Psychotropic medication discussion thread

Jeffrey Ramos4 said:Sanval is highly addictive, and you really shouldn't be on it for an extended period...

Zoloft is a strange one. I’ve been on it for quite a while now, and if I miss even a single dose, my eyes start twitching left and right the very next day... plus I get this weird, unsettling nausea. It’s bizarre. I was also reading up on it, and apparently, for one antidepressant, it's a pretty intense ride. If you're trying to taper off, you have to go incredibly slow, essentially removing one tiny little bead at a time. Technically, antidepressants aren't supposed to be addictive—that's more the territory of anxiolytics. Thank God I don't have that problem... 😁
Has anyone here actually dealt with Depakote? It’s primarily prescribed for epilepsy, but they use it as a mood stabilizer too. It feels a little strange to me...

Whether it's "good" or not, I simply have to find a way to sleep... but tell me, honestly, is there anything actually *good* among all these psychotropic drugs? My cynical view is that nothing about them is truly beneficial, but if there is no alternative, then you take them because you must. Personally, I managed to wean myself off antidepressants without much fuss—I just stopped—though I never dealt with massive dosages or a cocktail of various pills; it was just Prozac and Lexapro... maybe Coaxil for a few days. As for Xanax, I believe I could taper off that too, seeing as I can fluctuate between 1.5mg one day and 0.5mg the next without issue. The only outlier is Sanval, because frankly, I absolutely have to sleep. And QPin doesn't seem to work at anything less than 100mg, because 50mg did absolutely nothing for me... which, quite frankly, feels like a bit much.🤔

@Jason Vaughn482, honestly, man, just toss out whatever you don't need and hang onto only what helps you actually get some sleep..
and look, about the Xanax thing—it doesn't really matter if you're taking a tiny dose or a big one, or even if you skip a day here and there... but once you've been on it regularly for a month or two, even if it's just daily doses, getting off it is a total nightmare. It gets "heavy," you know? And as time goes on, it just feels harder and harder to shake that crap..
and since you said you weren't on it constantly, like you mentioned earlier, you shouldn't have much trouble stopping.. at least give it a shot..
I'm rooting for you! 🙂

Jeffrey Ramos4 said:Sanval is highly addictive, and you really shouldn't be on it for an extended period...

Zoloft is a strange one. I’ve been on it for quite a while now, and if I miss even a single dose, my eyes start twitching left and right the very next day... plus I get this weird, unsettling nausea. It’s bizarre. I was also reading up on it, and apparently, for one antidepressant, it's a pretty intense ride. If you're trying to taper off, you have to go incredibly slow, essentially removing one tiny little bead at a time. Technically, antidepressants aren't supposed to be addictive—that's more the territory of anxiolytics. Thank God I don't have that problem... 😁
Has anyone here actually dealt with Depakote? It’s primarily prescribed for epilepsy, but they use it as a mood stabilizer too. It feels a little strange to me...

yeah, that med is absolute garbage and I totally feel you on that.. but that whole "bead by bead" thing sounds like total nonsense.. it's the first antidepressant I haven't been able to kick, and man, I am struggling like crazy. Right now I'm down to half a pill—because I refuse to swallow those little beads—and I'm still going through the wringer. If things get too bad, I might honestly just check myself into a clinic just so they can stabilize me a bit and make the tapering process less of a disaster.. this stuff created a real ADDICTION for me, even though some people say it's just a mood stabilizer.. basically, it's pure hell when it's not in my system..

Xanax is definitely the go-to for anxiety—but honestly, the physical dependency is nothing compared to the mental grip it has on you. It gave me this total sense of false security, which made quitting incredibly tough—though, thankfully, years of psychotherapy really helped me pull through after being hooked for so long.😵

silentmarlin76 said:@Jason Vaughn482, honestly, man, just toss out whatever you don't need and hang onto only what helps you actually get some sleep..
and look, about the Xanax thing—it doesn't really matter if you're taking a tiny dose or a big one, or even if you skip a day here and there... but once you've been on it regularly for a month or two, even if it's just daily doses, getting off it is a total nightmare. It gets "heavy," you know? And as time goes on, it just feels harder and harder to shake that crap..
and since you said you weren't on it constantly, like you mentioned earlier, you shouldn't have much trouble stopping.. at least give it a shot..
I'm rooting for you! 🙂

yeah, that med is absolute garbage and I totally feel you on that.. but that whole "bead by bead" thing sounds like total nonsense.. it's the first antidepressant I haven't been able to kick, and man, I am struggling like crazy. Right now I'm down to half a pill—because I refuse to swallow those little beads—and I'm still going through the wringer. If things get too bad, I might honestly just check myself into a clinic just so they can stabilize me a bit and make the tapering process less of a disaster.. this stuff created a real ADDICTION for me, even though some people say it's just a mood stabilizer.. basically, it's pure hell when it's not in my system..

