UnfoldingSky: protracted withdrawal from Celexa, other drugs

[UnfoldingSky]

I just wanted to put here something I have found that seems to help with anxiety and may help over time with dry mouth (which I now suffer from and is leading to cavities.) 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBqGS-vEIs0

 

So I don't forget to use it.

[UnfoldingSky]

I realize today that it's been a decade since I managed to taper off all psych drugs so I thought it's about time for an update.  Coincidentally I just stumbled on some notes I had made while in the thick of withdrawal, so hopefully I can make a fairly thorough post about my improvement.

 

A little background first though.

 

I have been free of psych drugs since today's date in 2011 and since then have not taken any kind of pill of any variety (including for physical health issues.)  I suffered a severe reaction to Celexa in 2006, went on and off it several times at the insistence of medical professionals, and then stayed on for a little while and finally cold turkeyed (also in 2006.)   After that point various other drugs were given to me to "help", most of which caused further damage.  I wound up on benzos long term as well as a low dose of Propranolol.  All of the later drugs were given to me because of the reaction and withdrawal.  Initially I was given Ativan, but when I tried to taper off a few months after starting it found it impossible to cut so I tried to switch over to Valium. I then got "stuck", unable to fully transition over (as I had crippling brain fog and drug-induced "depression" when I tried to continue the transition) and not  knowing how to continue to switch over fully to Valium I just stuck with the doses I was on then. 

 

Finally after a long period I got some help from a benzo forum and was told to up-dose very slightly when switching to Valium, the theory being that the equivalency between Valium and Ativan was not exact.  So it was told to me that probably I was taking slightly too little Valium.  This turned out to be an apt point and by up-dosing ever so slightly I was able to continue bridging over to Valium. 

 

Once on Valium (and still on Propranolol) I then started my taper again.  After that I tapered off Propranolol as well.  

 

I should add that both the adverse reaction to Celexa as well as withdrawal from two drugs were diagnosed by doctors.  So between that reality and the fact I extensively researched how to understand if a reaction had occurred I'm very sure what happened to me was not "me".  What these drugs did to me was nothing like how I thought or behaved before too. 

 

It has also turned out that my so-called "depression" was really mostly caused by fatigue due to several easy to treat health issues doctors didn't even bother testing me for.  I had low vit. D and low iron.

 

Anyway, to the update...Here are the symptoms of the reaction/withdrawal I can still recall having or which I had written down.  I have noted which ones have gone away or improved and which have not.

 

-Akathisia, gone, has not returned in many years. I had had it both on some drugs as well as off of some of them.

 

-Tardive dyskinesia, gone, I may have the odd twitch like once or twice a year that's it. Nothing to even get worked up about.

 

-Pure "O' obsessive thinking, gone haven't had that in years either.

 

-Burning sensations in legs and arms (the technical name for these feelings are parasthesias), long gone. The arm sensation disappeared fairly early on, the leg sensation lasted longer.

 

-Strange leg aches that could come and go in the same day and were not caused by exercise, long gone.

 

-Myoclonus, basically gone, very occasionally will get this.

 

-Dissociation, depersonalization and derealization, thankfully long gone!

 

-Poor sense of smell.  I can smell some things but it seems to me my capacity to smell has generally been reduced.

 

-Tingling in extremities, basically gone, I have this on occasion but it may not have anything to do with the psych drugs at this point

 

-Raynaud's phenomenon--this was caused by Propranolol, a known and listed effect of that drug,  not the other pills I took.  I still retain a degree of cold sensitivity however this is improved to the point that I don't consider myself as suffering Raynaud's anymore.  There is a possibility at the moment that I am moving into hypothyroidism (have some symptoms doctors are not sure what is going on.) So cold sensitivity now could be from some other issue.

 

-Feelings of terror.  I believe this was part of the akathisia I suffered, and it's thankfully long gone.  There are no words to describe how hard that was to live through either.  To be basically perpetually terrified for no reason is a horror no person should ever have to go through...I found my mind then would often make up reasons for me to feel terrified because the sensation was so nonsensical.  I would know logically the ideas were untrue, but knowing that did about nothing to stop the feeling. 

