I am very sorry about your father. I am curious-was your father not eligible for Medicare? You mention Medicaid and spending down (N.Dakota has Expanded Medicaid, btw, until Obamacare is revoked) but was he not eligible for Medicare?
What a horrible experience for your family. Consult a med-mal attorney to have a look at your father’s health records.
Citalopram is an awful drug. I was on it for years. I am very sorry about your friend.
Marie, you are incorrect about the number of people who voted for Trump. Only about 55% of eligible voters went to the polls. What is 50% of that? That’s right. Only about 25% of eligible voters, give or take (votes are still being tallied but the numbers won’t change much), voted for Trump.
I used prescription Xanax for over a decade along with an antidepressant. The psychiatrist who prescribed them was a well known panic disorder specialist in Virginia. He told me that Xanax was very safe and that people used them for years without a problem, and I believed him. After all, he’d written a book about phobias and panic disorders that can still be found on Amazon.
I suffered from the combined effects of both drugs. Mania, interdose withdrawal, insomnia, akathisia, and periods of obsessive thinking and suicidal thoughts, which he told me were a part of my “disease.”
After a series of embarrassing incidents involving extreme mania and suicidal ideation, the last of which landed my in the ER, I decided to taper off of both drugs and found myself facing a lot of resistance from the other doctors (non-psychiatrists) I sought help from. I was forced to taper with my last refills and it was really hell because I had taper within a couple of months. I was truly ill for a year.
The doctor who hooked me on these things is a millionaire now and owns a custom built home in an exclusive neighborhood in a Virginia city. He should be cooling his heels in a prison cell, but unfortunately, his form of drug dealing is legal.
Read up on akathisia. Dr. Peter Breggin writes about it often. He has testified in court about akathisia. It is a form of drug-induced agitation. Shrinks often prescribe a benzo along with an SSRI because they know the drug will agitate. I wish I knew this in 2001 before I began more than a decades worth of dependence on these pills. I am fortunate to be alive after some of the things I did under the influence of them.
Drug free since Spring 2012.
drt, and others,
It will get better. I am over four years past my last tapered dose of Xanax, and while I still have tinnitus (I was also on antidepressants for years), I feel generally quite good. Go have a look at the help sites others have put up like benzobuddies and read everything you can. Knowledge is power Good luck
I will add to the chorus of comments about supplements by saying that I, too, found B vitamins to be over stimulating during withdrawal. I did find fish oil to be somewhat helpful. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that your body needs time to heal. You will need plenty of rest and good quality nutrition. Drink water (go easy on the alcohol), and be patient with yourself. I am 4 years “clean” from benzos and psych meds. There is some residual damage which is helped by a low dose beta blocker. I’m free and doing many of the things I only dreamed about when chained to those drugs.
For me, akathisia meant increasing and relentless thoughts of suicide. Toward the end, I sat alone in my room and Googled methods of ending my life. I was hostile and lashed out at others. Tapering off, the thoughts vanished as if turning down a rheostat, and now they are non-existent. These are dangerous drugs, and it’s gratifying to see more and more mainstream buy-in to the belief that these are drugs that can cause far more harm than good.
I am a prime example of someone who was drugged for mild depression and anxiety, and after years of same, experienced such a mental deterioration that I too obsessed with suicide and the means to do it. I also engaged in irrational, dangerous, and impulsive behaviors, right up until I was hospitalized for a suicide attempt. Something inside me at that point spurred me to action. I fired my psychiatrist and the rest is, as they say, history.
When the drugs were tapered off and discontinued, the behavior and the impulsive thinking behind it stopped, almost immediately. I was not crazy before the drugs, and I was not crazy after the drugs. Must have been the drugs!
Incidentally, one of those drugs was one of the ones mentioned in the article. Citalopram. Sold as Celexa in the US. Celexa is known for suicidal ideation and impulsive, self-destructive behavior, and can increase the urge to drink alcohol, which brings its own problems.
Show your daughter the website SSRIstories.org and let her read one case after another.
That’s a rather callous comment, don’t you think?
What about a woman who finds herself pregnant by accident? Birth control does fail.
What about rape? Incest? Then there’s the whole need to taper slowly off the drugs.
You would also have these women sued, maybe even arrested, locked up, lose custody too?
You may want to think about what you’re suggesting here. You are hinting at a whole new type of control over another human being and that’s a little scary.
It’s the gun nuts who want to round up the mentally ill and put them on watch lists. It’s the gun nuts who want anyone who has ever taken a psych med, for any reason at all, to lose their Constitutional rights. That’s a non partisan issue. If you want to rail about left wing this and that, take it to free republic.
Oh look, another tough guy ranting on the internet. Muh gunz.
Do you honestly think your little pop gun will stand up to what the State will level against you if there is an insurrection?
The State will never fear you. You gave up your rights long ago. What’s left is an illusion. Most of you stay home on Election day anyway so your words are just that…words.
By the way, I’m a gun owner, too…but not a deluded one. I know I don’t stand a chance in hell against anything the State can wield against me.
Just hearing about this is depressing. How can people allow themselves to be drugged by these poison cocktails, in light of all the new info, is beyond my comprehension.
They are sentencing themselves to a life of misery.
They aren’t kidding. I spend a half hour on the bike or elliptical and I feel much better. If you know my story, you’ll know that I spent a decade on SSRI/benzo combinations and weaned myself off and been through all the misery you can imagine so when I tell you that exercise (even walking) helps, believe it. It’s a godsend. Eat as well as you can and get some kind of exercise in, when you are able. I understand that it can take a long time before you might feel well enough to do so.
Also want to mention that three (plus) years post self-withdrawal, I am doing pretty well with minor annoyances (tinnitus) that are holdovers from my psych drug use.
Please take heart, and know that you too can be free of these dangerous drugs. It may take months and even years to feel yourself again, but that’s the road that must be traveled.
There is a young lady who posts a blog here who has chronicled in great detail her path from psych meds; her posts are a very good read. She was on multiple drugs, some very powerful ones too.
I was admitted to an ER based on my long term use of Celexa and Xanax, both of which stimulated my urge to drink large quantities of alcohol. I was manic beyond belief and the alcohol was my attempt at self-medicating away the mania. Obviously, this didn’t work. The drugs and the alcohol made for an interesting and dangerous combination. Once home, I realized that I had to come off the drugs.
The ER physician, notably, would not recognize the role the drugs played in my admission and referred it as a case of excessive drink.
Since weaning myself off of SSRI/benzos, I never again had the urge to drink myself into a crazed stupor. This is likely because the drugs (especially the Xanax) stimulate the same receptors that alcohol hits. It should be noted that Xanax or another benzo is often used to treat alcoholics in detox.
Holy moly, I hadn’t realized that I’d already replied to you. Wish we had an edit function. Anyway, hope you are feeling better! Please update.
Hang in. I was on 20 and then 30 mg Celexa. It’s a bear of a drug. I was also on Xanax, .75 mg a day. Tapered, perhaps too rapidly, off both at the same time after the drugs drove me to an ER. Did the taper at home, myself. I have been there, done that and I can definitely empathize with you.
It will get better. You will feel like hell warmed over for a good year or so (most of which has passed for you), then your energy will slowly begin to come back. Eat well, take good quality fish oil, and be patient with yourself. I am 3 years free of Celexa and Xanax. It can be done.
You may still get brain zaps/fatigue etc off and on, but you will find that these lessen in intensity and duration over time. Big thing to remember is that it takes time. The one big thing that remains for me is tinnitus. I don’t know if you suffer from that, but some people do and it’s from the drugs. Mine goes up and down. I find that limiting coffee and alcohol helps. I work in a noisy environment and wear good hearing protection.
Good luck. You’ll feel better!
I wish I’d had your strength and wisdom. At the time, I needed help and answers, and knew not where to reach- and thus began my jail sentence, which I was able to break only three years ago.
I wish I’d known these things in 2002, when a well known Norfolk, VA area psychiatrist put me on Lexapro, then Celexa with a Xanax chaser…and I stayed on them for more than a decade until I wound up in an emergency room totally manic and out of my mind…
All I was told was that they were “safe and effective” and that I needed them “for life.” Never mind that they fixed none of my long term issues or that they were causing a painful and debilitating dependence.
Weaning myself off (nobody will help you withdraw from psych meds. Don’t even ask) was painful and agonizing and I did it based on advice from sites like this one and others.
I’m grateful that the truth is coming out, and that more and more scientists, physicians, and others in the helping professions as well as patients are speaking out, with facts to back them up. There is a sea change a-comin’.
I was on them for a decade and my board certified psychiatrist insisted that it was perfectly safe. This kind of lie happens far more often than most people realize.
Since withdrawing from them (on my own), I have not patronized another psychiatric death trap and never will if I can help it.
Well said. Your story mirrors my own experience in many ways. Glad you found your way out of the endless pit of despair that is psychiatry. Drugs were driving me mad as well, and no doctor would help, so I helped myself. You’re right- they’re deadly!
That was my drug, too, (along with a benzo) for most of a 10 year period (sometimes it was Lexapro or Cymbalta). Tapering is key…not clear if you did that or went cold turkey. Be patient, eat well, take fish oil, get plenty of rest. I was there and I am here to tell you that it will get better. May take a year or more. This too shall pass. If you find you have to reinstate, use the lowest dose that will alleviate symptoms then go on a slow taper program (there is a lot of info on the web now).
You might be interested to know that my board certified psychiatrist, known as an “expert” in pharmacology, told me that I needed Xanax “for life” because my brain didn’t make enough of it’s own natural benzo. This is what psychiatrists are telling patients. This is what must stop.
Same here…10 years of Xanax with an SSRI which culminated in suicidal and homicidal ideation, humiliating and alarming behaviors, and more culminating with an ER visit. I too am free. The psych said it was perfectly fine to be on benzos long term. Lied to my face! How can you trust such a person? Or profession, for that matter?
PS- this was to Lizard Destroyer.
I really dislike the forum format here. Can’t edit and it can be hard to follow a thread.
Dr. Peter Breggin has a book with good information about tapering, called Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. I see that someone else recommended benzobuddies and you found them to be negative. Sorry to hear that. There is good info there for the asking.
Sorry if I sound like another downer but I’m here to tell you that the resources out there really are few and far between. People who become dependent on benzos prescribed by doctors are viewed in a very negative light by many other doctors, and it will be next to impossible to find one willing to help. Keep calling but in the meantime, do read Breggin’s books and anything else you can get your hands on about tapering because at the end of the day, that’s what you are going to have to do. It’s not fun, I can assure you but it’s doable.
I tapered probably too quickly but I did manage to get off of .75 /day which I’d been on for almost a decade. Took the better part of 18 months to two years to really feel better. It’s a slog, but like I said, doable. Put one foot in front of the other and go forth.
Good luck.
Psychiatrists and drug companies lead the charge. They are the ones who trumpet the “Safe and effective” meme over and over again. If not for them, perhaps other doctors might exercise more discretion when prescribing. That’s why I lay most of the blame right where it belongs- at the feet of psychiatry (and pharma).
Most of us have been through debilitating panic and anxiety and for us, benzos were the miracle in a pill that eventually knifed us in the back.
I hope things work out well for you, and that you never suffer what many of us have. Good luck.
That’s exactly what mine did. Blamed my so-called “disease” for what really turned out to be bad reactions to the drugs I was on for years.
Amazing how I am doing so much better without them (after a couple years of withdrawal, I might add).
I cured myself.
I never demanded mine and did not know what they were until my psychiatrist prescribed them to go along with an SSRI. He did not tell me I could be come dependent and in fact, told me I would need them “for the rest of your life” (his words exactly). So yeah, maybe psychiatry should take a fair share of the blame. When psychiatrists hand them out like candy, why shouldn’t general practitioners, internists and gynecologists do the same, right?
And by abusing pres. drugs it is alleged he dabbled with suboxone, but we don’t have all that info nor do we know that he was taking anything at the time he chose to murder..or before, when planning the murders.
I wish we had an edit feature for our posts so we can fix or clarify comments.
I’m one of the biggest opponents of drugging but I will caution you to refrain from calling the Roof case a result of psych drugging because there is no evidence at all that he was drugged. He dabbled in abuse of prescription drugs but I have read nothing that suggests he was ever seen by a shrink or other doc for mental issues.
