Is This A Bad Idea?

[Heather]

Ever since I got out of the hospital I feel way Over-medicated. Can't get an appointment with the psychiatrist until July 5th to discuss meds. My therapist said he'd try and get me in sooner but he forgot nice, huh?

I hate the way I feel. My hands shake, not too bad but enough to make me feel like a freak. I feel shaking in my body. My balance is horrible etc.

So, I stopped taking the abilify, buspar and zoloft.

Only keeping the topomax but decreased from 400mg to 250mg. And am keeping Trazedone 100mg.

 

[Reclusive]

I think it really depends on your dosages. I think weaning off of them slowly, especially the buspar and zoloft, would be safest, but if you're already at the lowest dose, I don't think it'll be that huge a deal. It would definitely be preferable to talk to a psych about it, but if you can't stand it, you can't stand it.

Oh! And maybe going off one at a time would help narrow down which one is causing the side effects so you can tell your psych that information, too, when you see them.

 

[Heather]

(((Reclusive)))

 

[Reclusive]

(((Heather))) Hang in there, girl!

 

[cherryblossom]

Hi Heather, my personal opinion is that you shouldn't stop without talking to your Doctor. And certainly not stop 3 drugs, and reduce the dose of another all at the same time.

You were ill enough to be hospitalised, and you were put on the drugs for a reason, and they helped get you to a better place and discharged from hospital. I totally understand that you feel overly medicated, but all of these drugs should be reduced slowly over time, and preferably one at a time. That way any declines in your health can be monitored. For example if you gradually stop one medication and you still feel ok - great, move onto reducing the next one. If you reduce another med and you begin to feel unwell, then it may be that you still need that particular medication for the time being.
If you stop them all at once and feel unwell, that may be only due to not having one of those meds, but how will you know which one, if you stopped them all at once.

I have had very unpleasant withdrawal effects, just from reducing one medication. Imagine how your body might react, to sudden withdrawal from 4 medications. :eek:

My GP told me not to go 'cold turkey' from one of the drugs I was on. He told me that a possible side effect of this could be seizures. So please be very careful.

If you can't see your psych, then perhaps a general Doctor, a psychiatric nurse, or a pharmacist (probably actually the best option) could give you some advice on how to reduce your meds safely. Also they may be able to pinpoint exactly which of your drugs is giving you the shaky hands, and may suggest you just reduce that one medication.

I just want you to be safe, and I personally think that stopping all those meds at once without any medical advice is a dangerous thing to do.

 

[Grama-Herc]

When I was in hospital they spent an entire group therapy session on this very subject. DO NOT DO IT!!!!! without your docs supervision. Take a deep breath, go back on your pills and weather the storm until you CAN see someone. What you are doing could be compared to Russian Roulette. Meds are combined for a reason. Taking one without the other is dangerous and counter productive and can cause more serious problems than you had before.

What you are doing is VERY DANGEROUS! ! ! Please go back on all your meds until you can see your doc and tlk to him about what is going on with you.

Please be safe

 

[Heather]

Yes, you were right. This was very dangerous.

 

[ronin47]

I totally can understand your discomfort with taking so many medications. In my humble opinion any perscriptions or diagnosis given by people working in a psychiatric ward should be taken with a hefty dose of salt (no pun intended). I was perscribed three medications and diagnosed with three different things when I was in the hospital after the doctor talked to me for all of maybe twenty minutes :cautious:. It was laughable.

However, regardless of whether a medication is useful or not, once you're on it, you're on it. And once you're on it, stopping it any other way other than a gradual, incremented way outlined by a professional is highly risky. Whenever someone tells me they want to stop taking a psychoactive medication I implore them to, if absolutely nothing else, do it slowly.

So to answer your question, yes, this is a bad idea. You have every right to decide you don't want those medications anymore. And you have a right to tell that to your doctor and request an outline for how you should do it. No one can stop you from discontinuing usage, but why not do it the safest way possible?

 

[Heather]

I agree.