Posted by 49er on October 23, 2009, at 16:36:31
In reply to Re: Is Becoming Med Free a Reality?, posted by Buckeye Fan on October 20, 2009, at 11:04:14
BF,
If you do decide to taper, I would taper one drug at a time and leave the Trazadone for last since it is a sleeping med.
When you taper Pristiq, do not stop taking it cold turkey. 50mg is the lowest dose right? I can give you suggestions as to how to taper it and my advice is free.
<< I have tried to go med-free befOre ( not totally)
and I have never been able to get past the withdrawl and depression>I know I sound like a broken record but taper at the rate I suggested. When I resume tapering Doxepin, I am going to have go even more slowly than 5% of current dose. Yes, it is a pain in the neck but I want to be off the drug permanently. If it take forever to taper it so I can have a decent quality of life, so be it. That is the attitude you need to have.
People on Paxil Progress Board have reported being unsuccessful in tapering before succeeding because they did it slowly.
<<I wonder if I should try it alone...or go into a Rehab program.( I hate the thought of confinement and the fact it will become part of my medical history)>>
DO NOT GO INTO A REHAB CENTER. They will treat you like an addict and load you up with drugs to help you taper very quickly. Kind of defeats the purpose.
You don't have to go at it alone. http://www.paxilprogress.org is very supportive. It is run by an RN whose son became psychotic on Paxil due to tapering schedule that was way too fast. He is off Paxil and is fine.
<<Also.....what will the real "ME" be like, unmedicated ??????? Will the symptoms return ???>>
You won't know who real "you" is until you are a few years off meds. But the best piece of advice I can give you if you do decide to taper or even if you don't is to accept who you are right now.
For example, right now, I have a horrible memory from withdrawal and let's just say it can be embarrassing and a downer. But I have to accept that this is the way it is and simply figure out how I can minimize the symptoms. Beating myself up will simply put me down a path I don't want to go.
Tapering off of meds doesn't guarantee you won't get depressed. By the way, when I started tapering, I prayed that I would have a few years of peace before anything happened. Silly me for thinking that.
Anyway, the family member got ill and then died. As I previously mentioned, I dealt with job instability until finally being hired permanently.
But believe it or not, this was the best thing that happened to me as strange as that sounds. I learned very early that I could cope with whatever challenges that I was dealt with. Heck, if I could deal with a family member dying, what else could be so bad?
What I am saying BF is that tapering is going to be one of the hardest things you do if you chose to go this route. I am not going to sugarcoat things.
But it is also one of the most rewarding things I have done at the same time. And again, tapering slowly is the key.
49er
PS - Please babble mail me if you want to talk further.
poster:49er
thread:921662
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091021/msgs/922141.html