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Recently with the mess in congress I was just feeling so tense I started taking a phamasucical formula of st. John's wart, which is much milder, to even things out a bit. Taking two a day, regular dose three, I wasn't able to sleep and felt disconnected and zoned, like the 'offical' kind make me feel.
St. John's Wart is nothing to mess with. I was a volunteer in a St. John's Wart study at the University of Pittsburgh about 15+ years ago. They pulled me off it after just 6 weeks and put me on Prozac. I had a problem with sequences----like grocery shopping, loading the groceries into the trunk, getting into the car and backing in the cart because I missed the sequence of putting the cart back. No antidepressant has ever done that to me.
I'm ultra sensitive to most all meds. After a terrible reaction to Zoloft I went into an anti SSRI drug rant that lasted for years. Then after what could only be described as a nervous breakdown a year and a half ago, my doctor insisted I try Prozac. My psychiatrist agreed. It's a wonder I didn't have a bad reaction because I certainly anticipated one.................but no.........it was and continues to be a smooth and easy drug for my system. The doctor though did tell me to increase my dosage to 2 per day but I haven't.
Now that my stress factors have been eliminated I am considering weaning myself off. Has anyone else done that and if so did you experience any problems?
Now that my stress factors have been eliminated I am considering weaning myself off. Has anyone else done that and if so did you experience any problems?
I went off it for 10 years. If you're someone who can't handle stress well, I recommend staying on a lower maintenance dose. I have dysthymia. I get along just fine without an antidepressant, but going off my maintenance dose put me from having a full comfortable life to "getting by." And when the stress really increased due to a family member having serious problems, I was unable to function to my best ability. I recently returned to antidepressants---a lower dose than my previous maintenance dose. Go ahead, and slowly taper down, but I don't recommend going stopping it completely if you have anxiety disorders. Sure, you can cope without the med but there's a big difference between coping and living.
St. John's Wart is nothing to mess with. I was a volunteer in a St. John's Wart study at the University of Pittsburgh about 15+ years ago. They pulled me off it after just 6 weeks and put me on Prozac. I had a problem with sequences----like grocery shopping, loading the groceries into the trunk, getting into the car and backing in the cart because I missed the sequence of putting the cart back. No antidepressant has ever done that to me.
I only use it to get over bad humps when I know I'll crash. My big problem is triggers. Usually a couple pills in a couple days is all it needs. This previous extended stress was unusual.
I won't take any pharm based psych stuff anymore. Where I used to live in California, your 'doctor visit/revew/ was scheduled for ten minutes. Of course you were at your best since you had to take the bus to get there. But my concerns over weight gain, sleep, attention and other things which WERE very important were always dismissed out of hand. I have other medical concerns where the side effects of the pills were making worse but they did not care or listen so I myself cut the dosage very very gradually which is what helped allow me make the decision to leave behind the triggers, take a leap. I didn't tell them I was cutting back either. I react real high up on the scale of side effects with anything, and do not trust taking something which is known to have them under 'treatment' of people who don't want to listen and don't care.
When I came here and called the mental health place I said I'm bp2 but won't take meds because of medical issues with side effects, that I had to take care with those. They said I didn't really need to sign up. I said I would really like to see someone to talk about things, which would help. They said I could, but they'd decided if I needed to.
Aside from what would be called crisis help, the best help was from my therapist and leaving behind triggers. I use the st.John's Wart in the european grade (they have regular standards for herbals in europe and I but theirs whenever possible) as a crisis help very short term.
I didn't bother signing up locally. I'm not going to get written up as refusing treatment or something when one of the concerns, weight gain, resulted in a surgery that did not need to ever have been and might need to be repeated in the more serious version some time. All that I needed was to keep my weight from rising but it 'wasn't important'. We need to remember we must think of the whole body and any doctor who dismisses that should be fired.
Just because something doesn't require a prescription doesn't mean it's safer. If they ever determined that St. John's Wort was a worthy treatment option, it would be patented and then only available via prescription, which would make it pharm based psych stuff. So, you're really splitting hairs when you say you won't take prescription psych meds but you take St. Johns Wort.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nightbird47
I use the st.John's Wart in the european grade (they have regular standards for herbals in europe and I but theirs whenever possible).
