View Full Version : Medication Forever?
Hi Guys,
I dont know whether this is actually a query, or if I just feel like writing it, but it would be interesting to see your responses anyway.
Background: I've been on Prozac since I was 14 (23 now) for depression. (The panic came later). It's worked pretty well I think, because I haven't had any bad depressions in years - I guess coz my life is going well... I still fall apart when something goes wrong.
Now, I know that lots and lots of people hate medication, refuse to take it, or want to get off it as soon as they can.
But I've always thought "if I have to take a pill every day for the rest of my life, I don't care.. because it's helping."
Why are people so adament that they don't wanna be "Stuck" on medication for the rest of their lives?
Hell, if it's helping me, I'll do whatever I have to every day for the rest of my life :)
The main aim is to find a way to get on with living. Some people need medication because there's no other way but in other cases people find they can cope without them. It also depends what condition a person is suffering from.
There's no right or wrong. It's whatever works and if medication works for your depression then it has to be good!:winks:
I've been on medication on and off for 7 years. Finally I've got the regime right and will stay on it for as long as it takes. I came off it completely about 2 years ago and plunged into a horrendous episode so not risking that again. It suits some, not others, I know that.
If a medication works for someone to ease the dreadful symptoms of depression/anxiety then it has to be a good thing. I think you would be a fool to completely rule out medication for reasons like you don't want to be taking "that sort" of medication.
Loads of people have to take medication for physical illnesses every day of their lives and it may be keeping them alive/alleviating debilitating symptoms, so why would you not take an anti depressant to help your anxiety/depression?
The problem comes when the medication stops working for you. This is the case with me which I have been writing about on another thread.
I was on a medication (Seroxat) which worked pretty well for me for years and years - I remember telling my gp about 9 months into treatment with this medication "I'll never come off this med Doc". I said that to him because prior to the Seroxat I had suffered very bad panics and they were ruining my life - at that time the medication did give me my life back.
It was about 6 years later when my new gp told me that it was time I started thinking of getting off the medication. I was fine, happy, still had panics but managed them, so I guessed she must be right, after all I was well now - so I agreed.
Due to this gp's lack of experience with the medication she began to withdraw me from it far too quickly. I, at that time, did not know otherwise. This rapid withdrawal from a medication which MUST be tapered down mega slowly poleaxed me into a depression and anxiety state I had never experiened the like of.
The withdrawal was so bad that the gp had to refer me to a psychiatrist because she admitted that she was out of her depth here. The shrink was livid that I had been tapered down so quickly and wrote to the go giving her instructions on how to taper a patient from this medication.
After that, and after trying Seroxat again with chronic side effects - no matter what med I tried - and I did try a fair few, and not for just a few weeks at a time, for literally months - and none had what would be seen as a therapeutic effect. Also, the side effects I experienced when I tried the medications were literally disabling me at times. I still don't know if I was suffering prolonged withdrawal or whether it was the new meds.
I now have just come off another medication (Duloxetine) - and am going through some nasty withdrawal symptoms - but I am going to try to get through it and just hope I come out reasonably ok at the other end.
I came to the conclusion that I had no alternative but to try the no meds approach - I have decided that I must try to combat the panics without medication.
If I was given a medication today and assured that I would suffer only mild side effects and that the medication WOULD do the job it is meant to do then I promise you I would take it.
Yvonne
Pink Panic
23-11-07, 09:31
Hi
If I thought I could be better by taking Meds for the rest of my life I would certainly try but unfortunately there are no guarantees and the side effects differ from person to person. Then there's the chance they may stop working and you have to up your dose or change pills.
I'm not on Medication main reason being bad experiences with it. I tried anti-deps and they really did not agree with me and made me worse, I also became hooked on painkillers (dihydrocodeine) after taking it for a back injury and the withdrawl was awful.
GP and the first Psychiartrist I saw said I would never get better without Meds but now this Psych says I don't need them as I have learnt how to cope with my anxiety without it. I hasten to add that he did provide me with Support Groups, CBT and a CPN which have all helped me greatly.
