared to others, and seriously, pharmacology for a mind we do not fully understand unless it is schizophrenia (where we almost have to do something to help), is unnecessary in my view.

But then again, always listen to your professionals, loved ones and follow their guidelines not other people's. They have far more information regarding the context you are in, and I hope you will one day be able to live without medications, and deal successfully in life without them, but only through sustained support from the community. Seek support.

 

[Sideways]

always want to cringe when I read anti-medication replies that dissuade all medication use as they're not giving a balanced view on the subject.

*Heaves sigh of relief*
Thanks for saying that Eve:)

I read threads like this and I usually walk away from some of the posts feeling like I'm poisoning myself & screwing my "brain chemistry" by taking meds and the literature and the doctors are all spinning me a line and FAAARRRRKK!! Way to give a gal a guilt trip, you know!?

I've recently managed to titrate off lithium because I'm in a more stable headspace than I was when I started taking it. But I still take Seroquel because, you know what? It helps. Just like I take an Iron +C supplement because I'm chronically anaemic (my gut hates it, but it's way better than what my body does if left of it's own accord on the 'natural' route!).

I'm pretty open with the therapies I've tried along the way: everything from meditation classes to ECT. I think we benefit from being open-minded about these things. That includes medication and alternative therapies alike.

There's a couple of truths that I live by when it comes to having to down pills every morning for me. First, you wanna alter my brain chemistry go right ahead because my brain is totally screwed up and, frankly, at times there isn't any (ANY) side effect that could be any worse than the status quo. Pills where the blind studies find a small increase in suicidal ideation in adolescents? Well, I'm not an adolescent, and sometimes I am pretty suicidal, so who gives? Might make me tired. Might. If I'm sick enough, it's worth finding out if that side effect will actually effect me if my doc thinks this pill might tweak my anxiety enough that I can leave the house. You gotta way up your situation, you know?

The other truth? If any kind of treatment or therapy helps, then it's altering something, by definition: brain chemistry, heart rate, whatever. Don't kid yourself about that. If it wasn't altering the natural order of your body and/or mind, then it wouldn't be doing anything helpful either. You know? The point of acupuncture and medication alike is that it's changing shit for you.

Don't take meds that you don't need. But don't let your mental health destroy you if there's something that will help. And if sometimes you need to reach for medication? That's okay.

 

[BuckarooBanzai]

I dealt with my PTSD without drugs for many years successfully. I do keep a small bottle of Ativan on hand for PRN use, but in the last three years I've only taken a few.

It's doable if your therapist teaches you grounding techniques, and you practice them daily. Also, meditation of some sort (prayer counts) is helpful.

I know we're talking PTSD here, but let me say a couple of my words about anti-depressants. I tried many and in various combinations. They always made me suicidal, except for Wellbutrin (which is actually contraindicated for those with PTSD), and dulled my cognitive processes to the point where I had to drop out of graduate school. Briefly, without them I was miserable but fully-functional, while on them I was totally non-functional and constantly trying to kill myself.

Once I got off the meds, I never looked back. Grounding techniques and good therapy did the trick.

Given the above, I won't touch any psych med save a benzodiazepine - and even then only rarely when all else fails - ever. Period.

Ben

 

[Anarchy]

Another member's post earlier today reminded me of the world's most frequently used drug for numbing PTSD symptoms:
alcohol,
and that's probably closely followed by nicotine and dope.

 

[gfranson]

I was diagnosed with PTSD over 10 years ago. I tried meds, therapy, acupuncture, etc. Meds work temporarily. Therapy helps because I get someone to talk to and get ways to cope. Acupuncture is a nice break in the day. Exercise is relaxing. Now all the other things work and don't work for me. I have been in intensive therapy for the past 2 months. My anxiety is now at an all time high. I am now choosing to see a psychiatric nurse practitioner to get some medication to help. I drive a school bus for a living and my anxiety level has caused severe panic attacks to the point I am self isolating. I do not want to be isolated in my home. My therapist suggested this because of the triggers are now coming so fast and rapidly that I can't cope. So I am currently on the road to trying meds, again. I will see how this goes. Good luck with you.