Problems with medications

@Doglover Hi and hello @Bunniekins i can absolutely understand problems with side effects from meds i was on med after med after med and it just kept making my situation worse and worse i had so many side effects at one point my gp didnt believe me and i insisted he check and he looked up the drug companys website and had to apologise because the side effects i was having were down in the "incredibly rare" section. it is not an easy thing to be dealing with especially when everyone says they are supposed to help and yet they just arent working. i had doctors who said they side effects would wear off and they just got worse instead. as much as something can be the reccomended option there is no one size fits all and at the end of the day you have to do what works for you personally. this is especially true with psych meds. one of the problems with psych treatment is that there is a lot they dont know about the function of the brain and how the meds work in your brain as well as long term effects. they have some basic theories and ideas but there is not currently way to test a lot of these things and until that becomes avaliable much of the treatment is a trial and error to see if you get a good response. medicine has come a long way but we still dont know the things we dont know as well as the things we know that we dont know. there are all sorts of type of research going on into things like gut health and viatimin dificencies and thier effects of the body and brain as well as genetic disorders and such. but currently we have no idea what causes mental health or how to effectively cure it.

if the meds arent helping you are you are sensetive to them which is completely possible then you might want to consider coming off them. but if you do you will need to do it with a doctors help and also i would warn you that even once you are off them some people find that the side effects can linger for quite a while even for a year or more after being off them (this is especially true for anti anxiety drugs). but even now i have been off meds for about a year and while i still have some side effects off them and i still have trouble with my mental health i feel a lot better than when i was on them as for me they were really not ok, and everyone is different but that it just my experience. for me i am just trying to learn how to cope when i am not coping as in how to keep functioning even when things are horrible because i know for me if i wait for things to get better i will be wating forever and will never have any kind of life. it is just about doing what works best for you because that is really all that matters.

@Eden1919 , thanks so much for ur post and for taking the time to give such a detailed reply, i rly appreciate it.

Im sorry for all the struggles u hav bn thru with meds side effects - i can totally relate. For me i think a lot of it is the excipients in the meds (iv had problems with non MI meds long before i ever had an mi) but i also had a dna test which showed that of all the psychotropic meds tested (about 30 id day) there was not one that my body processed the way it shld, thus increasing chances of side effects. The only one that got the green light i hav alrdy tried and that didnt agree with me either. So basically im stuffed. I am finding the physical effects of the meds (whether its the meds or the excipients) intolerable and frankly torture. Every day is another day of torture.

Iv heard the same thing about perservering thru the side effects bcoz they wear off but they dont for me either, they just get worse and worse.

When u came off the meds, did u do it under gp guidance or psychiatrist? Were u on any of the short term anti anxiety meds that wre not allowed to mention the name of on here? Did u hav to go into hospital at all? Did u do a slow withdrawal? I am trying to do slow withdrawal off short term anti anxiety meds under psychs direction at the moment and it is sheer torture. They keep just upping the other med im on, which helps for 1 day then the symptons just get worse. And iv got a really long way to go before im off the 2 meds in that category. Meantime, the other med im on is just not cutting the mustard, even tho they keep increasing it. Its just crazy. I feel like im going crazy. But my symptoms are so physical, a lot of physical head symptoms as well as a burning sensation thruout my body and head. Its just torture!

Im sorry u still struggle with mi and that meds arent an option for u that work. It appears that is the same for me. I just dont know how im going to b able to get off them bcoz my symptoms r so bad and as long as i kp taking them they keep getting worse, but i need something thats going to help while im weaning off them. Im going stir crazy as it is with something thats supposed to help!

Anyway, thanks again @Eden1919 for taking the time to reply as u did. I appreciate u sharing ur experience with me. I hope u dont mind me asking further questions.

My thoughts are with u.

👋 @Bunniekins

@Doglover I dont mind at all but sorry it may take a while for me to reply i am in the middle of exams and will be traveling soon as well. anyway when i came off meds it was not with the help of a doctor which i DO NOT recommend but i am very lucky in that i dont experience withdrawl side effects generally speaking and for me within a week the physical side effects were mostly gone but i went off cold turkey which again i do not suggest. my sister however has very bad withdrawls with anti depressants and has to come off them super slowly and even then it is not comfortable for her. she says she gets brain zaps and feel tingles all over her body. meds are not easy at all oh i just remembered apperantly my psych was saying that if you swap the Brand of medications for example you start taking the brand name version of X but then swap to the chemist version of X you can experience side effects or withdrawls because the dosing is very tricky and while it is mostly the same apperantly the strength can change and if you are sensetive it can cause side effects. so might be something to consider but pick a version and stay with it if possible. I have been on the short term anxiety ones and that one i did have to taper off with a doctor because it was too risky physically but it only took a few weeks for me personally. but i was only on it for about 1 month and asked to go off because it was too expensive. have you looked up paradoxical side effects?(i am pretty sure that is what they are called) they are basically when the med gives you the exact opposite reaction to what it is meant to do and some of those can include agitation, I get that reaction with said anti anxeity drugs they make me very agitated and it is not fun. if you are seeing a psychiatrist you can also ask them to contact the drug companies and ask them for more detailed information to try and help sort out what is best. the dna test was a good idea though but sad that most dont seem like good options. i am meant to get one of those but again money. some meds are best started in hospital especially mood stabalizers they have some risky side effects which are better monitored but if you are looking to do a med shuffle in hospital i would recommmend private hospitals as they have a lot more time than public and so they would deal with side effects faster and more effectivly but that may not be in your budget as they can be pricy so it really depends what options you have also private hospitals are less anxiety inducing as public can be scary at times so if you are prone to that they may be better. but either way if you still feel you need meds then you may have to look into different options than you have already tried.

Hi @Eden1919 , no probs re taking time to reply - exams r more important! Whr r u travelling to? Is that on ur uni break?

U r very lucky not to hav too bad side effects coming off meds. Im the opposite - on them or coming off them i hav bad side effects. I withdrew off AD's and had side effects for about 3 months. Now trying to come off short term anti anxiety meds and its torture. Im wondering if i wld b better to go into hospital and try n do it quicker, but that wld b even more torturous! Just want to b off all these meds coz i truly believe the ingredients in them are causing these symptoms, but how do u get off them when ur symptoms r so bad? Its just an impossible situation.

Good that u were able to get of those short term anti anxiety meds. I am on 2 different ones and hav bn for 8 months. So far i hav only managed to reduce 1 of the meds from 2 a day to 1&1/4 per day and its bn hell. It was the only thing helping my symptoms so its had a huge impact. And thrs nothing else theyv given me that help with the anxiety, in fact im only getting worse, and my physical symptoms r getting worse. And iv got such a long way to go.

I get paradoxical reactions too anxiety meds too. They hav tried 4 different longer term ones and each one had the opposite effect to what thr supposed to, increased anxiety, racing thoughts etc. I just think no matter what meds im on im only going to get worse bcoz i am sensitive to the ingredients in them so nothing is going to help. I feel so trapped.

@Doglover yes it is not an easy thing to do. as far as hospital goes it is mostly if you think you can stand the boredom for the sake of going off them quicker but it really is something you have to decide for yourself. it is not going to be easy either way sadly but hopefully you can get off them and the side effects will go away.

Hi @Eden1919 , yes im not looking forward to it all. Its bn torture trying to just cut down slowly and the medication they suggested to increase to help counteract effects just wasnt cutting the mustard. So now iv gone back up to what i was on of the short term anti anxieties, but it hasnt helped. I thought it wld settle things down a bit but unfortunattly it hasnt.

How r u going with ur exams @Eden1919 , are they over yet or still going?