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erikjms: meds undo 2012-2013. so far.


erikjms

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Hi everyone. I signed up here a few months ago but went wandering off across the internet and have only now made it back to actually post.

 

I have been living with depression since I was eight years old, and for the most part I managed to do so without medication for a very long time. Arguably I suppose I did not succeed since I am on disability now and medication too! But I have at least come to understand some very interesting and useful things over the course of the last 40+ years. The depression is serious stuff but rides atop some very complex PTSD from childhood abuse and sexual assault, and is joined with a side of anxiety--especially social anxiety, itself something like the flip my extreme introversion took once it became clear that simply being quiet and doing what I was told would not keep me safe.

 

Starting in 1997 I had a big, big crash that in many ways is still lingering. I sought medical treatment and have been on one antidepressant or another since December 3, 1997 (the last discrete date I've been able to remember in all this--life became a jumble after that). I was on Paxil at first, at a dosage I do not recall. Over the next couple of years I went through the psych med trial carousel, through a number of SSRIs, a couple of SNRIs, and two weeks on Welbutrin when I was barely able to restrain myself from punching strangers for breathing too loudly. Eventually my mental symptoms began to settle down somewhat on Prozac, Zyprexa, and Klonopin, and so that has been my cocktail for most of the last decade and bit more.

 

As I said, dates are hazy, but I am fairly sure I was on both Prozac and Zyprexa by the turn of the millennium. The Klonopin was added around 2005. I do not recall my starting doses for any of them, but the Prozac was increased incrementally to 80mg/day--the maximum recommended for adults in the US--while the Zyprexa may have gotten as high as 10mg/day at some point. I am not sure about the Zyprexa dose: I know it fluctuated somewhat but for the last three or four years before stopping it, I was taking 5mg/day and was "stable", for whatever value of "stable" works for you.

 

With the Klonopin, I was started on something like 0.5mg 3x/day but have actually managed gradually to decrease that instead of increasing it. I have been taking a total of about 0.5mg/day in smaller doses throughout the day for about the last year. I record my intake of everything now. The Klonopin was given quasi-PRN but I did start taking it every day right off the bat, as it helped my social anxiety like nothing else ever had. I did occasionally take up to 2.0mg/day on the real knuckle-biting days--like when I taught or if I had to live through a party somehow--but I have always taken as little of it as I felt was at all effective.

 

Last year, 2012, after at least twelve years of Zyprexa and Prozac, I began developing tics and muscle spasms; to try to avoid anything like serious tardive dyskinesia, my psychiatrist and I decided to wean me off the Zyprexa to see how I did without it. At that time I was still taking 80mg Prozac/day.

 

The "taper" of Zyprexa was, in retrospect, barely a taper at all: we halved my dose from 5mg to 2.5mg in June, and my doctor advised me to stop taking it completely two months later. The first decrease did not have a great effect one way or another except that I began sleeping a bit less than I had been all the time I was on it. Out of some prescient but apparently feeble sense of self-preservation, I chopped my 2.5mg tablets in half for two weeks beyond the time I was told to stop taking it completely. Given that, again, all I felt was a slight boost of energy, I decided that I was ready to try life without Zyprexa.

 

Well.

 

The first four days were, admittedly, sort of fun: I slept about four hours a night and had abundant! energy! all! day! long! I have never experienced a manic or even hypomanic episode before, but after about three days of this I began to wonder if we had triggered something I might not have wanted to trigger. But then my energy level plummeted, my GI tract staged a revolt that is not yet over, and I awoke with either the first of 251 (and counting) daily headaches to come or the very same headache I have right now. It is hard to say which it is, as I really don't know if it goes away while I am asleep. I just know I have gotten much better at falling asleep with a headache than I used to be. And if I am conscious, my head hurts.

 

Here is a list of symptoms in approximate order of appearance since I stopped taking Zyprexa over eight months ago, and some indication of which ones are persisting now:

 

Insomnia - intense at first. Then intermittent: 5 hours of sleep would alternate with 11 hours. I was exhausted most of the time. Now my sleeping has evened out fairly well. I do sleep less than I did while taking Zyprexa, but I am ok with that!

 

Headache - every. single. day. Moderate to severe. Every day. More on this in a sec.

