Issues with Antidepressants

[jsilver256]

It's a completely different counseling style, one where the counselor is more of a teacher than a listener.

 

[Brian0787]

It's a completely different counseling style, one where the counselor is more of a teacher than a listener.

Ah ok! That would definitely be more of help then the therapy I've had so far.

 

[Boogs]

I would also suggest looking for therapy without any added aspect such as a religious side, or indeed any other group not strictly medical based. While for some being religious can provide succour and help to that person, ASD is strictly a medical condition and no rhetoric, religious, political, or any other type will help to explain it and understand it.
I'd keep the two as separate as possible, especially to start with.

 

[vergil96]

Is this counselor specializing in ASD?

Therapy for NTs is not very effective on ASDs. I was kicked around therapists for over an year, my husband kept forcing me to go. I coincidentally got assigned to one specializing in ASD and that was what led to the diagnosis.

Same

 

[vergil96]

It's a completely different counseling style, one where the counselor is more of a teacher than a listener.

In my case, it seems about communication style. I'm much more direct than therapy for NT people seems to assume and not focused on portraying images and conveying meanings with my behaviour, my motivations are much more immediate and direct. You won't catch me buying an expensive car in order to seem rich, for example, or engaging in counterfactual flattery in order to make someone like me. In my opinion, honesty is the root of friendship.

 

[FayetheAspie]

Antidepressant recall: FDA upgrades medication risk class to 2nd highest level in recall update

I just saw this online and decided to post it here just in case it affects anyone on this site.

 

[Brian0787]

Hi All! It's been a while since I posted so just thought I would give an update and maybe get some feedback. I've still been having issues with antidepressants. I'm currently on a low dose of Paroxetine (Paxil) 25MG extended release and am unable to come off. The medication so far hasn't given too many benefits. I've tried going down and tapering based on what my Primary Care doctor had me do and got bad withdrawal. I tried since my last posting using Prozac 10 mg to wean myself off and was unsuccessful. I've also tried getting on Lexapro as I thought it would be more effective and got bad chest pains. Right now I think I am unfortunately stuck. I am seeing my Primary Care Doctor but he dosen't know what else to try.

At this point I am so confused as to what is best. I've had a couple medical professionals tell me I need to stay on them. I just don't know if I truly need to be on them for life. I think for right now I am in a holding pattern until I can figure out what to do. My Primary Care Doctor is going to refer me to one of their in house Psychiatrist but I won't be able to see them for a couple months. My apologies it's been so long since posting! I appreciate any thoughts anyone has or would anyone wants to share. I know at least I'm not alone and there are many others out there like myself. I had fantasies in my mind of going out of state to get help somewhere. I live in Pennsylvania and wondered if I would get better help out west like in Arizona or states with better Psychiatrists. I think I am going to have to work alot on the therapy side of things.

 

[vergil96]

For gentler withdrawal, cut the tablets into smaller pieces - halves or quarters. If they're capsules, also divide the contents.

 

[Suzanne]

One of my favorite subjects!

I was put on Prozac due to excess crying and I was so naive; just accepted it, but it did not take long for me to put on a huge amount of weight and throughout the years, the doze was increased, until I sensed that it was wrong for my health and tried to come off it myself ( no point going to drs as he just increased the dose). The side effect of like zaps in my head, were so intense and frightening, that I went back on the poison. But, one day, I decided that I had to come off, because I had regular horrific headaches and slept more than awake!

I managed to achieve the goal and after one month of serious zaps in head and panic attacks, soon calmed down.

I was on that poison for 15 years.

The headaches disappeared and I began to be up more than asleep and lost a bit of weight.

I learned that there are two types of depression. Clinical and social. For social, the drug does not work, and actually caused depression!

Years go by having mood swings ( I now recognize them as part of asperger's syndrome). I started taking vitamin B12 for carpal tunnel. It worked a bit, but what astonished me, was my mood swings leveled and stupid me, did not realize that vitamin B12 is a mood balancer!

I was recently put on another drug for anxiety and it worked a treat for anxiety, but made me not want to be around people, so I stopped it and glad, because my blood sugars are too high and that medicine is known to cause high blood sugars.

I now rather stick to natural.

I do apologize for such a long reply.

 

[Boogs]

The side effect of like zaps in my head, were so intense and frightening, that I went back on the poison. But, one day, I decided that I had to come off, because I had regular horrific headaches and slept more than awake!

Brain zaps are horrible, but a remarkably common symptom of a number of different drug's withdrawal effects. Most unpleasant but not a sign of anything organic going wrong, other than your brain being out of balance chemically and it needs time to re-adjust to not having that drug constantly in your system. This is the period of withdrawal that needs to be gone through before the brain has re-adjusted, and that leaves the mind to finish the job of purging the addiction (often with therapy) - this part is often much harder for those on what are called recreational drugs than those prescribed by a doctor.

The ways around it that I know of are providing substitutes that help sustain you while your brain re-adjusts, but are less troublesome in tapering off themselves (e.g. methadone for opiate addicts) although with the recreational side this is often as much political as medical (methadone is physically a worse addiction than heroin!).
The other is of course the tapering method and how well that's managed.

