Quitting All The Meds At Once

[Srain]

I think everyone at one time or another thinks about going off meds 'cold turkey', I think about it just about this time EVERY year, oddly enough. I've tracked it for 10yrs. Just asking the question tends to give the answer. Just because I have PTSD doesn't me I am not capable of thinking. I have no idea what medications you are on or how much or for how long but my sense is you already have a pretty good notion it's a bad idea. That being said most everyone has done it at one time or another because something isn't feeling right. There is always a reason.

My suggestion would be to contact your dr right away and get in to discuss this and see if you can't adjust your medications in some way. If you are not feeling very good on them then they need to be adjusted right away so that you don't go off them cold turkey. Often times people want to go off the medications due to weight gain and there are things that can be done about that, other times it's due to 'feeling flat' and that's a signal the medication dose may need to be lowered.

Please take care and think about alternatives to all or nothing,

Rain

 

[Seneca]

As soon as I saw this thread I was like, no way could this be a good idea. I'm doing the same thing right now because I ran out of money to buy them with, and in the short time I've been off them, I've spent a good bit of my time fighting violent fantasies. They're mood stabilizers.

When you're on medication, especially antidepressants, it's easy to look at the "old you" and see only the happy, shiny parts. It's hard to imagine the depths of misery you were in if you're not in them RIGHT NOW.

That said, I think overmedication can be dangerous psychologically. It's hard to face your worst emotions when you're not even capable of experiencing them.

 

[The Albatross]

Bodies are basically lazy... on your meds, your body chemistry is altered to accomidate the support it gets from the meds. I absolutely would not consider stopping everything at once. In my case though, I did it under my doctor's supervision and one at a time. It was a process. I had to learn about what to expect and prepare for it. When I came of one SSRI if I hadn't known I would have ran screaming back to my doctor and begged them to put me back on. I white knuckled it past the the withdrawl that clears it out of my body and I concentrated on nutrition and exercise while my body recalibrated and then weighed what I was feeling. In my case though still depressed, it was mild and is largely manageable without medicine anymore. BUT (and I emphasize the but all caps) I'd seen first hand what happens to people (worked medical) when all the meds were stopped and the body was resetting. (a chemistry thing). It was not pretty. I did though stop all my meds except for an allergy pill, though I'm not necessarily the cheerful type, I'm okay and it worked with me. But (again) it was a combination of therapy, support, and stepping down one at a time, with self care and under my MD's supervision.

My doctor said (I had a serotonin deficiency) that some bodies "reboot" some don't. Mine did, though it is likely low normal range, but I'm living without the meds. Sometimes I think a pill would be easier, but if I mask it, I can't learn to cope and live and learn. But my thing was depression. For other things, I might not have considered it... like bipolar for instance.

P.S. I had a big reaction to Chantix too. No can do.

 

[The Albatross]

Oh yeah, and I double checked everything and ran it by my trusted pharmacist (just to make sure the doctor was not stepping me off too fast).

 

[AngelaMarie]

I tried it once....to go off quickly. Oh my Gosh!!!! It was horrible! You think you will feel better. That is so untrue. I felt like I was going to die, as some have said, maybe I could have. If you are serious about wanting to quit it is absolutely important to do it little by little. Do not hurt yourself!:sick:

 

[The Albatross]

I did want to come back and say, that I have a friend who is also a sufferer... and in her case, she had to accept being on the meds. She did though work with her doctor to find a better combination and is very well managed now. That too was a process.

 

[Deleted member 487]

Quitting some meds cold turkey can cripple or even kill you. And it's not "BAM! You're Dead!", either. It'll be a slow miserable death. Depending one the meds and the dosages.

 

[Knak]

Has anybody ever thought about this as well? What are the general side effects of stopping your meds cold turkey?

I had a crazy psychiatrist actually have me do this. I got paranoid, felt like I was buzzing, like I was in a zone and lost about 10 pounds in a few days. I had also just had anesthesia for surgery a couple weeks earlier which was still in my system. The doctor was brand new in his independent practice, and his ethnic background was Arab, if that is relevant.

 

[Deleted member 487]

Bad move to quit cold turkey. Research the drugs first, and find out what the suggested protocol is.
I'm doubtful if the doctor's ethnic background has anything to do with it. They all start somewhere, and they all make mistakes.

 

[Heather]

I agree with Jack. Bad, bad, bad idea. Never ever stop all meds. cold turkey. Just a bad idea.

 

[Philippa]

I can tell you that I once felt exactly the same as you are feeling, and thought I'd be fine. I stopped abruptly and I did not go back to the "full of life" person I'd once been. Instead I turned into a violent angry person who kicked her own mother in the stomach for drinking a bottle of wine my boyfriend gave me. I am not proud of the way I behaved, and I was terrified when it was happening. I ended up in a DV shelter for 6 weeks until I found a place to live with my boyfriend at the time.

Weening off medication is a MUCH better idea, and you can speak to your doctor and have him/her monitor your moods, as well as monitor yourself, but I can promise you that stopping alltogether will bring you more misery and suffering than you could imagine...maybe even death? It's very dangerous to cut off the brain supply of a chemical it is used to receiving daily because it is not able to produce it's own version of serotonin at that point. Weening off, allows the brain the time to begin producing serotonin the way it is supposed to.

Please take heed of these words. I know how much you want your life back,,,but this will not make that happen, and you will end up with more problems than you started with!

 

[Gamereign555]

Normal people have a hard enough time quitting cold turkey, but if you have ptsd and addictive personality then its probably not going to work well. Lets not forget about withdrawal and rebound effects of medications. I tried to ween myself off of benzos too quickly with very undesirable side effects. Some withdrawals can kill you.

I guess it depends on how high of a dose of the medications you take but for those trying to get off benzos, sleep aids and anti depressants and have been taking them for a long time, the Ashton Manual can be viewed for free or bought as a book on the internet. It has charts and comparison graphs for alot of meds and a detailed medicine step down routine you can follow to get off the meds safely and I think it has something to do with substituting diazepam for whatever your taking currently.

Of course its a pretty professional guide, if you don't intend on taking it seriously don't bother. I viewed it and read a lot from it and it makes sense for those who have been on these meds for a long time like in the 'years' range. For me I simply applied its knowledge on a much smaller scale. I only had issues completely getting off the dose at a tail end of the chart, it can be hard to finally let go of the last bit of the drugs.