Im scared to take my psychiatric medication please help!?!

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try lexapro. zoloft gave me terrible side effects.

Your life is not ruined. It sounds like you may need a little more help in learning coping skills.. The key to eventually learning how to get off medication is showing the doctors that you can handle anxiety on your own. In order to do this effectively you will have to practice and become skilled at coping techniques. It will take time but you can succeed. Here is a good article on how to get off anxiety medication. On that website there is also a program that can assist you in learning how to improve your techniques as well. Click on the link in the article that's entitled " success story"

http://www.endanxietyforever.com/anti-anxiety-medication.html

I was on Seroquel for 4 months in that time I gained 50 pounds and felt like a zombie . I was taking 800mg which is a lot.
From my past experiences with medications there was always some horrible side effects. I felt like i was losing my mind half the time. I am currently taking nothing now. However I have racing thoughts, mood swings, im depressed and have anxiety. But after my last experience with meds I would rather deal with this then be in the ER or the psych ward cause my meds screwed me up mentally . I thought i was going to die. I had the shakes, I could;t even pick up a fork. it was super bad. And my body was numb. I felt nothing. I was living in fear that I would keel over at any given moment. Good god it was terrible! I'm not trying to scare you but never again for me.
You are not alone!

No one should be on Zoloft for 10 years without an evaluation to see how it's working, or how you feel while taking it. For my money, Zoloft and Paxil are about the worst antidepressants out there. That being said, they seem to work for some people, but 10 years is a long time to keep taking the same one. Try the new med and see if it works better for you.

cut them in half.

Many psychiatrists are appalled that antipsychotics are being prescribed for conditions much less severe than schizophrenia. antipsychotics have such severe physical side effects that they can shave years off your life. Side effects like massive weight gain (over 30 lbs, and often much more), diabetes, high cholesterol and triglycerides, heartbeat abnormalities, double the risk of heat stroke, and now it turns out that antipsychotics will even shrink your brain. The newer antipsychotics are no better than the old ones - quite a few studies have found that out now. It was all marketing hype by the drug companies.

you really are better off getting counseling for anxiety and learning to deal with it and reduce it. My mental health workers think this also.

if you are going to give up with the meds, you MUST taper off of them very slowly, like 10% a month decrease. You can go faster, but you are likely to get withdrawal problems because you have been on zoloft for 10 years.

I think the meds disabled me - prozac caused severe mania, and I lost my career as a result (I was a geophysics PhD student). all the meds I have ever taken since for the bipolar I got due to the prozac just made me more and more disabled. i gave up 10 months ago, and have improved noticeably, and most important, I suffer much less. My behavior is better. i am still depressed, still have trouble getting things done, still suicidal most mornings, but the intensity of it is much less than it was on the drugs.

I think the drugs work in the short term, or in the case of antidepressants, maybe you get a placebo bump for awhile,which wears off, then the drugs keep changing your brain over time making you sicker. go to madinamerica.com for more info about this process. However, what I have told you about my life is my experience, and I only found out about Robert Whitaker's book (anatomy of an epidemic) after I gave up on the pills.

good luck to you - I really think it is best to take charge of your own mental health and not look for a medication treatment, because they don't work. I would stop seeing a psychiatrist if my disability policy didn't require it. she knows I don' t want meds anymore though.

You are right to feel the way you are feeling but it is very important you do not change your medication until you see your doctor. Seroquel and many or All SSRIs/anticonvulsants/antidepressants/mo… stabilizers/sedatives have deadly side effects if you suddenly stop taking them or change your dosage in any way. So go see your doctor. And when you see your doctor, that is when you explain that you will not be taking seroquel anymore because of the side effects you are experiencing. Do not let the doctor tell you to seroquel is" this" or " that" or anything - YOU are the one ingesting it into your body on a daily basis so YOU get to inform the doctor of the way these prescriptions make YOUR BODY REACT. These prescriptions cause different reactions for different people and almost all of them can cause oppisite reactions. For example, lamictal can cause insomnia in some people and drowsiness in others. May cause weight loss for some but weight gain in others. etc...
Your doctor should be giving you a whole page or more of little fine writing that goes through a long , very long list of side effects. Make sure you read these before you take anything and follow the instructions. Now, you want to get away from these so-called "medications" and I say "Amen to you" because you care about your body and you realize these drugs don't help. Talk to your doctor about any ideas he/she may have about any NATURAL medications they know of. You have tried what they recommended and now you need to go in another direction - like one that works, where you can move! I am angry at doctors too. I am in a similar, no, the SAME situation you are where my life is controlled by pharmaceutical prescriptions and it is not an uplifting, empowering feeling. I have nothing nice to say about pharma or western medicine. I have respect for any doctor, just not the surgical or intrusive methods of "medications". When will they realize a pill does not heal everything!
Have you thought of getting acupuncture? It has helped many people with physical pain but it is also known to alleviate emotional stress as well. I know acupuncture will make you feel less ruined by the drugs you have had to take. It really isn't scary, acupuncture does not hurt. It truly helps! If you can't afford to get acupuncture, consider meditation. It is free! It is also easy and does not have to take a long time. You are an adult so you are in charge of what goes into your immune system. I have read Sooo much info on mental illness and UNNatural meds that I am apalled they are legal. They are LETHAL and the FDA says they are "approved". But who am I? I am not a doctor so DO NOT TAKE MY ADVICE - I am only a patient, what do I know, right? I know because I have survived the side effects, including a siezure that could have been prevented IF I had not stopped the prescription abruptly (and IF my doctor had warned me or even tried to inform me of any of the side effects
Try reading about a product EMPowerplus by a company in Canada called True Hope. It is "Nutritional Support for Mental and Emotional Well-Being" It claims that all mental challenges and nerve illnesses, including Autism, Bipolar, ADHD, Schitzophrenia, OCD and others, are due to a lack of proper vitamins and minerals we have not had throughout our life. I tried it but it is expensive and the pills are large/and you have to take several a day. BUT IT IS NATURAL and will not harm your body! 1-888-truehope or www.truehope.com
The depression will always be a challenge. You will have to teach yourself how to resist the black hole. It gets you nowhere but deeper and deeper. A good book to learn meditation (and emotional or chakra work) is The Sevenfold Journey by Anodea Judith and Selene Vega
Don't be mad at the doctor. Mine had no idea of any alternative medications or any desire to help me find a way to heal healthily. That is just the way it is. Yet, you are the one suffering the consequences of these mind-altering pills, so you have a right to say what you want to do from here. It is your health you are talking about so be honest with your doctor so they know what direction you want to go in to further your progress. If you choose a natural way, it may need to be combined with the doctors' way and you need to make sure there is no mixing drug-to herbal conflict. I sincerely hope one of my suggestions proves helpful to you. I know exactly how frustrated you must feel. But we are not ruined! Never.

www.truehope.com
1-888-TRUEHOPE
The Sevenfold Journey