Polydrugging support group

[[Co...]]

I'm wondering if it was a mistake tapering the trazodone, it's almost two months later and I'm still not ready to jump. It's hard. I sleep 3 hours and wonder if I will be able to jump or not. It's also the holidays and I would like to enjoy it with my family

[[ga...]]

So sorry you're having a hard time with the trazodone. I tapered it OK. I'm thinking I might pause my Xanax taper right now because my daughter is out of town and I'm leaning on my son too much. I guess sometimes you just have to pause and then pick up again later, right?

[[Li...]]

I'm wondering if it was a mistake tapering the trazodone, it's almost two months later and I'm still not ready to jump. It's hard. I sleep 3 hours and wonder if I will be able to jump or not. It's also the holidays and I would like to enjoy it with my family

 

Trazadone has always been one of those rare medications for me that would help me to sleep for a couple of days.  I would basically hallucinate after taking 150 mg of it.  That would indicate I should probably go to bed.  I would close my eyes and then I would still see swirling colors.  Shortly after, my brain would feel like it had a small explosion and then I would sleep for about 4 hours.  I would wake up and have the worst dry mouth ever.  I was always able to stop taking it by cold turkeying it for some reason.  Mostly anything other psychiatric medication would have led into severe withdrawal effects.  What dose of trazadone did you start on and how much are you on now?

[[Co...]]

Yes, sometimes we need to have a life too, so it can't be all about withdrawing

 

I was on 50 and now at about 10 mgs. I think it probably works for everyone in a different way. I got addicted and fast!

My joints are all loose, and i'm hoping it will improve. I hear ppl talking about this a lot, but I wonder if anyone got rid of the cracking?

[[Li...]]

Yes, sometimes we need to have a life too, so it can't be all about withdrawing

 

I was on 50 and now at about 10 mgs. I think it probably works for everyone in a different way. I got addicted and fast!

My joints are all loose, and i'm hoping it will improve. I hear ppl talking about this a lot, but I wonder if anyone got rid of the cracking?

 

It's hard to have a life being on meds / withdrawing from meds.  Too many people just want to get drunk all the time.  Even going out to eat has to come to a halt because my diet is so strict at this point.  And I'm just plain out of shape in general and I'm afraid to get sick.

 

My joints have felt loose and cracked easily for so long.  I have no idea if it has anything to do with the meds I've taken though.  Once you're done with Trazadone are you in the clear finally?

[[Co...]]

Yes, sometimes we need to have a life too, so it can't be all about withdrawing

 

I was on 50 and now at about 10 mgs. I think it probably works for everyone in a different way. I got addicted and fast!

My joints are all loose, and i'm hoping it will improve. I hear ppl talking about this a lot, but I wonder if anyone got rid of the cracking?

 

It's hard to have a life being on meds / withdrawing from meds.  Too many people just want to get drunk all the time.  Even going out to eat has to come to a halt because my diet is so strict at this point.  And I'm just plain out of shape in general and I'm afraid to get sick.

 

My joints have felt loose and cracked easily for so long.  I have no idea if it has anything to do with the meds I've taken though.  Once you're done with Trazadone are you in the clear finally?

 

THen I still have my seroquel to taper. But i will wait for that one. Such a long road to go.

Maybe it's the inactivity that leads to the cracking.

 

Yes it's hard isn't it. I wish i could just curl up and wait it out. I feel like everytime i go lower now I stop sleeping and so I'm scared to go lower.

[[Co...]]

So I'm off trazodone. Sleeping better again. But still have a lot of anxiety and health issues. I actually am in trial for tests now because something is probably non-benzo related. Fun times. The anxiety is relentless. THough i am happy to be getting some sleep again. The taper was worse when it came to insomnia.

[[ga...]]

So I'm off trazodone. Sleeping better again. But still have a lot of anxiety and health issues. I actually am in trial for tests now because something is probably non-benzo related. Fun times. The anxiety is relentless. THough i am happy to be getting some sleep again. The taper was worse when it came to insomnia.

 

Congratulations on getting off the trazdodone! That has to be good for your continued healing. 

 

 

[[Co...]]

Hi everyone. How is everyone doing?