 

-Problems with spelling and grammar.  Going into this experience I used to be really good at spelling, the sort of person who would win awards in school for this.  I have improved since the reactions but I have a big problem still whereby when I'm typing I basically will type whatever occurs in my head, so make a lot of mistakes.  The result makes me look like I'm dyslexic and I spend so much time correcting what I have written.  It's really quite frustrating but of course not the worst issue these pills can cause.  Grammar can still be an issue too (as you may have noticed here and there on my thread lol.) 

 

-Extreme negative thinking.  Improved a lot.  I can recall when I was in the thick of withdrawal I also had a really strange issue whereby I would read an article or post and my brain would turn innocuous words into terrifying words that were somewhat similar to what was actually written or into swear words. Thankfully that bizarre effect stopped a long time ago. 

 

-Dry skin  unfortunately this has only gotten worse for me.  I now suffer some sort of overall dryness problem (dry eyes, skin, mouth).  Doctors have not pinpointed the cause it may be an AI issue, or thyroid and lately I'm learning that you can have both too. 

 

-Stress sensitivity. I retain some degree of stress sensitivity but still not as bad as it was in the beginning. 

 

-Tingling sensations (on top of my head), long gone.  I believe these also qualify as parasthesias.

 

-"Mild" hyperthyroidism, this started after the reactions to Celexa and was a really big problem for me but thyroid leveled out after a few years.

 

-Extreme reactions to foods and supplements

 

I had to go on a very extreme diet due to the damage done me from these pills.  For about three years I ate NO white sugar at all, and avoided other sweeteners save occasional use of Stevia.  I also didn't have any alcohol at all in that time except if it was cooked in a meal.  No caffeine either.  I also avoided all processed foods. 

 

I will forever avoid alcohol as the effects on the body are said to be similar to those of benzos.  I have no idea if it would be dangerous for me to try now, but I am not playing Russian roulette with my health.  White sugar I regularly consume now and though I think I have a slighter sensitivity to it over and above my tolerance level before the pill reactions/withdrawal, it is nothing like how bad it was at the beginning.

 

i also consume caffeine fairly regularly too as well as processed foods. 

 

I do take some supplements too,  usually herbs and don't get the wired reactions like I used to.  Sometimes I take a B vit. and it can do some weird things to me but the effects are not extreme and don't last long.

 

-Lack of imagination.  For a number of years I basically had no imagination at all. I can't even begin to explain how creepy that sensation was..it sounds like something that is basically not even possible to go through save perhaps after a massive head injury or as a result of a serious brain disease.  Thankfully this has improved a lot.

 

-Lack of creativity.  This tied to the lack of imagination and has improved. 

 

-Difficulty focusing my eyes.  I had the hardest time with this initially after the reaction and cold turkey withdrawal.  I had an extreme problem whereby I couldn't focus my eyes properly to do certain things like read.  It felt like my eyes were moving around in their sockets (though they did not appear to be at the time.)  This did improve thankfully.

 

-Difficulty with reasoning.  I have improved in this area.

 

-Body temp dysregulation.  As noted above temp fluctuations caused me major problems.  This has improved but I still "feel it" when there's a big change.  The same can happen when there's a barometric pressure change.  I believe I read somewhere that the herb burdock (which grows as a weed in many places) can actually help a body temp issue though I'd have to read more to find out if that's true or not. I've taken the root as a tea before and it strangely made me sleepy (not really known for that effect but, I won't argue with it lol.)

 

-Extreme panic, gone. 

 

-Memory problems

 

Initially after suffering the problems from Celexa my memory suffered a bit of a hit.  However for a period of time (months) I still mostly retained  my memory. I think if I was not given more pills after this point, particularly pills known to cause serious memory loss like benzos and Propranolol, I would not have wound up with the extreme problem I got later.  Once more drugs were added though i hit a point from one day to the next was missing the vast majority of my memory.  This coincided with extreme dissociation.  For a few years i lived in this state, basically getting by a lot on intuition (which really came roaring to the forefront at that time).  This was a terrifying state to be in.  I had almost no recall for events in my past; working memory was terrible too.  I used to have near photographic recall for some subjects, so to fall that far was unbearable to me.  It got so bad that sometimes I couldn't even recall basic information like how old I was, or what month it was.    