If we are too quick to write off all aberrant behavior as a result of psych drugging, even if the person IS on psych drugs, we risk losing all credibility. We need to review the facts of each case with a clear and objective mind. Sometimes, people just do evil things, and we need to face that fact.
Also want to thank you, David for sharing your story which reads very much like mine. It’s a journey of a thousand steps and it begins with the first one.
Agreed- everyone’s body is different. I did try TRB supplements but ended up only using the Omega 3 fish oil. I found most supplements and vitamins to be too overstimulating during my withdrawal. Each person should do their own research and consult a naturopath or other specialist who understands psych drug withdrawal. Also, Peter Breggin’s writing are very useful.
They (the shrinks) are on the ropes in desperation.
And what “compelling scientific, double-blind, controlled studies” can you cite to verify your position- which is no doubt, a pro-pharma, mental illness as chemical imbalance one?
I’m betting none.
Yet what does the FDA zero in on? Homeopathy and other alternative supplements and treatments.
If it competes with Big Pharma, they’ll fight it.
Watch the movie Dallas Buyers Club to see it in action. The movie was based on a true story.
I believe that if you call a well person “sick” long enough, that person will take on those sick characteristics. Sort of a self fulfilling prophecy.
When I was told that my brain was broken and I needed meds for life, I believed that something was indeed very wrong with me. It wasn’t until many years later that I learned the opposite.
The big push over the last decade or so was to get pregnant women on antidepressants!
Yeah…it was all that “safe and effective” nonsense, now peddled to a new clientele.
After all, pregnancy is like everything else that’s been turned into a disease!
Haven’t you heard? The “mentally ill” aren’t supposed to have and enjoy sex! That seems to be the prevailing attitude amongst “doctors.”
And the general public appears to thing so, too. After all, if you are “mentally ill” you should be out of sight, out of mind and preferably locked up on a ward somewhere.
My ex-shrink got into a physical altercation with a lawyer in the same office building. They threatened to sue each other. I wish I knew what a buffoon he was before I became his patient.
There should be a Bad Doc list but I suppose that could invite lawsuits especially from the aforementioned buffoon.
I had a vitamin deficiency in my teens which mimicked depression and it was resolved by taking vitamins.
Others may have thyroid or other hormonal issues that can also cause depression.
You don’t treat an underactive thyroid with antidepressant but goodness knows the pdocs sure try.
He’s playing word games.
Of course, and that’s how I became addicted to them- through prescribed use. but look at the ignoramuses in the comments. Unreal!
Interesting. Thanks for the link.
I’m going to do some research on it.
I’m of course referring to the comments under the original article.
If you look at the comments, you’ll see what denial is all about.
The “I don’t abuse it so that’ll never happen to me” folks are pretty well represented.
Who doesn’t remember the little Zoloft bouncy guy?
Heh…he never met my ex psychiatrist, board certified and supposedly a leading expert in pharmaceuticals. He insisted that I had a “chemical imbalance” which was “genetic” and even drew little pictograms to describe what was going on. Bah.
Yep. The worm is turning and psychiatry is on defense.
This shrink is out to lunch. All I have to do is google chemical imbalance, and I come up with a gazillion examples put forth by both psychiatry and pharma. Youtube is filled with archived commercial advertisements, too. The internet has killed the memory hole, and the lame attempts by psychiatry to deny that they ever put forth this garbage will fail again and again.
Good question. If Dreamflyer’s daughter is doing so well, let her post here with her experiences.
I am no fan of Scientology myself- at all. But the S label is often used as a straw man to stop all debate on psychiatric drugs. I will not debate anyone who throws that label out.
So this is how you defend your reedy and tenuous position, by accusing us of being Scientologists. Not by presenting facts in a rational manner. This is not a Scientology site. I can’t speak for individuals who post here, but I am not a Scientologist, nor have I ever been.
Buh bye.
You totally missed the meaning of the comment. People who engage with psychiatry are told they are ill or led to believe they are ill, only to learn later that the problem is not a physical disease but a reaction to other things going on in life- which can include but are not limited to real physical issues such as cancer, etc. Or divorce, bereavement etc.
We were lied to by the medical establishment, and by society which exhorts people to obey white coats without question.
Most of us “willfully” engaged with the system only because we were told that the system would look out for our best interests and would cause no harm. We know now that this isn’t true at all- the drugs they peddle are not “safe and effective” (a frequent term they use).
We were told that our depression, anxiety, and other problems were the result of a physical disease process like diabetes, and we know know that’s not true, either. Psychiatry cannot prove a direct physical cause for mental and emotional issues. They really don’t even understand the mechanism of action of the drugs they peddle.
It’s called being lied to- being sold a bill of goods. Haven’t you ever had that happen to you?
Amy,
Thank you for a well written and heartfelt article. I wish you all the health and happiness in the world. I too survived the Pharmacaust (great word!) by falling for the lies- that my anxiety and depression was the result of a “genetic disease” and not from circumstances in my life (just lost neighbor in the WTC attacks among other things) and that only pills would fix it.
Ten years later, the mania, restlessness, violent outbursts, lack of inhibition, alcohol abuse spurred by the drink, and other problems that arose from steady use of Celexa, Xanax and occasional Trazodone landed me in an ER after a suicide attempt using those very drugs washed down with alcohol, and I realized then that the drugs were my problem.
The shrink who put me on that cocktail laughed at me when I told him I wanted off and offered to increase my dosages instead, so I fired him, and began the long process of weaning myself off. Now I am more or less my old self again, with a few lingering problems like tinnitus…but I was robbed of a decade of my life.
Good luck and thanks again for sharing your story.
Satanic doesn’t even begin to describe what I think about it. Thank God they never tried it on me. My heart goes out to everyone damaged by this barbaric treatment.
That actually sounds pleasant and I may try it. Thanks.
How do you feel about the drugging of children?
Steve,
The psychs zero right in on genetics because they know that the patient can’t readily disprove them due to lack of a reliable test, and they use that disinfo to keep patients cowed and “compliant.”
I was convinced for years that I had a genetic disease, until my life fell apart on pills and I confronted my pdoc, who could not give me any answers that did not come on a prescription pad.
Your beliefs are not medical evidence. As you have admitted, there are no medical tests for mental illness. To suggest that it is a genetic disease implies that there are tests for same. Repeatable, verifiable tests. There are none. If there were, psychiatry would be shouting it from the rooftops.
You are using the exact same language that my former psychiatrist used to keep me in line and taking the drugs. In fact, he insisted I had a “genetic disease” based on speaking to me for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, at that time, I was ignorant of my own condition and desperate for help, and believed him.
The last thing we need is more association with Scientology. That is part of the credibility issue.
Good points, B.
As I said above, it’s the fear- if I were to expose myself as a survivor I would risk everything I have worked hard to achieve thus far.
I recall the not too distant past where people I knew actually crossed the street to avoid passing me on the sidewalk…all from a one week stay in a psych ward. I do not want to relive that humiliation.
then there was the sneering psychiatrists who said, “You’ll be back”
There’s a lot to fear.
Ted,
I believe the problem isn’t apathy…I believe it is fear. You and I know well the power of stigma. Psych survivors often have a lot at stake, including job loss, etc for being outed as a former psych patient so a concerted approach to reform has to include a way for people to work fairly safely behind the front lines. If people think they will be discovered- and possibly even forced back into psychiatry in order to keep job/family- then it will be difficult to recruit help.
Some loss of testosterone is from normal aging and nothing to fret about. But then again, wouldn’t it be better to provide well monitored hormone replacement rather than dose with dangerous pharmaceuticals? I wonder how many mis-diagnosed depression cases were actually the result of declining hormonal output. In both men and women.
Not meaning to be sexist at all, mind you I just suspect SSRI induced violence knows no gender.
There are women who have committed horrific acts while using SSRIs. I suspect many instances of child abuse/murder at the hands of the mother are SSRI influenced.
Let’s hope your drug never betrays you, like mine did to me.
Benzos can radically change a person’s personality or amplify bad characteristics, that’s for sure.
Or how about suffering from NO psychiatric conditions? Most depression is situational, or a side effect of physical ailments. Not something you throw a pill at.
Good analogy. I am still getting those, three years after my last dose of Celexa.
I actually had problems with weight gain after tapering off..I wondered at first if long term use damaged my metabolism, but I’m more inclined to think I gained weight through comfort eating when my withdrawal was at its worst.
The weight is coming off now, slowly, but I have an active job now, too.
Then why not prescribe placebo…why expose oneself to drugs that disrupt the natural neurotransmitter functions? I have permanent damage from antidepressants…including tinnitus. A placebo wouldn’t have done that to me.
I am not totally opposed to responsible psychiatry myself, and believe reform can be very useful to discuss, but I also believe that psych drugs are behind much of the dysfunction in our modern society. I don’t believe that informed consent alone will stem the tide of broken lives that often result from years of being unnecessarily medicated.
The damage from psych meds can be so subtle and insidious, that adverse changes can take place with nobody, including the patient, being the wiser until it’s too late.
Do you expect any doctor to pass that info on under the banner of “informed consent?”
I thought about this overnight, and yes, you are right. Better to debate away!
I apologize. It’s frustrating.
Thanks for your post…I can relate to much of this experience during my decade on Celexa and Xanax. The denial is strong in many of the posters here. They seem to think this can never happen to them. Medication spellbinding is the term Dr. Breggin gave for that phenomenon.
Please, not another “depression is like diabetes” comment…
It is NOT like diabetes.
Just stop this analogy, it’s completely inaccurate.
When they “go off” of them, they are likely suffering from discontinuation or withdrawal syndromes which have nothing to do with the original “illness.”
The drugs alter the brain…it takes time for the brain to re-wire itself, so to speak. If it ever does.
What argument?
There is no chemical imbalance. No proof that a chemical imbalance is behind depression, none, or that playing around with serotonin improves mood.
Meanwhile, pill takers are taking huge risks with their health by taking drugs that alter brain function, sometimes permanently.
But have at it.
Good point!
I suppose so, but I am a psychiatric survivor who had to claw my way out of long term antidepressant use, and the condescending manner this person is using to “educate” us is extremely irritating and filled with buzzwords my old psych doc used to use. I don’t think they truly wish to debate, either. I’ve attempted to engage these folks and get presented with more “education.”
MIA has been invaded, it seems, by the Big Pharma types. I haven’t seen this many trolls here in a long time. There’s at least three posting in the comments section of this article.
Sure…emotional blunting will reduce depression, but it also reduces happiness and the other emotions as well. What a bargain!
Here we go with the “it’s just like diabetes” meme from the pro-med, pro Big Pharma front.
No, it’s NOT “just like diabetes.” Not even close.
Diabetes is diagnosed with laboratory testing…show me ONE mental illness that is diagnosed with a laboratory test.
Where are all these pro-pharma people coming from? They all keep reading from the same script.
Are you kidding?
Some of us a long term users who fought tooth and nail to get off of these brain disabling drugs because of the physical and mental havoc they wreaked on us.
This is an advocacy site for us. Lately I’ve seen a good number of pro-pharma people post here and I have to wonder, who is behind this? Why are people here to push a pro-drug, pro “chemical imbalance” agenda?
Some of the language in this bill is downright disturbing. This bill will curtail the effectiveness of advocacy groups by cutting funding.
And today I still have effects- occasional brain fog and a ringing in my ears that has not yet let up.
Celexa turned me into a raging you-know-what. I can attest to that. My family recalls in retrosepect that Celexa and Xanax turned me into someone they didn’t recognize.
The drug manufacturers do know what the risk is, madmom. They know, but they are betting that the reward (profit) will outweigh the risk (to patients).
That’s what they tell you to keep you compliant (obedient). There are no blood tests, scans or any other medical test that nails down “mental illness.”
I was told the same thing about medication for life..even got the same diabetes spiel. But unlike depression, there is a medical test for diabetes.
Think about it.
I went though a lot of the same feelings as you but somehow managed to avoid the bi-polar label…by either good luck or the fact that my difficulties came to a head years after I began ‘treatment” so that put the psych doc in the uncomfortable position of having to admit missing a “diagnosis.”
I fired the p-doc and spent hell weaning myself off of all the garbage they’d had me on for years.
