24 year old daughter (w/response)

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

I am new to the group and will introduce myself by telling one of our

stories. We have 3 daughters, 2 of whom developed iatrogenic bipolar

disorder. This is about our youngest as she is in crisis, and therefore,

so are we as her primary support system.

Our 24 year old daughter has been off all meds for iatrogenic bipolar

disorder for 6 months now after doing a careful taper off depakote,

cymbalta and had been prescribed other drugs over a 13 year period. We

are fans of Whitaker and she has with our support been working to

withdraw from all the stuff she was on for the past 2 years and think

this time she was successful.

She has always been careful about eating organic foods, watching

additives, and exercising. She is now having trouble sleeping and

having " flashbacks " from real trauma and its subsequent emotional

flooding: she would be described as manic by western medicine, so we

are keeping her away from doctors. She is not ready to do EMDR therapy,

doesn't trust therapist right now and wants to get in touch with her own

guidance. We have her in a calm, low stim environment, (she will not be

going to school this term) where we can support her. She has been using

a combination of supplements while she tapered of meds: some we learned

about from a naturopath: Lithium orotate 5-10 mg TID along with 500 mg

of l-tryptophan as needed, 500 gaba prn and l-theanine 200 mg do help

relax her, and melatonin in 3 mg pills up to 3 at a time, but does not

get her to the point of sleep. In this agitated state, we are going

to try to get back her ability to do meditation. 50 mg of benadryl gets

her to sleep for 4 hours--but the side effects are unacceptable, and so

she doesn't want to take that. (very thirsty, dry mouth, feels worse

upon awakening) We are being guided by her, as even though she is

experiencing an overload, I can see she is getting in touch with her

inner wisdom and really doesn't want to be taking anything, which I

agree. However, we found that lowering the doses of any of the

supplements seems to make things worse, or at least doesn't help.

Not being able to sleep is the current crisis. She is now asleep with

the help of lorazapam 1 mg, 3 mg melatonin, 500 l-tryptophan and 10 mg

lithium orotate. She has always refused to take any benzos and has

never been on them--this was only an emergency measure, and will not be

repeated unless we absolutely must, and I am wondering if it is okay as

a short term measure. I also found a website that suggested massive

doses of l-tryptophan, 10 mg melatonin bid along with injectable 50 mg

of benadryl (which we won't be doing--I am not a nurse). I am hopeful

you can suggest which supplements are actually helping her to sleep and

which might not be necessary/doing harm and if there are other measures

to help slow her thoughts down so she can sleep.

Please be gentle with your response as I am frightened and don't want to

raise my anxiety levels which will only add to hers, if you know what I

mean: she is so wide open right now, and frankly, so am I. I also need

my sleep and don't want to feel more anxious than I do. My husband and

I are supporting her through this time and know we are fortunate in that

we have this kind of relationship and that she trusts us. We are truly

grateful to have arrived at this point in her life as there were times

we thought we might lose her and we can see the health in her current

state and are reassuring to her as she recovers from her diagnosis that

she is NOT crazy, or manic, or bipolar. What horrors the affair between

psychiatry and big pharma has wrought in so many lives.

If you need more specifics, we will need to do that at another time when

she is capable of filling out forms, as I do not recall all the s*!@#

she has been on, but suffice it to say she got all the way down to

geodon, the " medicine " of last resort.

Thank you and best wishes to you in your new venture.

Blessings,ptmom333

>>

** This is my short response. As a result, it leaves out much of what I'm

thinking at this time.

This information is all helpful but given how many drugs she's been on and

that she's already discontinued them and is now needing to " rebalance " , it is

not a case I'd touch using this form of communication. She could not be served

well that way. It would have to be done ass a private consultation. It's not

that important to recall ALL the drugs and when, it is more important to know

the last batch of drugs that were all discontinued for the purpose of recovery.

From what you wrote here ( " careful taper off depakote,

cymbalta... " ) it looks like this is something you may be able to do yourself.

At first glance here's what jumps out at me:

-- Sleep is ALWAYS elusive after discontinuing psych drugs

-- Though it's been 6 months,this is very early recovery and for the most

part, an extended " withdrawal " period

-- Most of what she has been given (at minimum Lithium orotate

l-tryptophan as needed, gaba prn, and melatonin) are highly inappropriate and

contribute to the ongoing imbalance. The problem with most naturopaths,

chiropractors, and other alt practitioners is that they accept all the premises

put forth by conventional medicine and the drug industry and merely substitute

" natural " substances in place of the pharmaceutical drugs. This is doomed to

fail because the premises are false. They are designed to give credibility to

the drugs in order to sell them.

There are other things contributing to the sleep issue beside the things

listed above that I won't go into at this time. I'm confident I can help but we

need to communicate in a way that facilitates in-depth communication and allows

for the natural flow of conversation.

My suggestion would be for you to fill out the form as best you can making

sure to note anywhere where you are uncertain of what you're saying. Then send

it to me along with some days and times of availability (please include your

time zone). Then, we can plan to get on the phone and begin properly addressing

the difficulties. I'm confident that I can help you.

Here's a link to the folder with the consultation info and personal history

form:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Withdrawal_and_Recovery/files

I want to also address your concern mentioned when you said:

" Please be gentle with your response as I am frightened and don't want to

raise my anxiety levels which will only add to hers, if you know what I mean:

she is so wide open right now, and frankly, so am I. I also need my sleep and

don't want to feel more anxious than I do. "

** If this is literally how careful I have to be, I am not the person for you.

First and foremost, I'm very good at what I do. But, I've NEVER been the best

communicator. Trust me when I say I've worked on it and remain working on it,

but I am realistic and know I'm never going to reach the point of being called

" gentle " . I'm an Aries, my brain is constantly " on " , I'm tremendously busy

24/7/365, it takes me forever to type (I do barely 26 wpm accurately), I have

very poor eyesight (legally blind) and have unremitting chronic pain that makes

it very difficult to sit at the computer. I'm an intense person. It seems to go

with the territory of what I do. I couldn't do it for as long as I have if I

didn't have the level of fire and passion that I do. This is my nature; it's

not going to change. For the most part the times I get annoyed are the times I'm

being repeatedly asked the same questions by the same person. I have so much to

do, I'm years behind in doing it so cannot bear to have my time spent repeating

myself. I am biased toward action and have found that clients with the same

bias are the clients who do very well in recovery from the drugs.

I'm perfectly capable of being " gentle " in a normal situation. There are

people here who can tell you that. What you feel online often is my intensity,

some of which is driven by pain and time constraints.

Bottom line -- as I said, I'm very good at what I do. I have no illusions

that I can be all things to all people. What people have to tolerate for my

knowledge and ability is my intensity. Each person has to decide if it's worth

it. I can tell you though that it is quite a bit different on the phone in a

consultation because I'm not sitting in pain typing 26wpm and looking at the

next 40 emails I have to answer tonight. It is your time and your time alone

when time is booked. This substantially changes the dynamic.

I hope I've clarified some things for you. If you have any questions please

ask away. There is no doubt in my mind that we can restore some balance to your

daughter's system.

[i held off posting your link until I can review it. I post very few links on

this list and I never post any links without reviewing them.]

One more note, please make some paragraphs when you write. It's impossible

for a fast reader to read what you wrote above. One has to slow down

substantially to read it. Also, those with nervous system problems cannot read

all those words jumbled together. All you have to do is hit ENTER 2x after

every 4-5 sentences or where it makes sense to you. The customary way is to

create a new paragraph when the subject shifts. I don't car how you choose to

do it as long as you do it.

Regards,