Withrawing from medication after several years.

[Tenacious1]

I have been on medication for severe depression for the last 10years. I want to know if I can withdraw from the medication and take something natural.

[JessF]

Hello Tenacious, I have been down this road many times and I would urge you not to do it.

The fallacy we fall into with medication for a long term illness like depression is we forget what it was like when we weren't taking it. You will still have fluctuations in your mood, and have bad days, and flat days. That's part ofa  normal emotional response. 

The problem with "natural" or "alternative" medicines is that there is no proof that they actually work, or they have been proven to not work at all. Alternative and natural medicine that has been proven to work is simply called "medicine". 

All the medication we take is derived from things in the natural world anyway, it has just been refined and tested throughly over time to ensure the correct purity and dosage. Aspirin comes from a natural tree root for example. 

I hope this doesnt sound too preachy tenacious I just don't want you to make the same mistakes I have. There area lot of snake oil charlatans out there promising instant cures in a bottle and depression simply doesn't work like that.

[geoff]

dear Tenacious, Jess has really made a good point here, but can I explain my circumstances which will also reinforce what Jess has said.

Like a lot of us I have suffered from depression much longer than 10 years, and by saying that I don't mean that it's anything I can be proud of, because it's certainly not.

There have been times when I have run out of medication and haven't taken it for a day or maybe two days, I suddenly begin to fall into a black hole and my depression as well as feeling so low returns, so I need my AD's, and as soon as I take a tablet then within an hour or so I begin to feel better.

I claim to have overcome depression but I don't ever believe that this is at all possible, because we are always prone to the disease, it still sits there, lurking within our bodies.

The natural medicines, well I not too sure they should be called that, but maybe any Chinese herbs and special ingredients are called medicines by them, but have no or little effect for someone with severe depression, so I also wouldn't agree to take them.

This brings me to a question for you, it seems as though you maybe having trouble with the AD, either with side-effects or that they aren't doing the job for you, so hope that you can reply back to us. Geoff.

[Tenacious1]

Hi Geoff and JessF thank you for your reply because I could not think straight a while ago at the time my doctor said well just stop taking them and we will see how you go . So I did and after about three weeks I was absolutely in a clinical depression stage and cried for over twelve hours over what ??? I have not idea. So eventually I got the courage to see a different doctor and they advised going back on them and then doubled my dose. I did not feel any better and had a test for my Serotonin level  which was fine !!!  But apparently I suffer from severe low Serotonin at times. How can that be because at times Oh My Gosh my depression just comes out of nowhere and then it goes away.  I take my medication regularly and then I feel so bad that I am not strong enough to get myself together without taking medication and I am a strong woman yet I feel so ashamed and thoroughly disgusted with myself that I actually need to take this medication for the rest of my life. The last twelve months have been so challenging yet I do not smoke or take drugs ( and never have) and I cannot tolerate Alcohol so what do I do to keep myself level headed. In June my father (83yrs)  died.  In August my son that I adopted out 30 years ago suddenly came back into my life  amazing!!! I am happy about that but it brought back all the emotions of why I let him go in the first place. then last week  My daughters father (86yrs) died and it is just bringing everything back to me.  Enough babble from me.Sorry if I chewed your ears off. Tenacious.

[JessF]

Hello Tenacious, depression aside for a moment, losing your daughter's father and having your adopted son come back into your life are big emotional events that will need to be processed. These are human reactions, not weaknesses. Doesn't make it any easier to deal with, I know.

Guilt comes hand in hand with depression, but I find that a bit of perspective can help - if you had a heart condition, would you feel disgusted with yourself having to take pills for that? Or insulin for diabetes? We often put a line in the sand between so called physical and mental health, but is is all one thing - health. It's just that so much extra stigma is associated with having things go wrong in the mind. You sound like a very strong person to me.

Did the doctor tell you to stop  taking the pills cold turkey, or to taper off? Stopping suddenly can be very dangerous. 

[Tenacious1]

Thank you for taking the time to take me seriously.  Yes the doctor did tell me to go cold turkey along with the blood pressure tablets I was taking at the time. I am back on both of them now. Funny, you comment about the heart thing as I just had a Heart monitor implanted in my chest as I was fainting for no reason at all  but that side of things is getting better.  I just feel that no one seems to understand. I am taking each day one by one and trying to keep motivated slowly and my brain active. I feel that sometimes my friends don't understand as they say that I need to go out to dinner with them etc and at times I just cant do it as I am not ready and it takes a lot for me to do that and I have no idea why. yet I have always been extremely outgoing. I am also being told that "I am mixed up" and don't know what I am doing . But. I dont make stupid mistakes I just don't make anything. Some days I can get ahead other days I don't. Enough babble. I also feel that there is absolutely nowhere that a depressed person can actually talk about exactly how they feel without upsetting someone else. There is all this etiquette that has to be adhered to and I can understand that but when does a person actually get to talk about what is troubling them? That's if one knows what is troubling them. Anyway I am going off subject track now so will stop babbling and thanks for listening . I dont like the way the tablets make me yawn make my hair fall out and how I am so addicted to them.  My brothers has to take AD also and cannot live without them. I was brought up with an alcoholic father who beat my mum weekly and then bought her flowers and a neurotic mother who used to say things to me like " i am going to slap you so hard your mouth will bleed and I will scar you for life" I still have nightmares constantly about my childhood and even now as an adult. I even have flashbacks at least daily. I have no idea what triggers it. Isn't that pathetic?  A grown woman who cant stop thinking about her childhood what is wrong with my head where is it at??? I don't like the way my medication stops me feeling any emotion as I could not even cry at my fathers funeral or my daughters fathers funeral and that is not like me. Enough babble and thanks for listening. Tenacious.

[Tenacious1]

Well, I saw my dr and I have had my medication reviewed so should feel a lot better. Also seeing a psychologist. So hopefully that will help and trying to do the things i like.

Thanks for  listening. Tenacious1