[inflammable]

I've recently decided to go off my meds cold turkey. I take 1200 mg of lithium and 10 mg of Saphris. My reasons are complicated, but basically I feel like these meds are doing more harm than good. I also take Klonopin, supposedly 1 mg 2x per day but lately it's more like 6x per day. I'm not going off the Klonopin just yet, as I think it will help me withdraw from the other meds.

I'm looking for stories of you going off meds -- how has it been for you? Any success stories? Horror stories? What should I expect? Thanks for your input.

[Trippin2.0]

It was horrible. I don't recommend it, but I do understand why you'd choose to do so.


Lithium was killing me and pdoc refused to wean me off so I flushed the lot of them down the toilet.

This was back in October of 2011.


I had about 2 weeks of physical withdrawal symptoms. Cold sweats, fever, hallucinations, body aches...

It was honestly really horrid.


Then just when I got through those, my brain seemingly went into shock from not having any chemical support because I cycled 3x a day from one extreme to the next for almost 4 months straight.


It was exhausting, confusing and really disruptive. Honestly crazy making business, so I understand why most patients crawl back to their pdocs when that happens. It's so easy to confuse our brains re-adjusting to no meds with being worse off without meds... Idk what I would've done had I been working at the time.


Anyway, things settled down after that and I felt better. I was more symptomatic on meds, and the side effects of lithium were too terrible to bare.


So in the end it was worth it for me.

[HALLIEBETH87]

When I did it I went straight to mania. This was last yr. stopping the lamictal cold turkey was really dangerous but I was ok luckily. Please be safe.

[*PeaceLily*]

When I would come off meds cold turkey I would have mania and feel super productive and therefore think i was doing great, actually better without them, and then BAM severe depression, worse each time would hit.. I would decrease gradually if possible

xx

[HALLIEBETH87]

Yep....crash!

Not a good idea. Even weaning off meds can be horrible enough, let alone going cold turkey. But I cant talk, I threw in all the meds once, spent 6 months in hypomania then crashed into a mixed episode which had me begging for meds again. I had never been in a mixed episode before that and since I have had a few more - coincidence?

As much as I hate taking the damn drugs, I will be compliant until my trusted pdocs
say to reduce, they know its the end goal. Much much safer that way. I keep my job, home, boyfriend and friends, stay on the straight and narrow pretty much.

What do you have in place to help you through when the lack of meds mess with you? Whats your best go to technique? Have you got an emergency plan in place?

[nbritton]

Originally Posted by inflammable

I've recently decided to go off my meds cold turkey. I take 1200 mg of lithium and 10 mg of Saphris.

Not recommended. If you're intent on stopping, drop the lithium to 900 mg for one week, then 600 mg for one week, then 300 mg for two weeks, then stop. You need to tamper this drug, if you don't you could trigger a relapse. Furthermore, you might find that taking a lower dose is tolerable. Any amount of lithium in your system is better than no lithium.

I would not discontinue both drugs at the same time.

[jacky8807]

Lithium dosent actually have a withdrawal issue like seroquel or many others.the biggest problem with stopping it cold turkey is another episode within 3 months

[lacerta]

Last time I had to change my meds, I went straight to mixed episode bad as hell. Even weaning off slowly some of stuff has caused enough of suffer. Take care!

[newtothis31]

Really be careful. It might be worth getting a second opinion from another p-doc- and cutting your dosage gradually since it may be four weeks until you can get an appointment. Also the klonopin dosage that you're taking is extremely high- I really wouldn't go higher than what you are currently taking.

[gloamingone]

I honestly would NEVER go cold turkey without the knowledge, advice, and support of my pdoc. Regardless of the reasons you want to go cold turkey, going off these kinds of meds can cause serious problems. Think about it: when we start them, it takes weeks to feel the effects, because they're essentially rewiring our brains. The same things happen when we quit. If you quit too quickly, your poor brain is going to have a really hard time.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Darvula]

I went cold turkey, but I'd never recommend anyone else to do it, because it can be really risky. I did it because the drugs I was on had numbed my brain to such an extent that I didn't feel anything at all. No emotion. I woke up every day feeling like a stranger and I thought **** this, I would rather be crazy/depressed but feel like myself than feel nothing at all and like a stranger, so I chucked the lot down the toilet. Went bonkers for a while, but honestly I was so relieved to start feeling ANYTHING that I endured it and still do. That was years ago. Good luck to you. Hope meds work better for you than they did for me. I sometimes ponder trying them again, but then I think, no. I've got this far without them. I can manage.

[angelene]

Cold turkey is not advisable. Stepping down off your meds, as others have stated, is a much better way to go. Please take care.

[nbritton]

Originally Posted by Darvula

so I chucked the lot down the toilet.

You shouldn't dispose of medications down the toilet because it gets into the drinking water supply, especially if your city recycles waste water. However, since even normal people seem crazy maybe flushing psych meds down the toilet is a good thing. The ones you should never flush are antibiotics.

[LastQuestion]

Well, last week I tried to taper off of my Lamotrigine starting with a 12.5% decrease in dosage. The first two days I felt a bit more present, the brain fog somewhat dissipated, and had a moderate headache with some minor sleep disturbance, but on the third night I had a few electric shocks through my body, felt itchy, skin kind of burning, and at about 4 am woke up and felt fear, fear, and more fear; deathly afraid and suicidal and please don't hurt me thing that does not exist. I'd had moderate anxiety issues, practically normal, until withdrawal from Temazepam. Needless to say I went back to 300mg that evening. Even so, I have spent that weekend and most of this week in dysphoric mania, suicidal ideation ramping up significantly alongside homicidal thoughts directed towards sources of stress.