Problems here arise with the personal differences in how we respond to these things, and finding the correct level of stepping down that doesn't cause too many adverse symptoms (and it's possible to subdivide the tablets accurately and precisely). If the drops in dose are too large, and/or not spaced out correctly, this risks relapse from withdrawals being too adverse to manage. But for some the downside of this is a longer period withdrawing with constant ow level withdrawal symptoms. Each to their own and a good medic (imho) will discuss these options, a less experienced one may just present one plan with no options with a resulting lower chance of success.

 

[Brian0787]

For gentler withdrawal, cut the tablets into smaller pieces - halves or quarters. If they're capsules, also divide the contents.

Thank you! I take an Extended Release tablet and they say you are not supposed to cut it. They say it's because the way the medication is released. I might try doing that though with an instant release tablet and that's a good idea! I appreciate it

 

[Brian0787]

Thank you for sharing, Suzanne! I couldn't tolerate some of the side effects of Prozac. I am glad you were able to come off it!

 

[Boogs]

It may depend on how the extended release tablets work. I'm not very up to date with these, but some use tiny 'capsules' of the drug, looking like little granules or hundreds-and-thousands, and assuming they are all the same you can safely divide those granules, but it may be a mix of some designed to release sooner, some later, in which case you may have problems with uneven dosage.

The problem with instant release is if the drugs half-life is less than 24 hours, by the time you re-dose the next day (assuming one a day) you're too depleted, putting you in a cycle of up and down every day, and in that case you may need to half the dose and take it every twelve hours (or at least at first while working down from a high dose). I honestly don't know if any anti-depressants have that short a half-life, it may not be an issue.

All in all, please take what I've said with a pinch bucket of salt! I'm not a professional in this area, and although probably better acquainted than most laypeople, medicine/pharmacology moves on a-pace and I'm not up to date. Treat cautiously and research yourself (better if you can turn that into a discussion with doctor if they are amenable) and take your time. Better to take longer but be better equipped to succeed, and assume it may take more than one try - failing an attempt is just part of a learning experience if you use that experience to do better next time (not repeating what didn't work).

For the record, I did poorly on anti-depressants (and have been depressive most of my life) and never used one for more than maybe 3 or 4 months so never had to deal with the withdrawals (or didn't notice them, their being mild), but have experienced other addictions and hear many commonalities between the different drug's withdrawal effects.

 

[blitzkrieg]

I have a similar experience with regards to some other posters who have mentioned anti-depressants only subduing an emotional state rather than creating the chemical circumstances for a feeling of happiness.

For me, a person who is generally angry and irritable, wistful, regretful, melancholic and generally unhappy without anti-depressants, having my emotions subdued is generally a good thing and provides a feeling of contentment at least, if not happiness.

 

[Xinyta]

It seems I was slow to the punch with this one. Though alot of it maybe due to my own state as a person. Though I think I could say something about this. Though nothing that is as helpful as what's already posted.

I do recall taking medications that were for depression or general mood regulation kinda meds, as a kid. I had emotional outbursts near constantly and it was disruptive enough for me to be off them before too long. The two I recall were Depekote and Elavil. There was another one I took. Though I think it was related to seizures and it didn't work. I cannot remember the name of it. But I was put on different one called Tegretol, for the same issue of seizures during sleep. I've been off that, however, since I was 18. Since my seizures started subsiding as I grew older.

Truthfully. Medications for things like anxiety, seizures, depression, etc. Are all subjectively helpful, namely because if the how the individual's body will react.

Be mindful though. Because of the type of society we live in now. Most doctors are likely to be in favor of you being meded up, over actually helping you. So taking a different approach for yourself, and your health, is advisable.

 

[vergil96]

There was another one I took. Though I think it was related to seizures and it didn't work.

I can't say anti-seizure medications did anything about my mood tbh. I don't understand the logic behind "mood regulation" medication, it simply doesn't work or makes it worse. Or at least this is the case for me. The anti-seizure medication is related to my sensory issues, they're rather awful.

 

[Xinyta]

I can't say anti-seizure medications did anything about my mood tbh. I don't understand the logic behind "mood regulation" medication, it simply doesn't work or makes it worse. Or at least this is the case for me. The anti-seizure medication is related to my sensory issues, they're rather awful.

After some digging around. I found that the anti-seizure/epileptic medication I was think of was already mentioned. Depakote. Though I didn't take them for mood. I had a issue with seizures during sleep for a large amount of my time growing up.

Elavil was the med that was specifically aimed at mood regulation and minimizing depression. That was the one that gave me emotional outbursts. Though I am finding out that the medication isn't reccomend for those under the age of 12 years old AND was taken off the market for unknown reasons in 2000. I took it at the time as a 8-9 year old. So that now makes me think that I could of had additional problems beyond ASD and psychological, due to being on the med.

Anyway. I was a kid and with my parents (stepmother and father) for all of this. So I had little to no say in much of it, at all.