Posted by mellow on March 13, 2013, at 14:25:12
Hi babble,
I haven't been on this site in a couple of years. People always complain that people get well and leave babble and don't share their experience. I can tell you all from personal experience that full recovery is possible!
I had been stuck in therapy for years. The same old mantras from all of my treatment team. You have a chemical imbalance, you're chronically ill and needs meds for life.
Early in 2012 I fired my therapist and went to a new social worker. I was really struggling with an eating disorder and no one seemed to be able to offer me any hope. It is exceptionally hard to get help as a male with an ED becuase it is commonly overlooked. Within 4 sessions the new therapist told me I wasn't mentally ill and my brain was not broken. She told me I should meditate and pray and learn to have compassion for myself.
I said "Well if I'm not crazy do I still need to see you?" She said "No you need to go live your life!"
So last summer I started tapering very slowly. I stopped all supplements, then tapered topamax, then lamictal and lastly I did risperdal. I went extremely slow and there was really no withdrawal. It took about 6 months.
While I am pretty critical of the medical paradigm of mental health treatment I really don't have an opinion on the state of psychiatry. I just thought I would stop by and say that recovery is possible. I also wanted to thank all of you for the help, support and fellowship that I found here from 2009-2011. I learned a lot about mental illness on this board and believe that perhaps my 8 year tangent into psychiatry was a pre requisite for the wonderful life I have today!
Best of luck to everybody.
mellow
Bipolar II
Lamictal 150, Topamax 50, Risperdal 2, Mag Citrate 325, D3 1000, Fish Oil 2000, High Potency Multi, Mega B stress"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
poster:mellow
thread:1040223
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130308/msgs/1040223.html