Do you ever wonder about quitting all meds?

I am Bipolar 1 and take several meds. I go through phases where I believe I would be better off without any meds. Unfortunately, thus far everytime I have gone off my meds, things got worse.

But tonight I am questioning the value of these dam things again.

Yeah I think about it, a lot. I'm on a chemical cocktail at very high doses, with some risky side effects. Heck I even have to wear a medic alert bracelet due to one med I'm on because it dangerously interacts with a ton of other meds. But I know I'm better on meds than I am off them. My pdoc has said that he'll consider taking me off meds if I can be completely symptom free of depression and PTSD for 2 years, otherwise he says a relapse will be inevitable. My previous pdoc told me I'd be on meds for life. I don't really mind, except I'm a bit nervous about being on an antipsychotic long term.

--splitimage

I used to think about quitting my meds, mainly because I didn't think they were helping much. Then I did quit them (not cold turkey, I tapered down gradually.) The first thing to get screwed up was my sleep. The next thing to get screwed up was my mood!! I was incredibly irritable and quick to fly off the handle. My mood was very unstable and my anxiety and depression were a lot worse. After a couple of months I re-started my meds again. And now I'm pretty resigned to staying on them. Or at least to being on some kind of medication, even if I change my current meds.

I had coped 6 and a half weeks med free due to changing from anti-depressants to a mood stabliser. However I dont feel the new med is doing anythign to me... I still feel the same. I have been on new med for 2 weeks so I guess give it another month. But I do think of not taking meds and I have when on anti-depressants "missed" a few tablets just cause I didnt see the need in taking them. Oh course my doctor's dont know about that lol

When I was coming off of anti-depressant for good nearly 3 months ago I decided to come off without stopping gradually like I am suppose to and I had some really nasty unwanted side effects ooopss!! GP was not amused lol

Yes I have wondered and have done it....unsuccessfully I might add. I ended up in the hospital after a few months off meds. I am bipolar II. I would not recommend going off meds.

I go through the same thing every day.

Hello,

I too have considered coming off my meds. What helps me to stay on my meds though, is to look at the past and remember times when I've tried to come off my medication, and it's been unsuccessful. Each time I've tried, I ended up back in the hospital. I just have to accept that my medications help me with my Bipolar and Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms, and there's no shame in being on meds if they help me to live my life.

I hope you'll stay on your medication if it's helping you.

The older I get, and the longer I have been dealing with BP, I know that just stopping meds is an invitation to not doing nor feeling very well. One can dream, but it could easily become a nightmare.

I want to, but am afraid i'd end up in a hospital again.

Yes, all of the time. Quittting/starting/changing.

It's deceiving, but the fact is- you are on the meds in the first place for a reason. If they are working, you start thinking you don't need them.. they are supposed to make you feel like that (Better). So you go off, and you feel worse. That's because they were helping to make you feel better enough to wonder if you need them!

The real challenge for me is just to accept that there is nothing wrong with needing them in the first place. I don't think people who are diabetics question their need for insulin, and I know my husband doesn't worry about whether he should take his heart medication.

Yes, acceptance is everything, so it seems.....

I have stopped taking my medications before as well, and eventually I've learned that it only makes things worse. I think the reason I stopped was because I hated the idea that I was relying solely on my meds. Now that I'm going to therapy and trying to improve and doing more than just taking meds I feel a lot better about taking them. It is a nice idea to think about living a med free life, but no one says you have to be on them forever. They're just helping you make you gain back control of your life for now. I've been trying to look at them as a good thing instead of a bad.

I had to stop taking almost all my meds for awhile because of various reasons. I survived for several months with beefed up therapy, but I am now back on a mood stabilizer and an anti-depressant. I am bipolar. I do wish I didn't have to take drugs, but I do believe that in the case of bipolars, it's partly, at least, a chemical imbalance, and we do need drugs to keep things in balance.

I hate having to take so many meds to. I always wondered what would happen if I did just stop and one time I tryed it,it was terrible. I stopped taking my anti-depressants and I wantEd to kill myself. I stopped taking my OCD meds and I became a crazy control freak. My relationship went down hill. If you want me to be completely honest im not taking any of mine right now but im doing it cause I think I deserve to feel ****** and sometimes I want everything to just end.

After years of trying so many different meds, the last being 4 years of effexor, and having either no or partial benefit, I quit meds. In retrospect, the partial benefit from effexor was preferable to the hell my life has been since. Maybe I need to see a new psychiatrist. I've been seeing my current doc for 23 years. I'm always very ambivalent about meds, not wanting sedation, weight gain, higher blood pressure, etc. But the quality of my life has really gone down the toilet over the past 4 or 5 years. I don't know whether it's my resistance or that he doesn't have any new ideas for meds to try. The atypical antipsychotics were suggested, but I'm scared to death of tardive dyskinesia. I have treatment-resistant depression, anxiety (and social anxiety), ADD, OCD including dermatotillomania.

I know what you mean. I am wondering about my bf going off his meds for SZ. he said his doc says he has mild SZ and he is scheduled to go off his meds in a few months. My bf had been telling me since he was first diagnosed that his doc told him he would only have a course of meds for a few years and then be done with it. I never actually started worrying till several months ago when I finally started researching the facts about SZ. Prior to that I knew nothing about SZ when my bf was diagnoses with it 3 years ago. If anyone has experience with having mild SZ and going off meds and how it affected you let me know I`d be interested in hearing your story. thanks in advance. P.S. To others here its sounds like a catch 22 to be or not to be on meds. The whole issue seems scary especially since I feel myself veering towards what seems like depression and anxiety. I`m also curious if Tom Cruise could be right about using proper nutrition and exersize to combat depression. I don`t mean to sound ill-informed but I`m new to learning about mental illness. Especially if I end up there myself I`d need to know diff alternatives.

I think we all thought about this at one time or another.

I know that if I'm off my meds, bad things happen. The last time I went off my meds, I tried to throw myself from a bridge.

Without Celexa, I'm a total basket case.

Can someone tell me the difference between mood stabilizers and anti-depressants, in terms of their make-up or how they work in the brain? Does one have more side effects than another?

I'm off of all of my meds right now. I just got out of the hospital, and the plan was to start an MAOI because I've tried most everything else with little to no success, but now my psychiatrist is refusing to let me try an MAOI, so I'm not sure what I'm gonna do...

Yes, I often think about quitting all medications. Mostly because I've never been on a medication that has actually worked. In fact, in the past I was forced (since I was a minor) to take SSRIs which only made me more unstable than I already was. I've never had a good reaction to an SSRI, yet psychiatrists keep insisting I take them. So I've tried and quit many, many, many different medications. And I still feel like my current medications aren't helping me much. I'm at the point where I want to give up and go med-free for a while.

you know it sucks that it's hard to find a psychs who are somehow reasonable and don't cave in presure of pharma to prescribe and prescribe. How can you get an informed and neutral opinion than?

I am sorry to hear of your experience.

http://www.askdrjones.com/medication...tidepressants/