If I had not learned so many methods to cope with symptoms caused by withdrawal when I discontinued Mirtazapine and tapered Temazepam I think matters could have become unmanageable. Although, if I hadn't gone through those withdrawals my reaction to tapering Lamotrigine would most likely be far less severe, perhaps even negligible. It may be that I simply need more time to recover from the...damage? trauma? Idk. For me, withdrawal from psychotropics has been painful and destructive. I never want to do it again, but I'll have to soon enough if I'm ever to feel alive, to have a reason to exist, goals I desire to achieve...it's been a very bad year in large part due to withdrawal.

Taper, always taper, reduce stress, get sleep (darkness therapy, time release melatonin), a healthy whole foods diet, regular exercise, and some supplements can all significantly improve recovery and help maintain some stability. Not everyone has a hard time during withdrawal, but for those that do it can be a haunting ordeal.

[Goldcrest]

I have done both - come off drugs cold turkey, and come off others by tapering. I have to say tapering is best, and that can be hard enough. But if you are determined to just get through the withdrawal effects, you can do it all at once. It can make you feel really ill physically, apart from the effects on your bipolar.

[HALLIEBETH87]

Originally Posted by nbritton

You shouldn't dispose of medications down the toilet because it gets into the drinking water supply, especially if your city recycles waste water. However, since even normal people seem crazy maybe flushing psych meds down the toilet is a good thing. The ones you should never flush are antibiotics.

And heart meds!

[~Christina]

I tapered down Lithium 2 months ago to get off the stuff , with my pdoc's approval......never expecting an issue of any kind , hell, I have dropped heavy duty harsh AP's left and right never so much as a hiccup ...

Well withdraw from Lithium has been pure hell on earth. Flu like symptoms, shaking , Difficulty thinking , speaking and forgetting damn near any and all things, deja va constant, vision issues, vertigo, conversations I have no clue about,oh the list goes on.

Things are now calming down, Still having a handful of issues.. My Pdoc was aware of the hell I was going through and left it up to me as to whether take or go back on any kind of med, No thank you !

Slowly I am seeing my IQ increase towards "pre-med" days.

Cold turkey isn't typically a good idea but keep in mind coming off with a taper doesn't always make for a soft landing either.

If you drop your Benzios keep in mind most people have wicked seizures and or worst. They "have to be to be tapered down , especially at your current dose"

Stay safe with whatever you decide to do

[nbritton]

Originally Posted by ~Christina

Well withdraw from Lithium has been pure hell on earth. Flu like symptoms, shaking , Difficulty thinking , speaking and forgetting damn near any and all things, deja va constant, vision issues, vertigo, conversations I have no clue about,oh the list goes on.

If you stay on a small dose, i.g. 300 mg, that helps. Furthermore, even a small dose like 300 mg has therapeutic benifits. They say lithium has no biological function, but I would beg to differ and believe that small supplemental amounts can help you stay in good health.

Here are some recent journal articles:
Longer lithium exposure is associated with better white matter integrity in older adults with bipolar disorder.
Neuroprotective Effects of Lithium: Implications for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Neurodegenerative Disorders.
A New Avenue for Lithium: Intervention in Traumatic Brain Injury.
Neuroprotective effect of lithium on hippocampal volumes in bipolar disorder independent of long-term treatment response.

[inflammable]

Thank you all for your input. This has been really helpful. I'm still going to go off the lithium and Saphris all at once, and just taper down the Klonopin later. I've been a day off the lithium and Saphris and so far, so good. How long did it take for you to feel any ill (or positive -- still hoping for positive) effects?

[Silent Void]

I cold turkeyed a couple of times. Just got sick of taking handfuls of meds. Didn't work out very well. I get too depressed without them and go to very dark, inhospitable places. The real world is a very ugly place.

I don't recommend it.

[~Christina]

Originally Posted by nbritton

If you stay on a small dose, i.g. 300 mg, that helps. Furthermore, even a small dose like 300 mg has therapeutic benifits. They say lithium has no biological function, but I would beg to differ and believe that small supplemental amounts can help you stay in good health.

Here are some recent journal articles:
Longer lithium exposure is associated with better white matter integrity in older adults with bipolar disorder.
Neuroprotective Effects of Lithium: Implications for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Neurodegenerative Disorders.
A New Avenue for Lithium: Intervention in Traumatic Brain Injury.
Neuroprotective effect of lithium on hippocampal volumes in bipolar disorder independent of long-term treatment response.

I appreciate the information, but my whole purpose of stopping the medication is to stay off psych meds across the board

For "me" they are harsh chemicals that I no longer have any desire to ingest. Many people are on meds and its working wonders for them, and that is fantastic.

I refuse to take them, I will rely on my coping skills to get my stablility and when an episode pops up as Bipolar does whether on meds or not for me , I will ride the waves and manage.

Oh course this is my opinion and what my Pdoc and I decided upon.

[Tucson]

Originally Posted by inflammable

I've recently decided to go off my meds cold turkey. I take 1200 mg of lithium and 10 mg of Saphris. My reasons are complicated, but basically I feel like these meds are doing more harm than good. I also take Klonopin, supposedly 1 mg 2x per day but lately it's more like 6x per day. I'm not going off the Klonopin just yet, as I think it will help me withdraw from the other meds.

I'm looking for stories of you going off meds -- how has it been for you? Any success stories? Horror stories? What should I expect? Thanks for your input.

Unless there is immediate danger to your physical or mental wellbeing, why would it be necessary to go "cold turkey"? IMO even a short taper can help.

[prepsychmel]

Be careful! Hope you're under the care of a doc who knows about this.

[nbritton]

Originally Posted by ~Christina

I will ride the waves and manage.

Are you worried about kindling?