You are not alone! Stick around, things will get better.
LoganBerman,
Thank you for explaining your background and that you are currently using SSRI medication.
Now, I want to address something you said in your last comment: “It seems a lot of people have horrible experiences with medication because they went through some trauma and went to a GP or something, then go around and say SSRIS are mass murder pills or something.”
Like you, for years I was convinced that my medication combo (Celexa and Xanax) were a godsend and that my life was so much better for them. Mind you they were prescribed by a Board-certified psychiatrist who is still in practice, not a GP. I took those pills for over a decade. My initial diagnosis was garden-variety depression and anxiety. He offered no talk therapy nor would he refer me to a therapist and I thought at the time that this was the normal method of treatment..
What really happened over the years was that I lost any real interest in life and just went through the motions. My emotions were generally blunted, so I was not really depressed anymore, but I was not happy either. Toward the end I was getting angrier and more anxious, on the same dosages. I found myself drinking a lot of alcohol (SSRIs can tickle the alcohol receptors) at times. I gave up almost all of my hobbies and interests. My family members knew something was wrong but nobody suspected the pills until later on.
Eventually became more hostile and angry, and did things totally out of character for me. Stalking, vandalism, assault, relationships with sketchy people. Very lucky not to have been arrested or worse. Had constant obsessive thoughts of suicide and like the Germanwings pilot, researched them on the internet. It was after an attempted suicide and trip to the emergency room (swallowed all the Celexa, (20, 20 mg pills) and a handful of Xanax with a bottle of booze) that I realized something was very wrong. It was like waking from a bad dream..angry, I went back to the psych..
The psych wanted to raise my dosages. He blamed the “disease” because there was no way, in his opinion, that the drugs could cause such wild behavior. Mind you this behavior was out of character for me…I was a very mild mannered person generally. I fired him and never went back. I began the very hard work of weaning myself off of these drugs. It took the better part of a year to even begin to feel better again. No doctor, not even my family doctor, offered advice. If you look at some of my earliest posts here, you’ll notice I come off quite a bit irritable. I used tapering info found on the web. The first few months were sheer misery and I had to take time off from work. Today, drug free going on 3 years since I made the decision to come off. My life is so much better today.
I will never tell you to stop taking your drugs. I will however advise you to read your product literature and anything else you can, including SSRI stories.com, and educate yourself about them. I hope they never betray you like they did to me and so many other people. It’s good that you are in therapy as well. The practice of drugging people without concurrent therapy, in my opinion, is nothing short of criminal.
Be well.
You don’t know what caused the so-called imbalance in the first place or whether it has anything to do with depression. Correlation is not causation.
Diabetes and a raft of other problems including increased risk of suicidal ideation.
It doesn’t help the cause of psych reform to have that HBO documentary about Scientology come out right after this incident..I wish I had a dime for every time I’ve been called a Scientologist simply for criticizing psych meds. It’s a way to shut down conversation by people who don’t want to hear the truth.
Mainstream media will never touch that third rail: medication induced madness. Sanjay Gupta (CNN) broached the subject after Sandy Hook massacre and he was promptly quashed, so he never mentioned it again. Those of us who have personal experience with the insane behaviors brought on by SSRIs and benzos have very few avenues for discussion besides safe havens like this one. Unfortunately, I think we will see more and more cases of possible psych med induced mayhem before someone with influence in the public realm can finally put a stop to it.
Great article. Thank you Suzanne.
There is nothing worse than being told that you have a “broken brain” and there is nothing to be done but take lifelong medication. Breaking away from that sentence was a life-turner for me.
This article clearly demonstrates what love, creativity and compassion can do.
Thanks Chaya,
Glad life is so much more joyous for you without those horrid drugs.
There’s a wealth of info there and supportive people. I withdrew from benzos a few years ago and it’s really hard…nobody understands unless they’ve been there. It can be done but you need the tools. Don’t do it cold turkey.
Reported. You don’t need to come here and name-call with people you disagree with.
You don’t know that their lives are necessarily better because of drugs or because of other things they’ve done to change their lives. But we do know this. We know that psych drugs cause a lot of havoc in a lot of lives. The facts are out there and the evidence grows.
I am very suspicious of people who defend psych meds. You are either a patient suffering from spellbinding or a doctor or drug rep. Or just someone influenced by mass media. Regardless, do your homework. These drugs harm more than help.
Celexa is a wicked drug- one has to wonder why it’s on this list. Or why they approved any drugs at all.
we learned today that Lufthansa was informed of his illness…they knew. more details to come.
This was a German pilot who was credentialed under German flight regulations. Most of us don’t know who administered his flight physical- could have been his regular physician. We need more facts.
Marijuana is a mind-altering psychoactive drug that, while perhaps milder than pharmaceuticals, should still be consumed with caution…especially for those of us who have been damaged by pharmaceuticals.
“I will assume that no answers would be a yes, that is your belief. Thank you”
That is not the assumption to make- why not give people a chance to reply to you?
Why not peruse the articles here?
I think you are looking for continued justification to take meds-
Nobody here is going to tell you to stop. That’s a personal decision.
Many here were abused as children. I’m sorry you went through all of that, no child deserves to be abused however,
this forum is a safe haven for people who are recovering from the negative effects of psychiatry and psychiatric drugs. You may want to think about that.
Whatever works for you, of course.
Imagine being told you had to take aspirin for the rest of your life or your headache would never leave.
Granted, some chronic medical conditions require lifetime medication but psych disorders are not medical diseases.
What a fraud that has been perpetrated on the world by this s0-called “science” of psychiatry.
You must understand that many of the people who post here (myself included) are recovering from the abuses of the psychiatric system, which included horrific experiences while medicated. You may want to think about that when posting. This is not to knock or degrade your experiences. I just think you should be aware of where you are and to whom you are speaking. Thank you.
Thank you for telling your story. I too had horrific manic episodes while on psych drugs and when I reported them to my “doctor” he laughed at me. That’s what they do to preserve their easy income, by misleading and outright lying to patients.
I hope the future is brighter for you. Knowledge is power, read up on the works of Dr. Peter Breggin for more understanding of how the drugs you were given affected your brain and how to wean yourself off of them. Keep posting here. Good luck
I apologize for my poor grammar above, but the comment section does not allow for editing.
People should not be penalized for isolated incidents that occurred decades ago with no further recurrence. The court made sense.
Wise decision, for a change. “Have you ever” lookbacks are a joke…what happened to someone once, x number of decades ago with no problems since means what, exactly? Such filters have no place in a free society.
Blaming the mother once again. He was 20 years of age when he committed his crimes. Technically, he was a grown man and at that point his mother could not have stopped him. Also, it’s well known now that he was drugged. I suspect this is more damage control spurred by the shrinks and the drug companies who are looking at declining sales.
Same here. Over 50 and on Celexa and benzos, and all I could do the last two years I was on it was obsess over ways to end my life. There’s nothing magical about being over/under 24.
I wish there was some way I could help you but I’m in the US. Keep looking for a psychiatrist who will be in your corner. Does it have to be someone from Australia? I look forward to more of your posts. Best wishes to you. You are fearless!
Seroquel is a modern horror story. I am so sorry about your friends. Thank you for sharing the stories and keep on sharing! You are saving lives.
Thanks to Dr. Breggin for another great video.
Folks, send this video to anyone you know who is under the spell of psychiatric drugs or has a child on psychiatric drugs.
I am a psychiatric survivor and have posted my story here before. Be assured that there is always hope, no matter how dark things may seem- there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Things can and will get better. More and more of us are standing up and speaking out. Drug use is down and big Psych and big Pharma are quaking in their boots.
Be well!
Yes I was fed the same chemical imbalance lie by the “board-certified” psychiatric quack who turned me into a legal drug addict. They STILL lay that line on unsuspecting patients.
I was on Xanax for approx 10 years, prescribed by a psychiatrist who told me my brain had a “benzo shortage” that taking Xanax would correct. I deteriorated over that 10 year period and finally had the wherewithal to wean myself off of them. There are a lot of us long-term users out there.
I wish there was a way we could publicly name and shame these death-dealing fiends but not without risk of being exposed and sued.
I want to urge any veteran or anyone else who is considering stopping their drugs to be cautious about how you do so. Many psychoactive drugs and pain killers need to be tapered and there are many good tapering plans available on sites like surviving antidepressants.com . Also Dr. Peter Breggin has a guide to tapering off of drugs in his latest book, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal.
It’s better if you can work with an empathetic doctor, psychologist or nurse, but not all medical types will help someone get off of psych meds. The ones I approached for help wanted me to stay on them because they don’t like to go against a fellow doctor. Don’t let that stop you.
I had to do it on my own and it was tough but it can be done.
Oh I believe you! It’s horrifying and my attempts to educate the parents have fallen on deaf ears. I hope to live long enough to help the boy escape this sentence.
I went to an ER due to a mania-induced attempt at suicide using Celexa and booze. Of course I was told to see a psychiatrist for my “drinking” problem and get on more drugs! Even though the drug was prescribed by one. Insane. I instead began a process of tapering which also ended the alcohol cravings because those receptors were no longer being stimulated to oblivion. I am thankful they released me next day from that place and I wasn’t sent to the psych ward. What a wakeup call.
I hate to ask but I hope you have put some distance between yourself and your husband, who clearly did not have your best interests in mind!
My nephew is on Concerta and takes Catapres so he can sleep at night. 10 years old. It’s criminal!
I meant the older boy on ADHD drugs, not the little brother who is outgrowing him. Those drugs stunt growth.
I worry about my nephew. 10 years old, and his little brother is already taller than he is after several months on ADHD drugs. Parents are clueless dolts who have been sold a bill of goods.
I spent a few days with my young nephews. Their parents had a rather acrimonious divorce. recently the older one (10) went on “ADHD” drugs and he’s already spellbound. He thinks they help him in school. He takes Concerta during the day and has to take a pill to help him sleep at night, too, a blood pressure medication called Catapres. A ten year old on blood pressure meds. The parents are all fine with this. No thought that maybe the divorce and being shuttled from one house to another may have affected this child in any way. I have suggested counseling for the kids (there are two, one is drugged and the mom wants to drug the other) but to no avail…they believe drugs are the answer.
I think it’s child abuse.
I agree with Robert.
This site cannot afford to be painted with the Scientology brush, no matter how useful some of their material might be.
I myself, a layperson and psych survivor, have been called a Scientologist in response to my reasonable criticism of the psych industry. It is a tactic that very effectively shuts down debate, because how do you prove a negative?
Note carefully that Peter Breggin (who is married to a former Scientologist) is careful to distance himself from this organization (I hesitate to call it a church) and recently rebuked a guest on his podcast show for making frequent referrals to CCHR.
I wonder who lobbied for this? Pharma? Awful.
I see a lot of this in the so-called “progressive” community. If one scans the comments sections of the many blogs and news sites I haunt like Alternet and Raw Story, many otherwise very enlightened people often demand more involuntary commitment, more involuntary drugging and more crippling psych diagnoses for those they deem “mentally ill.”
For example- Little Johnny goes on a shooting spree and kills several people. The reaction will run like this: “If only his parents could have put him into a mental hospital.” If only he could have been Baker Acted then we wouldn’t have this.” “Why wasn’t he on medication.” “If people don’t take their medication, they should be forced to- it’s for their own good!” “Damn Ronald Reagan for closing the hospitals!” “We need a list of the mentally ill so they can’t buy firearms!” I suppose they would include anyone who has ever received a psych diagnosis!
I am sad to see the Unitarians distance themselves from psychiatric reform. But after reading numerous comments from, as I said, open and progressive and otherwise very liberally minded and kind people, I am not surprised.
Manufactured crisis, the weapon of choice of the psychiatric-industrial complex. Let’s drug Jane and Joe with SSRIs when they come in with teenage depression (treatable with therapy, but that takes time and makes less $$) and when they go off the deep end from rage and akathisia, give them the bipolar label and feed them even more drugs. What’s not to like, if you’re a shrink or a drug exec?
Hi Monica,
Thanks for yet another piece of inspiration. Thanks for giving others on the path a reason to keep on walking.
