[AzulOscuro]

I've been in meds for depression and anxiety for more than I can remember.
Now, as I'm feeling pretty low and show a more defeatist attitute than ever, my psychiatrist prescribed me a higher dossage. I expressed my doubts about taking more meds because I'm sure my low moods have nothing to be with anything organic. It's all about my patterns of thoughts and how I take and see the things that happen to me. It's all in my mind. I neither had been able to have a kid because of these ****ing meds.
He was agree with that my problems were ingrained in my personality but he thinks that meds can help me because changing patters in mind is not easy.
I thought, great! So, it's like setting a patch.
I don't see any logic at all. I always trusted doctors but now, I don't see the point in going on meds when they don't make many difference for me.
On the contrary, I'm thinking of getting rid of all of them little by little.

Do you take meds for your personality disorder? What's your opinion about taking meds? Did they make a difference for you?

[Skeezyks]

Hello AzulOscuro: Well... I've never actually been diagnosed with anything in particular by any of the mental health professionals I've seen. So I don't know if I could be diagnosed as having a personality disorder or not. There was a time when I thought I could possibly have been diagnosed as having BPD when I was young; but presumably no longer. I've been told that BPD tends to burn itself out as one ages. And I've definitely done that (aged that is...)

I have been on antidepressants in the past... sometimes along with a few other psych med's. I'm no longer on anything. I never felt as though they really did me much good. Mostly they just made me groggy. To me, the operative question here is... can you manage to live your day-to-day life (including not continuously transgressing your family members' & friends' personal boundaries) without being on psych med's? If you can do that, then my personal opinion is you're better off without the medications. But if your mental health issues (depression, anxiety, interpersonal problems, etc.) are so troublesome that you simply can't cope, then psych med's are the way to go, in my opinion. I don't know if that makes sense... it's a tough call...

[here today]

I don't take meds for my personality disorder. It wasn't diagnosed until 6 and a half years ago. I did have mild to moderate to finally severe depression over the years and tried meds sometimes for that but it didn't help.

While I was working through some trauma with the last therapist I saw I did not take any meds. I started taking an antidepressant last year to see if it could help me get over the "hump" of ??? (fear, lethargy, inertia, etc.) so I could try to participate in the world a little better. It has helped some this time.

[kkrrhh]

I'm pretty sure for personality disorders meds are typically used for co-morbid conditions, like if you've got anxiety or depression too, or maybe for mood swings.
Personally I do have depression, but still, MAOIs did wonders for my confidence and what I consider avoidant type symptoms, too.

[kecanoe]

I haven't found meds to be very helpful. Tried at least 15 different ones. Abilify helped because it numbed me out. Same for Xanax.

[AzulOscuro]

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

Hello AzulOscuro: Well... I've never actually been diagnosed with anything in particular by any of the mental health professionals I've seen. So I don't know if I could be diagnosed as having a personality disorder or not. There was a time when I thought I could possibly have been diagnosed as having BPD when I was young; but presumably no longer. I've been told that BPD tends to burn itself out as one ages. And I've definitely done that (aged that is...)

I have been on antidepressants in the past... sometimes along with a few other psych med's. I'm no longer on anything. I never felt as though they really did me much good. Mostly they just made me groggy. To me, the operative question here is... can you manage to live your day-to-day life (including not continuously transgressing your family members' & friends' personal boundaries) without being on psych med's? If you can do that, then my personal opinion is you're better off without the medications. But if your mental health issues (depression, anxiety, interpersonal problems, etc.) are so troublesome that you simply can't cope, then psych med's are the way to go, in my opinion. I don't know if that makes sense... it's a tough call...

Yes, It makes sense. I'm gonna try to lower the dossage and see if I have enough with therapy.
Thank you. :-)

[AzulOscuro]

Originally Posted by kkrrhh

I'm pretty sure for personality disorders meds are typically used for co-morbid conditions, like if you've got anxiety or depression too, or maybe for mood swings.
Personally I do have depression, but still, MAOIs did wonders for my confidence and what I consider avoidant type symptoms, too.

I understand. This is why I have more doubts. I have anxiety and depression.

[Skeezyks]

Originally Posted by AzulOscuro

Yes, It makes sense. I'm gonna try to lower the dossage and see if I have enough with therapy.
Thank you. :-)

Hi AzulOscuro: I wanted to follow up with a couple of additional thoughts here. You mentioned, in your original post, that you're feeling pretty low & showing a more defeatist attitude than ever. I certainly understand the desire to be off of med's. And I think, if one can live one's life successfully without them, that's great. But I do wonder if going off of them, under these circumstances, is the right way to go. Typically I think a person would consider trying to reduce, or discontinue, med's because they're doing well & want to see if they can maintain their level of success without med's.

And certainly, if you're going to try to go off of med's you want to do it gradually, under your doctor's guidance. Even though I'm no longer on psych med's, I do still have a pdoc whom I see periodically, just in case. Also, hopefully you've talked this through with your therapist & s/he is "on board", so to speak. Being off of med's is no picnic either. It's something I struggle with every day. And, to a large extent, I've arranged my day-to-day life so as not to "transgress" my mental health concerns. So, if you have decided to try going the med-free route, please do so carefully & thoughtfully. And keep in mind that if it does not seem to be going well, you can always turn back.

[Elio]

I don't have any official dx of a personality disorder. I know I am close to several. I do take welbutrin for obsessive thoughts. At higher doses, it changed my personality considerably; so I do believe that medication can make a change to someone. That being said, they are not always good changes, as I became antagonistic and ready for a fight on the higher dose. On one hand I liked it because I didn't care what others thought of me so much and I was able to stand up for myself more. On the other hand, I really didn't feel like me anymore.