On a bad day I do think that maybe I should give Meds a go but on a good day when I am achieving things without it I realise that I have made the right decision for me at the mo.
I think the main thing is that it really doesn't matter if you do have to take a pill everyday if that's what helps you have a better quality of life but they aren't for everyone and recovery is possible both with and without them.
Pink
x
sophieunderscore
24-11-07, 00:22
I don't think there's any problem with staying on meds for life, but I think people have a problem with it because they feel like they want to have overcome the problem themselves and not without the help of pills.
I think antidepressents are great because they give people the motivation to get better and it's brilliant you haven't been having bad depressions for a long time! If you did want to stop taking the tablets I'd really reccomend some kind of therapy... CBT for example... whilst still on them and then taper off slowly... However, you've said you're happy with the tablets, well done for finding something that's worked for you! :yesyes:
Hi Sophie
I don't think it is the fact that people want to overcome the problem themselves. I think most people who do opt for meds have tried most methods, (relaxation, cbt, etc etc) before they finally do take the step to start meds. Also, I don't think that the majority of doctors hand out anti depressants to anxiety sufferers that freely any more (they normally offer some counselling first).
I think it's when people get to the stage where they really cannot cope with their panics that they finally do give in to the fact that they must take something to help them get on with their life. Also, lots of people have not only themselves to think about when the panics are restricting their lives so much. When you have a family and you have to get children to school and have to run the home and make sure there is food in the cupboard (blah blah) you decide that you cannot ruin everyone else's lives as well and you feel you must do something to get you back to somewhere near normal functioning in your daily life.
Antidepressants can be great yes, when they work well for the patient. There is a huge down side to antidepressants though and that is why doctors don't like (as a rule) keeping the patient on them for too long. General rule is that antidepressant treatment should be administered until the patient is recovered and then keep the patient on the medication for about 6 months after (I think).
I am not against anti depressants - just wish I could have come across one during the last three years that actually worked.
Regards to all x
Yvonne
I think this is a great poll!!
Personally, I am on medication (seroxat) and given the choice I'd never come off it. For me it was a remarkable med, I'd even say life changing. I went from a nervy unconfident person to running busy hospital wards and moving overseas on my own!
Unfortunately, its not a cure, as I found out when I stopped taking the meds. The old problems were still there just waiting to bite me on the bum and they did.
I'm now back on seroxat, after trying cipralex and velafaxine. Both of these helped, slightly but were never as good as seroxat. The seroxat is helping again but the effects are not as good as the first time on it.
I personally don't plan to come off them in a hurry. I've been told by a consultant that I may very well be on meds for a long time. If thats what it takes to be a functioning person then so be it. I have had psychotherapy and the therapist couldn't see anything wrong or any particular reason for my anxiety. I aim to have CBT - I get annoyed though at being pointed towards self help books as to me its all common sense.
Whatever feels right to the individual is my point of view, whether its therapy or meds or both, diet and exercise anything that helps.
Cass
honeybee3939
24-11-07, 15:56
Hi
I have been taking Citalopram on and off for the last 10years, i also believe if taking a tablet a day gives you a better quality of life then so be it.
I actually came off citalopram last christmas the reason been i have made a good recovery with my Agorophobia and have learnt now through therapy etc how to cope with the panic etc if it should show its ugly head again.:)
Although i must add, if i ever feel i am going downhill again i wont hestiate to go back on them.
Love
:hugs:
Andrea
xxxxx
Thanks for all of your replies so far guys, it's great to see how many of you have found a med that works for you - be it for anxiety or depression or PTSD etc
I'm also glad to see how many people say "if it works for you, then go for it." Because the reason I started this thread is that quite often I feel like alot of people on these forums are a bit "med-bashing" .. they say to people who are feeling down "you CAN recover! get off the meds!" etc
I don't think we should be made to feel bad because our choice is to use/stay on meds. As you've all said - if it works for you, then why not?
I realise there's a large majority of you who don't say or think these things, and that's great... but it's just that I've come across a few threads basically talking about meds like they're evil.