E
I have seen this with my own nephews- the mother wants a diagnosis when in fact, it is her dysfunctional relationship with her ex-husband, my brother, which has affected the children. But nobody will address the elephant in the room- the fact that the boys are shuffled back and forth weekly between two households. Nah, let’s drug them.
I went in to get help with a phobia and 45 minutes later, came out with prescriptions that lasted a decade! And when I asked for therapy, I got laughed at! When I asked for help to taper off, I got denied- and told, “You can’t make it without these drugs. You’ll be back to see me in a matter of weeks!”
That was 2.5 years ago and I haven’t been back to that sadist yet!
So tell me again how it’s we the patients who are to blame?
Yep. Manufactured crisis= new patients to fill the coffers (and coffins)
The attempted suicides in question were accomplished with the use of psych drugs. They don’t say which drugs. However, one can assume that the kids in question were in some kind of treatment so to suggest that the suicide attempts came as a result of under-treatment is outrageous and a frank lie.
Ugh. I see psychiatry is desperate for new customers. I hope people don’t just look at the headlines, because buried in the articles about the uptick in teen suicide attempts is a statement to the effect that correlation is not causation, and they cannot link the increases in suicide with the decrease in psych drug use. But of course, let’s throw that out there and get the public riled up.
This is great news!
Don’t tell that to the greedy, lazy shrinks who are addicted to that monthly med check money.
And to add, Dr. Joel-
I dutifully took those drugs (including Xanax) for over a decade with office visits for monthly med checks, which cost me 150 bucks a month (and he still missed- or ignored-my deterioration). Do the math and ask yourself why your brethren find the medication route so appealing. When you have a lot of bills to pay, from insurance to staff to office rent, it’s easy money, and the APA, the media, and Big Pharma all have your back.
Wake up. It’s not your patients who are the problem.
Dr. Joel,
I wish you’d been in my life 13 years ago when I sought help for a simple phobia and ended up on three psychiatric meds for over a decade from a board-certified psychiatrist who refused to refer me to a therapist, saying, “Your brain is broken, you need medication to restore that balance and you will need them for the rest of your life. You have a GENETIC DISEASE.”
When my drugs put me in the ER after a suicide attempt, I took charge of my own recovery and even then, no doctor was willing to help me. I went to three, all of whom said in so many words, “Maybe you need to be on these medications. You have a psychiatric diagnosis!”
So, sorry if I tend to blame doctors but we are told as laymen that we have to trust and obey you!
When I tried to “buck the system” I met resistance, and ended up tapering off of the drugs myself. I took FMLA leave to get through the first months and just suffered in silence the rest of the way with no help from your profession whatsoever!
Hopefully my experiences give you some more insight.
I hate to say it but the first urges to drug children come from the teachers, who generally have excessive class sizes and can’t handle the active children. So the notion is planted by them, much of the time, often accompanied by actual or implied threats to involve CPS (Child Protection Service). Parents who are faced with a CPS visit become very compliant, very quickly. It’s an odious way to get children drugged, but that is the reality all over this country. And the teachers should, but do not know better. They are taught to respond in this manner.
I want you to know that you are not alone, as so many of us are or have been in a similar situation! I did not fully raise my own kids due to psychiatry. I wish you all the best (and it will get better!), and please, I hope you are tapering from Klonopin and please don’t quit it cold turkey. Best wishes to you!
The subject has to be discussed in the context of “mental health,” because we now have the knee-jerk do-gooders who want to re-open mental hospitals and start warehousing persons against their will on the slightest hint of “crazy.” Read the comments attached to the stories on CNN and so on. Apparently, Rodger refused to take Risperdal so now the emphasis is on making the non compliant be good little drug addicts and take their pills, even by force. It’s scary what the public believes, and wants to see done!
We cannot allow an increase in forced hospitalizations and forced druggings! We do, however, need to address the number of guns out there. It’s the elephant in the room and it’s not going away any time soon.
we should begin with my board-certified ex-pdoc who kept me on them for over a decade. That sick fiend is still in practice. He laughed at me when I told him I wanted off of them so I taped off myself. There is a special place in hell for such as these. Wish we could make a “bad doc” list so people could avoid.
Truer words never spoken. I was never so alone as when I had to take myself off of Celexa, Xanax and Trazodone. My P-doc said my “disease” was coming back when I reported my manic attempt at suicide. I fired him. Ten years of handing a monthly check to this quack was finally over. But no other doc would help me withdraw. Most said, “well, if he said you should be on them for life, maybe you should stay on them.” I wasn’t buying that. I was at my wit’s end and ready to take action.
So I tapered with what I had left and it was a rapid and hellish taper. It should be against the law to prescribe such poisons. It took me over a year to begin to feel better. Thank you for calling attention to this little understood phenomenon.
How many times must we read about these incidents before people wake up and realize that “your drug IS your problem.”
I was well into middle age when a combo of Celexa, Xanax and Trazodone (for sleep) drove me to severe akathisia, agitation, bizarre and aggressive behavior, outbursts, problems on the job and an unrelenting urge to drink huge quantities of alcohol. All my p-doc would do was blame every symptom on my “broken brain” and increase my doses. I ended up attempting suicide and woke up in a hospital bed. It wasn’t until I was finally self-aware enough to get off of these pills and get my life back in order that things began to get better.
Now I must keep a watch over my dear young nephew who is on Ritalin…and he looks awful. The fight never seems to end.
Bingo. I too saw my shrink monthly and he always told me I looked “fine” even when I told him about my agitation and increased drinking (spurred by SSRIs and benzos which affect the same receptors). It wasn’t until I tried to kill myself that he (feigned) surprise. I really think he saw me more as a wallet. 150 bucks a month for 10 years adds up.
Ten years on Xanax here…I tapered over the course of a several months. Another “tiny dose” only .75 mg a day but oh, the agony of withdrawals! I was also weaning off of Celexa. It gets better, it really really does. Hang in there and hang around here too, this site really helped me cope.
Do you realize that most anti-depressants are prescribed without concurrent therapy?
I was on SSRI antidepressants and benzos for over a decade and my board certified so-called expert psychiatrist told me that I needed to be on both drugs “for life” and that I didn’t “need therapy because all you need are the drugs” for success. It was a series of manic episodes culminating in suicidal ideation and a real attempt to die that woke me up to the truth and it took me the better part of a year to wean off of those drugs that kept me chained to psychiatry. I fired my psychiatrist, who tried to increase my dosages after my hospital visit and I never looked back.
On the “trendy” placebo thing- there was a recent, well publicized study which basically said that antidepressants are little better than placebo when it comes to treating depression. Nothing trendy about hard scientific facts. Feel free to do a search for it; there are many links out there and maybe someone will post one.
Lucky you that you are getting therapy. That is probably benefiting you far more than what you are putting in your body and brain. Hope you never suffer from the many and very real and dangerous side effects of the brain-disabling drugs you are taking.
I believe that the use of any mind-altering drug or medication should be approached with caution, legal or not. Many of us (myself included) struggled mightily to wean ourselves off of mind-altering substances, legal or not. It’s your brain to screw up- or not- but let’s not have a double standard about it.
YMMV, of course.
Thanks for your thoughtful article. I also took Celexa for many years, and have been off of it (and xanax) for over a year now. My taper was short and very difficult, since no doctor would help me. Like you, I feel better than ever, and I can feel, think, and remember things again. Congrats on your victory over anti-depressants, and thanks again for giving people hope.
This was a great story and thank you for telling it. I am on a similar journey.
I wish I’d met you years ago. You sound like a great doc and I really do appreciate your writings. Instead, I ended up in the hands of what I call a legal drug pusher and I am just now picking up the pieces. Good luck and looking forward to more of your writing!
My ex-psychiatrist, the one who hooked me on benzos and told me that my brain was “broken” and needed Celexa for life the way a diabetic needed insulin, was a solo practitioner who did not accept insurance. He and his wife took several vacations a year, in locations all over the world. He had interesting and expensive hobbies. I think he may have begun his career with an interest in healing people, but as drug therapy took off, he based his practice around his prescription pad and it paid in spades.
What doctor wants to willingly give up a patient with good insurance? And see that green walk out the door? Lose three or four and there goes a lifestyle, until they can be replaced.
Thank you, Seth. I bookmarked your web page. Yes, in retrospect one would wonder why a patient would put up with this abuse, but when in the midst of it, it’s hard to gauge what is going on and how much the medication has thrown off good judgement. I actually welcome the manic episode now, only because it was the kick in the pants I needed to get off of these drugs and away from this kind of “treatment.”
Where did you get your information from?
Many psychiatrists in the US don’t accept insurance and take cash upfront just for this reason. My former psychiatrist was one of these. He specializes in panic and anxiety and once he puts people on medication, he keeps them coming back for med checks. The money rolls in every month- enough for he and his wife to take several international vacations every year. I paid him 150.00 US per month for ten to fifteen minutes of mainly listening to him talk about himself.
Now, he would write up a slip for the patient to submit for reimbursement, and he did use specific dx codes to ensure continued payment. After all, if a patient can’t get reimbursed they are more likely to drop out of treatment.
Not a bad gig for him, actually.
Thanks for a great article.
My ex pdoc knew I had a hard upbringing, the child of alcoholic and dysfunctional parents and from that, he concluded that I was doomed to the same fate because of genetics. That’s how he kept me coming in every month, year after year after year- he had me believing I had a genetic disease and that I needed drugs for life rather than empathetic counseling and guidance. In fact, he refused to refer me for therapy. He said I would not be a good candidate for therapy. How can a doctor justify such a comment?
I left him a year ago this month. A locomotive could not drag me into another shrink’s office.
Ah yes, the med checks. Mine were monthly and cash only, please. He was really ticked off when I walked out the door after my manic episode and never came back. Say a pdoc loses two or three such patients, and there goes thousands of dollars in annual income.
Say no to psychiatry!
School based comprehensive mental health programs= pill mills.
Expect to see a surge in kids with ADHD, Bipolar, OCD, ODD, and any new alphabet “disorders” the DSM madmen have invented to sell pills…
And the hand-wringing on the news: “Why are so many American children on psychiatric drugs?” I can see it now.
The NRA (National Rifle Association) wants national mental health screening (vice background checks). This is outrageous and beyond ironic.
And if the state welfare authorities referred her for those meds, you can guarantee they will eventually force compliance by threatening to remove her children. Lots of people end up on the drug carousel this way.
I can personally attest to this. I went manic on Celexa. This was a slow build up that actually took place over a number of years, as my akathisia and insomnia got worse. My pdoc treated those symptoms with more xanax, and trazodone. I developed severe alcohol cravings and told him about it and his response was to increase my dose of Celexa. A couple of months later, I tried to kill myself while on a business trip, by downing an entire bottle of Celexa in my hotel room. I remember little of it.
I spent the night in the ER. I am surprised I wasn’t taken to the psych ward (and grateful), but they treated it more as an alcohol related even (I’d been drinking as well).
When I got home I told my pdoc about it, and he chided me. To him, this was a silly joke.
I asked for a medication holiday and he refused to cooperate, so I tapered off all meds on my own. It was brutal, but I no longer take psychiatric meds.
I cringe when I hear groups like the NRA call for widespread psych screenings. More people on psych meds= more violence. Guaranteed!
Recovery mode? My board-certified psychiatrist told me almost from day 1 that my depression was “genetic,” and that I would always have it. He said I needed medication for life, that there was no cure, and that I would have to visit him monthly, which I did for many years, believing there were no other avenues to wellness.
He refused to consider a referral for therapy, telling me that I was “not a good candidate for therapy” and that all I really needed was medication.
He kept me on SSRIs and Xanax for over a decade, telling me that my brain needed them like a diabetic needed insulin.
Even my pharmacist was alarmed that I was on a benzo for so many years when the PDR and other texts don’t recommend it for long term use.
When I became more agitated, depressed, obsessed with suicide and tormented by insomnia he blamed the “disease” and increased my dosages until I ended up in an ER.
He would not help me discontinue these meds and said I simply needed a different pill or a different dose.
I fired him and then put myself into recovery mode, weaning myself off of those pills using a taper method found on the web.
No more meds and no more psychiatrists. I don’t trust them. And I’m doing pretty well.
I am very sorry about your father. I am curious-was your father not eligible for Medicare? You mention Medicaid and spending down (N.Dakota has Expanded Medicaid, btw, until Obamacare is revoked) but was he not eligible for Medicare?