 

Appetite loss - immediate and practically absolute for the first four months. Three months in, I found a vegan meal replacement shake powder that saved my bacon, or at least a little of the rapidly disappearing belly. Food has only become appealing again in the last month or so, but I still cannot eat very much at one time.

 

Nausea - sometimes intense, sometimes barely noticeable. I have managed not to throw up yet. I hate vomiting more than almost any other generic "sick" event. The nausea has come and gone in waves, slowly decreasing in intensity but occasionally giving me a very bad day or at least a couple of hours of wondering if breakfast was going to stay in.

 

Weight loss - between the abdication of my appetite and the nausea, I have lost all of the weight I had gained while on Zyprexa: almost fifty pounds since my peak at 200lbs last year at this time. I am not sure what my weight was when I first stopped the Zyprexa in August. I did not think to check, but it was at least 190lbs. I lost about 15-20 lbs in the first six weeks off of Zyprexa. A week ago I weighed 155lbs, down from 159 five or six weeks prior to that. I do not really need to lose more weight, but my old anorexic brain is getting much too excited about this process.

 

Increased sweating - I was already sweating like a horse before we stopped the Zyprexa, but it got much worse. One thing dissuading me from being outside much this winter was the fact that at 40F or higher I would start overheating and sweating after walking half a block. Of course, once the sweat go going, I got very cold on the outside, but my body core would continue to pump out water until I could sit still in a windless, sunless spot for a good while. This has improved slowly but intermittently, as has most everything. I still carry an extra shirt with me if I am planning on being gone for an hour or more, but sometimes I can get away with not changing it. It helps that the weather is warmer now--sweaty shirt is just sweaty shirt and not like wearing ice cubes.

 

Body temperature regulation - with the increased sweating I was also experiencing hot flashes and what I called cold sweats because they would start out of nowhere when I was sitting still minding my own business. They had nothing to do with any increase (or decrease) in ambient temperature. If I ate, I got hot, even if the food itself was not heated. If it was heated, I would have to change my shirt. The universe decided to have fun with that by declaring oatmeal to be the only food I could regularly eat enough of to stay more or less upright. Cold oatmeal is disgusting; I have tried it!

 

Weakness, light-headedness, dizziness, feeling faint - these sort of blended together in my experience. I would describe it as feeling like my blood sugar had dropped suddenly: I felt shaky, more nauseated than usual, sweaty, cold, and like I needed to sit down. And so I would sit down. This happened as I was finding it difficult to eat, of course, but could strike immediately after eating as often as at any other time.

 

Increased muscle tremors, twitches, spasms - these got way worse at first but have subsided significantly. Not completely though, and I know that some of these might be with me all of my life. Most of my skeletal muscles feel like they are always tired and sore and ready to spring into a charlie horse if I move too quickly in any direction. It's as though I have always exercised way too much yesterday. Except that I cannot exercise at all strenuously on any day! So far the only large spasms I have experienced have been in my legs: my right calf is especially prone to knotting up as soon as I move it first thing in the morning. It did this just yesterday, in fact.

 

Added headache/wobbly muscle problems - around the middle of December, I followed up with my psychiatrist and I think I yelled at him but more about that elsewhere maybe. More to the point, we decided to reduce my Prozac dose from 80mg/day to 60mg/day because it had started to cause stomach pain when it never had before. He did not expect that I would feel much from the decrease since 60mg is still "a high dose".

 

Toward the end of December, my headache started changing in character from what felt like vascular or more generalized inflammation to more of a muscle tension headache. At the same time, the muscles in my neck and jaw began to stiffen painfully. This spread to my shoulders and upper back, and it has barely begun to get slightly better after peaking in intensity in late February. I think I might be clenching my jaw at night; I have never done this before that I am aware of, and I have never had a whole region of my body's muscles become so prone to stiffness and pain before. I do have scoliosis, but the pain pattern it sometimes produces is familiar and quite different from this.

 

I have had some success with trigger point massage, self-administered, but it takes about an hour a day and the relief is temporary: it lasts long enough to let me sleep, but by the next day everything is tight and painful again. Even the bridge of my nose hurts--the little muscles that allow my to turn it up in disgust! Ibuprofen helps some but only partially and only early in the day.