 

Eventually access to my past memories returned.  I also improved in regards working memory.   Stress will make the problem worse. I have realized in the past few years that there's a shocking number of people in the world currently struggling with memory issues.  So while I would never wish this on anyone, I at least don't feel alone and often run into such people who thankfully usually don't really see "anything wrong" with me.  I feel a bit better not having to try to explain what's happened to me.

 

-Difficulty thinking of anything to say to people in person.  There was a period where I was almost mute that's how little I had to say to someone around me.  This eventually flipped over to having too much to say, where I had no off switch.

 

-Time distortions.  After suffering the massive memory loss I found myself basically living in the present moment almost all of the time. That lasted for three years. It was at once a really disconcerting experience but also had some upsides.  If I found myself in a nice environment, like out in nature for instance, I could attend completely to what I was doing.  After about three years I came back more to myself and sense of time started up again though it's still a little off. 

 

-Trauma from the whole ordeal.  There is no way to exaggerate how traumatizing it is to experience akathisia, sudden profound memory loss and many of the other problems I received from these pills.  For years after withdrawal started I could easily be triggered by discussions of anything relating to psychiatry.  I eventually found a solution, a newer trauma therapy that helped me get over the reactivity. I still retain a degree of trauma though but it's at least bearable now.

 

-Sensitivity to sound and light.  I had really severe sensitivities to sound, so bad that there was  a period of time I couldn't even tolerate my voice at a whisper.  I used to freak people out because my hearing was so acute during that time that I could pick up on what people were saying when they felt sure they were being quiet enough that they were not being heard.  One time some people a few floors down from me were talking quietly and I was able to word for word relate exactly what they had said..scared them pretty good lol.  While this was a devastating experience to go through while living in a noisy city, out in nature it worked really well as I found I had a really keen ability then to find where the birds and animals were in the woods.  So I had a lot of interesting experiences in nature then.  The light sensitivity was a big problem for a time too--I remember having an old blanket over my window to keep the sunlight out as even a proper blind was no good for me and taping the sides to the window frame so not a crack of light could get in.   Boy did my room look attractive lol.  Thankfully that also improved I'm not a vampire anymore. 

 

I think that's it for the moment but if any other issues come to mind I will try to post about them.

 

So overall I have improved greatly.  After I got over the worst issues like akathisia, I was eventually able to travel and even managed to take a long flight overseas something I never would have thought would be in my future when first I developed it.  I was almost crying I was so elated that I could sit still and enjoy the ride.  For a long time after I improved significantly I also became almost obsessed with experiencing those aspects of life I had missed out on in the thick of withdrawal.  I eventually decided on a program I called "cautious hedonism" whereby I reintroduced things like sugar or music to my life (I was not able to handle most music in severe withdrawal, it upset me greatly).  I developed a newfound appreciation for so many things...just being able to eat a piece of chocolate or listen to a song I had to avoid in the thick of withdrawal would be so exciting to me I would almost be crying from happiness. 

 

I also have to say thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way of this journey.  One of the few upsides in this has been connecting to some pretty amazing people. The amount of courage y'all display in getting through this is astounding.  Through this experience I was often reminded of the famous quote from Streetcar Named Desire "I have always relied on the kindness of strangers". 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[UnfoldingSky]

"-Difficulty focusing my eyes.  I had the hardest time with this initially after the reaction and cold turkey withdrawal.  I had an extreme problem whereby I couldn't focus my eyes properly to do certain things like read.  It felt like my eyes were moving around in their sockets (though they did not appear to be at the time.)  "

 

I meant to say that my eyes felt like they were moving around uncontrollably in my eye sockets.  For instance when reading instead of my eyes smoothly tracking what I wanted to read it felt like they were jumping around on the page. 

 

I also should add that I used to have spells of uncontrollable crying while in severe withdrawal.  At my worst I would cry three times a day.  Almost anything could set it off.  I got sort of used to this, and basically in a sense didn't react to what was happening to me, I just let the emotions go through me as I knew the crying would eventually stop.   My emotions did level out later, and now I only rarely cry.

[UnfoldingSky]

Adding to my page for future reference...

 

It's believed I have Sjogren's, and it turns out that this issue is said to cause dysautonomia. As I didn't get Sjogren's symptoms until after withdrawal I'm left wondering if antidepressants caused me to develop Sjogren's. 

