Meds For Life???

Is Klonopin okay to take for life? Also stuff to take like Antidepressants and a Antipsychotic, a Mood stabilizer, like Lithium for life? All these combinations? I dunno if they even work half the time.

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Hi @InfiniteSadness - I know my friend is on meds for life but sometimes they change them when they do not work as well.

Your prescriber would be the person to tell about sleeping patterns, disruptive thoughts and or behaviors and other things you notice so they can evaluate how well the meds are working. They also usually do blood tests periodically to make sure not too high a Lithimum level. If prescriber unavailable your pharmacist may help to some extent. I would try to get some doctor to check Lithium blood levels to make sure working safely and effectively.
@CANDC

You are lucky if you have a doctor or psychiatrist who will prescribe you Klonopin for life. Where I live they have really cracked down on benzos and it's extremely hard to get a prescription for more than about 6 benzos at a time. That's my experience.

Plenty of people are on medication for life. There are definitely serious health risks associated with the long term use of some psychiatric medications - particularly Lithium - but untreated mental illness can be fatal so I think it's a case of whether the risks of the medication are greater or lesser than the risks of being unmedicated.

@Exoskeleton, They had me on Valium for over 2 years straight, sometimes up to 30mg and sometimes with Klonopin or Ativan added. It was that or sui from Haldol injections (LAI court ordered by the lovely state of NH--Haldol's just the only one I wasn't super allergic to that wasn't super expensive). If I had stayed on Haldol for life, I would've stayed on valium for life

Anyways,
Benzos cause dependence and dementia, lithium causes kidney failure, antipsychotics cause diabetes/heart problems/EPS, anticonvulsants cause cognitive issues, untreated mental illness progresses and leads to a shyt life, possibly suicide, possibly prison, possibly institutionalization (where you'll be forcibly medicated anyway). Take yer pick.

How do benzos cause dementia?! Do all psych meds destroy the Brain???

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I don't know about Benzo's contributing to Dementia, but a pharmacist told me that long term use of them can lead to short term memory loss, which is something I experienced form them. I was on clonazepam at a fairly high dose for close to 20 years. My Dr's were just going to leave me on them indefinitely because I was physically dependant on them, despite current guidelines against long term use. But I decided to come of it, and did a taper with the help of my psychiatrist. It took me about 18 months to come off it.

As for antidepresants I plan to be on mine for life. One of my Dr's put it this way "Whatever got you there, keeps you there" meaning that whatever dose/med gets you out of the depresive episode with help keep you out. That being said, I have hadd multlple episodes of MDD while on meds and I hate to think what would have happened it I hadn't had the meds on board.

With regards to antipsychotics, I'm on 2. One of them I've been on for about 18/19 years. I've tried to taper it down but the minute I drop it I get intrusive suicidal thoughts so I'm going to stay on my current dose long term. The second one I've been on for 10 years and it works really well for me, While both meds work for me, I do have side effects that are problematic. They've raised my blood sugar, but I'm not yet diabetic, I have EPS, and one of them makes me dizzy and sleepy when I take it. That being said, I feel that the benefit of being on them outweighs the negative side effects.

I wish there was a cure or Remission to all this stuff.

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It's all trial and error. They don't know what works or doesn't work. You keep trying stuff until your mind believes this stuff is helping you. I think most of it is psychosomatic. Antidepressants and anti anxiety meds have , I believe , kept me alive. But for what ? The side effects suck. To me quality of the is everything. I want to live ! Not just exist.