For Cassie;
Ahh yes I remember it well "Seroxat Heaven"..... lol
I agree with you Meggles. Its very 'hip' at the moment to be anti-medication. Not on here necessarily - my current GP has been quite sarcastic at times and one psychiatrist I saw said I was focusing too much on meds. You come away feeling weak and pathetic having been made to feel like a drug addict - well thats my view. Yet other doctors are totally supportive of meds.
I think its important to stick to your guns and follow your heart - despite taking a med every day to feel 'normal', I know at the moment thats what I have to do. In the future I'll consider coming off them but it has to be at the right time for me. Balls to the unsuportive doctors I say.
I am too scared to take Meds, my Dad was addicted to tranquillisers for fifteen years, he was desperate to get off them, and in the midst of it all he was a horror to live with, aggressive, drinking too much, controlled by the chemicals within the drugs.... I know Meds are different these days, but I still do not want to take them. Each to their own of course, but I have friends who are in a similar position, drugged up every day to get through the day, and seeing no way of life without the drugs.
Whatever works for you is great, but I am much more into finding an alternative for things (although i have been struggling since childhood,lol) but who knows. LIke I said, each to their own, but I just see the drugs as a way of putting a sticky plaster on the wound, covering it up? Not dealing with the cause? Thats just my opinion. xxxxxxxxxx
this is a really interesting post. i was determined not to take meds and did without for out 7 years but really suffered! i then took lustral and like many others - felt i had got my life back and said i would never come off them BUT looking back now - the anxiety was still there - it just manifested through worries over other things in my life - i never learnt to deal with it - i also did not learn how to deal with stress effectively.
these tablets seemed to stop working for me and i came off them between march and october. i had been under a tremendous ammount of stress anyway and i basically had a mini breakdown on holiday when i was med free. my gp has put me in citalopram and it is working to some degree but not as much as before - at first i thought it was the meds being less effective BUT i now believe it is because i am much more aware and have more insight into my anxiety.
when i was on lustral for instance - i developed stomach pains that i had for 2 years - i worried myself 24/7 over these - i now realise that my anxiety had moved from panic attacks and obsessional thoughts into this health symptom. i also worried constantly over my grandmother who was ill (some worry is natural but i now realise i was obsessed!) and so the anxiety was still there.
now - i am glad in a way that the meds have increased my energy etc but that the rest is down to me. i still have my anxiety and intrusive thoughts but after 2 days of positive thinking and acceptance - they are calming already. this makes me believe that all anxiety/depression (apart from more biologically based conditions such as manic depression) continues because of the way we react to it - our thoughts about it and our fear of fear. the meds do make us feel better and i think anyone that they help should not feel guilty about being on them but they are like a sticking plaster in most cases and not a cure. i also worry about what if they do stop working like yvonne's experience.
i am determined to move forward and embrace my anxiety - to not run from it or be scared of it. i did come through 2 bad setbacks by doing this when i was weaning myself off lustral so it can be done by acceptance and changing thoughts - i am looking forward hopefully when i can live med free. x
Joanne
I have to agree with everything you have said in your post.
Looking back even when I was on Seroxat which was a medication that helped me greatly, I think after a few years of being on it the medication didn't work that well for actual panic attacks. I used to have bad anx when going to the hairdressers and stuff like that where you can't "escape" easily.
I also agree that the thoughts have so much to do with the illness. It is definitely our reaction to fear, our reaction to our thoughts, and our reaction to the little discomforts we get in our bodies.
However, getting ourselves to actually "react" differently to our own feelings and thoughts is the difficult one, especially when you have spent years being afraid of these things. The reactions come so readily to us and of course they are like a bad habit.
I think meds can be so good for people and can help so much - they do give you the first foot on the ladder to help yourself recover. Anyone suffering badly with this illness should not suffer and if meds can help them then I would be the first to say try them.
