happily drugging-down - any advice... ?

[Guest guest]

hi all..

catherine, kim - some compassionate and level-headed advice for others i have read from you both - thanks..

i had a visionary tripped-out state of unconventional perceiving around late '98, for which i was hospitalised and put on Risperdal. this one may have been caused by major stresses and (way) too much mary-jane, but the subsequent five (5) trips to the booby-hatch were caused by one factor - abrupt discontinuation of neuroleptics.. the last 5 "psychoses" (what unimaginative terminology) all happened after i'd been on Risperdal for about 6 months, then stopped cold-turkey - 3 or so months later in each case, off i went again thinking i was Christ, and talking to the birds (you know there's something up when they talk back (!) ...).

anyway, smooth sailing for the last 4 years. but the dilemma is, i really dug the wavyness of living before i was stuck on neuroleptics - the ups, downs, all arounds of a passionate existence are so much more fulfilling than the bland and emotionally dulled surviving on neuroleptics.

so, from November '02 i was on 3weekly injections of Zuclopenthixol. but symptoms of Tardive Dyskinesia began manifesting (tongue mov't, etc.). so i was switched to Risperdal again a year ago. what do you know - Tardive Dyskinesia again... then switched to Solian six months ago - and recently the TD has started up again... y'know, the potentially irreversible twitching disease - these drugs bite.

finally after going through half the doctors in this little city, i've found an "holistic doctor" who has agreed to read Breggin & Cohen's excellent book about coming off psych drugs safely, "Your Drug May Be Your Problem"... great. it's a week after the first 10% drop (from Solian [amisulpride] 200mg ---> 180mg/day) and i'm feeling pretty ok. i know it's early in the scheme of what may be up to 10 months withdrawal, but i swear i've got more energy already..

had the shakes just slightly yesterday afternoon, for a few hours past midday until i took a cup of Scullcap tea (great nerve-tonic, assists in detox from street drugs effectively, calming), and then mellowed out... last time a GP-quack took me down 25% for the first decrement, the awful symptoms came on regularly a few hours before the daily 6pm pill-pop. might be the same this time, except a hundredth of the severity with this 10% reduction regime...

anyhow, i'm here for a reason, not just to rabbit on... i wonder are there other dietary recommendations anyone might have for the withdrawal process.. ? i've read through the files here, and am introducing many of the elements suggested, but is there anything really major i might benefit from?

here's my diet at present:

- cup of ordinary tea in the morning (yum - scaled back from years of drinking 6 litres of tea a day, to just one in the morning and night.)- cup of "Ripleys" tea ~ 10am (Guarana, Kola Nut, Siberian Ginseng, Suma, Rou Gui)- 4 cups Dandelion tea throughout the day (helps high Cholesterol)- cup milk thistle tea- cup chamomile tea- cup sage tea (yes observant reader, about 10 cups of tea a day... all with honey or Stevia [herbal sweetener]...)- 2 pieces 100% wholegrain toast at about 11am, with Logicol butter (Cholesterol-reducing spread)- handful of almonds- handful of Goji berries (the Tibetan ones grown in the Himalayas, not Lycium Barbarum which are from China grown in depleted soils with pesticides)- a few vegan fruit biscuits- an oat bar- usually a pear every second day- and for dinner, either curry and rice (starting to use more brown rice), or a stirfry generally with lots of Bok Choy and tofu, and some other veges, served with rice.- 3 glasses of water a day- a multi-vitamin each day ("Swisse: Men's Ultivite" with waaay too many ingredients to list, including many herbs, plants, etc. and also it has some things you recommend: Calcium Panothenate 70mg, Calcium Ascorbate Dihydrate 200mg, Calcium Citrate (eqiv. to Calcium 21mg) 100mg, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate 12mg (equiv. to Manganese 1.2mg - is this Magnesium?), Magnesium Oxide - Heavy 100mg (equiv. to Magnesium 55.48mg) ...)- Ayurvedic herbs and tonic (around 250 professionally selected and mixed herbs, spices, plants) twice a day after meals

....and that's about it. pretty much the same diet every day. with the occasional change in teas (maybe Mountain tea sometimes, or Echinacea T, or St 's Wort T, or Ginseng T, or other teas).

no white sugerno meat or eggsno coffeeno white bread or pastaonly low-fat milk & cheeseno drugsno junk foodno chocolate (oh, for the chocky days, before learning about cholesterol!! ...)

so, anything missing, that i could be taking?

thanks everyone for being here and into this worthy topic. i get so outraged sometimes at the biological reductionists, these blatant materialists, this priesthood of (dare i say it) fascist enforcers of stupid "normality", that it's refreshing to be reading about real people, with real emotions, and real stories - not the walking illnesses the psychiatric industry would have us believe they are "helping".

love to you all, :)best of all health and happiness to you,peace,stephen.

ps - check out a cool website if you've got the time. my paintings and drawings from seven years of visionary states, articles, & heaps of other stuff maybe relevant to ppl in this group... can be found at www.taotiger.com

s.