Is Anyone Choosing To Deal With Ptsd Without Meds?

[heyheyhey]

Hi everyone,

I've got a packet of pills in front of me and I'm really not sure about taking them longterm. I've taken one so far. My anxiety and depression are pretty awful and I don't want to take anything that will make me worse, even temporarily - because I'm not sure I could battle it out if it did take a dive due to medication. I'm also finding the pills exhausting, which makes everything worse.

I'm finding relief in counselling and in acupuncture, so I'm not sure whether I should go that route instead? I read a study which said that acupuncture was found to be just as effective as medication and speaking to my acupuncturist, she said we'd go really slow so as to not make anything feel worse, even temporarily...

I guess I'm just trying to support and stabalize myself and very wary about taking anything to make me worse...

Is anyone going the non-med route and struggling with quite severe symptoms? I get very bad panic attacks, anxiety and sometimes depression - but it's mostly compounded by zero sleep. I'm feeling happy and hopeful with my professional support and acupuncture right now and just don't want to upset the balance....at the same time I don't want my anxiety and depression to stay at this level or get worse because I DON'T take them lol. I feel a little stuck!

Cheers for all your seriously awesome replies!! Can anyone give me tips on how best to manage and cope without going the med route, if that is your game plan? I'd really like to go this option, but see progress rather than spiraling. I think a lot for me is catching my negative thoughts and having practical, healthy things in place. Has to be an out!

 

[Nilrath]

Hiya!

Honestly, the efficacy of medication varies from person to person. While one person may experience a tremendous amount of relief through pills, another person's symptoms may stay the same or rarely, get worse.

I also suffer from pretty awful symptoms, and I am not on any medication yet. Next week is when I start. I am personally OK with pills, but I understand people's apprehension towards them.

Personally, I'm open to any form of treatment. No form of treatment is beneath me, and that includes hypnosis, pills, accupuncture, EMDR, CBT, or visiting a swami from Bangladesh (jokes, but I would lol). I think it's important for us to keep an open mind about treatment, and see what works for us as an individual!

 

[Anarchy]

There are a number of threads here looking at the downside of meds, particularly SSRIs.

A number of them have interesting links, and some alarming links too.

One thing I will leave you with, there was a big meta analysis published in the JAMA,
(bear in mind that for a study to be published it has to show a result - there is no sign of anyone publishing a journal for negative results - so meta analyses of published papers are biased from their very conception, because the negative results are not available to put into the study to balance it).

even with that inbuilt bias - the meta analysis found that SSRIs were statistically indistinguishable from a sugar pill placebo!!!

where SSRIs are distinguishable from a sugar pill is the side effects, which can include depression, suicidality, violence, trashed sexual function, birth defects, emotional numbness, loss of ability to relate to others...

and they are absolute b@stards to get off. People here have reported "brain zaps" for several months after tapering off.
____________________________________

in terms of managing PTSD without meds - meds don't teach any skills, and you can't learn to cope if the meds actually do the job they are claimed to, which is to numb away the feelings you are wanting to learn to cope with.

and if the meds aren't doing that job, then WTF are they being taken for?

 

[Gs172003]

I'm not taking meds and I refuse to. One of the side effects can be suicide. That's the last thing I want to have to worry about with this.

 

[Snowflake]

What I have found with meds is I am more "numb" with them. Too some this may be good-process trauma without feeling too overwhelmed with feelings. However, if numb then I feel I can't fully process my trauma without my therapist seeing the how I really am feeling. So I haven't taken meds in about 5 months and have accomplished more in therapy than I thought. I do take prazosin for sleep and I won't give that up.

 

[GMW]

My experience with meds is that they might not make anything better for a week or two but they won't make it worse.
I've been on and off anti-depressants since 1996 when I was 12. Taken a variety of them. Unless they are drowsy inducing ones the pills themselves don't do a great deal either way for 2 weeks if they are a good fit for you. I'm currently on Mertazipine which is a drowsy one and makes you sleep but because I'm now also taking anti-anxiety drugs I no longer need the sleepy element they provide as the a-a drugs do that so I'm being switched to Prozac.

I don't have a great deal of experience with anti-anxiety meds. I'm on clonazepam long term for restless legs (which is normally prescribed for anxiety but not long term) have been for the last 3 weeks and the things I've noticed are;
1) I no longer have panic attacks. Very Anxious? Yes. Easily startled? Yes. Flashbacks? Yes. Nightmares? Yes . Upset? Yes. Feeling Under Threat? Yes. Full blown out of my head, heart pumping, hyperventilating, sheer mind numbing panic? No.
2) Instead of panicking my periods of "zoning out" have been more frequent. As long as I am not driving, I find this easier to deal with than panic so it's a trade off I'm willing to make as my RLS and panic were out of control. My RLS had actually spread to my arms.