 

And so now it is almost May and I feel as though the last nine months were simply deleted out of my life summarily and without notice. I was aware that Zyprexa withdrawal "could be difficult" but I thought it would last maybe eight weeks, at most. The kicker: when I followed up with my psychiatrist in December, he actually said "well it's not the Zyprexa."

 

I don't even remember what I said to that because when I am angry parts of me have to leave the room. Dissociation is what they call it. I used to be much better at it, but it still comes in handy from time to time.

 

I will be seeing him tomorrow for the first time since then--I missed an appointment in January and with all of the bodily freaking out my PTSD and anxiety have been running amok and I can barely keep the bureaucratic details of my life at all straight. I am trying to tell myself that I am not there to convince him of anything other than that he would like to refill my Klonopin prescription and that we will not be reducing any doses until further notice.

 

I am too upset with psychiatry in general to deal with him fairly at all. I know he means no harm and I know he tries to keep up with the science but I have been doing research of my own into the very literature available to him and what I bring to it that he does not have is years of training in rhetorical analysis.

 

I can tell you right now that almost every journal article out there has drunk some kind of kool-aid or other. What frustrates me is not that this happens--we all have our points of departure for organizing perception that we take for granted because otherwise we could not proceed. Rather it drives me up a wall that so many are unable and/or unwilling to question their own assumptions while being all too eager to question those of anyone who bears information that contradicts what they have come to believe as truth.

 

And that is my story so far. Thank you for reading it, and if you got this far, I salute you!I would like to talk more about dealing with my psychiatrist tomorrow if anyone is around, but my appointment is first thing in the morning and I don't expect lots of people to have read this by then--especially not to here. :)

 

Hi!

 

Erik

Erik
poet. skeptic. laughs in the face of death ha!


Rx Hx: (Dates and doses 1999-2012 are approximate)
Dec 1997 started on Paxil.
thru 1999ish: every SSRI in existence, one at a time, except for Prozac...
2000: Prozac 40mg; added Zyprexa 5-10mg 

2004: began Buprenorphine, 40mg
2005: Prozac 60mg; Zyprexa 5-7.5mg; added Klonopin avg 1.5mg/day PRN
2006: Prozac 80mg; Zyprexa 5mg; Klonopin avg ~1mg PRN then down to 0.5mg by 2012
May, 2012: signs of tardive dyskinesia. Begin Zyprexa "taper": 2.5mg
late July, 2012: Zyprexa 1.25mg
early Aug, 2012: discontinued Zyprexa

     a little later Aug, 2012: GI disturbances, nausea, appetite loss, disturbed sleep, body temperature dysregulation, fatigue, sweating, headaches, beginning of rapid weight loss
Dec 2012: Prozac causing stomach pain; reduced to 60mg
Jan 2013-present: muscle pain and spasms in face, jaw, neck, shoulders, chest

5 Dec 2013: GP suggests increase in Klonopin for muscle spasms

Currently (Dec 2013): 60mg Prozac, 0.875 mg Klonopin, 40mg Buprenorphine

     nausea, headaches, muscle spasms, tardive dyskinesia continue;

     appetite back, increase in energy and in apparent metabolic rate

"mental" reactions since stopping Zyprexa: intermittent increase in obsessional thinking, extra emotional zing

     treatment: sitting meditation 50 min once or twice a day PRN

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Wow, Erik! You have truly been through the wringer. I don't have any advice, but you are so welcome here. I think one of the most meaningful things you can do is document your journey here for someone who may have to walk a similar path, and make it available if there ever is a health care professional who wants to know the truth. Good luck tomorrow!

1st round Prozac 1989/90, clear depression symptoms. 2nd round Prozac started 1999 when admitted to dr. I was tired. Prozac pooped out, switch to Cymbalta 3/2006. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder due to mania 6/2006--then I was taken abruptly off Cymbalta and didn't know I had SSRI withdrawal. Lots of meds for my intractable "bipolar" symptoms.