What a horrible experience for your family. Consult a med-mal attorney to have a look at your father’s health records.
Citalopram is an awful drug. I was on it for years. I am very sorry about your friend.
Marie, you are incorrect about the number of people who voted for Trump. Only about 55% of eligible voters went to the polls. What is 50% of that? That’s right. Only about 25% of eligible voters, give or take (votes are still being tallied but the numbers won’t change much), voted for Trump.
I used prescription Xanax for over a decade along with an antidepressant. The psychiatrist who prescribed them was a well known panic disorder specialist in Virginia. He told me that Xanax was very safe and that people used them for years without a problem, and I believed him. After all, he’d written a book about phobias and panic disorders that can still be found on Amazon.
I suffered from the combined effects of both drugs. Mania, interdose withdrawal, insomnia, akathisia, and periods of obsessive thinking and suicidal thoughts, which he told me were a part of my “disease.”
After a series of embarrassing incidents involving extreme mania and suicidal ideation, the last of which landed my in the ER, I decided to taper off of both drugs and found myself facing a lot of resistance from the other doctors (non-psychiatrists) I sought help from. I was forced to taper with my last refills and it was really hell because I had taper within a couple of months. I was truly ill for a year.
The doctor who hooked me on these things is a millionaire now and owns a custom built home in an exclusive neighborhood in a Virginia city. He should be cooling his heels in a prison cell, but unfortunately, his form of drug dealing is legal.
Read up on akathisia. Dr. Peter Breggin writes about it often. He has testified in court about akathisia. It is a form of drug-induced agitation. Shrinks often prescribe a benzo along with an SSRI because they know the drug will agitate. I wish I knew this in 2001 before I began more than a decades worth of dependence on these pills. I am fortunate to be alive after some of the things I did under the influence of them.
Drug free since Spring 2012.
drt, and others,
It will get better. I am over four years past my last tapered dose of Xanax, and while I still have tinnitus (I was also on antidepressants for years), I feel generally quite good. Go have a look at the help sites others have put up like benzobuddies and read everything you can. Knowledge is power Good luck
I will add to the chorus of comments about supplements by saying that I, too, found B vitamins to be over stimulating during withdrawal. I did find fish oil to be somewhat helpful. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that your body needs time to heal. You will need plenty of rest and good quality nutrition. Drink water (go easy on the alcohol), and be patient with yourself. I am 4 years “clean” from benzos and psych meds. There is some residual damage which is helped by a low dose beta blocker. I’m free and doing many of the things I only dreamed about when chained to those drugs.
For me, akathisia meant increasing and relentless thoughts of suicide. Toward the end, I sat alone in my room and Googled methods of ending my life. I was hostile and lashed out at others. Tapering off, the thoughts vanished as if turning down a rheostat, and now they are non-existent. These are dangerous drugs, and it’s gratifying to see more and more mainstream buy-in to the belief that these are drugs that can cause far more harm than good.
I am a prime example of someone who was drugged for mild depression and anxiety, and after years of same, experienced such a mental deterioration that I too obsessed with suicide and the means to do it. I also engaged in irrational, dangerous, and impulsive behaviors, right up until I was hospitalized for a suicide attempt. Something inside me at that point spurred me to action. I fired my psychiatrist and the rest is, as they say, history.
When the drugs were tapered off and discontinued, the behavior and the impulsive thinking behind it stopped, almost immediately. I was not crazy before the drugs, and I was not crazy after the drugs. Must have been the drugs!
Incidentally, one of those drugs was one of the ones mentioned in the article. Citalopram. Sold as Celexa in the US. Celexa is known for suicidal ideation and impulsive, self-destructive behavior, and can increase the urge to drink alcohol, which brings its own problems.
Show your daughter the website SSRIstories.org and let her read one case after another.
That’s a rather callous comment, don’t you think?
What about a woman who finds herself pregnant by accident? Birth control does fail.
What about rape? Incest? Then there’s the whole need to taper slowly off the drugs.
You would also have these women sued, maybe even arrested, locked up, lose custody too?
You may want to think about what you’re suggesting here. You are hinting at a whole new type of control over another human being and that’s a little scary.
It’s the gun nuts who want to round up the mentally ill and put them on watch lists. It’s the gun nuts who want anyone who has ever taken a psych med, for any reason at all, to lose their Constitutional rights. That’s a non partisan issue. If you want to rail about left wing this and that, take it to free republic.
Oh look, another tough guy ranting on the internet. Muh gunz.
Do you honestly think your little pop gun will stand up to what the State will level against you if there is an insurrection?
The State will never fear you. You gave up your rights long ago. What’s left is an illusion. Most of you stay home on Election day anyway so your words are just that…words.
By the way, I’m a gun owner, too…but not a deluded one. I know I don’t stand a chance in hell against anything the State can wield against me.
Just hearing about this is depressing. How can people allow themselves to be drugged by these poison cocktails, in light of all the new info, is beyond my comprehension.
They are sentencing themselves to a life of misery.
They aren’t kidding. I spend a half hour on the bike or elliptical and I feel much better. If you know my story, you’ll know that I spent a decade on SSRI/benzo combinations and weaned myself off and been through all the misery you can imagine so when I tell you that exercise (even walking) helps, believe it. It’s a godsend. Eat as well as you can and get some kind of exercise in, when you are able. I understand that it can take a long time before you might feel well enough to do so.
Also want to mention that three (plus) years post self-withdrawal, I am doing pretty well with minor annoyances (tinnitus) that are holdovers from my psych drug use.
Please take heart, and know that you too can be free of these dangerous drugs. It may take months and even years to feel yourself again, but that’s the road that must be traveled.
There is a young lady who posts a blog here who has chronicled in great detail her path from psych meds; her posts are a very good read. She was on multiple drugs, some very powerful ones too.
I was admitted to an ER based on my long term use of Celexa and Xanax, both of which stimulated my urge to drink large quantities of alcohol. I was manic beyond belief and the alcohol was my attempt at self-medicating away the mania. Obviously, this didn’t work. The drugs and the alcohol made for an interesting and dangerous combination. Once home, I realized that I had to come off the drugs.
The ER physician, notably, would not recognize the role the drugs played in my admission and referred it as a case of excessive drink.
Since weaning myself off of SSRI/benzos, I never again had the urge to drink myself into a crazed stupor. This is likely because the drugs (especially the Xanax) stimulate the same receptors that alcohol hits. It should be noted that Xanax or another benzo is often used to treat alcoholics in detox.
Holy moly, I hadn’t realized that I’d already replied to you. Wish we had an edit function. Anyway, hope you are feeling better! Please update.
Hang in. I was on 20 and then 30 mg Celexa. It’s a bear of a drug. I was also on Xanax, .75 mg a day. Tapered, perhaps too rapidly, off both at the same time after the drugs drove me to an ER. Did the taper at home, myself. I have been there, done that and I can definitely empathize with you.
It will get better. You will feel like hell warmed over for a good year or so (most of which has passed for you), then your energy will slowly begin to come back. Eat well, take good quality fish oil, and be patient with yourself. I am 3 years free of Celexa and Xanax. It can be done.
You may still get brain zaps/fatigue etc off and on, but you will find that these lessen in intensity and duration over time. Big thing to remember is that it takes time. The one big thing that remains for me is tinnitus. I don’t know if you suffer from that, but some people do and it’s from the drugs. Mine goes up and down. I find that limiting coffee and alcohol helps. I work in a noisy environment and wear good hearing protection.
Good luck. You’ll feel better!
I wish I’d had your strength and wisdom. At the time, I needed help and answers, and knew not where to reach- and thus began my jail sentence, which I was able to break only three years ago.
I wish I’d known these things in 2002, when a well known Norfolk, VA area psychiatrist put me on Lexapro, then Celexa with a Xanax chaser…and I stayed on them for more than a decade until I wound up in an emergency room totally manic and out of my mind…
All I was told was that they were “safe and effective” and that I needed them “for life.” Never mind that they fixed none of my long term issues or that they were causing a painful and debilitating dependence.
Weaning myself off (nobody will help you withdraw from psych meds. Don’t even ask) was painful and agonizing and I did it based on advice from sites like this one and others.
I’m grateful that the truth is coming out, and that more and more scientists, physicians, and others in the helping professions as well as patients are speaking out, with facts to back them up. There is a sea change a-comin’.
I was on them for a decade and my board certified psychiatrist insisted that it was perfectly safe. This kind of lie happens far more often than most people realize.
Since withdrawing from them (on my own), I have not patronized another psychiatric death trap and never will if I can help it.
Well said. Your story mirrors my own experience in many ways. Glad you found your way out of the endless pit of despair that is psychiatry. Drugs were driving me mad as well, and no doctor would help, so I helped myself. You’re right- they’re deadly!
That was my drug, too, (along with a benzo) for most of a 10 year period (sometimes it was Lexapro or Cymbalta). Tapering is key…not clear if you did that or went cold turkey. Be patient, eat well, take fish oil, get plenty of rest. I was there and I am here to tell you that it will get better. May take a year or more. This too shall pass. If you find you have to reinstate, use the lowest dose that will alleviate symptoms then go on a slow taper program (there is a lot of info on the web now).
You might be interested to know that my board certified psychiatrist, known as an “expert” in pharmacology, told me that I needed Xanax “for life” because my brain didn’t make enough of it’s own natural benzo. This is what psychiatrists are telling patients. This is what must stop.
Same here…10 years of Xanax with an SSRI which culminated in suicidal and homicidal ideation, humiliating and alarming behaviors, and more culminating with an ER visit. I too am free. The psych said it was perfectly fine to be on benzos long term. Lied to my face! How can you trust such a person? Or profession, for that matter?
PS- this was to Lizard Destroyer.
I really dislike the forum format here. Can’t edit and it can be hard to follow a thread.
Dr. Peter Breggin has a book with good information about tapering, called Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. I see that someone else recommended benzobuddies and you found them to be negative. Sorry to hear that. There is good info there for the asking.
Sorry if I sound like another downer but I’m here to tell you that the resources out there really are few and far between. People who become dependent on benzos prescribed by doctors are viewed in a very negative light by many other doctors, and it will be next to impossible to find one willing to help. Keep calling but in the meantime, do read Breggin’s books and anything else you can get your hands on about tapering because at the end of the day, that’s what you are going to have to do. It’s not fun, I can assure you but it’s doable.
I tapered probably too quickly but I did manage to get off of .75 /day which I’d been on for almost a decade. Took the better part of 18 months to two years to really feel better. It’s a slog, but like I said, doable. Put one foot in front of the other and go forth.
Good luck.
Psychiatrists and drug companies lead the charge. They are the ones who trumpet the “Safe and effective” meme over and over again. If not for them, perhaps other doctors might exercise more discretion when prescribing. That’s why I lay most of the blame right where it belongs- at the feet of psychiatry (and pharma).
Most of us have been through debilitating panic and anxiety and for us, benzos were the miracle in a pill that eventually knifed us in the back.
I hope things work out well for you, and that you never suffer what many of us have. Good luck.
That’s exactly what mine did. Blamed my so-called “disease” for what really turned out to be bad reactions to the drugs I was on for years.
Amazing how I am doing so much better without them (after a couple years of withdrawal, I might add).
I cured myself.
I never demanded mine and did not know what they were until my psychiatrist prescribed them to go along with an SSRI. He did not tell me I could be come dependent and in fact, told me I would need them “for the rest of your life” (his words exactly). So yeah, maybe psychiatry should take a fair share of the blame. When psychiatrists hand them out like candy, why shouldn’t general practitioners, internists and gynecologists do the same, right?
And by abusing pres. drugs it is alleged he dabbled with suboxone, but we don’t have all that info nor do we know that he was taking anything at the time he chose to murder..or before, when planning the murders.
I wish we had an edit feature for our posts so we can fix or clarify comments.
I’m one of the biggest opponents of drugging but I will caution you to refrain from calling the Roof case a result of psych drugging because there is no evidence at all that he was drugged. He dabbled in abuse of prescription drugs but I have read nothing that suggests he was ever seen by a shrink or other doc for mental issues.
