Bipolar Meds and benzo withdrawal.

[[Re...]]

I have bipolar disorder and was wondering if anyone here has the same diagnosis. I'd like to know what your experience has been with your other psych meds during and after benzo withdrawal.

 

I quit taking seroquel after two or three months off benzos and it caused some problems. I also tried taking one antidepressant, just one pill one time, and it caused a huge uptick in symptoms for over a week after. I'm afraid to try anything or change anything right now. I'm also worried that taking nothing is making depression and anxiety worse for me due to my illness. (Just read through the stuff about lamictal. I took that in the past and had a severe allergic reaction to it.) If you would prefer not to share your mental illness publicly you can send me a private message. Thanks in advance.

[[Lo...]]

Hi,

 

All I can tell you is that when my one and only psych med was an antidepressant, it was a pretty uneventful experience. How much I was helped by it is now up for debate, but I lived my life and didn't feel a need to join a support forum.

 

But after a few years of taking Ativan PRN, I had much harder time tolerating an antidepressant and ended up doing fast taper off of it (not sure if this was the best idea, honestly). Now, i am unable to tolerate any kind of antidepressant. Just based on my personal experience, but it seems that being on benzodiazepines has really made me much more sensitive to psychiatric medications than before. I mean really sensitive to the point that I have to heavily research if something will help me or not, and even all that research is not always a guarantee that something will help me. So, I try to keep going with the current medication makeup and make as few changes as possible.

[[Re...]]

Hi,

 

All I can tell you is that when my one and only psych med was an antidepressant, it was a pretty uneventful experience. How much I was helped by it is now up for debate, but I lived my life and didn't feel a need to join a support forum.

 

But after a few years of taking Ativan PRN, I had much harder time tolerating an antidepressant and ended up doing fast taper off of it (not sure if this was the best idea, honestly). Now, i am unable to tolerate any kind of antidepressant. Just based on my personal experience, but it seems that being on benzodiazepines has really made me much more sensitive to psychiatric medications than before. I mean really sensitive to the point that I have to heavily research if something will help me or not, and even all that research is not always a guarantee that something will help me. So, I try to keep going with the current medication makeup and make as few changes as possible.

 

It seems like most of us in withdrawal/recovery from benzos are extra sensitive to meds and having adverse reactions to things that we didn't before. I realize now that because of the benzos I'm not able to take any psych meds right now. I hope that when my brain is healed I will be able to try other psych meds again. Or maybe I will be forever paranoid of taking any meds and try to learn to deal with bipolar episodes without them! I don't blame you for not wanting to make changes to meds right now. It seems like a smart choice.