Do You Need All Those Pills? Depression & lessons I learned

Is it possible to take care of one's mental health naturally, like with things such as lithium orotate, ashegwandha, Ltheanine, GABA, passionflower, etc.?
For the record I take Celexa, Buspar, Propranolol "as needed, and Ativan "as needed"
Where might I find a psychiatrist that could monitor the more natural mental aids?

I am still on a lot of medication, I expect to be for sometime. I have found that each big change in my diet and exercise allows for small and on going changes in my medication.

I just decided with my provider to decrease the Venlafaxine (Effexor) by 37.5mg, leaving me on 437.5mg for at least the next month. I have a love/hate relationship with this drug and would like to reduce it faster. However, the discontinuation effects are horrible. I have a similar hard time stopping Lithium.

Fortunately I have a provider who supports me decreasing to zero (probably a pipe dream) all my meds if possible and a PCP that is helpful with dietary changes. I want to stress that for me this is a very slow process that I expect to take a lot of hard work and years to complete and might not be possible.

Finding the right providers was part luck and part education. They changed my mental health clinician at my clinic, from one who would do as I asked to a woman that had her own ideas about healthcare. We did not agree on everything, forcing me to educate myself to prove my point. In so doing I found that we were both right and that she could be that critical check on my charge ahead instincts. If I had a recommendation it would be to educate yourself on your diagnosis and whatever you put in your body. I’ve recommended a book “Brain Energy” by a Dr/Professor Palmer at Harvard and McLain. I do not have a financial interest in the book I promise, just a debt of gratitude.

I also had to change PCP’s because my last one left his practice. I was assigned one by my insurance company who was to far away, so I found one closer. It’s been about a year and so far I like her contributions. I don’t care for her Practice Manager, but I’ll wait her out.

I have found that putting my mental health above everything and I mean everything is absolutely necessary. I learned from Alcholics Anonomous forty years ago to put my sobriety first. If I wasn’t sober and clean I couldn't be anything to anyone else. I've come to believe that statement is true for life in general.

Changing my life has been simple but not easy! I had to stop eating many foods I like and starting eating some I don't like. I like to exercise so that was easy. I'm not sleep well, that kind of sucks, but it's getting better. What helps is the question I ask myself all the time, “ is this going to make me feel better”?

What also helps is I believe this is my last chance, so I cling to the rope like a man who will drown if he lets go. I no longer have the luxury of kicking the can done the road.

I wish you well on your journey. Remember you are loved!

Reading about your journey is encouraging. Thank you for sharing.

This is so amazing.
Not a pipe dream, you're headed the right way!!!!!

Thank You!

Indeed, you're headed the right way - natural plant-based remedies, dietary changes and exercise, both physical and mental, will give you a far better remedy than big pharma. Good luck to you!

I have been in alprazolam (generic Xanax) and oxycodone for almost 11 years since botched thyroid surgery. The oxy actually unparalyzed my vocal chord nerves and gave me my voice back and helps me swallow. Not for pain. After a major tick bite issue two weeks ago where I had been going crazy and didn't know it, I finally decided it's time to get off, right now at least, the alprazolam. Doc wanted me on Cymbalta but why switch from one to the other when they are not necessary ? So I am cutting back the alprazolam first and it's working well! I usually take 2 mg 3x/day. In one day I was able to cut back, taking morning 2 mg (I wake with shakes) and then 1.75 mg twice a day. I've cut back 1/2 pill a day and seem to be tolerating it very well. When I took the Cymbalta my BP would spike terribly forcing me to take an Amlodipine and causing more issues so I cut that out completely. I feel so much better. Today is last day of doxycycline for tick bites. Then I have tons of labs to take from lupus, primary, oncology docs. I'm trying to give my veins a break as I am bruised and swollen all over. I will prob have to start CLL meds again soon but fear that as well since Covid is taking back my town !!

You have been and still are on quite the journey. I applaud you courage.