If we are too quick to write off all aberrant behavior as a result of psych drugging, even if the person IS on psych drugs, we risk losing all credibility. We need to review the facts of each case with a clear and objective mind. Sometimes, people just do evil things, and we need to face that fact.
Also want to thank you, David for sharing your story which reads very much like mine. It’s a journey of a thousand steps and it begins with the first one.
Agreed- everyone’s body is different. I did try TRB supplements but ended up only using the Omega 3 fish oil. I found most supplements and vitamins to be too overstimulating during my withdrawal. Each person should do their own research and consult a naturopath or other specialist who understands psych drug withdrawal. Also, Peter Breggin’s writing are very useful.
They (the shrinks) are on the ropes in desperation.
And what “compelling scientific, double-blind, controlled studies” can you cite to verify your position- which is no doubt, a pro-pharma, mental illness as chemical imbalance one?
I’m betting none.
Yet what does the FDA zero in on? Homeopathy and other alternative supplements and treatments.
If it competes with Big Pharma, they’ll fight it.
Watch the movie Dallas Buyers Club to see it in action. The movie was based on a true story.
I believe that if you call a well person “sick” long enough, that person will take on those sick characteristics. Sort of a self fulfilling prophecy.
When I was told that my brain was broken and I needed meds for life, I believed that something was indeed very wrong with me. It wasn’t until many years later that I learned the opposite.
And now Pfizer wins round 1. How predictable.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/17/us-pfizer-zoloft-idUSKBN0N82HY20150417
The big push over the last decade or so was to get pregnant women on antidepressants!
Yeah…it was all that “safe and effective” nonsense, now peddled to a new clientele.
After all, pregnancy is like everything else that’s been turned into a disease!
Haven’t you heard? The “mentally ill” aren’t supposed to have and enjoy sex! That seems to be the prevailing attitude amongst “doctors.”
And the general public appears to thing so, too. After all, if you are “mentally ill” you should be out of sight, out of mind and preferably locked up on a ward somewhere.
My ex-shrink got into a physical altercation with a lawyer in the same office building. They threatened to sue each other. I wish I knew what a buffoon he was before I became his patient.
There should be a Bad Doc list but I suppose that could invite lawsuits especially from the aforementioned buffoon.
I had a vitamin deficiency in my teens which mimicked depression and it was resolved by taking vitamins.
Others may have thyroid or other hormonal issues that can also cause depression.
You don’t treat an underactive thyroid with antidepressant but goodness knows the pdocs sure try.
He’s playing word games.
Of course, and that’s how I became addicted to them- through prescribed use. but look at the ignoramuses in the comments. Unreal!
Interesting. Thanks for the link.
I’m going to do some research on it.
I’m of course referring to the comments under the original article.
If you look at the comments, you’ll see what denial is all about.
The “I don’t abuse it so that’ll never happen to me” folks are pretty well represented.
Who doesn’t remember the little Zoloft bouncy guy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twhvtzd6gXA
Heh…he never met my ex psychiatrist, board certified and supposedly a leading expert in pharmaceuticals. He insisted that I had a “chemical imbalance” which was “genetic” and even drew little pictograms to describe what was going on. Bah.
Yep. The worm is turning and psychiatry is on defense.
This shrink is out to lunch. All I have to do is google chemical imbalance, and I come up with a gazillion examples put forth by both psychiatry and pharma. Youtube is filled with archived commercial advertisements, too. The internet has killed the memory hole, and the lame attempts by psychiatry to deny that they ever put forth this garbage will fail again and again.
Good question. If Dreamflyer’s daughter is doing so well, let her post here with her experiences.
I am no fan of Scientology myself- at all. But the S label is often used as a straw man to stop all debate on psychiatric drugs. I will not debate anyone who throws that label out.
So this is how you defend your reedy and tenuous position, by accusing us of being Scientologists. Not by presenting facts in a rational manner. This is not a Scientology site. I can’t speak for individuals who post here, but I am not a Scientologist, nor have I ever been.
Buh bye.
You totally missed the meaning of the comment. People who engage with psychiatry are told they are ill or led to believe they are ill, only to learn later that the problem is not a physical disease but a reaction to other things going on in life- which can include but are not limited to real physical issues such as cancer, etc. Or divorce, bereavement etc.
We were lied to by the medical establishment, and by society which exhorts people to obey white coats without question.
Most of us “willfully” engaged with the system only because we were told that the system would look out for our best interests and would cause no harm. We know now that this isn’t true at all- the drugs they peddle are not “safe and effective” (a frequent term they use).
We were told that our depression, anxiety, and other problems were the result of a physical disease process like diabetes, and we know know that’s not true, either. Psychiatry cannot prove a direct physical cause for mental and emotional issues. They really don’t even understand the mechanism of action of the drugs they peddle.
It’s called being lied to- being sold a bill of goods. Haven’t you ever had that happen to you?
Amy,
Thank you for a well written and heartfelt article. I wish you all the health and happiness in the world. I too survived the Pharmacaust (great word!) by falling for the lies- that my anxiety and depression was the result of a “genetic disease” and not from circumstances in my life (just lost neighbor in the WTC attacks among other things) and that only pills would fix it.
Ten years later, the mania, restlessness, violent outbursts, lack of inhibition, alcohol abuse spurred by the drink, and other problems that arose from steady use of Celexa, Xanax and occasional Trazodone landed me in an ER after a suicide attempt using those very drugs washed down with alcohol, and I realized then that the drugs were my problem.
The shrink who put me on that cocktail laughed at me when I told him I wanted off and offered to increase my dosages instead, so I fired him, and began the long process of weaning myself off. Now I am more or less my old self again, with a few lingering problems like tinnitus…but I was robbed of a decade of my life.
Good luck and thanks again for sharing your story.
Satanic doesn’t even begin to describe what I think about it. Thank God they never tried it on me. My heart goes out to everyone damaged by this barbaric treatment.
That actually sounds pleasant and I may try it. Thanks.
How do you feel about the drugging of children?
Steve,
The psychs zero right in on genetics because they know that the patient can’t readily disprove them due to lack of a reliable test, and they use that disinfo to keep patients cowed and “compliant.”
I was convinced for years that I had a genetic disease, until my life fell apart on pills and I confronted my pdoc, who could not give me any answers that did not come on a prescription pad.
Your beliefs are not medical evidence. As you have admitted, there are no medical tests for mental illness. To suggest that it is a genetic disease implies that there are tests for same. Repeatable, verifiable tests. There are none. If there were, psychiatry would be shouting it from the rooftops.
You are using the exact same language that my former psychiatrist used to keep me in line and taking the drugs. In fact, he insisted I had a “genetic disease” based on speaking to me for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, at that time, I was ignorant of my own condition and desperate for help, and believed him.
The last thing we need is more association with Scientology. That is part of the credibility issue.
Good points, B.
As I said above, it’s the fear- if I were to expose myself as a survivor I would risk everything I have worked hard to achieve thus far.
I recall the not too distant past where people I knew actually crossed the street to avoid passing me on the sidewalk…all from a one week stay in a psych ward. I do not want to relive that humiliation.
then there was the sneering psychiatrists who said, “You’ll be back”
There’s a lot to fear.
Ted,
I believe the problem isn’t apathy…I believe it is fear. You and I know well the power of stigma. Psych survivors often have a lot at stake, including job loss, etc for being outed as a former psych patient so a concerted approach to reform has to include a way for people to work fairly safely behind the front lines. If people think they will be discovered- and possibly even forced back into psychiatry in order to keep job/family- then it will be difficult to recruit help.
Some loss of testosterone is from normal aging and nothing to fret about. But then again, wouldn’t it be better to provide well monitored hormone replacement rather than dose with dangerous pharmaceuticals? I wonder how many mis-diagnosed depression cases were actually the result of declining hormonal output. In both men and women.
Not meaning to be sexist at all, mind you I just suspect SSRI induced violence knows no gender.
There are women who have committed horrific acts while using SSRIs. I suspect many instances of child abuse/murder at the hands of the mother are SSRI influenced.
Let’s hope your drug never betrays you, like mine did to me.
Benzos can radically change a person’s personality or amplify bad characteristics, that’s for sure.
Or how about suffering from NO psychiatric conditions? Most depression is situational, or a side effect of physical ailments. Not something you throw a pill at.
Good analogy. I am still getting those, three years after my last dose of Celexa.
I actually had problems with weight gain after tapering off..I wondered at first if long term use damaged my metabolism, but I’m more inclined to think I gained weight through comfort eating when my withdrawal was at its worst.
The weight is coming off now, slowly, but I have an active job now, too.
Then why not prescribe placebo…why expose oneself to drugs that disrupt the natural neurotransmitter functions? I have permanent damage from antidepressants…including tinnitus. A placebo wouldn’t have done that to me.
I am not totally opposed to responsible psychiatry myself, and believe reform can be very useful to discuss, but I also believe that psych drugs are behind much of the dysfunction in our modern society. I don’t believe that informed consent alone will stem the tide of broken lives that often result from years of being unnecessarily medicated.
The damage from psych meds can be so subtle and insidious, that adverse changes can take place with nobody, including the patient, being the wiser until it’s too late.
Do you expect any doctor to pass that info on under the banner of “informed consent?”
I thought about this overnight, and yes, you are right. Better to debate away!
I apologize. It’s frustrating.
Thanks for your post…I can relate to much of this experience during my decade on Celexa and Xanax. The denial is strong in many of the posters here. They seem to think this can never happen to them. Medication spellbinding is the term Dr. Breggin gave for that phenomenon.
Please, not another “depression is like diabetes” comment…
It is NOT like diabetes.
Just stop this analogy, it’s completely inaccurate.
When they “go off” of them, they are likely suffering from discontinuation or withdrawal syndromes which have nothing to do with the original “illness.”
The drugs alter the brain…it takes time for the brain to re-wire itself, so to speak. If it ever does.
What argument?
There is no chemical imbalance. No proof that a chemical imbalance is behind depression, none, or that playing around with serotonin improves mood.
Meanwhile, pill takers are taking huge risks with their health by taking drugs that alter brain function, sometimes permanently.
But have at it.
Good point!
I suppose so, but I am a psychiatric survivor who had to claw my way out of long term antidepressant use, and the condescending manner this person is using to “educate” us is extremely irritating and filled with buzzwords my old psych doc used to use. I don’t think they truly wish to debate, either. I’ve attempted to engage these folks and get presented with more “education.”
MIA has been invaded, it seems, by the Big Pharma types. I haven’t seen this many trolls here in a long time. There’s at least three posting in the comments section of this article.
Sure…emotional blunting will reduce depression, but it also reduces happiness and the other emotions as well. What a bargain!
Here we go with the “it’s just like diabetes” meme from the pro-med, pro Big Pharma front.
No, it’s NOT “just like diabetes.” Not even close.
Diabetes is diagnosed with laboratory testing…show me ONE mental illness that is diagnosed with a laboratory test.
Where are all these pro-pharma people coming from? They all keep reading from the same script.
Are you kidding?
Some of us a long term users who fought tooth and nail to get off of these brain disabling drugs because of the physical and mental havoc they wreaked on us.
This is an advocacy site for us. Lately I’ve seen a good number of pro-pharma people post here and I have to wonder, who is behind this? Why are people here to push a pro-drug, pro “chemical imbalance” agenda?
Some of the language in this bill is downright disturbing. This bill will curtail the effectiveness of advocacy groups by cutting funding.
And today I still have effects- occasional brain fog and a ringing in my ears that has not yet let up.
Celexa turned me into a raging you-know-what. I can attest to that. My family recalls in retrosepect that Celexa and Xanax turned me into someone they didn’t recognize.
The drug manufacturers do know what the risk is, madmom. They know, but they are betting that the reward (profit) will outweigh the risk (to patients).
That’s what they tell you to keep you compliant (obedient). There are no blood tests, scans or any other medical test that nails down “mental illness.”
I was told the same thing about medication for life..even got the same diabetes spiel. But unlike depression, there is a medical test for diabetes.
Think about it.
I went though a lot of the same feelings as you but somehow managed to avoid the bi-polar label…by either good luck or the fact that my difficulties came to a head years after I began ‘treatment” so that put the psych doc in the uncomfortable position of having to admit missing a “diagnosis.”
I fired the p-doc and spent hell weaning myself off of all the garbage they’d had me on for years.
