Psychotropic medication discussion thread

Robert Collins2 said:P.S. Since my psychiatrist actually floated the idea of us co-authoring a research paper on how psych meds and specific diagnoses impact language acquisition and learning (which happens to be my actual field), I can't exactly sit around being an uneducated idiot, right? 😁

Anyway, I'm spiraling again, I know, damn it... ☕

wiredfalcon21 said:All psychotropic medications fry the brain, causing damage that makes learning a language much harder. There, I just wrote your scientific paper for you. For instance, I used to play chess; I could concentrate on the game, stay focused, plan my moves logically, and play quite solidly. Now, there isn't a chance in hell. Honestly, though, I suspect this is just an excuse and that you're simply addicted to these forums. Sorry if that sounds blunt, but I don't mean anything by it—you really are a forum addict. Personally, I struggle with an addiction to cigarettes and coffee.

Robert Collins2 said:ambermason16, this one's for you, I totally forgot to make the quote stand out! 👋

Heh, I guess it’s just genetics, right? Like, the whole thing about being predisposed to mental health issues... a few of my great-grandparents were considered "a little off" back in the day—which was basically just how people used to describe the "crazy" folks—and now, here I am dealing with F-ove.

I'm curious, though—how did addiction play into your different states? I'd imagine going through withdrawal or trying to kick the habit is an absolute nightmare. For me, even though it wasn't a huge thing, I dealt with that whole psychological dependency on pills. When my doctor told me we needed to taper down the dose, I literally lost my mind with fear. I was freaking out thinking, "There is no way I can do this, the anxiety is gonna come flooding back, I'll lose it, I won't be able to sleep," just total, pure panic. It was terrifying...
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How did addiction impact your condition?

I assume withdrawal and the detox period are incredibly painful and nasty.

Robert Collins2 said:Micek, look, I’m tapering off my meds totally fine. I finished up my psychotherapy, so I don’t have any psychological dependency on the pills or anything. My doctor actually encouraged me to jump in here and swap stories with people right when I started treatment, so that's why I'm hanging out—I just want to be helpful, plain and simple. Plus, I love to read. It's not like I think I'm some genius or a total hypochondriac, and honestly, there's no way I'd ever be crazy enough to be a moderator, so thanks for that! ☕

Seriously though, I have no clue where all this biased nonsense about me is coming from, you know? 🤷

Robert Collins2 said:You clearly have zero clue how a scientific paper actually works—how long it takes to write, the sample size required, how many peer reviewers have to tear it apart before it even gets published, stuff like that...

There’s really no point in me defending myself here; feel free to keep "correcting" me if it makes you feel better. If someone is struggling with their own issues, it's pretty obvious it isn't coming from my end, so I don't see any reason to keep engaging with this mindless provocation and trolling. Good luck to you! ☕

Michael Reed45 said:I actually wanted to ask you—how was it for you when you first started FedEx? 🙂

Wait, do you take the normal dose on day 15? Or are you already on the higher 2mg ones? 😁

Hold on, are you taking 15mg on the 15th? Or are you dealing with those higher doses, like the 2mg ones? 😁

Robert Collins2 said:Velafax is basically their latest big push, though I honestly call it 'horse tranquilizer' because man, that stuff hits hard—I really think it might do the trick for you. 😁 But seriously, how are you even holding up with that much benz in your system? Do you ever get that creeping fear that you’re just swapping one addiction for another? Trust me, I know firsthand how brutal that mental dependency gets. I used to be a total wreck—shaking, panicking, feeling like my brain was actually melting if I wasn't on at least half a pill. I honestly owe my psychiatrist big time for being so firm with me when she had to step in; since then, every single time we've tapered my dose, it's been a massive uphill battle, but hey, I'm still standing.

Robert Collins2 said:Velafax is basically their latest big push, though I honestly call it 'horse tranquilizer' because man, that stuff hits hard—I really think it might do the trick for you. 😁 But seriously, how are you even holding up with that much benz in your system? Do you ever get that creeping fear that you’re just swapping one addiction for another? Trust me, I know firsthand how brutal that mental dependency gets. I used to be a total wreck—shaking, panicking, feeling like my brain was actually melting if I wasn't on at least half a pill. I honestly owe my psychiatrist big time for being so firm with me when she had to step in; since then, every single time we've tapered my dose, it's been a massive uphill battle, but hey, I'm still standing.

Seriously, how does anyone even function on that much benzos? It’s mind-boggling.

Do you ever worry that your old addiction is just going to swap places with this one? I know firsthand just how brutal that psychological dependency on medication can be. I’ve been there—shaking, consumed by anxiety, feeling like I was losing my mind if I didn't have half a pill in my system. It felt like a constant, looming threat. Honestly, I owe a massive debt to my psychiatrist; she gave me the firm push I needed when it mattered most. Since then, every single dose reduction has been a battle, but a winning one.

lamija;29978185 said:

Are you actually being serious?
In what sense is it frying them?

