Lived Experience Forum

[NikNik]

Managing medication: choosing to stay on or stop meds and how to make your choice and act accordingly with safety

During this Topic Tuesday, some of the issues we will discuss include:

- Reasons for staying on or stopping medication

- How can I start or finish medication?

- Side effects and benefits

Medication can be a tricky topic to discuss. Please read our guidelines before participating in the Topic Tuesday. The main guidelines around medication are:

- Names & dosages of specific medication is against guidelines, however you can refer to families of medication (eg: anti-psychotics, antidepressants etc)

- Medical advice is against guidelines. If a post specifically encourages someone to start/stop/adjust their medication or implies their advice is medical advice, then it will be removed.

If any posts are removed, you will recieve an email with information on why and how you can edit it.

Finally, we all must respect that everyone's experience with medication is different and unique, and it's not an opportunity to push pro or anti medication agendas. The session is to talk about strategies for your own experiences and hear about how others have managed 🙂

This community is an awesome, friendly & respectful place, so I know it's going to be a really wonderful session.

Join us from 7pm AEDT.

3 things you can do now:

1. Register as a member of the forums, which enables you to participate in the session

2. Hit the like button below to receive an email reminder on the night

3. Read our latest blog on the topic

[MoonGal]

BiPolar II. (Can't be at the Session tonight). 

I am on an antipsychotic medication AM and PM and it has helped me enourmously but also comes at a huge cost. (physically, mentally and financially). I have been on it for 1 1/2 years and it has reduced my anxiety and mitigates agaisnt regular meltdowns. I have recently read this particular medication can affect the pancreas and liver used long term, at the time I was prescribed it I was in a bit of a mess and it has helped undo that mess to some degree, but I am wondering now, if perhaps long term use may be bad for me. In a quandry about whether to stay on it or come off it and see how I go. 

But, recently I came off an anti depressant (SSRI) I was on for 13 years (it was my only medication for mental health issues for 11 and a half years of theat time) and swapped onto to a different anti-depressant (SNRI) I had 9 weeks of turmoil, depression, a few small psychotic breaks. It was 9 weeks of hell. I am loathe to muck around now with ANY of my medications. 

(I do not tolerate the salts - mood stabilisers - I get alopecia and unbearable flattening of mood.)

It seems to me perhaps that my medications now may be part of my problems, on one hand their efficacy in mitigating against some of the horrors (high anxiety, deep depression and regular bouts of hypomania) seems to be a useful thing, but when I think back to the days before the anti-psychotic I had more of a brain, my ability to think has been dampened, I feel less creative (unless in a hypo), lose words for simple all the time (Me "You know that round thing you put rubbish in?" Friend: "What the bin? "Yeah that's it the BIN!) and I feel tired ALL the time. My eyes are a bit glassy too.

Anyways my questions are - do others with Bi Polar II (Anxiety, PTSD and OCD) manage their conditions without medications? Did you decide and how did you manage the wothdrawal and has that been good for you? What are the pitfalls? WOuld you go or did you go back on Meds after this experience?

[Karensfred]

I've been on various medications (anti-depresants and anti-psychotics) since 2008 when I was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder II.  Now I find I am the stabelist I have been for ages, although I am about to have my anti-depressents modified which is something I am not looking forward too as there is bound to be a period of time where there may be some instability I know it needs to be done.  

Now although I have moments where I am tired of taking my daily meds I know I can't survive with out them, as I know I can't get back on the roller coaster ride of being unmedicated.  I know there are people who live full lives without being on meds but I'm not one.  Even though my meds do have side effects like I'm slower on the uptake of things and I need to think things out more than I did before and I have put on a lot of weight the pro's far outweigh the cons.

[Shimmer]

Hi @Karensfred,

Welcome to the Forums! 

Thanks for sharing your reflections about your use of medication. Feel free to jump in on the live discussion between 7pm and 9pm tonight! You are also welcome to post more about your experiences with Bipolar Disorder II elsewhere around the Forums.

Look forward to hearing more from you!

Shimmer

[Former-Member]

Hi all @MoonGal I have schizoaffective disorder and have tried life without meds. I always end up in hospital psychotic.
I thank you for your comment about changing from ssri to ssni as I'm in the middle of that exact switch. I'm on both atm so concerned I'll get serotonin syndrome but so far so good.

I'm not suggesting that you stay on or go off your meds as it's a decision to make with your support network especially your pdoc. Best wishes

[MoonGal]

@Former-Member. I too was worried about serotonin syndrome so dropped my old medication too fast with devastating results, my Pdoc (a really good GP) was suprised, she said i should have taken it much slower and tapered off as these two particular ssri and snri medications could have been taken together safely. You live and learn.

[Former-Member]

Thanks @MoonGal . I appreciate your info. I am on a low dose of the ssri and was planning to stop it abruptly and completely in 10 days time. I'm actually dreading it as one time i stopped another antidepressant and it was really awful for a few days.
I also take an antipsychotic and agree it's better to stick with what you know as switching can be difficult.

[NikNik]

Hi everyone,

Topic Tuesday is ready to kick off!

Thank you to those who have made comments and asked questions so far. @MoonGal, you ask a very great question, and we will be sure to get to it tonight.

As a reminder, Medication can be a tricky topic to discuss. Please read our guidelines before participating in the Topic Tuesday. The main guidelines around medication are:

- Names & dosages of specific medication is against guidelines, however you can refer to families of medication (eg: anti-psychotics, antidepressants etc)

- Medical advice is against guidelines. If a post specifically encourages someone to start/stop/adjust their medication or implies their advice is medical advice, then it will be removed.

If any posts are removed, you will recieve an email with information on why and how you can edit it. As you can appreciate, it might be quite busy in here tonight, so apologies in advance if it takes a little while for someone to email you.

Finally, we all must respect that everyone's experience with medication is different and unique, and it's not an opportunity to push pro or anti medication agendas. The session is to talk about strategies for your own experiences and hear about how others have managed.

A big welcome to @snoopy , who is from SANE Help Centre, and will be guiding the session tonight. She’s a wise one 🙂 and is filled with tips and strategies that she will share tonight.

She will also be reaching out to you asking you about your experiences, which will guide the direction for the night – so keep an eye out for those.

Over to you Snoopy!

[snoopy]

As Nik said, the aim of the game this evening is to discuss medications.  Mainly the choices we make around choosing to stay on what we are prescribed or trying without.  No choice is right or wrong, it is just important that we understand why we have made our particular decision and then how to continue with that decision in a manner that looks after our ongoing physical and mental health.

I imagine quite a few of our forum members have had experiences with medication and I hope that over the next few hours you feel comfortable in being able to respectfully share your stories.  I am also able to answer questions you may have, however I am not a doctor so I may not be able to answer all of them.

[snoopy]

So let’s get started.  I’m sure that a significant portion of you considered coming off your medication at some point in your treatment.  I’ve listed below some of the more common reasons people raise for considering to stop or stopping their medication, but you may also have other examples you may wish to contribute.

• Some feel better and believe they no longer need them.
• The impact of medication on physical health.
• Concern about potential stigma about taking psychiatric medicine.
• Fear of becoming dependent on the medication.
• Pressure from family or friends to stop
• They have read something about a medication that scares them.
• Concern the medication will affect their personality.