Psychotropic medication discussion thread

Robert Collins2 said:Hold up, hold up—you’re actually taking 30 MG of Normabel every single day??? 😲

I mean, seriously, how are you even functioning right now? What kind of diagnosis are we even talking about here?

How long have you been on this stuff, and which hack doctor actually put you on that regimen?

I was on 5 mg of Helix because I really needed it, which is honestly a pretty heavy dose too, but I managed to taper myself off gradually after being on it for about 6 months.

Yup. Three 10s, Effexor, and a few other little extras..

F 11.2, F 10.2, F19.2, F 32.2, F41.0, F41.1... I could go on all day.. 😁

It wasn't a snake oil salesman—he was a legend. Hands down the best shrink in Washington, D.C.

I function perfectly fine. Honestly, I'm high-strung and highly driven. 😁

wiredfalcon21 said:Xanax is essentially the same as Sanval; it’s just a different manufacturer. You clearly don't have a clue.😁

Oh, sure, because clearly the Ambien just wiped my entire brain clean, right? That’s definitely what happened. ☕

It’s not just about who manufactured the pill, either. You’ve gotta look at the inactive ingredients too, because that completely changes how the whole thing actually hits your system. It’s not exactly "the same" thing, you know? Man, you are being so extra right now. ☕

ambermason16 said:Yup. Three 10s, Effexor, and a few other little extras..

F 11.2, F 10.2, F19.2, F 32.2, F41.0, F41.1... I could go on all day.. 😁

It wasn't a snake oil salesman—he was a legend. Hands down the best shrink in Washington, D.C.

I function perfectly fine. Honestly, I'm high-strung and highly driven. 😁

Alright fine, as long as you can still function, but they're gonna taper you off eventually, right?

Robert Collins2 said:Alright fine, as long as you can still function, but they're gonna taper you off eventually, right?

I don't know... 🤷

Doctors have been prescribing this to me for about 12 years now. I usually steer clear of it unless things get hairy—like when I'm starting a new antidepressant and I'm desperate for it to actually kick in, or when I'm tapering off something else, or when I'm just feeling totally unhinged.

Look, I've taken three pills every day for a week straight and I feel perfectly fine. It's like I just ate three peanuts. Honestly, if I actually want to pass out, I have to take anywhere from five to ten 10mg pills and just pray for the best.

Sometimes I genuinely worry about what happens if I catch some serious illness. If they start pumping me full of painkillers and sedatives, I'll be in trouble. For all the good it does me, I'd probably need three entire bottles of Advil to even touch a toothache.

Robert Collins2 said:So, the half-life for escitalopram usually sits somewhere between 27 and 32 hours, though it really depends on what dose you were taking. 😉

It gets processed by your liver, which means it can sometimes cause a slight bump in your liver enzyme levels.

So if I stop taking it, it just takes two days to clear my system?? Nothing more? I read somewhere else that it takes like a month.

Justin Rogers5 said:So if I stop taking it, it just takes two days to clear my system?? Nothing more? I read somewhere else that it takes like a month.

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:Oh, sure, because clearly the Ambien just wiped my entire brain clean, right? That’s definitely what happened. ☕

It’s not just about who manufactured the pill, either. You’ve gotta look at the inactive ingredients too, because that completely changes how the whole thing actually hits your system. It’s not exactly "the same" thing, you know? Man, you are being so extra right now. ☕

It’s all the same whether it's xanax or Valium, just like it is with Ativan or Valium. Why don't you swing by my place while I'm halfway through an Ambien dose? I'll take the whole thing just to prove to you that Ambien isn't some magic cure-all.🤣🤣

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?

ambermason16 said:Yup. Three 10s, Effexor, and a few other little extras..

F 11.2, F 10.2, F19.2, F 32.2, F41.0, F41.1... I could go on all day.. 😁

It wasn't a snake oil salesman—he was a legend. Hands down the best shrink in Washington, D.C.

I function perfectly fine. Honestly, I'm high-strung and highly driven. 😁

Honestly, that guy has more diagnoses than I do.

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?

Misar, Helix, and Xanax are chemically identical. As for why one worked for you while the other failed, that could depend on a multitude of factors—even if the basic chemistry remains constant. It might be a placebo effect, perhaps the timing of the dosage, or simply your overall mental state at the time, among other things.

Look, those little things—mice, rats, whatever—they totally mess with how much of the med actually hits your system. And honestly, generics aren't always a perfect match. Like, I tried swapping my Loquen for Seroquel for a day once. Technically they're both just generic quetiapine, but Seroquel is the "pure" stuff, whereas Loquen is the salt version, the quetiapine fumarate.