 

https://www.sjogrens.org/understanding-sjogrens/symptoms

 

 

[UnfoldingSky]

As I have a concern over medication sensitivity adding this to my thread for future reference.  In my online wanderings I have come across mentions of pills that may be too dangerous for someone like myself who suffered severe reactions to antidepressants and akathisia to take.  

 

1.  Doxycycline

 

David Healy has a post relating to Doxycyline on his site Rxisk in which he details that

 

"Doxycycline also has serotonin reuptake inhibiting properties and people who become agitated on an SSRI may also become agitated on doxycycline and vice versa."

 

https://davidhealy.org/doxycycline-and-stephen-oneill/

 

2. Nytol

 

Again from David Healy's site Rxisk, Nytol may be another that SSRI harm survivors may have to think twice about:

 

"There is one further element that may have played a part – Nytol.  This drug is an antihistamine with serotonin reuptake inhibiting properties.  While it is often used for sedation, it can cause the kind of agitation that selective serotonin reuptake inhibiting (SSRI) antidepressants can cause."

 

https://davidhealy.org/doxycycline-and-stephen-oneill/

 

3.  Fluoroquinolone antibiotics

 

I'll have to search for the clip but somewhere in a Dr. Jordan Peterson video it's said a doctor told him that this class of ABs either can restart akathisia in those who had it before or will make it worse if you have it. I can't recall which.  (Dr. Peterson suffered akathisia due to benzos.)

[UnfoldingSky]

Adding a video I find helpful...(even though this is addressed to men and I'm female)

 

 

 

[Longroadhome]

@UnfoldingSky

hi there has the hair loss stopped now or do you still have a problem . 
mine has been awful all the way through tapering and holding with thinning breakage snd now getting baby fine hair where it has come out 

it’s a nightmare 

[UnfoldingSky]

Hi Longroadhome,

 

I still have a bit of a problem with this unfortunately.  I normally had some hair loss before the pill reactions, so it may be back at baseline, it's hard to say.  I'd been taking a supplement I felt helped, but it was making me feel weird, hard to describe but flaring up some withdrawal issues so I had to stop it. 

 

Wish I had a solution as this is really frustrating!

[UnfoldingSky]

Adding this to my page for future reference:

 

 

[Shellbell]

Unfolding. Can I ask how long your akathesia lasted? I’m suffering from this and it’s the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. I can’t put into words the feelings and so hard to explain to people. I got an attack after I tried cymbalta for three days. Stopped taking it and it went away. Then I stopped vicodin after 5 years and suffered from it again. Been 9 months since stopping vicodin. 4 months since stopping Remeron. And it’s the last side effect I am experiencing. I don’t know how much longer I can deal with the akathesia. It’s all mental and internal and it’s horrific. 
 

any advice?

[UnfoldingSky]

Hi Shellbell,

 

I'm sorry you've developed aka too, you are so right, words can't even begin to express how horrible it is.  I had mental akathisia too, a nearly constant feeling of inner terror. 

 

As for advice on how to survive it...i wish there was some easy formula.   Definitely you will want to avoid caffeine, white sugar if you can manage it, these can rev you up further.  Absolutely avoid as much stress as possible too.  You may find other triggers that make it worse.

 

Also there is a yoga pose listed on the site, not one everyone can manage, but it may be of help to you.  It can help with a feeling of terror. The link is around somewhere, hold on a minute I'll see if I can find it...

 

 

[UnfoldingSky]

Here is the link Shellbell :

 

 

It's listed as being a pose for pain but it helps deal with terror too. (I didn't have any pain, just the terror.)

[UnfoldingSky]

On 3/12/2021 at 9:09 AM, Longroadhome said:

@UnfoldingSky

hi there has the hair loss stopped now or do you still have a problem . 
mine has been awful all the way through tapering and holding with thinning breakage snd now getting baby fine hair where it has come out 

it’s a nightmare 

 

Hi again, I just read something the other day about a herbal rinse to help with hair loss that I may try. I can't find the link right now but, it said that a mix of sage and rosemary leaves steeped as a rinse could help. I recall reading a long time ago that sage could be beneficial (it also darkens hair in case you try it, so be aware.)  I forgot to try it though!