I am between a rock and a hard place at the moment. 5 weeks now off the Duloxetine. The panics are pretty bad and my emotions seem to be getting hold of me again. This time of year doesn't help of course. With me, I feel I must do this to satisfy myself what "I" am like without medication.
I have been on meds for a number of years and what I'm doing now is proving very hard. If it gets too hard and I feel I am not coping then I personally will definitely get myself back on medication and just pray that it works Thing is, in all of this you have to think of your family as well and you don't want to be a mopey, moany person around the people you love all the time.
Joanne, I think embracing the anxiety is definitely the cure with this illness. To actually welcome the panicky feelings without actually being afraid of them is the answer. It's a case of letting the anxiety out rather than holding it in. The holding it in is what causes the chronic tension we can feel. This demon has to be allowed to come out in whatever form it chooses. This is what Claire Weekes meant in her books - let the heart race - it won't kill you, if you are hyperventilating then just let it happen - you definitely won't stop breathing etc etc. It's about letting the monster escape, the keeping him in is what causes the knotted stomach and the heaviness on the chest. If we could all do this I know we could destroy the thing. But, actually it aint that easy lol.
Happy Christmas to everyonexxxx
I have been on clomipramine for just over 2 years now and it has helped me even though i still have anxiety and depression,i think the medication takes the edge off.Personally i had no choice but to take it because i was so ill,i did have to go through hell finding the right tablets for me about 5 different ones.
Because the side effects were so bad.I used to say i would never take medication but as i said i got so ill i had no choice but everyone is different.
Take care
lots of love
chloe x
If it wasn't for my medication I wouldn't be able to work. OCD and severe anxiety attacks got so bad that I wouldn't leave the house without my husband.
However, I also hate my medication, Cipralex. It makes me feel like I've had an emotional labotomy and that my head is full of black cotton wool. GP said it was a side-effect but I've now been on it for one year and cant stand feeling like a different person or a zombie.
Will I take medications forever, in a word, NO?
Reading through some of these posts, I hope I don't come across as one of the meds bashers. I don't feel they're "evil" either.:hugs:
When I reached a point where I felt so ill, I needed something to help me through that period so I tried meds. I found they lifted my mood but the effects never lasted. If they had, maybe I'd still be on them.
All the meds have side-effects which may or may not occur but meds do provide support when we need it and also provide a longer term alternative if we find taking them makes us feel happy and able to cope better.
I've also heard that Seroxat can be very beneficial for OCD but I've also heard some very bad stories about it.
I feel it comes down to personal choice and the persons choice should be respected. The bottom line is we want to get on with our lives and meds are just another alternative to other treatments to enable us to achieve that.
Personally I've found I've been able to cope without meds and I like to share my experiences in the hope of helping but I certainly wouldn't think any different of someone who finds they need meds and are happy on them, and nor would I try to push them into coping without. I just like to see people happy living their lives through their chosen method. We're all in the same boat.:hugs:
Excellent Thread:
I totally agree with what everyone else has said here.
Other people take meds for asthma, diabeties etc etc. I have been on and off meds for over 12yrs. I'm better on than off.
I found this web site: http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/depression/causes.asp (http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/depression/causes.asp)
Maybe it might answer some of your questions.
It is really a personal choice when it comes to meds. It took me all of the past 12yrs to finally find one that works for me (touch wood).
Good luck
(((((((HUGS))))))))))
SJ
Southern_Belle
03-03-08, 21:44
I am for whatever works. Personally for me I do take medication for anxiety and OCD. I did try to go off and my OCD came back full force as well as the anxiety so I went back on my medication. For me now in the second half of my life I am now able to travel and really enjoy life as I never did in the first half. I do not care if it is because I take a pill because I have my life back.
I had anxiety as a child and was scared of my shadow. When I worked in my twenties and thirties I dove under my desk thinking planes would land on my building when I heard them fly overhead. I never traveled anywhere due to my fear of flying. I missed out on my children's lives and they missed out due to my worrying over them incessantly. I may have lost out on the first half of my life but refuse to do so on my second half. I owe that to myself and to my family.
