Brain Damage?

I tried to tell my friend not to get hung up on the lists of side effects online from psychotropic drugs. Like you said you have to weigh up the positives and negatives. I know that I need mine and depending on what's going on with my life I am fine taking larger doses or trying to reduce. I have successfully reduced my meds. At 18 I did it with olanzapine as my doctor was encouraging. And when I had a second meltdown my quetiapine was put up. But a year ago I managed to cut the quetiapine and I didn't believe I could do it but I have. And it was not easy and I had to cease my college course. It was health before wealth. If I passed the course which I am positive I would have I could have applied to university. Would I have done something practical? No I would have done something like theology or philosophy.

My friends doctor said that mental illness like psychosis will damage brain more than if you take the drugs to prevent it in future.
But these drugs wreak havoc on a person physically so I do not blame anyone for stopping their medication. Its not the fact that weight gain reduces a person's confidence in appearance. Its that it can cause diabetes type two, and puts more strain on the heart. I fear most for my heart. And also fybromyalgia or other adverse effects on nervous system. And obviously the liver is bound to be effected processing pills every night.

Another of my friends seems to believe they don't need their medication and that it's just "quack science" but the psychiatrists ARE real doctors who have general medical degrees before they then train in psychology. They have to know how the body works to pescribe medication.

Not taking medication because there is a chance when you are sixty five that you may have a physical ailment is like saying I will never go somewhere in my car because there is more chance of dying in a car crash than a plane. Well I don't have a private jet so I will stick with my car!

Is there even a method to determine brain damage from meds? Some meds can affect certain systems in the body so I guess it could affect the brain in negative ways too. But I've been in treatment for 30 years and I have never encountered anyone who claimed to have brain damage from meds. Even if it could be proven, I still say the gain probably outweighs losses.

One thing to remember is, with depression you tend to look inward more, and perhaps focus or even fixate on what's going on in your body. If you expect brain damage then I'm sure you will find signs of it. Just the very fact that you have a condition that might need meds or other medical treatment indicates there is already something wrong somewhere.

It's hard to convince someone that is convinced meds will hurt them, otherwise. I'm a believer in getting what ever help you need to get well or just be able to handle living day to day. I know I would have been insane or dead long ago if not for modern medicine.

***I'm pro-meds for me only. It is wonderful if some can recover from other means. It's just that some people read an opinion on the interwebz and take it as fact. RESEARCH, people!

what i dont understand is the program as a whole ? you talk to a doctor ? a doctor forms an opinion what wrong with you ? gives you meds ? you take meds and keep taking meds ? what until you die ? i feel like i have brain damage from taking this ****. now thats my opinion. i know some have never any problems with these drugs. but when those who do get messed up who is going to fix it ? they never took any blood tests or brain scans before during or after. now i'm disgusted , stressed, pissed, miffed doo doo doo da da da needless to say i'm worse than i was. PILLS ARE NOT THE TOTAL ANSWER ! does this makes sense to anybody else ? what went wrong ?

Um, sometimes you can have side effects when you first start taking a med that gradually lessen over time. They don't cause actual brain damage or the chances are very slim. I'm much better off taking meds than not and I'll live a longer life if I do continue to take them.

In my case i have been on almost every drug imaginable, but i have to say after years of fighting with docs and therpists about going off of them, i am glad i am on them too now. i was so uncontrolable after several car accidents and brain injuries that i didn't realise the drugs were helping until recently. i thank the docs and nursses, the ones that treated me well, there are alot of bad ones out there, as i have found out, but also caring ones to. there is really no turning back in my case and since the meds work im willing to go with it compared to what i was like witht meds. i hope this helps.

too me after taking all these antidepressants my brain just does'nt feel right weather it can be classified as brain damage i dont know ? it feels like a walnut in a shell.all i know is i feel betrayed. let down. why do you think they call them shrinks ? or does'nt the younger generation refer to them as such ?

I want to believe willpower dominates concepts such as biology
But from my experience what has deteriorated me is other people

It could be coincidence or maybe a factor but I had brain damage about a year before symptoms started to show.

Some mental disorders are directly attributable to brain abnormalities (not damage, exactly, but, yes, a human brain damaged as a result of an automobile wreck can cause mental disorders) and it’s likely that neurological abnormalities will, in the future, be found to be the cause of mental illnesses.

I’m sure that some medications can cause damage to the brain but I don’t know of any offhand. Medications can alter brain functions.

I don’t think that you need to worry.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding you?

Biology isn’t really a ‘concept.’ It’s a science. Concepts are more like ideas that you may have. I’m not clear about how willpower can dominate the science of biology? Are you suggesting that one can fend off biological brain damage by the force of will?

The line from No Exit might appeal to you — “Hell is other people.”

Which suggests that mental illness is a result of neurological functions.

I’m riding my high horse with the whole neurological thing.

I know the line very well
Oh that’s not what I meant. What I meant is, don’t let intellectual facts of science and biology dominate you

My mind feels so damn slow whether it's the meds or my illness.
i have no idea.

WHY??....

cuz just becuz. wanna trade brains ? and we'll see who's more messed up.

which meds?

which helped.

which meds do you take.

I find my memory is much worse when my meds aren't working because of anxiety. It also happens when I don't get enough sleep. When I'm stable on meds, my mind works fine.

I'm so sorry you're struggling, InfiniteSadness

which meds helped.

I had a similar experience. Head trauma when I was 5. I don't even remember the next several years.