[SufferingCelexa]

@UnfoldingSkyI withdrew from Celexa one year ago.  I feel like I have a foggy brain.  I'm taking one college course remotely and stressed about writing my papers.  How long before your memory improved as well as reading and writing.  Can this be permanent damage?

[UnfoldingSky]

On 3/21/2021 at 1:34 PM, SufferingCelexa said:

@UnfoldingSkyI withdrew from Celexa one year ago.  I feel like I have a foggy brain.  I'm taking one college course remotely and stressed about writing my papers.  How long before your memory improved as well as reading and writing.  Can this be permanent damage?

 

Hi Suffering, I was on benzos and Propranolol which are known to cause profound memory problems in some, so those in combination with the harm from antidepressants and some other pills made it so I had a pretty severe case of memory loss.  So I hope yours is not as bad as my case.  It took me about three years to see an improvement, during that time was on benzos and Propranolol, and then some time more after getting off them to get another improvement. 

 

As far as if it's permanent damage it sounds like you are pretty young, I would think it won't be. I know there were some younger people I heard about long ago who had really severe withdrawal, like cold turkey for instance, who reported full recovery.  Don't lose heart, I know this is so difficult and frustrating.  I would have periods where I was not trying very hard to learn certain things feeling like what was the point, but then I signed up for a course online and I did pretty well, better than I expected.  So I would hope given how severe my case was if I can improve that much, that you will be able to improve probably faster than I did.

 

 

[SufferingCelexa]

@UnfoldingSkyThank you for the positive vibe.  I didn't do cold turkey but fast 3 week taper from 40 mg.  I'm trying not to give up.   

[UnfoldingSky]

On 3/30/2021 at 8:14 PM, SufferingCelexa said:

@UnfoldingSkyThank you for the positive vibe.  I didn't do cold turkey but fast 3 week taper from 40 mg.  I'm trying not to give up.   

 

No problem, I hope you turn a corner really soon!

[normalhuman]

On 2/9/2021 at 8:07 PM, UnfoldingSky said:

Adding to my page for future reference...

 

It's believed I have Sjogren's, and it turns out that this issue is said to cause dysautonomia. As I didn't get Sjogren's symptoms until after withdrawal I'm left wondering if antidepressants caused me to develop Sjogren's. 

 

https://www.sjogrens.org/understanding-sjogrens/symptoms

 

 

Just curious if you have a lot of joint pain with this diagnosis? And if so was joint pain part of your withdrawal experience?

[UnfoldingSky]

On 4/2/2021 at 11:50 PM, normalhuman said:

Just curious if you have a lot of joint pain with this diagnosis? And if so was joint pain part of your withdrawal experience?

 

Hi normalhuman, I do get some joint pain but it has not been crippling and I am not sure if it's not just general aging (I'm middle aged.)  I also used to take a lot of stinging nettle, as an infusion, which is I believe used for arthritis so could be I prevented or lessened any joint pain using it.   

 

 

 

 

[SufferingCelexa]

On 4/2/2021 at 8:17 PM, UnfoldingSky said:

 

No problem, I hope you turn a corner really soon!

It's hard to be alone all the time but I don't like being around people either.  

[UnfoldingSky]

On 4/6/2021 at 11:32 PM, SufferingCelexa said:

It's hard to be alone all the time but I don't like being around people either.  

 

Withdrawal is such a lonely endeavor...are the people you know understanding?  Have you tried to talk to friends about it?  I know I had a very hard time being around people myself, for all sorts of reasons and often felt alone when I was with them too.  It was like I was off on another planet, even when my body was there with them.  Sort of that "alone in a crowd" kind of feeling only extremely exaggerated.  And then I worried so much about how I presented to them, often times I would try hard not to talk, as I worried I would come across badly.   I now realize that in some situations I was not being judged badly, I wish I could have understood it then though. 

[SufferingCelexa]

1 hour ago, UnfoldingSky said:

Withdrawal is such a lonely endeavor...are the people you know understanding?  Have you tried to talk to friends about it?  I know I had a very hard time being around people myself, for all sorts of reasons and often felt alone when I was with them too.  