Zyprexa started about 9/06, mostly 5mg. Tapered 4/12 through12/29/12

Wellbutrin. XL 300 mg started 1/07, tapered 1/18/13 through 7/8/13

Oxazepam mostly continuously since 6/06, 30mg since 12/12, tapered 1.17.14 through 8.26.15

11/06 Lithium 600mg twice daily, 2.2.14 400mg TID DIY liquid, 2.12.14 1150mg, 3.2.14 1100mg, 3.18.14 1075mg, 4/14 updose to 1100mg, 6.1.14 900 mg capsules 7.8.14 810mg, 8.17.14 725mg, 8.24.24 700mg...10.22.14 487.5mg, 3.9.15 475mg, 4.1.15 462.5mg 4.21.15 450mg 8.11.15 375mg, 11.28.15 362.5mg, back to 375mg four days later, 3.4.16 updose to 475 (too much going on to risk trouble)

9/4/13 Toprol-XL 25mg daily for sudden hypertension, tapered 11.12.13 through 5.3.14, last 10 days or so switched to atenolol

7.4.14 Started Walsh Protocol

56 years old

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  • Moderator Emeritus

I'm sorry to see that you were given such bad advice about getting off Zyprexa and that you're still suffering from withdrawal. It's probably way too late to reinstate a low dose and taper more gradually, but you may find some ideas that will help you feel better under the 'Symptoms and self care' topic.

 

As for dealing with the psychiatrist, it's best to be as self-controlled as possible and to use words that aren't emotionally loaded. I'd also avoid using diagnostic terms like "PTSD" and "anxiety". As you know, psychiatrists can have a person locked up on the flimsiest of excuses and can then proceed to medicate with anything they please. If I were you, I'd downplay the withdrawal symptoms from going off Zyprexa too fast, because all most psychiatrists are going to do is offer more medication(s) and the next thing you know you're taking drugs for your drugs.

 

When you have time, please put a condensed version of your drug history in the signature area of your profile, like so:

 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/893-please-put-your-withdrawal-history-in-your-signature/

 

That will help us help you because it will appear in all of your posts and we'll be able to see your history at a glance instead of digging back through your Intro. When you post again, please continue with this thread by clicking on the "Add Reply" button at the bottom of the page. The Intro is used like a journal, keeping track of your progress through withdrawal. I've found it very useful to go back and see how far I've come, especially on bad days when it seems like there's no progress whatever.

 

Welcome to the forum. There is lots of good, solid information here and gentle, friendly support.

Psychotropic drug history: Pristiq 50 mg. (mid-September 2010 through February 2011), Remeron (mid-September 2010 through January 2011), Lexapro 10 mg. (mid-February 2011 through mid-December 2011), Lorazepam (Ativan) 1 mg. as needed mid-September 2010 through early March 2012

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." -Hanlon's Razor


Introduction: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1588-introducing-jemima/

 

Success Story: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/6263-success-jemima-survives-lexapro-and-dr-dickhead-too/

Please note that I am not a medical professional and my advice is based on personal experience, reading, and anecdotal information posted by other sufferers.

 

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  • Administrator

Welcome, erik.

 

What everybody else said. And then some. Very sorry you're going through this.

....

Toward the end of December, my headache started changing in character from what felt like vascular or more generalized inflammation to more of a muscle tension headache. At the same time, the muscles in my neck and jaw began to stiffen painfully. This spread to my shoulders and upper back, and it has barely begun to get slightly better after peaking in intensity in late February. I think I might be clenching my jaw at night; I have never done this before that I am aware of, and I have never had a whole region of my body's muscles become so prone to stiffness and pain before. I do have scoliosis, but the pain pattern it sometimes produces is familiar and quite different from this.

Cortisol from an excessive alerting reaction -- which is what a lot of withdrawal symptoms boil down to -- causes muscle tension that can be painful, among other symptoms. Acupuncture may help. Also lots of magnesium, and Epsom salts baths. See our Symptoms and Self-care forum.

 

....And so now it is almost May and I feel as though the last nine months were simply deleted out of my life summarily and without notice. I was aware that Zyprexa withdrawal "could be difficult" but I thought it would last maybe eight weeks, at most. The kicker: when I followed up with my psychiatrist in December, he actually said "well it's not the Zyprexa."

Well, like most, he's clueless.

 

....I am too upset with psychiatry in general to deal with him fairly at all. I know he means no harm and I know he tries to keep up with the science but I have been doing research of my own into the very literature available to him and what I bring to it that he does not have is years of training in rhetorical analysis.

 

I can tell you right now that almost every journal article out there has drunk some kind of kool-aid or other.....

Couldn't agree with you more, but the papers on adverse effects have less incentive to obfuscate. See our Journals forum for lots of papers.