Also, I tried a break without it and over about a 4 month period of time, I spiraled down to the worst depression I have ever been in. I had major life stuff hit me. Since life stuff always happens; I've wondered if my inability to deal with what happened was because I was off the medication. Even going back on it.. it has taken a year to get me to where I am feeling pretty good about life and able to handle the hard days.

[AzulOscuro]

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

Hi AzulOscuro: I wanted to follow up with a couple of additional thoughts here. You mentioned, in your original post, that you're feeling pretty low & showing a more defeatist attitude than ever. I certainly understand the desire to be off of med's. And I think, if one can live one's life successfully without them, that's great. But I do wonder if going off of them, under these circumstances, is the right way to go. Typically I think a person would consider trying to reduce, or discontinue, med's because they're doing well & want to see if they can maintain their level of success without med's.

And certainly, if you're going to try to go off of med's you want to do it gradually, under your doctor's guidance. Even though I'm no longer on psych med's, I do still have a pdoc whom I see periodically, just in case. Also, hopefully you've talked this through with your therapist & s/he is "on board", so to speak. Being off of med's is no picnic either. It's something I struggle with every day. And, to a large extent, I've arranged my day-to-day life so as not to "transgress" my mental health concerns. So, if you have decided to try going the med-free route, please do so carefully & thoughtfully. And keep in mind that if it does not seem to be going well, you can always turn back.

Thank you, Skeezyks!
The thing is that I haven't lowered my dossage yet.
It's something that I'm contempleting to do when I feel better. Indeed, I'm now feeling better and in the way things go on like this, I'll give it a try.

What I haven't done either is to take a higher dossage as my psychiatrist prescribed me. I've been so many years on meds and still I've been suffering downs so I wonder up to what point I need them or my betterings have been dued to time and therapy.
I know my mood and nerves depend a lot of my personality traits and my psychiatrist comfirmed it to me. He told me that meds were a help, according to him, a necessary help because personality traits aren't easy to cope.

I used to trust doctors a lot. I saw them as christians see a priest but not any more. So, I want to support myself on therapy, joga and mindfulness.

[AzulOscuro]

Originally Posted by Elio

I don't have any official dx of a personality disorder. I know I am close to several. I do take welbutrin for obsessive thoughts. At higher doses, it changed my personality considerably; so I do believe that medication can make a change to someone. That being said, they are not always good changes, as I became antagonistic and ready for a fight on the higher dose. On one hand I liked it because I didn't care what others thought of me so much and I was able to stand up for myself more. On the other hand, I really didn't feel like me anymore.

Also, I tried a break without it and over about a 4 month period of time, I spiraled down to the worst depression I have ever been in. I had major life stuff hit me. Since life stuff always happens; I've wondered if my inability to deal with what happened was because I was off the medication. Even going back on it.. it has taken a year to get me to where I am feeling pretty good about life and able to handle the hard days.

I understand you and I'm partly scared because of what could happen with the withdrawel so I will do it bit by bit.
Have you been on meds for many years? I have. Around 18 years.

[Elio]

I've been on armour thyroid for about 15 yrs, wellbutrin for about 9 yrs (obsessive thoughts, found it helps with depression and social avoidance), started low dose naltrexone this past march (possible inflammation, found it helps with eating disorder), and about to add testosterone (Gender Dysphoria)

[kecanoe]

I've been on meds about 7 years. I am in the process of tapering off, as directed by pdoc. I initiated the going off, but everybody on my treatment team is ok with it. Some of them are like "You don't feel any different?" and I respond no, and since I didn't feel any different when I started taking the meds I don't really expect to have anything change with me going off. When I went on meds, I was super depressed, suicidal and all that. pdoc kept making changes and adding things until I started on Abilify (with 6 other psych meds) which as I said above, numbed the worst of the feelings. I wasn't suicidal anymore-but that may also be due to the fact that I had years of therapy while all this was going on. Finally, about a year ago I noticed that I wasn't as depressed. I actually had some flashes of hope that I might get thru this, some confidence that the treatment would work. At that point I started tapering down Abilify and I found that I actually felt better off it-I believe that it numbed both good and bad feelings and now that the bad were not so incredibly overwhelming I could actually feel ok. I credit that turnaround to therapy. So I am off Abilify, And some of the other meds I was taking. Now I take a small dose of welbutrin, will be continuing to taper. I take a medium dose of nortiptylene, lower that I was. And I take cyclobenzaprine for sleep. It makes me happy each time I go to take meds because I take so much fewer.

[AzulOscuro]

Originally Posted by kecanoe

I've been on meds about 7 years. I am in the process of tapering off, as directed by pdoc. I initiated the going off, but everybody on my treatment team is ok with it. Some of them are like "You don't feel any different?" and I respond no, and since I didn't feel any different when I started taking the meds I don't really expect to have anything change with me going off. When I went on meds, I was super depressed, suicidal and all that. pdoc kept making changes and adding things until I started on Abilify (with 6 other psych meds) which as I said above, numbed the worst of the feelings. I wasn't suicidal anymore-but that may also be due to the fact that I had years of therapy while all this was going on. Finally, about a year ago I noticed that I wasn't as depressed. I actually had some flashes of hope that I might get thru this, some confidence that the treatment would work. At that point I started tapering down Abilify and I found that I actually felt better off it-I believe that it numbed both good and bad feelings and now that the bad were not so incredibly overwhelming I could actually feel ok. I credit that turnaround to therapy. So I am off Abilify, And some of the other meds I was taking. Now I take a small dose of welbutrin, will be continuing to taper. I take a medium dose of nortiptylene, lower that I was. And I take cyclobenzaprine for sleep. It makes me happy each time I go to take meds because I take so much fewer.

Yes, it's shocking how some antidepressants can induce suicide.
Luckily, I was last Monday with my psychologist and she told me it's time to get rid if meds.