Yes, it's lonely but that's better than being around people.  It's embarrassing.  I know I'm not acting normal so I don't put myself in a situation where people are asking me what's wrong?  They want you to get over it or snap out of it but I can't.  I moved back home last year to get off these meds.  I have family support so I just stay home.  I only go out to go to work part-time.  I don't like to talk to anyone at work either.  They don't like me but I don't care, I just want to work.

[UnfoldingSky]

17 hours ago, SufferingCelexa said:

Yes, it's lonely but that's better than being around people.  It's embarrassing.  I know I'm not acting normal so I don't put myself in a situation where people are asking me what's wrong?  They want you to get over it or snap out of it but I can't.  I moved back home last year to get off these meds.  I have family support so I just stay home.  I only go out to go to work part-time.  I don't like to talk to anyone at work either.  They don't like me but I don't care, I just want to work.

 

Some of the jobs I worked I didn't want to talk either, just wanted to do the work and go home. I know what you mean.  I had friends trying to tell me to get over it too, my (now ex) best friend actually used to call and scream at me that I needed to "try harder".  Then offer advice that was totally useless for this sort of situation, like when I had noise sensitivity she'd tell me to go out in crowded noisy places for instance.

 

"So you're in withdrawal..maybe a night club would help? " was her sort of idea for healing withdrawal...It was pretty frustrating.

 

Really pointed out that we desperately need society wide information about what these pills do. 

 

I eventually started a plan to force myself to contact a friend I didn't want to lose touch with though, I would call him on a regular basis and then because my memory was bad i would actually write out some things to talk about.

 

 

[SufferingCelexa]

12 hours ago, UnfoldingSky said:

Really pointed out that we desperately need society wide information about what these pills do. 

Yes.  I don't think anyone gets it unless they've been through it themselves.  I'm sure your friend was trying to cheer you up to go to a out but a nightclub is the last place I want to go too especially with noise sensitivity.  It sucks because I turned 21 last year but never had a chance to have fun going to bars or anything.  

 

The doctors don't even believe it's possible to have withdrawals after 2 weeks.  I had a doctor yelling at me saying it's impossible for me to still be in withdrawals after one year, that my memory problems must be caused by something else.

 

  

[UnfoldingSky]

1 hour ago, SufferingCelexa said:

Yes.  I don't think anyone gets it unless they've been through it themselves.  I'm sure your friend was trying to cheer you up to go to a out but a nightclub is the last place I want to go too especially with noise sensitivity.  It sucks because I turned 21 last year but never had a chance to have fun going to bars or anything.  

 

The doctors don't even believe it's possible to have withdrawals after 2 weeks.  I had a doctor yelling at me saying it's impossible for me to still be in withdrawals after one year, that my memory problems must be caused by something else.

 

  

 

It's horrible that doctors do this, I'm sorry they were yelling at you.  Some of them can really bully young people, it's awful.  You know where I live the medical books actually list withdrawal lasting six to eight weeks (or did when I started this "journey".)

 

Not sure what they read now but still it seems most of them have no idea about longer term withdrawal. 

 

It's kind of bizarre that we have doctors here saying six to eight though and two where you are.

 

I had one neurologist tell me it was not even possible for someone my age TO have memory problems too (after admitting I had them no less.)  Said no one under fifty five gets memory issues...I guess no one under that age ever gets a head injury either, or early onset Alzheimer's too.  (Sadly that was the best neurologist in my area as well.)

 

The loss of time in withdrawal too is so hard to handle and it would be especially keenly felt when you are younger too.  I was a bit lucky in that regard, while I took pills in my twenties I did get my "bar years" out of the way for the most part before this tragedy struck me. While the pills never did really help me initially I didn't have major problems with them save a short withdrawal once.   But I was just starting to really enjoy my adult life when adverse reactions had to happen. 

[SufferingCelexa]

@UnfoldingSky Thanks for understanding.  Now it's been one year and 3 months since withdrawal.  I'm not seeing any improvement.  I'm ok at home but stay away from people because socializing never goes well.  

[UnfoldingSky]

On 4/25/2021 at 3:29 PM, SufferingCelexa said:

@UnfoldingSky Thanks for understanding.  Now it's been one year and 3 months since withdrawal.  I'm not seeing any improvement.  I'm ok at home but stay away from people because socializing never goes well.  