 

Read this for a model of withdrawal that I've found fits pretty well http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/392-one-theory-of-antidepressant-withdrawal-syndrome/

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.

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Thanks for the welcome, Meimeiquest, Jemima, and Altostrata.

 

Well I didn't go to my psychiatrist appointment today. I did have a long online conversation this morning with my closest chosen-family member, trying to work out for myself why I could not summon the energy for the conversation I was skipping out on. It's complicated because... because "it will be complicated" was apparently in the contract I signed with the universe when I was born. <_<

 

Mainly I think I have way too much to say to be able to deal with anything adequately in half an hour--the usual length of our appointments--and I am also having a hard time believing that my experience will even be acknowledged as possible. Maybe it would not matter so much if I had not been seeing the same psychiatrist almost this whole time: since sometime in 1998, minus a couple of years in the middle over something else complicated that I am not going to chronicle right here. But as I said in my post, I am too upset right now to talk with him fairly or rationally and the power relationship between us just feels weird to me in ways that it hadn't before we stopped the Zyprexa and I was sick for four months before I saw him again and unloaded on him in exasperation.

 

And that is all complicated by the fact that I saw him privately before but see him under public health coverage now and it feels to me that the rules have changed somehow and I know this is all quite vague but there are a number of concrete experiences informing my disquiet but I don't want to list them all right now either. Morning coffee was too long ago for that.

 

I get tired really quickly at the moment--especially emotionally and mentally, or whatever that realm is that we experience as other-than-purely-physical. Myself, I think I have been remarkably resilient over the last year, but it has taken quite a lot out of me and I seem to hover at the edge of exhaustion most of the time and occasionally fall in for a day or two. Or a week or whatever. I suspect this is not an unusual experience.

 

Life will go on. I talk to my therapist tomorrow morning, whom I have also known now for over fifteen years, and we will figure out what to do. My psychiatrist used to have an email address that he let his clients use but it's no longer good; I am thinking of just sending him an old-fashioned ink-on-paper letter via the brick-and-mortar post office. The phone is the worst medium for me; face-to-face a bit better if there is plenty of time; but I write more or less to live, so I can usually get my thoughts out in text better than anything else.

 

I want to add a little detail to my history/introduction, but I seem suddenly to be too tired to keep writing, so maybe I will try to do this tomorrow or later in the week. Thanks for being here.

Erik
poet. skeptic. laughs in the face of death ha!


Rx Hx: (Dates and doses 1999-2012 are approximate)
Dec 1997 started on Paxil.
thru 1999ish: every SSRI in existence, one at a time, except for Prozac...
2000: Prozac 40mg; added Zyprexa 5-10mg 

2004: began Buprenorphine, 40mg
2005: Prozac 60mg; Zyprexa 5-7.5mg; added Klonopin avg 1.5mg/day PRN
2006: Prozac 80mg; Zyprexa 5mg; Klonopin avg ~1mg PRN then down to 0.5mg by 2012
May, 2012: signs of tardive dyskinesia. Begin Zyprexa "taper": 2.5mg
late July, 2012: Zyprexa 1.25mg
early Aug, 2012: discontinued Zyprexa

     a little later Aug, 2012: GI disturbances, nausea, appetite loss, disturbed sleep, body temperature dysregulation, fatigue, sweating, headaches, beginning of rapid weight loss
Dec 2012: Prozac causing stomach pain; reduced to 60mg
Jan 2013-present: muscle pain and spasms in face, jaw, neck, shoulders, chest

5 Dec 2013: GP suggests increase in Klonopin for muscle spasms

Currently (Dec 2013): 60mg Prozac, 0.875 mg Klonopin, 40mg Buprenorphine

     nausea, headaches, muscle spasms, tardive dyskinesia continue;

     appetite back, increase in energy and in apparent metabolic rate

"mental" reactions since stopping Zyprexa: intermittent increase in obsessional thinking, extra emotional zing

     treatment: sitting meditation 50 min once or twice a day PRN

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  • 8 months later...

Hi everyone who might click on my thread when it pops up to the top again!

 

I have tried several times to write an update over the last couple of months but so far I have not been able to keep my energy and attention directed this way long enough to flesh it out, so I am going to try to make this fairly short.