Don't try to scare me; I've been on this stuff for years🤣 and my plan is to slowly taper off once my mental state settles. I've been telling my doctor that for a year now, but she just keeps saying, "I don't know, I'm worried you won't bounce back, especially since you're already on the lowest possible dose." She suggested we could drop the Valax, but keep the Danoptin because it serves as a mood stabilizer.

Thankfully, they've never put me on anxiolytics. 🙏
I was on some Ambien for maybe two or three weeks back when I was in a total coma phase.
Generally speaking, I've dealt with brutal side effects from so many different meds; it took forever to find the right fit. I'll never forget that bout of akathisia... I genuinely thought I was going to die...🤦

Jeffrey Ramos4 said:Sanval is highly addictive, and you really shouldn't be on it for an extended period...

Zoloft is a strange one. I’ve been on it for quite a while now, and if I miss even a single dose, my eyes start twitching left and right the very next day... plus I get this weird, unsettling nausea. It’s bizarre. I was also reading up on it, and apparently, for one antidepressant, it's a pretty intense ride. If you're trying to taper off, you have to go incredibly slow, essentially removing one tiny little bead at a time. Technically, antidepressants aren't supposed to be addictive—that's more the territory of anxiolytics. Thank God I don't have that problem... 😁
Has anyone here actually dealt with Depakote? It’s primarily prescribed for epilepsy, but they use it as a mood stabilizer too. It feels a little strange to me...

Yeah, it’s a real pain when it comes to that. But it’s well known that unlike other AD-ov, this one requires a much slower taper to quit.

restlesstiger49 said:Yeah, it’s a real pain when it comes to that. But it’s well known that unlike other AD-ov, this one requires a much slower taper to quit.

And what can we actually do? For us BPD folks, there isn't much hope anyway. We'll probably just end up on our own... might as well at least have some meds on hand 🤣:klap:

Look, I have absolutely no intention, nor any desire, to be stuck on medication for the rest of my life.

restlesstiger49 said:Look, I have absolutely no intention, nor any desire, to be stuck on medication for the rest of my life.

Same here. I don't give a damn...👍

Look, I don't want to freak you out or anything, but honestly, anything is possible if you just decide it’s gonna happen 😁 you really have nothing to lose by giving it a shot...
just stay brave... seriously, we're in this fight together and I've got your back 😉

fadedbear92 said:Xanax is definitely the go-to for anxiety—but honestly, the physical dependency is nothing compared to the mental grip it has on you. It gave me this total sense of false security, which made quitting incredibly tough—though, thankfully, years of psychotherapy really helped me pull through after being hooked for so long.😵

And I am finally kicking that crap to the curb... oh my god, let me tell you, there was this one time at work where I stayed late and hadn't taken it for three days... I was just totally out of it!! Like, brain dead!! Completely useless!! I couldn't even string a single sentence together on my computer, I was trying to process a project, reading through stuff and I couldn't even grasp the first sentence, let alone the whole damn topic... my manager was talking to me about the assignment and I was just staring blankly at him, not understanding a single word, just nodding along like a zombie, pretending I knew what was going on🤣

thank God I managed to slip away, a friend of mine happened to swing by that day... and ever since then, I always make sure I have 😁

Gregory Jackson3 said:immune system resilience

And hopefully, that resistance covers the entire spectrum.

Sent fr

Jason Vaughn482 said:It doesn't work on me either, and I've never even taken it, so I tossed it immediately. Even 50 mg of Quapine does nothing for me, so I ended up sleeping the old-fashioned way last night: 10 mg of Sanval combined with 7.5 mg of Calixte... tell me, how much Sanval do you take alongside those 25 mg Quapine doses?

Look... I don't take it regularly. Occasionally, along with 10 mg of Ambien, I’ll take half or a quarter of a 25 mg Qapin, but it leaves me feeling like a zombie. I am essentially testing it out so I have something concrete to tell my psychiatrist. I was also given some Valium to try, but it hasn't helped either. Perhaps I have simply developed a tolerance to everything since I've been taking one or two 5 mg doses of Norvasc every night for the last year or two to act as a muscle relaxant for my back issues. Otherwise, I never take anything during the day, except for the occasional Xanax.
Reica, thank you for the support. I honestly don't know what the future holds, but the pain and physical limitations are going to drive me insane. Just so you know, I take two Aleve in the morning; that is the only thing that keeps me somewhat functional. And yes, I remember both our experiences dealing with Effexor. I wouldn't want to go through 🙂
ever again.

