Posted by laura k on June 20, 2006, at 16:41:44
In reply to Re: Suggestions for antidepressant withdrawal?, posted by laura k on June 19, 2006, at 8:44:12
I am not a doctor... I talked to a naturopath and a nutritionist who helped me decide what to try. My pdoc and my family doctor are also in the loop. People don't stop to think about the things they put in their bodies and to learn about their effects on the nervous system. Amino acids, migraine meds, psyche meds, pain killers all affect neurotransmitters and can have neurological and neuromuscular effects. Most of these meds increase serotonin without a mechanism for decreasing it again or for reusing it. Then when you change meds, the levels get all screwy and you have bad effects. People forget the heart and lungs affected by this stuff too.
Psychiatrists spend five minutes every six weeks with us. They don't bother telling us this information, if they even know it. They don't ask what supplements you are taking. They don't ask if your family doctor started you on something new. or what sort of physical symptoms, like muscle aches or breathing problems you have.. At least mine never did. And not everybody would think to associate muscular problems with the psyche meds.
Pharmacy companies give them cash incentives to go to their seminars and to try their meds so I am a bit skeptical about it all. They thrive on our illness. They don't really have an incentive to cure us, do they? I certainly never got all that much better on ten meds. I got a whole host of liver, heart, lung and metabolic problems that were far worse than the mood swings.
Yeah, I am a bit bitter,, but that is because I have lost my home, my job, my health.. as a result of ten years of heavy duty meds, changing them every few months.. and my physical health declined and my mental health never really got better.. I only attempted suicide, had hallucinations, lung, heart, liver problems AFTER going on the meds.
And I am doing well enough now without them..
Anyway.. all this to say, I would try the alternative methods before doing anything else to further damage your organs and your brain. When I started on the antidepressants in 1985 and the mood stbnilizers in 1996, no one even suggested changing my diet and taking supplements. I would sure have preferred that to the drugs they fed me over the last two decades! But, you need to speak to a naturopath or a nutritionist and tell them everything you are taking.. :)
poster:laura k
thread:652708
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20060601/msgs/659327.html