 

Well, withdrawal is still going on, more than sixteen months after it started. I used to be skeptical but pragmatic about psych drugs: if they work, they work, I reasoned! Well, now I am so skeptical about the whole deal that I might not believe anything anyone says ever again: about "mental illness"; or our extent of knowledge about neurological processes; or about diagnosing individuals instead of cultural systems; or about the nature of empiricism itself. It's as though the universe decided that my education would not be complete until it convinced me that anyone who says they know anythng about anything is probably deluding themselves. I no longer trust my psychiatrist. I get extremely impatient with those who hesitate to critique received narratives--about anything at all! I have just about lost patience with "Western" civilization entirely. 

OK. So I think the twelve years on Zyprexa may have been sedating me a little bit out of the strength of my emotions. :) Just a little. Anger might be one of them, but fortunately the more enjoyable ones are also coming back to life in a way that I had ceased to believe they would. l still don't have a great deal of physical stamina or energy, but my emotions and my thought process in general just seem a tick hotter than before. I tell my therapist that my emotions go to '11' now. I still do not know what normal is or will be in anything related to my body's neurochemistry. Which is to say, nearly everything.

 

I had a few weeks of feeling mostly well as far as energy and physical pain went in October and November, but in December everything tanked. Or that is, a few specific symptoms have cropped up as the current palette of Things Wrong. My biggest problem now is that my face twitches with these little tiny furiously quick muscle spasms all around my eyes and down both sides of my nose and out to my cheeks and down into my jaw. From my jaw to my shoulders, the spasms are much slower, but very long lasting. I clench my teeth at night every night and often when I am not paying attention during the day. It takes muscular effort in the opposite direction to "relax" when they are really strong; if I exert no conscious effort, or that is, if I relax as one might expect to do, my jaw will clamp shut and my shoulders creep up in a frozen shrug.

 

I saw my primary care physician at the beginning of December. She offered me Tegretol and I politely turned her down. So then she suggested I increase my Klonopin dose, as she characterized what I had been taking as "nothing." I told her I would consider that and so came home and looked at how I had been taking it all through the Zyprexa withdrawal and I realized that I had in fact been cutting my dose back very slowly and very slightly. I am not actively trying to taper off it at all right now, but my approach to it has always been to take as little of it as possible. For some reason it had not occurred to me before that a stable benzo dose would have probably been much more helpful all this time. I take it daily, but have been going PRN as far as time and dose go for several years now and just kept doing as I had been doing.

 

So I recalled the advice I see here again and again: to pick a dose and stick with it. I am now taking 0.875mgs a day, according to a regular schedule. And what do you know: either it is helping a bit or this cycle is waning. Perhaps both? In any case I am planning on no further changes as long as I can get my psychiatrist to agree with that.

 

My daily headache streak is still intact but I do get a couple hours' break now and again. My gi tract prefers routine, but as long as I eat the same sorts of foods every day it mostly does ok.

 

Nausea, though, seems unpredictable. I have days where walking makes me motion sick! As does scrolling my desktop computer screen--very frustrating. I can hardly stand to be in a moving vehicle at all, which makes getting out of the city practically impossible. I don't recall reading about this particular symptom as WD related, but it seems of a piece with the headaches and fatigue. When I was little I got terribly carsick, but I had grown out of that for more than thirty years until now. I eat a lot of ginger and it does help ease the dizzy and sick once they have started, but so far it doesn't work so well as a prophylactic. 

 

So that's where I am now. I might edit this over the next couple of days if I can get to it. I wanted to get a sketch down, but I am probably forgetting something. I am sort of getting used to physical pain, but it does shorten my temper and so I have been trying to exercise mindfulness and not to demand more of myself than I can deliver. I swear this year and a half has been--well, another intense learning experience I guess. 

Erik
poet. skeptic. laughs in the face of death ha!