FedEx

fadedbear92 said:Xanax is definitely the go-to for anxiety—but honestly, the physical dependency is nothing compared to the mental grip it has on you. It gave me this total sense of false security, which made quitting incredibly tough—though, thankfully, years of psychotherapy really helped me pull through after being hooked for so long.😵

Is it actually possible, at least in my estimation, to navigate this without consequence? To be perfectly honest, I haven't taken a single pill today—not out of necessity, nor because I feel any particular craving—and strangely enough, I don't feel like I'm crashing or falling apart. However, a nagging uncertainty persists: am I playing with fire by fluctuating between a 1.5 mg dose and total abstinence? I find myself questioning whether these dosages fall within that narrow window where one might successfully taper off entirely in one fell swoop, though I truly have no idea. The future remains a murky fog; I can't predict how tomorrow will unfold, but when I have to head into the clinic for my medical tests the day after, I suspect I’ll find myself desperately reaching for them.

silentmarlin76 said:Look, I don't want to freak you out or anything, but honestly, anything is possible if you just decide it’s gonna happen 😁 you really have nothing to lose by giving it a shot...
just stay brave... seriously, we're in this fight together and I've got your back 😉

And I am finally kicking that crap to the curb... oh my god, let me tell you, there was this one time at work where I stayed late and hadn't taken it for three days... I was just totally out of it!! Like, brain dead!! Completely useless!! I couldn't even string a single sentence together on my computer, I was trying to process a project, reading through stuff and I couldn't even grasp the first sentence, let alone the whole damn topic... my manager was talking to me about the assignment and I was just staring blankly at him, not understanding a single word, just nodding along like a zombie, pretending I knew what was going on🤣

thank God I managed to slip away, a friend of mine happened to swing by that day... and ever since then, I always make sure I have 😁

But how much were you actually taking? I mean, what was the dosage in milligrams?

It looks like everyone here is basically a PhD in psychopharmacology or something. I’m curious what you guys think, though. I’ve been dealing with these occasional panic attacks lately. We thought maybe it was my heart or my thyroid, but after doing every single test under the sun, everything organic is fine—well, except for an irritated stomach...

So, over the last two years, I’ve had about five attacks. They’re starting to get pretty unsettling. My heart starts racing, I feel like I can’t breathe... at first, I used to just take some Ativan, but now my doctor has me on this regimen: 11mg Concor 1.25, then one Misar 0.5 during the day, and one Xanax 0.25 at night because I keep waking up and can't sleep...

Given how often these attacks happen, should I actually talk to my doctor about maybe starting an antidepressant? Or should I just try to tough it out with this current setup? She basically told me I'm just being paranoid and need to chill out on my own...

The thing is, I see all the side effects and bullshit associated with SSRIs, so that’s why I’m asking...

Anyway, when I was on the 2.5 dose of Concor, I didn't have any anxiety issues, but it was causing other problems, so they dropped me down to 1.5. Now I don't have those complications, but the nerves are back...

I've been on this combo of Misar and Xanax for about a month now...

Jason Vaughn482 said:But how much were you actually taking? I mean, what was the dosage in milligrams?

I was on 10 mg daily. Some days I’d take a little more, some days less, just kind of drifting along like that for years now... at least eight years, give or take.

@Nino, you really shouldn't be taking Xanax right before bed like that... was that the psychiatrist you were seeing? Whereabouts are you located?
you seriously need to get to a doctor ASAP and lay everything out for them, just explain exactly what's going on...

Thanks for reaching out. My primary care doctor already put me on some meds, but the only psychiatrist available to me is through the public health system. There isn't a single private specialist in my area, specifically around Columbus... anyone have a recommendation? I mean, I feel mostly okay right now, I guess, but I’m planning to touch base with my doctor in a week or two to go over the treatment plan.

Kevin Hayes83 said:It looks like everyone here is basically a PhD in psychopharmacology or something. I’m curious what you guys think, though. I’ve been dealing with these occasional panic attacks lately. We thought maybe it was my heart or my thyroid, but after doing every single test under the sun, everything organic is fine—well, except for an irritated stomach...