 

I have two main sx for the moment: crazy muscle tension all over, and an eye twitch.

Because I'm still on seroquel, I'm always scared for developing tardive dyskinesia.

[[ga...]]

Hi everyone. How is everyone doing?

 

I have two main sx for the moment: crazy muscle tension all over, and an eye twitch.

Because I'm still on seroquel, I'm always scared for developing tardive dyskinesia.

 

I'm still going along with my taper at a snail's pace but my symptoms haven't been too bad this week.

[[Co...]]

Hi everyone. How is everyone doing?

 

I have two main sx for the moment: crazy muscle tension all over, and an eye twitch.

Because I'm still on seroquel, I'm always scared for developing tardive dyskinesia.

 

I'm still going along with my taper at a snail's pace but my symptoms haven't been too bad this week.

 

That's good news! Hope it will continue to be managable.

[[ga...]]

Hi everyone. How is everyone doing?

 

I have two main sx for the moment: crazy muscle tension all over, and an eye twitch.

Because I'm still on seroquel, I'm always scared for developing tardive dyskinesia.

 

I'm still going along with my taper at a snail's pace but my symptoms haven't been too bad this week.

 

 

That's good news! Hope it will continue to be managable.

 

Thanks, Cosair. I think I should be OK as long as my sleep meds don't fail me.

 

It looks like you're really low on your Seroquel, now. I'm not  a doctor, but I doubt you need to be worrying about TD at such a low dose. And eye twitches are very, very common and nothing at all like TD. I even had body-wide sharp muscle jerking from a med for 6 months many years ago. It was myoclonus, not TD, and it went away all by itself. There are lots of odd movement issues that are not TD and not related to TD. I hope you can rest easier knowing that!

[[Co...]]

Hi everyone. How is everyone doing?

 

I have two main sx for the moment: crazy muscle tension all over, and an eye twitch.

Because I'm still on seroquel, I'm always scared for developing tardive dyskinesia.

 

I'm still going along with my taper at a snail's pace but my symptoms haven't been too bad this week.

 

 

That's good news! Hope it will continue to be managable.

 

Thanks, Cosair. I think I should be OK as long as my sleep meds don't fail me.

 

It looks like you're really low on your Seroquel, now. I'm not  a doctor, but I doubt you need to be worrying about TD at such a low dose. And eye twitches are very, very common and nothing at all like TD. I even had body-wide sharp muscle jerking from a med for 6 months many years ago. It was myoclonus, not TD, and it went away all by itself. There are lots of odd movement issues that are not TD and not related to TD. I hope you can rest easier knowing that!

 

Yes i have that body jerking too. I'm relieved it's not that weird. I've been in this wave for so long (probably because of the trazodone taper) I really long for a window.

[[ga...]]

 

Yes i have that body jerking too. I'm relieved it's not that weird. I've been in this wave for so long (probably because of the trazodone taper) I really long for a window.

 

Yes, body jerking is so common that I think BB has a support thread for it!

 

I'm so sorry your healing is taking so long. Here's a link to a page that has helped me to cope when my symptoms flare up so that nothing works to make them better.

 

http://www.recovery-road.org/acceptance

 

I practiced this as much as I could when my symptoms were low because it's hard to learn when your symptoms are high. Hard, but not impossible. Hope maybe it helps you, too. 

[[Li...]]

Hi everyone. How is everyone doing?

 

I have two main sx for the moment: crazy muscle tension all over, and an eye twitch.

Because I'm still on seroquel, I'm always scared for developing tardive dyskinesia.

 

I'm still going along with my taper at a snail's pace but my symptoms haven't been too bad this week.

 

 

That's good news! Hope it will continue to be managable.

 

Thanks, Cosair. I think I should be OK as long as my sleep meds don't fail me.

 

It looks like you're really low on your Seroquel, now. I'm not  a doctor, but I doubt you need to be worrying about TD at such a low dose. And eye twitches are very, very common and nothing at all like TD. I even had body-wide sharp muscle jerking from a med for 6 months many years ago. It was myoclonus, not TD, and it went away all by itself. There are lots of odd movement issues that are not TD and not related to TD. I hope you can rest easier knowing that!

