My Medications Are Making Me Sick!

@dfb we are listening. I’m so very sorry you are going through this difficult time. Of course, there are so many things people can say to each other hoping to help, but they sound hollow sometimes, one day at a time, this too will pass, it won’t always be this way etc.
Those things are all very true and important to remember. When your mind is overwhelmed and out of whack most people can’t focus on anything but the issues.
You have come to the right place to vent. You are safe here. Please let us know how you are feeling again later.
Blessings.

You are lovely, Thank you.

Can you be more specific on what meds were causing you problems and what your trying to eliminate.

I am uncomfortable specifying any medications. I do not want to do anything the would resemble a recommendation.

With three exceptions:

Do your home work.
Eat a healthy diet.
Exercise.

Everything else is a crapshot. We are all part of one big drug trial. Medicine barely understands how the body works, never mind the added drug interactions.

When you calculate the possible variables of each individual by the variety of possible medicines or treatments the number is so large it is meaningless. In short it will take an effort akin to the fight against cancer before anyone really understands mental illness let alone how to cure it.

What we can do is treat the side effects of the illness and the drugs. And increase our odds of success by following the top two recommendations for treating any illness; eat food that is good for us and exercise.

My journey towards wellness started with a book “Brain Energy” authored by Dr. Palmer, of McClain and Harvard. He proposes a mind-body connection that made sense to me after the second chapter. I guess that's my fourth recommendation!

Live in Wellness!

I have been doing infrared sauna to detoxify from both chemo and psych meds. I think it is really helping. If anything the 30 minutes you spend in quite helps. I have never been good at meditation but this quite time helps.

Thank you! I have access to a Sauna. I will try that.

Be well.

Any sauna is good but they say the infrared helps with sleep, relaxation depression and chronic pain. CYL is what I go to. It is a chain. You lay on a bed.

Sounds like a good idea. I see what I can find locally.

Thank you.

I’m not so sure I am going to make it!

For about six weeks now I’ve been reducing, with the help of my providers, the massive quantities of psychiatric medications prescribed for me over the last fifteen years. My providers agree that at the very least I am on too many and too much medications. The count was fourteen six weeks ago down to six now. It is becoming increasingly clear that I should not have been put on the very high doses of psych meds that I was in the first place.

The past fifteen years have been a nightmare. I have lost everything that ever mattered to me. Now I am facing months if not years of titrations of off medications that I don’t need and that cause the exact problems they are prescribed to address.

Initially I felt great as I got rid of the worst offenders and started exercising and eating better food. Now, I’m in the thick of it; addressing lithium, venlafaxine and Wellbutrin. My doctors are trying to time the reductions of one to offset the other. I have been forced back on lorazepam to handle the anxiety caused by too much venlafaxine and Wellbutrin at lower levels of lithium. I have been put on Latuda to pick up the slack the reduction in lithium causes. I have had to restart propanolole to combat the high blood pressure caused by the withdrawal of the medications and on and on it goes.

My family is simply wretched to me. They do not understand why I’m withdrawn and trying not to interact. My doctors don’t really understand, their understanding comes from what I have told them. They didn’t even know how all of these medications interact with each other. And they don’t really want to believe a psychiatrist (god to them) could have screwed up so badly, never mind all those, who pilled on after him. I feel utterly alone, like a modern day Cassandra.

If I get through this the I have to try to rebuild some kind of life. I need to change the narrative of my life before I die. Today is a bad day and on bad days I just wish my life was over. Sometimes I can’t even breathe.

I’m sorry to be so negative. I usually try to remain positive. This will pass too I guess.

Thanks for listening.

@dfb It takes a lot of courage and lots of time to make these changes! Are you journaling the changes in medication/dosages, how you feel on a regular basis? If not, that might help you through this courageous effort!

Sending supportive thoughts,
Ginger