You are not alone! Stick around, things will get better.
LoganBerman,
Thank you for explaining your background and that you are currently using SSRI medication.
Now, I want to address something you said in your last comment: “It seems a lot of people have horrible experiences with medication because they went through some trauma and went to a GP or something, then go around and say SSRIS are mass murder pills or something.”
Like you, for years I was convinced that my medication combo (Celexa and Xanax) were a godsend and that my life was so much better for them. Mind you they were prescribed by a Board-certified psychiatrist who is still in practice, not a GP. I took those pills for over a decade. My initial diagnosis was garden-variety depression and anxiety. He offered no talk therapy nor would he refer me to a therapist and I thought at the time that this was the normal method of treatment..
What really happened over the years was that I lost any real interest in life and just went through the motions. My emotions were generally blunted, so I was not really depressed anymore, but I was not happy either. Toward the end I was getting angrier and more anxious, on the same dosages. I found myself drinking a lot of alcohol (SSRIs can tickle the alcohol receptors) at times. I gave up almost all of my hobbies and interests. My family members knew something was wrong but nobody suspected the pills until later on.
Eventually became more hostile and angry, and did things totally out of character for me. Stalking, vandalism, assault, relationships with sketchy people. Very lucky not to have been arrested or worse. Had constant obsessive thoughts of suicide and like the Germanwings pilot, researched them on the internet. It was after an attempted suicide and trip to the emergency room (swallowed all the Celexa, (20, 20 mg pills) and a handful of Xanax with a bottle of booze) that I realized something was very wrong. It was like waking from a bad dream..angry, I went back to the psych..
The psych wanted to raise my dosages. He blamed the “disease” because there was no way, in his opinion, that the drugs could cause such wild behavior. Mind you this behavior was out of character for me…I was a very mild mannered person generally. I fired him and never went back. I began the very hard work of weaning myself off of these drugs. It took the better part of a year to even begin to feel better again. No doctor, not even my family doctor, offered advice. If you look at some of my earliest posts here, you’ll notice I come off quite a bit irritable. I used tapering info found on the web. The first few months were sheer misery and I had to take time off from work. Today, drug free going on 3 years since I made the decision to come off. My life is so much better today.
I will never tell you to stop taking your drugs. I will however advise you to read your product literature and anything else you can, including SSRI stories.com, and educate yourself about them. I hope they never betray you like they did to me and so many other people. It’s good that you are in therapy as well. The practice of drugging people without concurrent therapy, in my opinion, is nothing short of criminal.
Be well.
You don’t know what caused the so-called imbalance in the first place or whether it has anything to do with depression. Correlation is not causation.
Diabetes and a raft of other problems including increased risk of suicidal ideation.
It doesn’t help the cause of psych reform to have that HBO documentary about Scientology come out right after this incident..I wish I had a dime for every time I’ve been called a Scientologist simply for criticizing psych meds. It’s a way to shut down conversation by people who don’t want to hear the truth.
Mainstream media will never touch that third rail: medication induced madness. Sanjay Gupta (CNN) broached the subject after Sandy Hook massacre and he was promptly quashed, so he never mentioned it again. Those of us who have personal experience with the insane behaviors brought on by SSRIs and benzos have very few avenues for discussion besides safe havens like this one. Unfortunately, I think we will see more and more cases of possible psych med induced mayhem before someone with influence in the public realm can finally put a stop to it.
Great article. Thank you Suzanne.
There is nothing worse than being told that you have a “broken brain” and there is nothing to be done but take lifelong medication. Breaking away from that sentence was a life-turner for me.
This article clearly demonstrates what love, creativity and compassion can do.
Thanks Chaya,
Glad life is so much more joyous for you without those horrid drugs.
It’s like being reborn!
eng
Hi Sabrina,
I can’t help you with the doctor part, but do sign up at http://survivingantidepressants.org/ and also http://www.benzobuddies.org/
There’s a wealth of info there and supportive people. I withdrew from benzos a few years ago and it’s really hard…nobody understands unless they’ve been there. It can be done but you need the tools. Don’t do it cold turkey.
Reported. You don’t need to come here and name-call with people you disagree with.
You don’t know that their lives are necessarily better because of drugs or because of other things they’ve done to change their lives. But we do know this. We know that psych drugs cause a lot of havoc in a lot of lives. The facts are out there and the evidence grows.
I am very suspicious of people who defend psych meds. You are either a patient suffering from spellbinding or a doctor or drug rep. Or just someone influenced by mass media. Regardless, do your homework. These drugs harm more than help.
Celexa is a wicked drug- one has to wonder why it’s on this list. Or why they approved any drugs at all.
we learned today that Lufthansa was informed of his illness…they knew. more details to come.
This was a German pilot who was credentialed under German flight regulations. Most of us don’t know who administered his flight physical- could have been his regular physician. We need more facts.
Marijuana is a mind-altering psychoactive drug that, while perhaps milder than pharmaceuticals, should still be consumed with caution…especially for those of us who have been damaged by pharmaceuticals.
“I will assume that no answers would be a yes, that is your belief. Thank you”
That is not the assumption to make- why not give people a chance to reply to you?
Why not peruse the articles here?
I think you are looking for continued justification to take meds-
Nobody here is going to tell you to stop. That’s a personal decision.
Many here were abused as children. I’m sorry you went through all of that, no child deserves to be abused however,
this forum is a safe haven for people who are recovering from the negative effects of psychiatry and psychiatric drugs. You may want to think about that.
Whatever works for you, of course.
Imagine being told you had to take aspirin for the rest of your life or your headache would never leave.
Granted, some chronic medical conditions require lifetime medication but psych disorders are not medical diseases.
What a fraud that has been perpetrated on the world by this s0-called “science” of psychiatry.
You must understand that many of the people who post here (myself included) are recovering from the abuses of the psychiatric system, which included horrific experiences while medicated. You may want to think about that when posting. This is not to knock or degrade your experiences. I just think you should be aware of where you are and to whom you are speaking. Thank you.
Thank you for telling your story. I too had horrific manic episodes while on psych drugs and when I reported them to my “doctor” he laughed at me. That’s what they do to preserve their easy income, by misleading and outright lying to patients.
I hope the future is brighter for you. Knowledge is power, read up on the works of Dr. Peter Breggin for more understanding of how the drugs you were given affected your brain and how to wean yourself off of them. Keep posting here. Good luck
I apologize for my poor grammar above, but the comment section does not allow for editing.
People should not be penalized for isolated incidents that occurred decades ago with no further recurrence. The court made sense.
Wise decision, for a change. “Have you ever” lookbacks are a joke…what happened to someone once, x number of decades ago with no problems since means what, exactly? Such filters have no place in a free society.
Blaming the mother once again. He was 20 years of age when he committed his crimes. Technically, he was a grown man and at that point his mother could not have stopped him. Also, it’s well known now that he was drugged. I suspect this is more damage control spurred by the shrinks and the drug companies who are looking at declining sales.
Same here. Over 50 and on Celexa and benzos, and all I could do the last two years I was on it was obsess over ways to end my life. There’s nothing magical about being over/under 24.
I wish there was some way I could help you but I’m in the US. Keep looking for a psychiatrist who will be in your corner. Does it have to be someone from Australia? I look forward to more of your posts. Best wishes to you. You are fearless!
Seroquel is a modern horror story. I am so sorry about your friends. Thank you for sharing the stories and keep on sharing! You are saving lives.
Thanks to Dr. Breggin for another great video.
Folks, send this video to anyone you know who is under the spell of psychiatric drugs or has a child on psychiatric drugs.
I am a psychiatric survivor and have posted my story here before. Be assured that there is always hope, no matter how dark things may seem- there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Things can and will get better. More and more of us are standing up and speaking out. Drug use is down and big Psych and big Pharma are quaking in their boots.
Be well!
Yes I was fed the same chemical imbalance lie by the “board-certified” psychiatric quack who turned me into a legal drug addict. They STILL lay that line on unsuspecting patients.
I was on Xanax for approx 10 years, prescribed by a psychiatrist who told me my brain had a “benzo shortage” that taking Xanax would correct. I deteriorated over that 10 year period and finally had the wherewithal to wean myself off of them. There are a lot of us long-term users out there.
I wish there was a way we could publicly name and shame these death-dealing fiends but not without risk of being exposed and sued.
I want to urge any veteran or anyone else who is considering stopping their drugs to be cautious about how you do so. Many psychoactive drugs and pain killers need to be tapered and there are many good tapering plans available on sites like surviving antidepressants.com . Also Dr. Peter Breggin has a guide to tapering off of drugs in his latest book, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal.
It’s better if you can work with an empathetic doctor, psychologist or nurse, but not all medical types will help someone get off of psych meds. The ones I approached for help wanted me to stay on them because they don’t like to go against a fellow doctor. Don’t let that stop you.
I had to do it on my own and it was tough but it can be done.
Oh I believe you! It’s horrifying and my attempts to educate the parents have fallen on deaf ears. I hope to live long enough to help the boy escape this sentence.
I went to an ER due to a mania-induced attempt at suicide using Celexa and booze. Of course I was told to see a psychiatrist for my “drinking” problem and get on more drugs! Even though the drug was prescribed by one. Insane. I instead began a process of tapering which also ended the alcohol cravings because those receptors were no longer being stimulated to oblivion. I am thankful they released me next day from that place and I wasn’t sent to the psych ward. What a wakeup call.
I hate to ask but I hope you have put some distance between yourself and your husband, who clearly did not have your best interests in mind!
My nephew is on Concerta and takes Catapres so he can sleep at night. 10 years old. It’s criminal!
I meant the older boy on ADHD drugs, not the little brother who is outgrowing him. Those drugs stunt growth.
I worry about my nephew. 10 years old, and his little brother is already taller than he is after several months on ADHD drugs. Parents are clueless dolts who have been sold a bill of goods.
I spent a few days with my young nephews. Their parents had a rather acrimonious divorce. recently the older one (10) went on “ADHD” drugs and he’s already spellbound. He thinks they help him in school. He takes Concerta during the day and has to take a pill to help him sleep at night, too, a blood pressure medication called Catapres. A ten year old on blood pressure meds. The parents are all fine with this. No thought that maybe the divorce and being shuttled from one house to another may have affected this child in any way. I have suggested counseling for the kids (there are two, one is drugged and the mom wants to drug the other) but to no avail…they believe drugs are the answer.
I think it’s child abuse.
I agree with Robert.
This site cannot afford to be painted with the Scientology brush, no matter how useful some of their material might be.
I myself, a layperson and psych survivor, have been called a Scientologist in response to my reasonable criticism of the psych industry. It is a tactic that very effectively shuts down debate, because how do you prove a negative?
Note carefully that Peter Breggin (who is married to a former Scientologist) is careful to distance himself from this organization (I hesitate to call it a church) and recently rebuked a guest on his podcast show for making frequent referrals to CCHR.
I wonder who lobbied for this? Pharma? Awful.
I see a lot of this in the so-called “progressive” community. If one scans the comments sections of the many blogs and news sites I haunt like Alternet and Raw Story, many otherwise very enlightened people often demand more involuntary commitment, more involuntary drugging and more crippling psych diagnoses for those they deem “mentally ill.”
For example- Little Johnny goes on a shooting spree and kills several people. The reaction will run like this: “If only his parents could have put him into a mental hospital.” If only he could have been Baker Acted then we wouldn’t have this.” “Why wasn’t he on medication.” “If people don’t take their medication, they should be forced to- it’s for their own good!” “Damn Ronald Reagan for closing the hospitals!” “We need a list of the mentally ill so they can’t buy firearms!” I suppose they would include anyone who has ever received a psych diagnosis!
I am sad to see the Unitarians distance themselves from psychiatric reform. But after reading numerous comments from, as I said, open and progressive and otherwise very liberally minded and kind people, I am not surprised.
Manufactured crisis, the weapon of choice of the psychiatric-industrial complex. Let’s drug Jane and Joe with SSRIs when they come in with teenage depression (treatable with therapy, but that takes time and makes less $$) and when they go off the deep end from rage and akathisia, give them the bipolar label and feed them even more drugs. What’s not to like, if you’re a shrink or a drug exec?
Hi Monica,
Thanks for yet another piece of inspiration. Thanks for giving others on the path a reason to keep on walking.