 

Yes i have that body jerking too. I'm relieved it's not that weird. I've been in this wave for so long (probably because of the trazodone taper) I really long for a window.

 

Are you down to just the Seroquel now?

[[sa...]]

Hi guys,

 

Sadly I fit in on this board.  I was detoxed off of Klonopin 16 months ago and am suffering horribly.  The stupid detox put me on four "nonaddictive" meds, seroquel, remeron, propanolol and gabapentin.

 

I am currently taking 100mg seroquel, 15 mg remeron and 50mg vistaril.

 

I am so sensitized I cannot cut anything

 

JUst looking for some hope

 

Chris

[[Li...]]

Hi guys,

 

Sadly I fit in on this board.  I was detoxed off of Klonopin 16 months ago and am suffering horribly.  The stupid detox put me on four "nonaddictive" meds, seroquel, remeron, propanolol and gabapentin.

 

I am currently taking 100mg seroquel, 15 mg remeron and 50mg vistaril.

 

I am so sensitized I cannot cut anything

 

JUst looking for some hope

 

Chris

 

Chris,

 

I'll admit that whoever put you on multiple psych meds was a complete idiot.  IMHO, staying on the Klonopin alone and detoxing slowly would have been better.  The good news is that with the exception of Seroquel, you are dealing with medications that are known to cause the least side effects / damages out of the whole lot of them dating back to the 1950s.  You can probably get off of Vistaril and Remeron very quickly.

 

Seroquel is going to be the toughest one to get off of because without a compound pharmacy, you're going to have to go from 100 mg to 75 mg to 50 mg to 25 mg and then drop to 0 mg.  Those can be rough cuts since Seroquel is a powerful atypical antipsychotic and you may have withdrawal insomnia, mania or psychosis.  When you are ready, I would find a withdrawal knowledgeable pdoc ASAP and have them work with you.

 

You have hope to come off of everything and recover in time since this is your first time withdrawing from psych meds.

[[Co...]]

Hi there! Sadly welcome here.

I would wait until you stabilize and go very, very slow. One med at a time. I decided to come off my trazodone first because it made me feel the worsed in terms of side effects. I would really recommend compounding for the seroquel. I am able to go very slowly because of this. And when I went from 25 to 20 the sx only lasted for a week. So that made me feel quite reassured. It will take a long time, but it's not a race. Try to stabilize and you will be able to get off those meds in the long run.

[[ga...]]

Welcome. Chris. I'm sorry you went through what you did. Healing takes a long time for people who were detoxed. I have a friend who went through waves for 2 years. But she did heal and you will, too. It just takes the brain a long time to put itself back together.

 

I am taking gabapentin and Seroquel as sleep aids right now or I would be sleeping zero. I plan to taper the benzos first and at a snail's pace. I can't cut faster than 10%/month. I'm praying the other drugs don't cause me trouble in the meantime and don't fizzle out on me. I'll deal with them after I get done with the benzo.

 

When I was feeling awful and barely functioning from a too-rapid taper of my benzo, I held and did not improve. So I started to make teeny tiny cuts to the benzo just to make some progress toward healing. The cuts were so small they didn't affect me (not better, not worse) but I felt like at least I wasn't treading water, doing nothing. Of course, I was still on the benzo and you're not. So your brain is healing even if you feel bad. So you are making progress, even though it's painful progress.  Hang in there. We'll all get throughout this together!

 

 

[[sa...]]

Thanks guys,

 

Sadly I have been on and off meds before and my system is totally kindled.  Fear that I will never heal from the benzo wd and ever get off of these other poisons.

 

Please tell me I am wrong,

 

Chris

[[Co...]]

Thanks guys,

 

Sadly I have been on and off meds before and my system is totally kindled.  Fear that I will never heal from the benzo wd and ever get off of these other poisons.

 

Please tell me I am wrong,

 

Chris

 

You WILL heal! Everyone heals. Some take longer than others, but we all heal! If you look at my signature i also had a lot of drugs before. But I only take the seroquel now, and I'm quite confident I will get off it somewhere next year. You are not alone in this, and we are getting there , one day at a time.

[[Li...]]

