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Crystal1414
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08 Oct 2022, 2:55 pm

I take 7.5 mg of abilify everyday. It's not a hard thing to do. I just dont like having to worry about it and having so many appointments. I like that it works but I want to learn how to do it myself. I guess mental illness isnt temporary though.

Everyone in my family is forcing me to take my pill. It just irritates me sometimes. I wish I didnt have to take it so often. But if I dont take it I dont behave appropriately apparently. I hate having to tell doctors and other people who need to know. They always ask me why. I just say it's for my moods. I wrote it down on a form once because I was getting a tattoo. I'm pretty sure they looked it up afterwards because I got some weird looks and I was treated differently. I just did what the form asked.

I guess I'm a bit embarassed to need them. They do help. But part of me Hopes the doctors are wrong. I don't want people seeing them and I hate having to take them away from home. Thats usually when I quit taking them. I've quit taking them a lot.

But I do need them. If I dont take them I can become angry or sad. Paranoia sucks as well. It ruins my life. I feel invalidated though sometimes. I'm told my fears are not real. That stings sometimes. I was wondering if meditation might help with or without medication.



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08 Oct 2022, 3:12 pm

I know.
I have to take my daily medication, too.

I'm thinking about it as something similar to living with diabetes or high blood pressure. Taking my medication, paying attention to possible problems - doing this enables me to live a relatively "normal" life otherwise, keep away the really problematic symptoms.
Just like it was any other long-term condition.


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04 Dec 2022, 2:25 pm

Hi Crystal1414
I hear you. I don't think anyone likes taking medication.

I'm not going to be very specific here because I don't know you and you don't know me, but I think there are some things you could investigate and decide for yourself.

1. avoid any food with wheat in it (there are many) for a set time and see how you feel
2. improve your general health
3. research the word "orthomolecular" along with the name of your diagnosis
4. meditation seems to help *everything* for example SVS meditation (sitting very still)

I hope you find some answers. It may take a while.



Wardson
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16 Dec 2022, 9:53 am

The worst thing is that on almost every medication I develop physical relestness over time while when Im off the pills I have life destroying paranoia and am engulfed in insane perception of reality. When i was taking my pills i wanted to be around other humans but now im wanting to cease to exist in material world



Mona Pereth
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17 Dec 2022, 10:44 am

LeafyGenes wrote:
4. meditation seems to help *everything* for example SVS meditation (sitting very still)

Meditation is good for many things and many people, but not everything and not everybody. See, for example, Meditation May Aggravate Trauma, Mindful Action Is A Better Alternative.


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17 Dec 2022, 9:31 pm

Taking medications daily is a relatively normal thing to do, by numbers, if you are living in a western country, particularly the U.S.A which has a high proportion of medicated persons relative to some of the other countries in the world.

The biggest issue a lot of people have is the stigma of having to take medication - well, bollocks to that, considering that most people are on mental health medications particularly, because they are unable to cope without them.

If you yourself discriminate against medicines & medicine consumption, then you probably need to come to terms with the fact that you really do need them, which it sounds like you have an idea of anyway.



andrew112
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21 Dec 2022, 4:26 am

I take medication for my Schizophrenia. It feels "inconvenient" to take it every day, but I need the meds. For a long time, I was medication incompliant because I did not see myself as someone with an illness. But fortunately, I have finally realized that I need the medication. I have been compliant for more than five continuous years. And I also don't see medication as the "bad guy" anymore. I can relate to family members forcing the patient to take medicine. I've been there far too much in the past. The sad thing is that even though I desperately needed my medicine, I would still refuse to take it. But now I am feeling better. I can also relate to simply following protocol and then being treated differently because of it. It just doesn't make any sense. I hope this helps.



renaeden
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26 Dec 2022, 2:40 am

I'm too scared to come off my medication. I've been stable since 2013 with no change in meds since then.

I'd rather be fat and stable than thin and crazy. But I do wish I only had to take one or two medications instead of five.



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28 Dec 2022, 10:41 pm

I'm on a weaning schedule (my own) just now. My problem was depression that presented in a somewhat atypical way: hyperactivity, insomnia, anxiety. I was always on edge and I was put on this medication after years of misdiagnosis and rejection due to not fitting the norm. And I am interested to see if I can stop taking Paxil now that I know what's wrong with me. My feeling is why wouldn't I have been depressed? And could it have been circumstantial, instead of chemical?