I know from numerous injuries, the most recent a hospital stay for covid, that each one sets me back months if not years on the journey toward mental wellness.

New and additional meds, docs who mistake side effects for symptoms not to mention new dependencies.

I’ve started keeping a very detailed journal of all my meds and the various interactions between them. I now educate my doctors about my conditions, their origins and interactions. I take nothing until I’ve read all current literature on a particular drug and the side effects and interactions.

There is simply too much information for any one person to deal with.

As an aside; during my career I had six full time researchers and countless vendors, and that was for managing investments?

How many doctors have even one? Money or Health what is more important?

I believe that my 25 years of hell began with the change of doctors and the new one making just such a mistake!

We have to be are own healthcare coordinators.

I wish you joy on your journey.

In 2012 when I had my thyroid surgery I knew I would never be the same and voiced it before I even had the surgery. I am so not well now. Had migraine attack today while food shopping with my husband this morning and it's been downhill ever since. I hate my leukemia doctor and don't know what to do. Seeing oncologist tomorrow. Had to scramble because town transportation told me I was good to go for 10 am appt Monday then I get a call after all doc offices closed Friday that the appt is too early and they can't take me!!!! 😳😳 had to scramble to find another ride. Not easy when all you have is your husband and one friend. My friend came through ❤️🥺. I feel like I'm dying and no one can figure out what it is......God help me.....

Usually I know instantly how to respond. Yet as I read your last posting it seemed to require a little more reflection. My normal course of action is to share my experience in the hope that it might offer something that can be of help. I was worried, however it that might be harmful. Ultimately my experience is all I have to offer. So please take anything that can be help and disregard the rest.

I first felt like I could not go on one more step as a little six year old boy. I was so young that I didn’t even know what I was feeling. So, I disappeared into the woods around my house often for the whole day, sometimes overnight. My parents were more than happy to have me out of the house. And let me be alone. School was easier as there were lots of distractions.

After eights months of treatment for drugs and alcohol my feelings overwhelmed me and once again I very much wanted to end my life. Then I found something to obsesses over, getting and staying sober. For the next five years A.A. kept me alive. A.A. Would continue to be part of my life on one level or another to this day, call it my world view.

Then my mental health journey began. For years my life flourished. Until shortly after being prescribed a cocktail of medication, things started going badly again. Within five years, I had been arrested, my wife had divorced me, my children would not and still don’t speak to me. I persevered through everything until I arrived at prison. I would have killed myself on the spot except they won’t let you.

Two and a half years later it all came back, I wanted to leave my life to the darkness. Then Covid; I spent eight days in the hospital and lost a third of my lung capacity, I lost my job. The meds triggered delusions and I would go onto gain fifty pounds in 18 months. I was declared disabled and was stuck at my mothers house, were I am to this day. I wanted to give up so badly, even the love for my children could not take it away.

What worked is I was on parole and they owned me. Try to die and fail and everything would get even worse (that’s my one rule ‘don’t do anything to make things worse”). That worked for awhile until I figured how not to fail! I came closer to dying than I will ever put in writing.

For me I realized that my life would continue to be a living hell or I really would kill myself if I didn’t do something. I was alone! So I began to think about what worked, here is what I found:

Walking in the woods gave me time to be alone without pressure to feel or be what other people wanted me to be.

A.A. gave me a path to walk with others who suffer (it doesn’t have to be A.A.)

My wife and children gave me people to care about that transcended me. My family relived me of the burden of self.

And as last resort, hospitals and yes prison and parole stopped me when maybe I could not have stopped myself.

It’s ironic that I went to prison to save my family from the ugliness of a trial and prison ended up saving me.

In short I hung on by any means necessary. My life is improving as I am improving and I am glad I am still here. I will never tell anyone they have to hang on. I believe we all have the right to choose when we simply can not take it anymore.

I hope there is something in my post that can give you just a little hope.

My your journey ease and remember you are loved.