I finally managed to the get regular 125 mg Depakote pills after a 10 month battle to do so.  Now I'm terrified that I'm going to die because nobody knows how to go from Depakote ER to Depakote.  Most people go from Depakote to Depakote ER.  So I've got 3 mg of Klonopin in my system, I've still got a good amount of the 1250 mg of Depakote ER that I was still taking a couple days ago in my system and now I'm slowly taking 125 mg Depakote pills about every hour and a half.

 

I'm supposed to be on 1000 mg of regular Depakote.  However, you aren't supposed to be on both Depakote and Depakote ER at the same time, otherwise serious adverse effects can happen.  But I couldn't detox from Depakote ER because of the large pill sizes and I'm not going to cold turkey it.  So really, I have no other choice but to hope I don't end up in the hospital or die from this.

 

Being polydrugged sucks.  Hopefully the regular Depakote will do what it did for me many years ago and that was sedate me.  It is frustrating getting only 3 hours of sleep per night and hopefully this is the fix for now.  Then I can begin slowly coming off the regular Depakote over the remainder of this year and aim to come off Klonopin in 2016.

 

Ok, enough about me.  How is everyone else doing?

[[Fo...]]

I've variously been on risperidone, citalopram, quetiapine, olanzapine, propanolol, circadin, diazepam, zopiclone, lyrica and am down to just 8mg fluoxetine now. I left the crisis care team on 8mg diazepam, not sure how much olanzapine, blurry time, and 40mg citalopram, switched to 60mg fluoxetine. I quickly weaned fluoxetine down to 20mg then went slow from there, weaned off olanzapine more quickly, and took a few years coming off diazepam.

 

I feel awesome right now, and am going slow coming off fluoxetine.

 

I am living proof that we can bounce back from multi psych withdrawal. The brain heals regardless, if you eat right, and live clean, with exercise at whatever level you can manage, when you reach a stage in withdrawal when you can manage it.

 

I used and still use probiotics, kefir and curcumin.

[[Li...]]

I've variously been on risperidone, citalopram, quetiapine, olanzapine, propanolol, circadin, diazepam, zopiclone, lyrica and am down to just 8mg fluoxetine now. I left the crisis care team on 8mg diazepam, not sure how much olanzapine, blurry time, and 40mg citalopram, switched to 60mg fluoxetine. I quickly weaned fluoxetine down to 20mg then went slow from there, weaned off olanzapine more quickly, and took a few years coming off diazepam.

 

I feel awesome right now, and am going slow coming off fluoxetine.

 

I am living proof that we can bounce back from multi psych withdrawal. The brain heals regardless, if you eat right, and live clean, with exercise at whatever level you can manage, when you reach a stage in withdrawal when you can manage it.

 

I used and still use probiotics, kefir and curcumin.

 

I'm glad to hear you were able to come out of a bad polydrugging situation.  My main issue is insomnia and is pretty much the only reason I am unable to withdraw.  Did you experience this during your tapering and what did you find was best to combat the insomnia?

[[ga...]]

Thanks guys,

 

Sadly I have been on and off meds before and my system is totally kindled.  Fear that I will never heal from the benzo wd and ever get off of these other poisons.

 

Please tell me I am wrong,

 

Chris

 

Chris, You will heal. I have heard stories of long healings from many people.

 

It's important to get a good system of social support to help you through this. I don't have family in the area except for my college kids. I try not to lean on them when I'm really low. I have a crisis line in my area that has a plan on file for me (my therapist wrote it up and faxed it to them). They know that when I call (because I am sinking into despair), I just need to talk and hear encouraging words from a real live human and get my brain back on track. To get out of the house, I found a group near me on Meetup that I go to. It's just a women's coffee group that meets near me to chat, but there are other meetups for everything from board games to yoga to watching football at sports bars. And I have this support board. Look around and find a buddie blog to follow. Find one with a positive theme and get to know some of the people on the blog before you decide to join in so you can find one you can relate to. Avoid the high-drama, depressing threads.

 

Finally, here's a link to a coping technique that has helped me tremendously. The whole site is useful, but this link was a life-saver for me.

 

http://www.recovery-road.org/acceptance

 

It takes practice, but it works! I hope you find it helpful.