The stuff I took in the study was top quality pharmaceutical grade from Europe. If it works for you, great. I only shared my experience because you shared that you had a bad experience with it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nightbird47
I didn't bother signing up locally. I'm not going to get written up as refusing treatment or something when one of the concerns, weight gain, resulted in a surgery that did not need to ever have been and might need to be repeated in the more serious version some time. All that I needed was to keep my weight from rising but it 'wasn't important'. We need to remember we must think of the whole body and any doctor who dismisses that should be fired.
There are ways to offset weight gain symptoms----exercise and diet.
Yes, it sounds as if you have clinical depression. People who have never faced this think that those who have can snap out of it, which of course isn't true. I agree with the posters who recommended that you see a psychiatrist. A general M.D. has too little psychiatric training and may prescribe the wrong meds or give a patient samples from a pharmaceutical rep.
Hi sorry I'm late here, I'm the OP, didn't realize I had a lot of responses (thank you everyone!). So when this first happened a friend recommended a psychiatrist in town and this guy said that I was a "long way" from even considering medication, that I had to work through it. And all of that is great (rrggghh) but ... here I am 7 months later still having difficulty functioning, and luckily I had some leftover Xanax or I would have probably lost my job at the outset.
(And then ... a couple of weeks ago I did a google search on the psychiatrist I had seen ... $300 ... he doesn't take insurance ... and there are court documents showing that about 6 years ago his license was suspended for prescribing Xanax to a woman he was having an affair with and he was hospitalized for 8 weeks for an oxycodone addiction, so apparently he doesn't prescribe easily in part because of this, so I am kind of furious that I wasted my time and money going to the wrong person ... and seriously he does have a really good reputation in town, but all of this was easy to find).
Last edited by blossom4792; 10-25-2013 at 10:44 AM..
Reason: typo
go seek medical advice not advice from us!!!
good grief I am not going to ask a bunch of strangers what kind of meds I need
If you read my last post, you will see that I paid a psychiatrist $300 (licensed, Ivy League) right when this happened and it turns out that he has more problems than I do ...
a couple of weeks ago I did a google search on the psychiatrist I had seen ... $300 ... he doesn't take insurance ... and there are court documents showing that about 6 years ago his license was suspended...
I've heard similar stories from others. There are a lot of doctors in the field of psychiatry who are simply not very good at what they do. Any doctor who does not take insurance seems suspect. Keep looking! I know, easier said than done.
Just because something doesn't require a prescription doesn't mean it's safer. If they ever determined that St. John's Wort was a worthy treatment option, it would be patented and then only available via prescription, which would make it pharm based psych stuff. So, you're really splitting hairs when you say you won't take prescription psych meds but you take St. Johns Wort.
The stuff I took in the study was top quality pharmaceutical grade from Europe. If it works for you, great. I only shared my experience because you shared that you had a bad experience with it.
There are ways to offset weight gain symptoms----exercise and diet.
It just made me feel a little zoned, but just a little not a lot like the stronger stuff. I recall taking about an quarter of a welbrutiain and having it just totally zonk me for comparison. And the weight is very very medically important. The weight I gained wasn't that huge, but caused the need for surgery and diet and exercise won't help. I have to monitor my diet very closely already since I only have parts of the digestive system left. Any weight gain can spell disastor. Nor because of the past condition do I absorb meds right anyway. I tend to get everything all at once that I'm going to and that's it. There is no way to tell what the actual dose is.
I've done fine for years with this internal condition until they put me on meds and I WILL not take them and end up with a major operation. I have found ways to manage my moods and use pills ONLY when it is necessary. This generally applies to every type.
If your digestive system is compromised, see your MEDICAL doctor, not the GP but the specialist, and find out exactly how it effects medication before venturing out and taking it. Be sure the psych doc is fully informed and if he/she doesn't seem to care or listen, consult your specialist and choose to take or not take the pills after that.
And I did give the pdocs a full description of my medical situation and how risky weight gain was and so forth and was blown off as unimportant. Not ever again.
I've heard similar stories from others. There are a lot of doctors in the field of psychiatry who are simply not very good at what they do. Any doctor who does not take insurance seems suspect. Keep looking! I know, easier said than done.
Oh thank you! I had one in another state who was top rate and nobody else seems to compare!
On the insurance note ... I half agree, but I also know that there are privacy issues (I went through a big court custody case and every therapy note from my life was subpoenaed, who knew), so I do know of some really good psychiatrists who don't take insurance for those reasons ...
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