By which I mean they damage the receptors, the neurotransmitters, and those neural pathways that act as the "wiring" carrying electrical impulses through the brain. One medication eventually saturates certain pathways and loses its efficacy; then, the doctor prescribes something else to saturate different ones. Almost any patient can tell you how, over time, their physician ends up cycling through an entire pharmacy's worth of drugs and dosages. Generally speaking, far too much emphasis is placed on pharmacology and far too little on psychotherapy. This setup serves the interests of Big Pharma and the pharmaceutical industry at large. I suspect no doctor who aggressively pushes psychotropic drugs would ever prescribe them that way if it were someone close to them.

ambermason16 said:Seriously, what is the deal with Tegretol even? I feel like they used to shove it down my throat constantly back when I was in those inpatient rehab centers, but honestly, today I don’t have a clue what its actual purpose is. 🤷

ambermason16 said:Am I collecting... double doses of George Washington quarters? 🍿

Robert Collins2 said:Nah, what you're talking about is just the half-life—basically the window where the amount of the drug in your blood plasma drops by half. With psych meds, that window is way shorter than something like an anticoagulant, which stays in you forever. Like, every 48 hours or so, the concentration in your plasma cuts in half. So if you’re on 5 mg, in 48 hours you’ve got 2.5 mg left, then in another 48 hours it's down to 1.25 mg, then 0.625, and so on until it finally dissolves completely.

It can show up in a urine test for about a month after you stop, though, because tiny traces linger even after it's gone from your plasma.

Sorry, I totally overcomplicated that, but why are you even getting tests done? You worried they're gonna find psych meds in there or something?

Robert Collins2 said:Look, I know about Ambien. Hospitals hand it out to patients all the time just to take the edge off and knock them out before they go under for surgery—usually just half a pill. It’s a 15 mg benzodiazepine dose. Gruden actually pushed some on me back when I was going through that dark period after my suicide attempt, but I ended up tossing them in the trash.

Robert Collins2 said:Micek, look, I’m tapering off my meds totally fine. I finished up my psychotherapy, so I don’t have any psychological dependency on the pills or anything. My doctor actually encouraged me to jump in here and swap stories with people right when I started treatment, so that's why I'm hanging out—I just want to be helpful, plain and simple. Plus, I love to read. It's not like I think I'm some genius or a total hypochondriac, and honestly, there's no way I'd ever be crazy enough to be a moderator, so thanks for that! ☕

Seriously though, I have no clue where all this biased nonsense about me is coming from, you know? 🤷

Robert Collins2 said:So how come Misar felt like I was basically just drinking water, but Helix actually did something for me, even though they're supposed to be the same thing? ☕

Seriously, why is there such a massive list of SSRIs if they all work the exact same way by blocking serotonin reuptake? Like, why does Zoloft work wonders for one person but feel like a total death sentence for someone else?

Roger Rodriguez said:Honestly, I don't see any reason to discuss individual forum behavior in a thread like this. A certain user has probably written twenty posts over three pages, and almost none of them actually relate to the topic—all because several users (myself included) pointed out they were talking nonsense. Isn't there a difference between sharing an opinion and stubbornly insisting on something without any arguments while insulting others?

Anyway, yes, I also know people for whom medication did more harm than good. However, almost all of those individuals made mistakes along the way—either they took their meds without proper supervision (like a friend with schizophrenia who didn't check in with his doctor for nearly two years despite being told to return every two months), or they played around with their dosages, or they mixed their meds with things they shouldn't have.
I haven't met a single person who followed their medication schedule perfectly, attended psychotherapy regularly, and kept up with all their check-ups, only to have a breakdown. That doesn't mean such people don't exist, but if we're looking at the facts—a friend of mine passed away after her asthma treatment was changed. How many people suffer severe consequences from taking "less dangerous" medications? I mean, even Aspirin can hurt you if you're hypersensitive to salicylates; that doesn't make Aspirin a poison or the doctor who prescribed it an idiot, does it?

Kenneth Scott41 said:Yeah, I was writing stuff, but Robert Collins2 was doing the same thing. What they study or what kind of person they are isn't the point of this thread, right? It's not. And you can't honestly claim I'm the "only one." Let's try to be realistic and objective here. In the end, it seems I'm just the scapegoat because about 98% of the posters here are women—so the bias is pretty obvious.
Since we're on the subject... I find myself wondering why there are so few men participating in this discussion. There’s also this widespread social assumption that women only rely on pills while men only rely on alcohol. I suspect some of the men who are actually taking medication might just be too ashamed to admit it, or perhaps their ego gets in the way and they feel like, "why would I need that?"

Robert Collins2 said:What kind of chemo are you even talking about? Look, antipsychotics are prescribed when you're dealing with suicidal ideation during depression, which is exactly why I was on them—to make sure I didn't try to take my own life again, because honestly, I definitely would have succeeded this time if I hadn't. I'm still taking Loquen right now, and I've got about three more months of maintenance therapy before I finally taper off everything.