Counseling has helped me tremendously but I know that for myself I must stay on medication. Perhaps it is because I have other health issues that also cause anxiety like thyroid problems. All I know is what I am doing works for me.
Laura xxx
I've been taking 2mg Diazepam each day for about 2 weeks and it's helped me tremendously, I would have no worries at all if I had to take them forever, whether I'll be allowed to is a different matter.
I've been taking heart medication for the past 6 years and as my anxiety if health related would consider Diaz. just another part of the treatment.
40 odd years ago I was prescribed 30mg Phenobarbitone 3 times a day when I had very bad Eczema and remained on it for about 15 years,I wasn't asked to stop taking them but as the Ezcema had improved I weaned myself off without any problems.
So I think where there's an appropriate need for meds, why not take them.
Decca.
I have Bipolar effective distorder(manic depression).
I'm on a lot of medication 6 different types of medication just to control it. My biggest side effect has been that I have is a very bad tremour from head to foot.It's so bad I carnt cook,write coz I carnt hold the pen(but I have alaptop and hubby).
and the odd spasam but I dont care.
Life without medication is not even worth thing about.
And on the upside with all the pervatives in them I will keep my youth full good looks LOL
hazey-babe
09-04-08, 19:04
Hi, :hugs:
I have a fab GP and she told me when I worried about being on Prozac for the rest of my life that "Some people need thyroxine for their thyroid problems and some need insulin for their diabetes you are lacking serotonin so have to take prozac. Don't feel bad as its helping!!!!"
I relaxed more after this and have been on it on and off for nearly 11 years. The twice I have been off it has only been for about 2-3 months each time and then I have felt really low and at times wanted to end it all. So I say I would rather have to take meds than feel that bad!!!
Love Hazel xo:flowers:
Hi,
I am new to this group. I live in the US and see that most members are from the UK. I found this group after looking at Paul David's site which includes the book "At Last a Life."
As for med's.....I have been taking Klonopin for anxiety and panic for 19 years. It worked well for me, up until a year ago. Since then, my anxiety has worsened, and no matter how much Klonopin I took, it didn't take away the anxiety...in fact, I think it may have made it worse.
I went to a new psych. doc yesterday who put me on Valium, to taper off the Klonopin. I'm very grateful that I was able to find a doc who understood that I couldn't come off the klonopin alone. Once I get stabilized on the Valium I know that he'll want to wean me off of it. I want to try and get my panic and anxiety under control before I get off the Valium entirely. I'm on a pretty high dose now, and have managed to cut one Klonopin in half. So I am on the road to getting off Klonopin, which I've read is a very bad Benzo. I don't know why no doctor in 19 years has ever mentioned the dangers of this Benzo. to me. They kept prescribing it, as long as it worked. It seems to have totally turn against me, and I was wondering if Benzo's can cause anxiety.
I have just started Lexapro and have been on Seroquel for a while. How long I'll stay on these drugs is unknown to me at the moment. I don't know why the Klonopin stopped working, despite my attempts to go higher on the medication. It actually seemed to be working against me. Has anyone had a similiar situation to this, or has any answers?
Best to all,
Joylaurel
Hi thanx for the poll :yesyes:
"I am on medication and will happily take it for as long as needed."
coz if i suffer i have to do anything will make me feel better... and i really dont understand why some people would rather remain depressed than being on medications !!!
but i hate the fact that i might take citaopram for so long but if i will have to .. i will go for it ..
Hmm, not sure about this. I feel that if a medication I find works then yes I would quite happily take it for as long as needed. However, quite a lot of the time, the ones I have taken don't give me that much of a real benefit and therefore I constantly feel like coming off because they aren't doing much.
I'm on Seroxat and lamotrigine, have been on tons of different drugs at different times. The meds have some unfortunate side effects for me, but the benefit of not living in constant panic and anxiety far outweighs that. I'm happy that meds have improved over the years as a result of scientific research, and I'm also happy that they will continue to improve, and future generations of the mentally ill will have an even higher quality of life thanks to better meds.
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