Venting I had to choose risk being disabled or ctb

[caramelpudding]

Hi! I'm new here. I'm on multiple psych meds. And I believe that doctors kinda misdiagnosed me but that's not case

I'm on antipsychotic and benzos daily for almost a year. It didn't work that well for me and when I told I got better he told me I could stop taking benzos (cold turkeyed) and then I had a terrible withdrawal

I had depersonalization, Insomnia, and many other symptoms that I have to reinstate. I went down the rabbit hole and found out that coming off these medications can potentially disabled you (akathisia, tardive dyskinesia etc.) and there's no cure if you develop it.

There's still a debate going back and forth between doctors and patients, that doctors don't believe that it can develop later on after quitting the med and yeah there's not much help from doctors in my area for what I've known.

I have to come off benzos again at the end of next month and if I start to develop those, I would need to ctb. There's no other way out for me.

 

[Natanael]

My mother went through a similar issue with some anxiety medications; she eventually managed to stop taking them. It was a year-long process, but it worked for her, and she's functioning relatively normally now.

But that's just my experience; she was taking Clonazepam (Klonopin).

 

[caramelpudding]

It's good to hear that your mother is doing great! I'm taking klonopin too I'm trying to get off them, it's like a russian roulette you won't know if it's going to be you or not, sadly i might be the unlucky one. But I'm really glad to hear that she managed to function well again!

 

[Natanael]

It's good to hear that your mother is doing great! I'm taking klonopin too I'm trying to get off them, it's like a russian roulette you won't know if it's going to be you or not, sadly i might be the unlucky one. But I'm really glad to hear that she managed to function well again!

What we did was reduce the dose very gradually; I'd describe it as landing a plane or something like that

Maybe you can do something similar. That said, whenever the dose was lowered, it was normal to experience side effects for 2 to 3 days. If the situation was too difficult, we would compensate by going back to the previous dose, but only for a short time

It was difficult, but it is possible to do it. Also, as I understand it, the doctor told her that she, too, experienced more severe side effects from the medication than others. That said, there were times when it was debilitating, but we managed to get through it

Maybe you can try doing the same thing. I'm no expert, but that's what I can share from that experience

 

[E4syW3y0u7]

I had akathisia from antipsychotic and they gave me a antiparkinson med to counter the effect, made me feel like shit.

I stopped the antipsychotic treatment and even though it took me a bit to "withdraw" from them, the akathisia went away completely once i stopped.

I didn't know it could potentially be permaneny or come back, that was fucking awful, especially for someone that is calm and don't fidget around.

Can you gradually stop the benzo instead of stopping cold turkey ?

 

[caramelpudding]

I had akathisia from antipsychotic and they gave me a antiparkinson med to counter the effect, made me feel like shit.

I stopped the antipsychotic treatment and even though it took me a bit to "withdraw" from them, the akathisia went away completely once i stopped.

I didn't know it could potentially be permaneny or come back, that was fucking awful, especially for someone that is calm and don't fidget around.

Can you gradually stop the benzo instead of stopping cold turkey ?

I didn't mean to scare you off I just had someone I know suffered from stopping the antipsychotic for like years so I just afraid that it might be me.

Yes I reinstated and now I'm slowly tapering off my benzos and hope that it wouldn't give me worse withdrawal like last time.

I'm on both antipsychotic and antiparkinson meds too!! I just fear that some day i might develop akathisia from stopping them since i don't think i really need them in the first place.

May I ask you about your akathesia if you don't mind? Like are you still on antipsychotic or did you quit them?

What we did was reduce the dose very gradually; I'd describe it as landing a plane or something like that

Maybe you can do something similar. That said, whenever the dose was lowered, it was normal to experience side effects for 2 to 3 days. If the situation was too difficult, we would compensate by going back to the previous dose, but only for a short time

It was difficult, but it is possible to do it. Also, as I understand it, the doctor told her that she, too, experienced more severe side effects from the medication than others. That said, there were times when it was debilitating, but we managed to get through it

Maybe you can try doing the same thing. I'm no expert, but that's what I can share from that experience

Thank you for your advice, I really
appreciate that!! I didn't know it at first that you need to gradually lower the dose since my doctor told me nothing about it and I have to find that out myself sadly. But now I can only hope that it wouldn't get worse. But really your mother story is giving me hope! Thank you again for sharing the story <33

 

[E4syW3y0u7]

I didn't mean to scare you off I just had someone I know suffered from stopping the antipsychotic for like years so I just afraid that it might be me.

Yes I reinstated and now I'm slowly tapering off my benzos and hope that it wouldn't give me worse withdrawal like last time.

I'm on both antipsychotic and antiparkinson meds too!! I just fear that some day i might develop akathisia from stopping them since i don't think i really need them in the first place.

May I ask you about your akathesia if you don't mind? Like are you still on antipsychotic or did you quit them?



Thank you for your advice, I really
appreciate that!! I didn't know it at first that you need to gradually lower the dose since my doctor told me nothing about it and I have to find that out myself sadly. But now I can only hope that it wouldn't get worse. But really your mother story is giving me hope! Thank you again for sharing the story <33

I stopped antipsychotics because i didn't want to deal with the side effects.

I'm not sure if the psych i saw misdiagnosed me or not but it definetely felt forced, and the meds they gave me didn't bring anything good for me.

The akathisia showed up at the beginning because i didn't have the parkinson meds to counter it, it felt like i had to run/jump/bounce all the time and in my case, it locked my neck/made it super tensed aswell.

Then when i stopped the meds cold turkey i had "withdrawal" effect and the akathisia came back worse than before but it only lasted 2 weeks, though i literally couldn't stay still/sit and wanted to crawl out of my body during that time.

But everyone is different, maybe i didn't tolerate them a lot, some people do well with them, not me though.

 

[volo]

FWIW, for other people reading this, someone on this forum said that there's a fb group that can help you taper off benzos.

 

[caramelpudding]

FWIW, for other people reading this, someone on this forum said that there's a fb group that can help you taper off benzos.

Yeah there's actually, I'm in that group and they said that there's no guarantees that you will develop something or not, some people said they are fine for like 4 months and then they develop severe symptoms. and even worse, antipsychotic are known for causing akathesia even when you quit them.

But I don't really plan on living with this kind of meds or my mental illness anyway, my life is already ruined and my suffering won't end.

thank you for your info tho, I appreciate it