Beatnik87- Multiple Med Adjustments

[Beatnik87]

Hello everyone! I am a 24 year old female undergrad college student majoring in social work who has just started to undergo massive med adjustments starting today. Back in Fall of 2005 I was diagnosed bipolar type I after having several severe manic episodes and it was at this time that I began to take psychiatric medications. I have been on several different medications since that time and have had multiple hospitalisations because of my severe episodes. The first doctor I had threw many different medications my way for my bipolar depression and at one point I was on three different antidepressants for my depression, well I didn't really know at that time that antidepressants in general are not good for bipolars. So naturally from all the antidepressants I became very manic, not sleeping for weeks and becoming psychotic. I met a new doctor during my time in the hospital for mania and he decided I had OCD, I believed him and he told me to take two different antidepressants for my OCD, this was about three years ago. Over the past three years I have been fairly successful, getting a 4.0 the past two semester, however some red flags started to come up about a year ago when my pharmacy student friends told me that I should not be taking Pristiq at all, that it might cause me problems. I started to do research and found out that antidepressants should only be used short term with bipolars. I was concerned, so I spoke with my doctor, he told me not to worry about it and that my friends didn't know what they were talking about. I went along with this because I felt I had no other choice but to take antidepressants for my supposed OCD and just hope that I don't get manic. Slowly overtime I began to rapid cycle over the past two semesters, but it just became the way things were so it became my new normal. After becoming extremely suicidal and anxious and then switching to mania the next day, I knew I was in some trouble. So this was about three or four months ago, I went to my doctor desperate, telling him I am starting to have very bad cycles. But no, he told me not to worry about it and gave me a large prescription for Xanax. Soon, over the past few months my cycles started to become very frequent and intense and it was hard to handle life. Every few days I would switch from or to mania and depression. I did some research and came to realise that the very meds I am taking to try to get better are only making me that much more sicker. It all reached a breaking point last tuesday, I had a massive freakout and was extremely manic. I knew I had to get off these antidepressants ASAP. So I called the office of a psychatrist who my med doc recommended and was able to get appointment for Friday. I met with my new doctor and he looked at my meds and my history and symptoms and he confirmed what I had suspected, my antidepressants are causing me to get sicker. So I am being weaned off the Pristiq this month and Xanax, with other meds being tapered next month. He told me to cut my 50mg Pristiq tablets in half and take 25mg for two weeks and then go off of it completely after that. So today was day 1, I came into the day expecting the very worse, I know how nortious Pristiq is for it's withdrawals. I had a migraine and was very ill with nausea, vomiting, etc most of the day but fortunately I had some anti nausea medicine, migraine medicine, and just started to take Inderal for my migraines which I think helped. Didn't have to take a Xanax today, which makes me happy. Was not as reved up today, which is a good sign that I am not as manic. Thanks for listening!

[Altostrata]

Hi, Beatnik. Welcome to our community.

 

Tapering off Pristiq, like Effexor, can be difficult for some people. But others take it in stride. Problem is, you don't know which you are until withdrawal symptoms hit you.

 

Quitting Xanax suddenly can cause major problems, too.

 

As you know, we recommend a slower taper over months to reduce withdrawal symptoms.

 

Are you only on Pristiq and Xanax now?

[Shanti]

Hi Beatnik. Welcome to the forum. I was on Geodon for several months before but it gave me akathisia. I've been through the ringer with anti-psychotics and I am through with trying anymore. I've had at least 10 different kinds. I'm diagnosed Schizophrenia. I searched Google for natural ways to deal with Schizophrenia and found a wonderful program of megadoses of Niacin. This has been a MIRACLE for me. Simply taking about 10, 500 mg capsules of Niacin a day has completely eliminated the psychosis. I don't know if that works for bi-polar, but I just want you to know that there are wonderful alternatives to try if you look good and hard.

 

I'm glad you found your way here

[Beatnik87]

Thank you for your kind replies Alto and Shanti! Alto, I am currently on 160mg Geodon, 600mg Tegretol, and 200mg Anafranil. Shanti, I will have to look into natural remedies for bipolar. Thanks for sharing your experiences with me, it is encouraging to hear you are doing well with the niacin, do you get the side effects of facial flushing and itchiness from it? Just curious.

 

Things have been going a lot better mentally since I been taking less pristq, it shows that it was indeed making me more ill. I have been having increased migraines and flu like symptoms but honestly, I would rather be somewhat sick physically like I have been and mentally better than physically fine and mentally sick. I have been expirencing a little dissociation but it is better than before and my mom saids I seem a lot calmer. Still have not gone completely off the Xanax...I am still a little dependent. Trying to work on that, I am beginning to understand it's habit forming tendencies.

[Jemima]

It's unbelievable that any doctor would prescribe Pristiq for someone with bipolar. I took it for about five months and it made me uber manic. (My "diagnosis" was melancholic depression.) I was taking 50 mg. of the time-released version once a day and my personal doctor switched me to 10 mg. of Lexapro which, at the time, was a big improvement. Eventually, Lexapro made me manic as well and I started tapering off this past September, taking my last pill on December 14th, a day that will go down in my personal history unforgotten for as long as I have a mind. The withdrawal from Lexapro hasn't been easy, but I'm seeing a bit of improvement every few days.

[alexjuice]

I really want to welcome you to the forum, beatnik87. There are posters here who'd been diagnosed with all sorts of psychiatric disorders and many of us were medicated with multiple classes of medications.

 

As you can see from my signature, I've been on quite a few over the years.

 

The consensus here is that methodical, patient, tapered reduction from psychiatric medication provides the best outcome. Sadly, your doctor is unlikely to share this view.

 

It was difficult for me to know who I really was when on all my Drugs. I didnt really find out til after I was mostly off of them. I had times in school where things seemed to be going well, like getting straight A's at a top 50 university. However, the good stretches didnt last and, through it all, there was much dysfunction that really affected my life negatively. I was impulsive with sex and drugs and spending at times. I had terrible sleep habits at times going multiple nights each week without any sleep at all. I was overweight from terrible diet sometimes. At times I had extreme fatigue. At times extreme anxiety. Sometimes I was racked by guilt and shame. Other times I had grand plans for great successes. I thought all of this was 'me'...

 

I tried to handle these problems as best I could back then when I was in it. It wasn't til much later that I learned I could only see with partial vision, that cloudy thinking was endemic to being 'in it' so I suffered quite horribly and for much longer than was necessary.

 

In any event, welcome to the board. I hope the information here can be useful to you.

 

Best,

Alex

[ChessieCat]

For anyone reading this topic, I have been tapering Pristiq using compounded capsules with slow release formula.

 

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