[still_crazy]

its just a fancy way of saying that long term tranquilizer/antipsychotic use can cause serious problems, even lingering loss of IQ. ugh.

i've read a little bit about it. for whatever reason, once thorazine hit the market in the 50s, doctors in the US tended to use higher doses than european shrinks, a practice that continues to this day (especially in state hospitals).

so, it is known that high doses of the old drugs cause brain damage and cognitive problems. oddly...over the long haul, high dose tranquilizer/antipsychotics can make psychosis -worse- than it was before treatment (tardive psychosis).

and yet..im stuck on my abilify, lol. 20mgs/abilify is probably a lot easier to tolerate than 20mgs/haldol, lol. so...

this is just -1- example of people being stuck "in treatment" with drugs that suppress symptoms and, over the long haul, cost $$$ and can create their own set of problems.

and yet...what are we to do? personally, I'm glad I've been spared those involuntary, long acting injections. --shudder-- i see how the nurses at the clinic sometimes treat the people on those court orders, and...whoa. as if being pumped full of Prolixin or whatever wasn't bad enough, they have to deal with some sass from the nurses, lol.

ok. kind venting, kind of...ugh! what's the deal with psychiatry?

[wildflowerchild25]

Just out of curiosity, no disrespect to you at all, But why are you still on meds if you seem to hate them so much? Is it because you feel you have to be because of family and societal pressures (which you’ve written about before), or do they genuinely help YOU feel better? Again, no disrespect, it just seems to be a common theme with your posts. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want.

[~Christina]

Medication have a good and a bad side.

I really don’t like long term AP meds or meds in general but right now I just need it.

I have been med free before and did well for about 18 months , but then well I crashed and went back on them.

Do you want to be on them and dislike the side effects or do you just want off them ?

Just curious like Wild.

[still_crazy]

-sigh- its like...

i do better w/ abilify @ 20mgs than anything else. with all the supplements on board, I get good coverage w/o eps, tics, td, dysphoria...you nkow, all that stuff that comes w/ the tranquilizers.

ive never taken lithium. my depakote blood leves turned nearly toxic, quickly. trileptal was basically just a glorified sedative.

i just...dont know. my current psychiatrist is OK, but I've dealt with pricks. one publicly humiliated me. i got the medical board involved, filed a HIPPAA complaint, now I can't get a private practice doctor to treat me.

plus, its like...yes, sometimes, the drugs 'help.' but..for how long? at what costs? maybe im always waiting for something horrible to come of this?

I’m more than a little worried about lithium kicking my kidneys. I watched my husband die (young) of organ failure with the kidneys leading the way, so I know EXACTLY what that means.

But, I had already tried other meds. I dragged my sorry butt nearly ready to die to the psychiatrist and asked for the lithium I had rejected before, and I miraculously felt better in about two weeks. I don’t care what anyone says, lithium works on depression and anxiety for me. I had it so bad I couldn’t stand to be in my skin.

I’ve got to have this lithium.

I’m scared because I keep getting worse. I know looking back I’ve been bipolar my whole life. But my husband dying made me worse. Then this stressful job made me worse yet (I had to take it—my previous employer going out of business cut me in a layoff). My mom got worse as she got older.

So, what do I do if I can’t take the lithium anymore because of the kidneys?

I’ll let them hit me with the ECT treatments and pray for my memory to stay with me.

[amicus_curiae]

Mmm... I’m ready to catch the next flight out, I guess.

I was in a state facility for three years and I had AP injections early on, maybe the first year (?), but on oral AP’s afterwards. And ever since. I don’t feel any stupider today than yesterday (when I was an idiot) but my brain becomes more cluttered with each passing day.

I had several ‘early onset dementia’ discussions when I had instances of doing some things during manic periods that I would forget. Higher doses of my regular AP’s and I always (think) know what I’ve done. Gee — I’ve been on AP’s for almost 35 years. My labs are always exceptional, so... I’m not going to start worrying about something new

***In Another World***

[Pookyl]

It’s a hard one. I’m often conflicted. On a philosophical level I believe I’m entitled to live a med free life. In practice I’m so unwell/unstable mentallly that I have to take meds.

My dad’s parents both died because of dementia, so it’s in my genes already. I hate that managing my mental illness with meds increases my chances more.
But again, if I don’t take them it’s like I’m choosing to risk my life. I don’t think DH or the kids would cope with that.

I already had kidney disease, liver and thyroid issues pre-dating my bipolar so I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t. Lithium works so well for me that I’ve accepted that my bloods need to be done every 3-4weeks, and I drink 3L a day.

Correctly medicating people in institutions is also tough. I have a family member who works in mental heath and they were bashed by an under medicated psych patient last year.

[Tucson]

“Evidence has been accumulating that the neuroleptics also cause damage to the highest centres of the brain, producing chronic mental dysfunction, tardive dementia and tardive psychosis. These drug effects may be considered a mental equivalent of tardive dyskinesia.”

Need I say more?

I need to talk to my pdoc about this.Not good at all. Maybe this caused my cognitive dysfunction that I have had for some time now?

[still_crazy]

its...scary. Orthomolecular, the high dose b-vitamins and antioxidants thing I do, seems to reduce the TD risk considerably. It stands to reason that if its protecting the brain from TD, maybe it'll also reduce some of the other long term risks (/).

With the vitamins, I don't have twitches, EPS, drug induced depression, anything terrible. Without the vitamins, I had a touch of the "Thorazine Shuffle," and I've only taken "atypicals," long term. I don't think the new(er) drugs are necessarily as clean and safe as the doctors make them out to be.

ugh. at least its Abilify, not massive doses of Haldol or something, lol. At least I'm not on those long acting injections, or in a hospital, or living in real, true poverty. My life is much, much better than it was. What bothers me is...as "mental patients" go...I'm now something of an "exception to the rule."

maybe that's why I'm struggling with all this mental health sutff? I've seen what they do to poor people, "trouble makers," what the drugs can do over the long haul, etc., and yet...

I -still- need "treatment." LOL.

Thanks for letting me vent a bit. :-)