 

I am sorry you are still suffering. 

[UnfoldingSky]

On 4/2/2021 at 11:50 PM, normalhuman said:

Just curious if you have a lot of joint pain with this diagnosis? And if so was joint pain part of your withdrawal experience?

 

I'm having ongoing knee pain now.  I had forgotten, for a long period  I did have knee pain, for at least an entire summer if not longer.   

 

Does your joint pain come and go?

 

 

[normalhuman]

On 5/26/2021 at 5:44 PM, UnfoldingSky said:

 

I'm having ongoing knee pain now.  I had forgotten, for a long period  I did have knee pain, for at least an entire summer if not longer.   

 

Does your joint pain come and go?

 

 

Yes it comes and goes throughout the day & some days are worse than others. Several days I have nearly no pain, others it’s multiple joints and muscles so I’m hopeful it can eventually get better. All Dr’s don’t know any diagnosis besides possibly fibromyalgia, mast cell activation, or something autoimmune but too early to show in any blood tests. 

[Rosetta]

Unfolding Sky,

The joint pain rarely happens for me these days.  It came and went for years, but now it’s pretty rare.   It was in my elbows most of the time. I think it was inflammation caused by waves.
 

Rosetta

[UnfoldingSky]

On 5/28/2021 at 9:20 PM, normalhuman said:

Yes it comes and goes throughout the day & some days are worse than others. Several days I have nearly no pain, others it’s multiple joints and muscles so I’m hopeful it can eventually get better. All Dr’s don’t know any diagnosis besides possibly fibromyalgia, mast cell activation, or something autoimmune but too early to show in any blood tests. 

 

They aren't sure now if I have Sjogren's or not; nothing ever shows up in the bloodwork to suggest I have it (and don't want the lip biopsy to find out for sure).  If that is what it is though and your issue is same, I had the knee pain constantly for months then it went away for years. So if that's the cause I can say at least there is a potential to be pain free for long periods with this. Now have pain in one knee, fairly constant again.   I hope you can manage to sort out what is causing your problem!  I've been told a list of diagnoses too.

 

 

[UnfoldingSky]

On 5/29/2021 at 1:26 PM, Rosetta said:

Unfolding Sky,

The joint pain rarely happens for me these days.  It came and went for years, but now it’s pretty rare.   It was in my elbows most of the time. I think it was inflammation caused by waves.
 

Rosetta

 

This is good to hear, thank you for letting me know.   Hoping my knee pain goes soon. 

[UnfoldingSky]

I have a new term for a problem I got from psych drugs.  I was never that great at visualizing with my mind's eye, but after severe reactions to antidepressants, I was not able to do to this at all.  Turns out there is a term for this; I wonder how many others out there have experienced this solely because of psych drugs?

 

The term is aphantasia.  Some people have this naturally and it is not necessarily a bad thing if you do (reading about people who have great visualization skills some of them say they wish they could turn them off). 

 

 

[Erell]

On 6/2/2021 at 8:55 AM, UnfoldingSky said:

I have a new term for a problem I got from psych drugs.  I was never that great at visualizing with my mind's eye, but after severe reactions to antidepressants, I was not able to do to this at all.  Turns out there is a term for this; I wonder how many others out there have experienced this solely because of psych drugs?

 

The term is aphantasia.  Some people have this naturally and it is not necessarily a bad thing if you do (reading about people who have great visualization skills some of them say they wish they could turn them off).

 

"Funny" to read this : everytime I listen to "visualisation audio meditations" I can't understand how to "visualise" things, and focus on other things like memories or feelings.

I don't know how to explain, I just can't "visualise" in my mind.

Same thing when I started to discover PNL : it was nothing but frustrating because I'm not able to visualise things in my mind.

 

Couldn't tell if psychdrugs are involved in my case, I've started them at a young age and don't know if I was able to visualise before.

 

Funny to learn there is a term for this !

To be honest, it doesn't trouble me, I think we learn to use other ways to "project" ourselves.

 

[Altostrata]

How are you doing, @UnfoldingSky?

[getofflex]

Hi @UnfoldingSky.  You have quite a story.  I didn't read your first post, but I did read your detailed update from earlier this year.  How are things going for you at this time?