So, over the last two years, I’ve had about five attacks. They’re starting to get pretty unsettling. My heart starts racing, I feel like I can’t breathe... at first, I used to just take some Ativan, but now my doctor has me on this regimen: 11mg Concor 1.25, then one Misar 0.5 during the day, and one Xanax 0.25 at night because I keep waking up and can't sleep...

Given how often these attacks happen, should I actually talk to my doctor about maybe starting an antidepressant? Or should I just try to tough it out with this current setup? She basically told me I'm just being paranoid and need to chill out on my own...

The thing is, I see all the side effects and bullshit associated with SSRIs, so that’s why I’m asking...

Anyway, when I was on the 2.5 dose of Concor, I didn't have any anxiety issues, but it was causing other problems, so they dropped me down to 1.5. Now I don't have those complications, but the nerves are back...

I've been on this combo of Misar and Xanax for about a month now...

You should definitely talk to your doctor first. It really all comes down to what your specific panic attacks actually feel like...

Jeffrey Ramos4 said:You should definitely talk to your doctor first. It really all comes down to what your specific panic attacks actually feel like...

Thanks for the advice. I'm staying on this antidepressant for about another month anyway, so I'll just wait to hear her take on things then. My doctor is an internist with thirty years under her belt—private practice—so I actually feel more comfortable talking to her than anyone else..

I guess these are pretty low doses, right? Like 0.5mg of Misar once a day and 0.25mg of Xanax at night... so I shouldn't be worried about getting hooked if I'm only using them for two or three months, or am I totally wrong?

At first, she had me on 0.25mg of Xanax in the morning and 0.25mg at night, but I was feeling way too drowsy the day before, so she switched me over to Misar.

Her take is that I'm just hypersensitive—like, I'm constantly monitoring my own body and I'm just constantly on edge..

God, I know. I used to check my blood pressure ten times a day and keep poking at my pulse. Now I'm trying to force myself not to do that, especially since all my test results came back perfectly fine..

I mean, honestly, it’s not even a big deal to drive over to Washington, D.C. to see a psychiatrist, but I really don't want to get hooked on those antidepressants (AT&T) that I might end up needing for the rest of my life..

Anyway, I'll post back here after my follow-up with her, so we'll see..

Has anyone else here used antidepressants and managed to successfully get off them and still function normally?

And would it maybe be better if I insisted on something else to calm down, like Norvasc or something? Lexapro isn't working for me—it gives me massive headaches, tried taking 1.5mg and it just wasn't my thing..

Actually, in the year or two after my first attack, I had a seven-month stretch where I completely forgot about it all. I managed it by staying super busy with work and hobbies, but then winter hit and the anxiety started creeping back in..

silentmarlin76 said:I was on 10 mg daily. Some days I’d take a little more, some days less, just kind of drifting along like that for years now... at least eight years, give or take.

@Nino, you really shouldn't be taking Xanax right before bed like that... was that the psychiatrist you were seeing? Whereabouts are you located?
you seriously need to get to a doctor ASAP and lay everything out for them, just explain exactly what's going on...

Ten milligrams???😲 My goodness, how on earth did you end up on a dosage like that?

Kevin Hayes83 said:It looks like everyone here is basically a PhD in psychopharmacology or something. I’m curious what you guys think, though. I’ve been dealing with these occasional panic attacks lately. We thought maybe it was my heart or my thyroid, but after doing every single test under the sun, everything organic is fine—well, except for an irritated stomach...

So, over the last two years, I’ve had about five attacks. They’re starting to get pretty unsettling. My heart starts racing, I feel like I can’t breathe... at first, I used to just take some Ativan, but now my doctor has me on this regimen: 11mg Concor 1.25, then one Misar 0.5 during the day, and one Xanax 0.25 at night because I keep waking up and can't sleep...

Given how often these attacks happen, should I actually talk to my doctor about maybe starting an antidepressant? Or should I just try to tough it out with this current setup? She basically told me I'm just being paranoid and need to chill out on my own...

The thing is, I see all the side effects and bullshit associated with SSRIs, so that’s why I’m asking...

Anyway, when I was on the 2.5 dose of Concor, I didn't have any anxiety issues, but it was causing other problems, so they dropped me down to 1.5. Now I don't have those complications, but the nerves are back...

I've been on this combo of Misar and Xanax for about a month now...

I’m a bit confused by the logic here—Xanax and Misar are essentially the same type of medication, so I don't quite grasp why one is taken during the day and the other at night.
And regarding the Concor, you mentioned you weren't nervous on the 2.5mg dose? I take 5mg for blood pressure, and while lower doses are typically prescribed for tachycardia, I certainly haven't seen any evidence suggesting it has an impact on nervousness.