Posted by bobman on June 19, 2010, at 20:35:12
In reply to Re: im also rejecting meds... » SLS, posted by bobman on June 19, 2010, at 19:36:08
By the way, I'm also rejecting meds. It has been very very difficult to come off my lamictal + cymbalta combo. Lamictal I used for nearly 2 years, at dosages between 25mg and 275mg (averaged about 175mg for the first year, and about 75mg for the last 6-8 months, don't remember exactly).
I'm 24, and I've been clean from any pharmaceutical since February 14 2009. In response to a preceding post, I make a distinction between pharmaceutical psychotropics, and pscyhotropic substance from the earth. Yes, foods affect the psyche, but they aren't backed by thousands of years of safety testing. Herbs that our predecessors evolved alongside and used for sustenance I trust to restore me. Novel synthetic substances are flat out devastating on our bodies, as evidenced by the huge list of side effects attached to every psychotropic medication. It's not about trying to exist without ingesting anything, it's about using real solutions to live fully.
I now eat/make tea with gotu kola whole herb (4-9g/day), eat alleppe turmeric (~4-6g/day), lots of spinach, fish, broccoli. Other than that I study very hard, do my best to work out, although that has been difficult as I had complicated bilateral shoulder surgeries 9 months ago. I've reforged my relationship with my mother, and I go to school at a top 30 university full time. I worked before the injuries, but haven't since the surgeries. 2 months after I turned 18 I graduated from the #1 boarding school in the world. I had a bright future. Since I started psychotropic medications I have struggled; and I've lost a few years of my life.
To the OP, I also used AA to help my recovery, going to meetings for several months. I went through step 4 of the handbook(where you make amends with those you hurt), leaving the program shortly after because I didn't have a substance-addictive personality, and was beginning to feel out of place. Currently I'm looking at some mental-recovery, AA-like programs, though I haven't really done much about that recently. I spend most of my free time either reading or meditating (I meditated at a Vasrayana meditation center for 4 months before the surgeries, and learned a bit about it there), and figuring out what I'm going to do from here on. I read my high school's monthly alum journal, and see my friends in Harvard graduate programs, serving overseas, working as some of the highest-level 23-24 year old execs at Forbes 100 companies, and joining Oxford as Rhodes scholars. I'm just now regaining my mind enough to think about going into a more serious university major (I'm in business currently, want to go into chemistry and neuromedicine or genetics).
I know not everyone will agree with that view, but I've been through the western medical system, and the solutions it provides are clearly market-opportunity driven. Otherwise I couldn't imagine a justification for administering a medication to correct a neurotransmitter imbalance which is never tested for. Psychiartrists do not in practice use the scientific method in their treatment protocols. Psychiatry is clearly an observational medicine, with no falsifiable hypothesis, not unlike religion-based medicine. It is however, more dangerous, because in melding jargon backed by industry influenced studies, it carries a sway over people that today religion cannot. In fact, the blind faith people have in science is reminiscent of religious zealots, for both follow the word of an authority backed by assurances of truth. Very few mental patients have the capacity to understand the medical studies their treatment is based on. I've spent enough time reading studies on m.i treatments (armed with only 1 year of biomed eng. admittedly) to understand that they are, at best, shots in the dark with buckshot.
Sorry for the long post, it's just been hard to be "mentally-interesting" while having to deal with all sorts of cognitive issues that emerged after ~ 6 months of lamictal, still present (though receding) today. If you've read this entire post, thank you, if not, please take a few minutes if you can.
poster:bobman
thread:951199
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100615/msgs/951529.html