Rx Hx: (Dates and doses 1999-2012 are approximate)
Dec 1997 started on Paxil.
thru 1999ish: every SSRI in existence, one at a time, except for Prozac...
2000: Prozac 40mg; added Zyprexa 5-10mg 

2004: began Buprenorphine, 40mg
2005: Prozac 60mg; Zyprexa 5-7.5mg; added Klonopin avg 1.5mg/day PRN
2006: Prozac 80mg; Zyprexa 5mg; Klonopin avg ~1mg PRN then down to 0.5mg by 2012
May, 2012: signs of tardive dyskinesia. Begin Zyprexa "taper": 2.5mg
late July, 2012: Zyprexa 1.25mg
early Aug, 2012: discontinued Zyprexa

     a little later Aug, 2012: GI disturbances, nausea, appetite loss, disturbed sleep, body temperature dysregulation, fatigue, sweating, headaches, beginning of rapid weight loss
Dec 2012: Prozac causing stomach pain; reduced to 60mg
Jan 2013-present: muscle pain and spasms in face, jaw, neck, shoulders, chest

5 Dec 2013: GP suggests increase in Klonopin for muscle spasms

Currently (Dec 2013): 60mg Prozac, 0.875 mg Klonopin, 40mg Buprenorphine

     nausea, headaches, muscle spasms, tardive dyskinesia continue;

     appetite back, increase in energy and in apparent metabolic rate

"mental" reactions since stopping Zyprexa: intermittent increase in obsessional thinking, extra emotional zing

     treatment: sitting meditation 50 min once or twice a day PRN

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  • Administrator

Hello again, Erik. I know what you mean about empiricism. As far as medicine is concerned, seems like it's highly flexible.

 

Has the bruxism abated since you regularized your benzo dose? If not, you might consider a bite guard at night. Lessening the pressure sends signals back to the muscles, too.

 

I've had some success with treatment by an osteopath. Many are pain specialists; St. Mary's has a number on staff who take insurance.

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.

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Hi Alto!

 

Yes, I have had a running battle with the scientific method for many years, but not as an opponent, necessarily. It feels sorf of like what Nietzsche said about Socrates: "we are so close we are always fighting." Mainly I think that many practitioners of science are not as critical as they should be of received notions of what empiricism is. Or at least, if they are having those sorts of conversations, they are not public and they are not obviously influencing their work. Pharmaceutical-based medicine seems especially hypo-critical: lacking in self-critique and openly embracing apparent quick fixes despite the fact that they rarely deliver.

 

I could go on. Just met a friend at Philz which means I will be thinking thinking thinking till I fall into bed tonight. It's a good thing in this instance. :)

 

The bruxism is less persistent with the benzo increase: I sometimes wake with a slack jaw now! But I still wake with it clenched up at some point most every night. One of my Klonopin doses is a '4am' dose that I take after first sleep, as I have heard it called. At that point my jaw will be tight, and I take my little quarter pill and go back to sleep. It is after that that I am noticing some relief. I have to get myself to a dentist soon anyway, so I will ask about a bite guard--that is where they usually come from, right?

Erik
poet. skeptic. laughs in the face of death ha!


Rx Hx: (Dates and doses 1999-2012 are approximate)
Dec 1997 started on Paxil.
thru 1999ish: every SSRI in existence, one at a time, except for Prozac...
2000: Prozac 40mg; added Zyprexa 5-10mg 

2004: began Buprenorphine, 40mg
2005: Prozac 60mg; Zyprexa 5-7.5mg; added Klonopin avg 1.5mg/day PRN
2006: Prozac 80mg; Zyprexa 5mg; Klonopin avg ~1mg PRN then down to 0.5mg by 2012
May, 2012: signs of tardive dyskinesia. Begin Zyprexa "taper": 2.5mg
late July, 2012: Zyprexa 1.25mg
early Aug, 2012: discontinued Zyprexa

     a little later Aug, 2012: GI disturbances, nausea, appetite loss, disturbed sleep, body temperature dysregulation, fatigue, sweating, headaches, beginning of rapid weight loss
Dec 2012: Prozac causing stomach pain; reduced to 60mg
Jan 2013-present: muscle pain and spasms in face, jaw, neck, shoulders, chest

5 Dec 2013: GP suggests increase in Klonopin for muscle spasms

Currently (Dec 2013): 60mg Prozac, 0.875 mg Klonopin, 40mg Buprenorphine

     nausea, headaches, muscle spasms, tardive dyskinesia continue;

     appetite back, increase in energy and in apparent metabolic rate

"mental" reactions since stopping Zyprexa: intermittent increase in obsessional thinking, extra emotional zing

     treatment: sitting meditation 50 min once or twice a day PRN

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  • Administrator

Yes, it will help protect your teeth and jaw muscles from that clenching.

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

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