E
I have seen this with my own nephews- the mother wants a diagnosis when in fact, it is her dysfunctional relationship with her ex-husband, my brother, which has affected the children. But nobody will address the elephant in the room- the fact that the boys are shuffled back and forth weekly between two households. Nah, let’s drug them.
I went in to get help with a phobia and 45 minutes later, came out with prescriptions that lasted a decade! And when I asked for therapy, I got laughed at! When I asked for help to taper off, I got denied- and told, “You can’t make it without these drugs. You’ll be back to see me in a matter of weeks!”
That was 2.5 years ago and I haven’t been back to that sadist yet!
So tell me again how it’s we the patients who are to blame?
Yep. Manufactured crisis= new patients to fill the coffers (and coffins)
The attempted suicides in question were accomplished with the use of psych drugs. They don’t say which drugs. However, one can assume that the kids in question were in some kind of treatment so to suggest that the suicide attempts came as a result of under-treatment is outrageous and a frank lie.
Ugh. I see psychiatry is desperate for new customers. I hope people don’t just look at the headlines, because buried in the articles about the uptick in teen suicide attempts is a statement to the effect that correlation is not causation, and they cannot link the increases in suicide with the decrease in psych drug use. But of course, let’s throw that out there and get the public riled up.
This is great news!
Don’t tell that to the greedy, lazy shrinks who are addicted to that monthly med check money.
And to add, Dr. Joel-
I dutifully took those drugs (including Xanax) for over a decade with office visits for monthly med checks, which cost me 150 bucks a month (and he still missed- or ignored-my deterioration). Do the math and ask yourself why your brethren find the medication route so appealing. When you have a lot of bills to pay, from insurance to staff to office rent, it’s easy money, and the APA, the media, and Big Pharma all have your back.
Wake up. It’s not your patients who are the problem.
Dr. Joel,
I wish you’d been in my life 13 years ago when I sought help for a simple phobia and ended up on three psychiatric meds for over a decade from a board-certified psychiatrist who refused to refer me to a therapist, saying, “Your brain is broken, you need medication to restore that balance and you will need them for the rest of your life. You have a GENETIC DISEASE.”
When my drugs put me in the ER after a suicide attempt, I took charge of my own recovery and even then, no doctor was willing to help me. I went to three, all of whom said in so many words, “Maybe you need to be on these medications. You have a psychiatric diagnosis!”
So, sorry if I tend to blame doctors but we are told as laymen that we have to trust and obey you!
When I tried to “buck the system” I met resistance, and ended up tapering off of the drugs myself. I took FMLA leave to get through the first months and just suffered in silence the rest of the way with no help from your profession whatsoever!
Hopefully my experiences give you some more insight.
I hate to say it but the first urges to drug children come from the teachers, who generally have excessive class sizes and can’t handle the active children. So the notion is planted by them, much of the time, often accompanied by actual or implied threats to involve CPS (Child Protection Service). Parents who are faced with a CPS visit become very compliant, very quickly. It’s an odious way to get children drugged, but that is the reality all over this country. And the teachers should, but do not know better. They are taught to respond in this manner.
I want you to know that you are not alone, as so many of us are or have been in a similar situation! I did not fully raise my own kids due to psychiatry. I wish you all the best (and it will get better!), and please, I hope you are tapering from Klonopin and please don’t quit it cold turkey. Best wishes to you!
The subject has to be discussed in the context of “mental health,” because we now have the knee-jerk do-gooders who want to re-open mental hospitals and start warehousing persons against their will on the slightest hint of “crazy.” Read the comments attached to the stories on CNN and so on. Apparently, Rodger refused to take Risperdal so now the emphasis is on making the non compliant be good little drug addicts and take their pills, even by force. It’s scary what the public believes, and wants to see done!
We cannot allow an increase in forced hospitalizations and forced druggings! We do, however, need to address the number of guns out there. It’s the elephant in the room and it’s not going away any time soon.
we should begin with my board-certified ex-pdoc who kept me on them for over a decade. That sick fiend is still in practice. He laughed at me when I told him I wanted off of them so I taped off myself. There is a special place in hell for such as these. Wish we could make a “bad doc” list so people could avoid.
Truer words never spoken. I was never so alone as when I had to take myself off of Celexa, Xanax and Trazodone. My P-doc said my “disease” was coming back when I reported my manic attempt at suicide. I fired him. Ten years of handing a monthly check to this quack was finally over. But no other doc would help me withdraw. Most said, “well, if he said you should be on them for life, maybe you should stay on them.” I wasn’t buying that. I was at my wit’s end and ready to take action.
So I tapered with what I had left and it was a rapid and hellish taper. It should be against the law to prescribe such poisons. It took me over a year to begin to feel better. Thank you for calling attention to this little understood phenomenon.
How many times must we read about these incidents before people wake up and realize that “your drug IS your problem.”
I was well into middle age when a combo of Celexa, Xanax and Trazodone (for sleep) drove me to severe akathisia, agitation, bizarre and aggressive behavior, outbursts, problems on the job and an unrelenting urge to drink huge quantities of alcohol. All my p-doc would do was blame every symptom on my “broken brain” and increase my doses. I ended up attempting suicide and woke up in a hospital bed. It wasn’t until I was finally self-aware enough to get off of these pills and get my life back in order that things began to get better.
Now I must keep a watch over my dear young nephew who is on Ritalin…and he looks awful. The fight never seems to end.
Bingo. I too saw my shrink monthly and he always told me I looked “fine” even when I told him about my agitation and increased drinking (spurred by SSRIs and benzos which affect the same receptors). It wasn’t until I tried to kill myself that he (feigned) surprise. I really think he saw me more as a wallet. 150 bucks a month for 10 years adds up.
Ten years on Xanax here…I tapered over the course of a several months. Another “tiny dose” only .75 mg a day but oh, the agony of withdrawals! I was also weaning off of Celexa. It gets better, it really really does. Hang in there and hang around here too, this site really helped me cope.
Do you realize that most anti-depressants are prescribed without concurrent therapy?
I was on SSRI antidepressants and benzos for over a decade and my board certified so-called expert psychiatrist told me that I needed to be on both drugs “for life” and that I didn’t “need therapy because all you need are the drugs” for success. It was a series of manic episodes culminating in suicidal ideation and a real attempt to die that woke me up to the truth and it took me the better part of a year to wean off of those drugs that kept me chained to psychiatry. I fired my psychiatrist, who tried to increase my dosages after my hospital visit and I never looked back.
On the “trendy” placebo thing- there was a recent, well publicized study which basically said that antidepressants are little better than placebo when it comes to treating depression. Nothing trendy about hard scientific facts. Feel free to do a search for it; there are many links out there and maybe someone will post one.
Lucky you that you are getting therapy. That is probably benefiting you far more than what you are putting in your body and brain. Hope you never suffer from the many and very real and dangerous side effects of the brain-disabling drugs you are taking.
I believe that the use of any mind-altering drug or medication should be approached with caution, legal or not. Many of us (myself included) struggled mightily to wean ourselves off of mind-altering substances, legal or not. It’s your brain to screw up- or not- but let’s not have a double standard about it.
YMMV, of course.
Thanks for your thoughtful article. I also took Celexa for many years, and have been off of it (and xanax) for over a year now. My taper was short and very difficult, since no doctor would help me. Like you, I feel better than ever, and I can feel, think, and remember things again. Congrats on your victory over anti-depressants, and thanks again for giving people hope.
This was a great story and thank you for telling it. I am on a similar journey.
I wish I’d met you years ago. You sound like a great doc and I really do appreciate your writings. Instead, I ended up in the hands of what I call a legal drug pusher and I am just now picking up the pieces. Good luck and looking forward to more of your writing!
My ex-psychiatrist, the one who hooked me on benzos and told me that my brain was “broken” and needed Celexa for life the way a diabetic needed insulin, was a solo practitioner who did not accept insurance. He and his wife took several vacations a year, in locations all over the world. He had interesting and expensive hobbies. I think he may have begun his career with an interest in healing people, but as drug therapy took off, he based his practice around his prescription pad and it paid in spades.
What doctor wants to willingly give up a patient with good insurance? And see that green walk out the door? Lose three or four and there goes a lifestyle, until they can be replaced.
Thank you, Seth. I bookmarked your web page. Yes, in retrospect one would wonder why a patient would put up with this abuse, but when in the midst of it, it’s hard to gauge what is going on and how much the medication has thrown off good judgement. I actually welcome the manic episode now, only because it was the kick in the pants I needed to get off of these drugs and away from this kind of “treatment.”
Where did you get your information from?
Many psychiatrists in the US don’t accept insurance and take cash upfront just for this reason. My former psychiatrist was one of these. He specializes in panic and anxiety and once he puts people on medication, he keeps them coming back for med checks. The money rolls in every month- enough for he and his wife to take several international vacations every year. I paid him 150.00 US per month for ten to fifteen minutes of mainly listening to him talk about himself.
Now, he would write up a slip for the patient to submit for reimbursement, and he did use specific dx codes to ensure continued payment. After all, if a patient can’t get reimbursed they are more likely to drop out of treatment.
Not a bad gig for him, actually.
Thanks for a great article.
My ex pdoc knew I had a hard upbringing, the child of alcoholic and dysfunctional parents and from that, he concluded that I was doomed to the same fate because of genetics. That’s how he kept me coming in every month, year after year after year- he had me believing I had a genetic disease and that I needed drugs for life rather than empathetic counseling and guidance. In fact, he refused to refer me for therapy. He said I would not be a good candidate for therapy. How can a doctor justify such a comment?
I left him a year ago this month. A locomotive could not drag me into another shrink’s office.
Ah yes, the med checks. Mine were monthly and cash only, please. He was really ticked off when I walked out the door after my manic episode and never came back. Say a pdoc loses two or three such patients, and there goes thousands of dollars in annual income.
Say no to psychiatry!
School based comprehensive mental health programs= pill mills.
Expect to see a surge in kids with ADHD, Bipolar, OCD, ODD, and any new alphabet “disorders” the DSM madmen have invented to sell pills…
And the hand-wringing on the news: “Why are so many American children on psychiatric drugs?” I can see it now.
The NRA (National Rifle Association) wants national mental health screening (vice background checks). This is outrageous and beyond ironic.
And if the state welfare authorities referred her for those meds, you can guarantee they will eventually force compliance by threatening to remove her children. Lots of people end up on the drug carousel this way.
I can personally attest to this. I went manic on Celexa. This was a slow build up that actually took place over a number of years, as my akathisia and insomnia got worse. My pdoc treated those symptoms with more xanax, and trazodone. I developed severe alcohol cravings and told him about it and his response was to increase my dose of Celexa. A couple of months later, I tried to kill myself while on a business trip, by downing an entire bottle of Celexa in my hotel room. I remember little of it.
I spent the night in the ER. I am surprised I wasn’t taken to the psych ward (and grateful), but they treated it more as an alcohol related even (I’d been drinking as well).
When I got home I told my pdoc about it, and he chided me. To him, this was a silly joke.
I asked for a medication holiday and he refused to cooperate, so I tapered off all meds on my own. It was brutal, but I no longer take psychiatric meds.
I cringe when I hear groups like the NRA call for widespread psych screenings. More people on psych meds= more violence. Guaranteed!
Recovery mode? My board-certified psychiatrist told me almost from day 1 that my depression was “genetic,” and that I would always have it. He said I needed medication for life, that there was no cure, and that I would have to visit him monthly, which I did for many years, believing there were no other avenues to wellness.
He refused to consider a referral for therapy, telling me that I was “not a good candidate for therapy” and that all I really needed was medication.
He kept me on SSRIs and Xanax for over a decade, telling me that my brain needed them like a diabetic needed insulin.
Even my pharmacist was alarmed that I was on a benzo for so many years when the PDR and other texts don’t recommend it for long term use.
When I became more agitated, depressed, obsessed with suicide and tormented by insomnia he blamed the “disease” and increased my dosages until I ended up in an ER.
He would not help me discontinue these meds and said I simply needed a different pill or a different dose.
I fired him and then put myself into recovery mode, weaning myself off of those pills using a taper method found on the web.
No more meds and no more psychiatrists. I don’t trust them. And I’m doing pretty well.