Posted by bleauberry on February 29, 2008, at 22:14:52
In reply to I want to quit all of my medications, posted by ltlnnja on February 29, 2008, at 15:05:47
I've been in your shoes. After years of being ok with drugs, and then later developing serious problems from them, I felt it was responsible to seek alternative treatments.
Please do not underestimate the dangers involved or the difficulty. It requires a tough as nails mindset and a goal oriented patient strategy.
Make sure those you live with know what you are doing and why. That will help them understand the changes you will go through.
Get real good at cutting little tiny pieces off of pills. Get good at emptying tiny little bits out of capsules. It will be crucial to lower doses in eensy weensy increments. Based on my own personal experience in getting off similar drugs, a likely timeframe for the whole deal should be about 6 to 12 months. That allows for slow enough weaning to tolerate it and continue functioning in life and minimize dangerous chaotic reactions of going too aggressively.
I found it best to wean off one at a time so I knew what was doing what. Sometimes I would wean one down to about half, then the other down to about half, and seesaw back and forth on the way down.
No matter. The key is take a long time, probably longer than you think, and that's ok. Time is only slow in the present. Looking back, where did time fly? Ya know? Steps down in dosage should be very very very tiny ones. You will know if you went to much too fast, as your body and mind will go into chaos. Backup and slow down. It is fine to pause at a certain dose for a couple weeks to stabilize and rest. If you try to push it, you will be sorry.
It would be a great idea to have an alternative or integrative doctor onboard the whole time. Someone who knows the drugs you are on, someone who can prescribe them, someone who has ideas of what to do once off them, and someone who knows what can help right now that doesn't need to wait.
poster:bleauberry
thread:815385
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080221/msgs/815486.html