Moderator Emeritus Rhiannon Posted January 23, 2013 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted January 23, 2013 to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you’ve held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands, your throat filled with the silt of it. When grief sits with you, its tropical heat thickening the air, heavy as water more fit for gills than lungs; when grief weights you like your own flesh only more of it, an obesity of grief, you think, How can a body withstand this? Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you I will love you, again. (Ellen Bass, The Thing Is) Started on Prozac and Xanax in 1992 for PTSD after an assault. One drug led to more, the usual story. Got sicker and sicker, but believed I needed the drugs for my "underlying disease". Long story...lost everything. Life savings, home, physical and mental health, relationships, friendships, ability to work, everything. Amitryptiline, Prozac, bupropion, buspirone, flurazepam, diazepam, alprazolam, Paxil, citalopram, lamotrigine, gabapentin...probably more I've forgotten. Started multidrug taper in Feb 2010. Doing a very slow microtaper, down to low doses now and feeling SO much better, getting my old personality and my brain back! Able to work full time, have a full social life, and cope with stress better than ever. Not perfect, but much better. After 23 lost years. Big Pharma has a lot to answer for. And "medicine for profit" is just not a great idea. Feb 15 2010: 300 mg Neurontin 200 Lamictal 10 Celexa 0.65 Xanax and 5 mg Ambien Feb 10 2014: 62 Lamictal 1.1 Celexa 0.135 Xanax 1.8 Valium Feb 10 2015: 50 Lamictal 0.875 Celexa 0.11 Xanax 1.5 Valium Feb 15 2016: 47.5 Lamictal 0.75 Celexa 0.0875 Xanax 1.42 Valium 2/12/20 12 0.045 0.007 1 May 2021 7 0.01 0.0037 1 Feb 2022 6 0!!! 0.00167 0.98 2.5 mg Ambien Oct 2022 4.5 mg Lamictal (off Celexa, off Xanax) 0.95 Valium Ambien, 1/4 to 1/2 of a 5 mg tablet I'm not a doctor. Any advice I give is just my civilian opinion. Link to comment
Administrator Altostrata Posted January 24, 2013 Administrator Share Posted January 24, 2013 She's brilliant. Thanks, Rhi. This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner. "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein All postings © copyrighted. Link to comment
Sally3 Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 Love this poem.... Have been on .125Klonopin for 17 years....was tapered off rapidly (3 weeks)from a 6 week updose of 1.50 K....went back on .125 K and tapered off there in 3 weeks - September 7 2010...horrible w/d sx. Have been suffering ever since, although do get windows.Was put on 20 mg Prozac back in 1993 also...no issues ever with the prozac. Was told last summer to get off the Prozac by a psychiatrist who thought that my benzo w/d was really due to the Prozac i.e., jitteriness, shaking, nervous, anxiety and depression. He wanted me off in 3 months. I started decreasing 1 mg per months - am now down to 9 mg Prozac....feel like I have been tapering incorrectly. Introductory Post: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/2439-sally3-i-am-new-here/page-1 Link to comment
hippopotamus Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Wow. That gives me goosebumps. Have been on Seroquel XR from 2008. Dosages have fluctuated quite a bit. Rough guess: I've been on 250-300-350-400-450-500 mg from 2009-summer 2012. Started tapering july 2012 with cuts of 50 mg. By then I had been on 450 mg for a while. October 2012: 200 mg. Due to flu-like WD reinstated to 250 mg nov 12th. Link to comment
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