I have a reason for not telling my doctors, primarily because I want the option to hop right back on it if I need to. But, I tend to also be concerned about much of our medicines being manufactured in other countries, like China. And what if we can't get the medications for a while? If I were to need to stop, cold-turkey, I could wind up being very miserable for a while. So, there are some practical reasons involved as well.

I am a compliant patient, I always take my medication without having to be forced or reminded to. This decision has been thought about for the last two years. We'll see... I do understand OP. It's not fun to be on a medication.


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blitzkrieg
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29 Dec 2022, 1:55 am

Persephone29 wrote:
I'm on a weaning schedule (my own) just now. My problem was depression that presented in a somewhat atypical way: hyperactivity, insomnia, anxiety. I was always on edge and I was put on this medication after years of misdiagnosis and rejection due to not fitting the norm. And I am interested to see if I can stop taking Paxil now that I know what's wrong with me. My feeling is why wouldn't I have been depressed? And could it have been circumstantial, instead of chemical?

I have a reason for not telling my doctors, primarily because I want the option to hop right back on it if I need to. But, I tend to also be concerned about much of our medicines being manufactured in other countries, like China. And what if we can't get the medications for a while? If I were to need to stop, cold-turkey, I could wind up being very miserable for a while. So, there are some practical reasons involved as well.

I am a compliant patient, I always take my medication without having to be forced or reminded to. This decision has been thought about for the last two years. We'll see... I do understand OP. It's not fun to be on a medication.


Once you go on psychiatric medication, it is difficult to come off of it, even it life circumstances change that make it easier to cope with life. That has been my personal experience & also my experience of reading psych' specific forums on the web.

Antidepressants in particular make you dependent on the action of the particular antidepressant that a person may or may not consume, since they affect multiple chemical processes and different receptor sites & neurotransmitter actions. Coming off them has been likened to coming off Heroin for some people who have experience of both withdrawals. It can take up to a year to reset ones brain after being on psychiatric meds for a while.

Sometimes, you're simply never the same & wind up being dependent for life.



Persephone29
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29 Dec 2022, 9:30 am

blitzkrieg wrote:
Persephone29 wrote:
I'm on a weaning schedule (my own) just now. My problem was depression that presented in a somewhat atypical way: hyperactivity, insomnia, anxiety. I was always on edge and I was put on this medication after years of misdiagnosis and rejection due to not fitting the norm. And I am interested to see if I can stop taking Paxil now that I know what's wrong with me. My feeling is why wouldn't I have been depressed? And could it have been circumstantial, instead of chemical?

I have a reason for not telling my doctors, primarily because I want the option to hop right back on it if I need to. But, I tend to also be concerned about much of our medicines being manufactured in other countries, like China. And what if we can't get the medications for a while? If I were to need to stop, cold-turkey, I could wind up being very miserable for a while. So, there are some practical reasons involved as well.

I am a compliant patient, I always take my medication without having to be forced or reminded to. This decision has been thought about for the last two years. We'll see... I do understand OP. It's not fun to be on a medication.


Once you go on psychiatric medication, it is difficult to come off of it, even it life circumstances change that make it easier to cope with life. That has been my personal experience & also my experience of reading psych' specific forums on the web.

Antidepressants in particular make you dependent on the action of the particular antidepressant that a person may or may not consume, since they affect multiple chemical processes and different receptor sites & neurotransmitter actions. Coming off them has been likened to coming off Heroin for some people who have experience of both withdrawals. It can take up to a year to reset ones brain after being on psychiatric meds for a while.

Sometimes, you're simply never the same & wind up being dependent for life.



And that may well end up being the case for me. My weaning schedule is going to last about a year, right now I've dropped 20 mg every other day. I'm going to do that for another 3 mos, then drop 20 mg every day. Then, 10mg every other day, then 10 every day. Then, drop down to only taking 10mg total, every other day. Then, every 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc... It may or may not work. I'm hopeful that by slowly allowing my brain to start doing it's thing without the jolt of just stopping the Paxil, cold turkey, may be successful.


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