want to withdraw & re-cover my life (w/response)

[Guest guest]

Lapointe wrote:

<<Hi:

 

Joined quite some time ago; wasn't hearing from anybody; searched other sites;

didn't find what I was looking for; thought I'd try here again. Am looking for

some good sound advice & some good strong encouraging support. Here is a brief

synopsis of related information for you that I hope you will find helpful.

I was born a normal healthy child. Had some family problems; then problems w/

friends turning on me in high school in the

60's. Confused, & didn't have anyone to turn to when I was in college or when I

was at home; my life got very complicated & I had a nervous breakdown. I was put

on heavy medications while in college. These drugs made my life very difficult

to function normally, & the stress that they put me in caused me to continue to

have numerous periodic breakdowns throughout my life. Because I was young &

didn't know any better & was told that I had to be on them for the rest of my

life because of an illness; I didn't really try to get off of them until 2004.

I have carefully & methodically tried numerous times since then, every time

ending w/ psychotic episodes & hospitalizations & having the dose increased

again. I have had some medical support; however not very good, & not encouraging

at all. I am currently seeing a psy Dr for perscriptions only. He is willing to

monitor my decrease of the medications; however he is not really helpful in any

way other than filling the perscriptions.

Currently I am doing pretty well overall, albeit all the side effects from

depakote 750mg/ risperdal less than 1mg/ & cogentin .5mg. I have been on these

current meds since about '03. (The dosages were higher.) Have been on all kinds

of psychiatric medications since the inception of all this. I have been

concentrating on cutting down the risperdal. Have been fairly consistently

alright down to .5mg or less; was down to .25mg a couple of times. Each time

shortly after I would go into a psychosis. I know my living situation, not being

stable at the time, added to this lack of success.

This past year I concentrated on taking care of, & putting all my major

problems in their proper perspective. I am feeling much better emotionally, much

more stable than I ever have been. I had a lot of years for existing earlier

problems to compound, & for other problems to accumulate along the way because

the first breakdown was not handled properly, & because I was put on drugs

instead of having somebody to talk to about the things that were troubling me. I

now know that was all that I initially needed. Things got way out of hand;

emotionally & medically.

I am hoping that this year will be the year that I get off the risperdal

completely; & the other two medications following it. I want to withdraw from

all of these drugs & re-cover (become myself) my life. I would appreciate any

help that you could offer.

Thank you for your time & efforts. >>

** Hi ,

Welcome to the group. Thanks for giving some background. What I need now is

more specific info.

You state, " I have carefully & methodically tried numerous times since then,

every time ending w/ psychotic episodes & hospitalizations & having the dose

increased again. "

** What exactly does " carefully & methodically " mean? These are subjective

terms. What helps is to know how much you were taking of all drugs, the size of

the decreases done for each drug, frequency of decreases, and how much time had

elapsed from beginning the reductions and a return of old symptoms (if these are

old symptoms. If they are nee since the drugs please let me know). Also age,

current health status, any current health issues, and any other pharma or OTC

drugs.

Also, you said, " ...my life got very complicated & I had a nervous breakdown.

I was put on heavy medications while in college. These drugs made my life very

difficult to function normally, & the stress that they put me in caused me to

continue to have numerous periodic breakdowns throughout my life. "

** Again, a need for details. What kind of complications? What were the

symptoms? How did they manifest? What were the drugs? How long were you on the

ones you consider " heavy medications " ?

When decreasing the drugs, how long is it from the time you begin to exhibit

symptoms (what are they) and the point that you end up hospitalized and/or

increasing the drugs? Do you ever have any symptoms of psychosis when taking

your regular doses of these drugs?

Do you take any supplements? If so, what do you take (dosage, frequency)?

It's late so I may have missed some things (please excuse any typos or other

errors). Pleass incluse a 4 day food and beverage diary (looking back over the

past 4 days is the best way to approach this).

One last thing. You may have noticed that I reformatted your post. Please

don't type everything all in one paragraph with no space in between. It's very

difficult for a fast reader to read this way. All you have to do is type 4-5

sentences and then hit ENTER 2x and begin typing again. Thanks.

I'm glad you found us.

Regards,