Sometimes the drugs can make you feel worse and dizzy, sick, spacy but that's a sign they aren't right for you. If you find yourself feeling awful, just go to the doc and get something else. There's loads out there just because one isn't a good fit doesn't mean there aren't others to try.

If you mean you'll feel worse because of the stigma/taboo attached to taking meds... I would speak directly to your pain and ask you which is worse? How likely would you be to hurt yourself? There is a reason your doctor felt it necessary to prescribe these drugs for you. They are the experts. You could always ring them up for a chat and discuss your concerns.

Honestly, if you feel you can handle the emotional turmoil without the drugs, then go ahead. You're an adult, responsible enough to make that call for yourself and able to possess enough insight and emotional intelligence to decide for yourself when you're ready to take them (be honest though, if you have a nagging feeling you need them, you probably need them). Any sign of fight left in you in a positive thing. Once you reach a point where you no longer can fight, from my perspective, that's when I would reach for the meds. Fighting to keep going is a good sign and one (I think) that should be encouraged. If staying off the pills is going to make you feel better about yourself, then go for it. Just don't be hard on yourself if you decide later to try them. There really isn't any stigma these days, you're not a failure and it will help.

I would say also if you choose to stay off them, you need to be in regular touch with your counsellor and doctor. Off meds your mood can slip very quickly and I would hate anything to happen and for you to wonder how it all slipped away so quick. Talk on here, exercise, eat well, engage with healthy positive people and make sure you have lots of good stuff going on in life. You could be ok.

I have been where you are. I wanted to keep fighting and I did for as long as I could but honestly, once I took them my mood stabilised and while I don't like being on them because it's a label I dislike, they DO make me feel better.

Good luck with whatever you decide xx

 

[katurian]

I was on psych meds from a very young age. I was started on them because I was misdiagnosed with a somatoform disorder at 12. I finally went completely off all of them about a year ago and I feel so much better than I used to. I have dissociative PTSD. It used to be really severe but it's gotten a lot better, with help from my therapist. Without the meds, my mood elevated and I felt like I could laugh / cry / process emotions freely, which I think is really important when you're dealing with years of repression.

 

[expectingbetter]

@missy meier I agree with you, I don't take any meds too and the fact that antidepressants could cause suicidal thoughts is really something I mustn't put up with above all other issues!

I told my therapist I won't any medication, and she respects that. I do struggle a lot but I am sure I would struggle even more with all side effects of SSRI. Honestly those meds have extremely lot of very awful side effects. I think if some medications for heart conditions or similar would have even the half of side effects SSRI have much less people would be willing to take them.

It is hard this way but it's my choice and I stand behind it.

@Anarchy thank you for sharing with us such amazing findings! It really helps me with ensuring that my decision is the right one.
But I can speak for myself only.

 

[heyheyhey]

There are a number of threads here looking at the downside of meds, particularly SSRIs.

A number of th...

Yeah, well said! I don't want to numb, but I also don't want to feel out of control and hopeless - I'd like to gain some ground and learn to manage. I really want to do it that way but it's hard managing the emotions sometimes! Which methods have you found help you best :)?

 

[Anarchy]

There is a reason your doctor felt it necessary to prescribe these drugs for you. They are the Experts. You could always ring them up for a chat and discuss your concerns.

No criticism of you for typing this, but a big criticism of the neurotransmitter paradigm.

The idea of medication for the dificulties we face in living is based on an unproven paradigm;

that there is a chemical cause to the problem

That paradigm is an example of "scientism" - the use of a science to explain something, without having the evidence basis for doing so.

Current doctors are trained within that paradigm, and with the amount of busywork in their training and the constant repeating of the paradigm by their peers and the pharmaceutical industry, they usually don't question it.

Indeed, if you read Kuhn's (now over half a century old) "Structure of scientific revolutions", the point is clearly made that a paradigm cannot be tested from within

a simple example of that from physics - how would you test Newton's first law of motion? if something begins moving or stops moving - it cannot falsify the first law - a believer in the newtonian paradigm would begin looking for forces acting on the body, rather than questioning the paradigm.

for an excellent logical critique of the neo Kraepelinian paradigm of psychiatry (which contains the ideas that it's all down to chemical imbalances), see Richard P Bentall's book, "Madness Explained"
https://www.bookdepository.com/Madness-Explained-Richard-P-Bentall/9780140275407

 

[heyheyhey]

I'm not taking meds and I refuse to. One of the side effects can be suicide. That's the last thing...

That's 100% why I don't want to take them. Honestly, I took one and I was so exhausted and that led me to feeling super f*cking depressed, like suicidal depressed. I can't deal with that short term...no way. I even feel much better today and I haven't taken one, granted I saw my lovely counsellor and badass acupuncturist though ;). Basically I don't want to die before I get better lol!

 

[Anarchy]

I really want to do it that way but it's hard managing the emotions sometimes! Which methods have you found help you best :)?

Being able to ground and learning to recognise when I need to ground.
again there are good threads on grounding methods.