1r0nm0us3: Long term psychotropic drug user with no real expected results

[1r0nm0us3]

Hello there, pleased to meet you.

I have no much to say at this moment... I even graduated as a psychologyst in order to understand what was wrong with me.

You can see my whole psychotropic trip for the last 15 years (currently 39).

While a few meds seemed to work at first (Clomipramine and Paroxetine), they didn't do their supposed "magic" on the long term.

Basically I'm trying to get my life in order without going back to any antidepressant / antipsychotic.

What I'm dealing the most these days is performance anxiety and insomnia.

Any tips or articles would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards.

[Onmyway]

On 4/19/2022 at 2:01 PM, 1r0nm0us3 said:

Hello there, pleased to meet you.

I have no much to say at this moment... I even graduated as a psychologyst in order to understand what was wrong with me.

You can see my whole psychotropic trip for the last 15 years (currently 39).

While a few meds seemed to work at first (Clomipramine and Paroxetine), they didn't do their supposed "magic" on the long term.

Basically I'm trying to get my life in order without going back to any antidepressant / antipsychotic.

What I'm dealing the most these days is performance anxiety and insomnia.

Any tips or articles would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards.

Hi there @1r0nm0us3, 

welcome to SA. I don't think anything is wrong with people having mental health issues - in my experience they have usually had trauma in their lives and have sometimes learned bad habits of mind to cope with difficult and sometimes unbearable circumstances.  For others it is just difficult life circumstances that they are going through - breakups, death, bullying etc. Life is hard. So, nothing is wrong with you to fix. You don't have a chemical imbalance [that myth has been debunked by the way]. 

 

It is no wonder that ADs didn't work for you - multiple studies have shown that they are no better than placebo. 

"In the data sent to us by the FDA, only 43% of the trials showed a statistically significant benefit of drug over placebo. The remaining 57% were failed or negative trials. Similar results have been reported in other meta-analyses" says Prof Irving Kirsch of Harvard, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4172306/. He also found (others too) that 82% of the effect that is achieved by ADs is also achieved by the placebo and even that difference he thinks is due to people figuring out that they are taking the active ingredient drug during the trials rather than the placebo (breaking trial blinding). At this point even if ADs didn't have WD effects, I would not take another one. 

 

We don't really provide tips for dealing with MH issues but have a section about how to deal with emotional symptoms of withdrawal. Non-drug techniques to cope with emotional symptoms - Symptoms and self-care - Surviving Antidepressants. Have you ever heard of Claire Weekes? Many of our members find her teachings very helpful. 

 

I am personally a huge fan of therapy - I like Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) which you can apply yourself as well. If you want to, I'd recommend first reading the original (1992?) book by Richard Schwartz and then some self-therapy books by Jay Earley. I also liked EMDR if you are dealing with trauma or adverse childhood experiences. Both these methods I find transformative rather than just teaching coping skills, though coping skills are also important.

 

Hope this helps. 

OMW

PS. It would be really helpful if you completed your drug signature with a bit more detail for at least the last 2-3 years if you want advice on withdrawal and/or tapering. 

Edited April 23, 2022 by Onmyway

[OldDodgy]

@1r0nm0us3

 

Thanks for joining and I hope you find help and support here. 

 

I am very much in agreement with @Onmyway in her views on the thin evidence that ADs and antipsychotic meds do much to change things for us. 
 

I think the weak spot in our mental health journey is the sleep disruption and if all natural ways of getting quality sleep fail, I have kept on a Micky Mouse dose of quetiapine. 
 

However if you are not aquatinted with the podcasts of Joanna Moncrieff I would urge you to watch them. She is especially versed in the inappropriate use of antipsychotics and in her books points out the lack of evidence for ADs as well. 
 

The bottom line is that bad things happen to good people and reaching the core issues that have morphed our lives adversely must be a better way than taking meds that often have profound adverse effects on our metabolism as well as out brains. 
 

Best wishes 

 

OD