With Seroquel, it knocked me out at first, then slowed me down, and then by evening, these weird-ass thoughts started messing with my head again. After that, I just took my Loquen, sliced it up, and called it a day! I'm really not buying this whole placebo thing people talk about.

Brandon Newman95 said:Honestly, that guy has more diagnoses than I do.

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

Look, don't get mad at me, but from what I can gather, you were an addict back then—correct me if I’ve got that wrong.

Did your mental health struggles start before that stretch of time? I'm assuming there might be some hereditary stuff involved, especially since you mentioned your mom and all those psych meds. Did things just spiral because of the addiction, or how did that play out?

Robert Collins2 said:Look, don't get mad at me, but from what I can gather, you were an addict back then—correct me if I’ve got that wrong.

Did your mental health struggles start before that stretch of time? I'm assuming there might be some hereditary stuff involved, especially since you mentioned your mom and all those psych meds. Did things just spiral because of the addiction, or how did that play out?

I’m not even going to bother correcting you. 🙂

Did these mental health struggles start before that specific stretch of time? I’m assuming there’s some hereditary component at play here, especially since you mentioned your mother and the whole ordeal with psychiatric meds. Did things take a turn for the worse because of all that? How exactly did it go down?

Well, that’s the million-dollar question right there. What actually came first: the chicken or the egg? 😉

The exact same logic applies to Mom.

ambermason16 said:Thanks, babe. 🙂

On a side note, I've been on Pfizer for five days now... and my sleep has completely vanished. I have this weird sensation that it's actually starting to kick in, which makes zero sense on several different levels. 🤔

Maybe it's just all in my head—pure autosuggestion. Could be. Either way, I'm happy with it. 😁

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? 😁

Heh, I guess it’s just genetics at work here. Looking back, a few of my great-grandparents had what people used to call being "a little off"—you know, the old-school way of describing folks struggling with mental health issues—and now, here I am dealing with the F-ove.

I'm curious, though, how did addiction play into your own struggles? I'd imagine the withdrawal process and actually getting clean is an absolute nightmare. For me, even though it wasn't for a super long stretch, I dealt with this intense psychological dependency on pills. When my doctor told me we needed to start tapering down the dosage, I honestly lost my mind. I was straight-up terrified, thinking, "There's no way I can do this, the anxiety is going to come crashing back, I'm going to lose it, I won't be able to sleep for a second," just total freaking panic...

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? 😁

There’s 5mg and 10mg versions available, and honestly, I’ve got half a prescription card's worth of those little 5mg pills just sitting in my apartment, though I don't touch them anymore. I used to rely on that stuff back when I was a fresh grad starting my first job and my boss was absolutely terrorizing me every single day, but now? Yeah, I've moved on to much heavier drugs. 😁

Robert Collins2 said:Look, those little things—mice, rats, whatever—they totally mess with how much of the med actually hits your system. And honestly, generics aren't always a perfect match. Like, I tried swapping my Loquen for Seroquel for a day once. Technically they're both just generic quetiapine, but Seroquel is the "pure" stuff, whereas Loquen is the salt version, the quetiapine fumarate.

With Seroquel, it knocked me out at first, then slowed me down, and then by evening, these weird-ass thoughts started messing with my head again. After that, I just took my Loquen, sliced it up, and called it a day! I'm really not buying this whole placebo thing people talk about.

I take Seroquel to help me sleep; even though that isn't its primary indication, it does the job, and frankly, that’s all that matters to me. I have noticed that you spend a significant amount of time acting as an advisor here. Perhaps you have even considered applying for a moderator position. If I may be blunt, I don't believe that would be a wise move for several reasons. First, there is the issue of internet addiction. Second, there is the possibility that sharing so much information is merely a way to compensate for one's own insecurities. Finally, by constantly researching, Googling, and obsessing over medications, you are overtaxing your mind and creating a psychological dependency on them. How exactly do you plan to detach from all of this one day when you have become so fixated on psychopharmaceuticals? It seems to me that you are far more preoccupied with medication than with psychotherapy, which is a problematic imbalance. If you were to tell your psychiatrist exactly how many hours you spend online dissecting drug data, I suspect you might get a very telling reaction. While it is perfectly fine to be informed about the medication you are prescribed, you seem to have crossed the line into obsession. I suspect you realize this yourself; the real question is whether you can find a way to step back.

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? 🤷

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... ☕