Jump to content

Anyone else resigned to be on medication for life?


Recommended Posts

Just wondering...

 

i recently restarted antidepressants for my anxiety/OCD for the 6th time in about 20 years; since my daughter was born 3 years ago I've tried to get off them twice but had to restart then again - I'm now on my third regieme in 3 years, only managing to stay symptom free for 6 months at the most after stopping them.

 

before my daughter was born I had been symptom free for almost 10 years and I thought my OCD was behind me. But I've come to the conclusion that I need to probably stay on medication for life now to prevent relapses. It's taken a while to accept this but I can't keep yo yoing with my mental health, esp not now I have a child to care for. I liken it to a diabetic needing insulin for life. I think I have a naturally low serotonin level that dips under stress (which I'm under a lot now more as a single mum).

Does anyone else feel like me - that they will have to stay on medication for life?

Link to comment

Hi Lisa,

I'm sorry you're going through a hard time right now. I honestly don't think you're in a place to know how things are going to be for life. Being a mum to a little 3 year old is very stressful without throwing OCD into the mix. I think it's a good idea that you're on it now so that you can cope, but that doesn't mean you'll have to be on it forever. Hang in there, you're not alone!

Link to comment

Some of us really need what the meds provide. 

My sister tried to reduce the prozac she has been on for years, but it didn't work out and she had to increase again. 

If we happen to be one of those sufferers where the meds are integral to managing the condition, then so be it - and they are doing their job :)

 

Link to comment
1 hour ago, Lisa123 said:

Does anyone else feel like me - that they will have to stay on medication for life?

I've been taking SSRI's for my OCD for about 25 years now.  My assumption for a long time has been that I'll be taking them for the rest of my life.  However, given the alternative and my relative lack of side effects, I also long ago became ok with that tradeoff.  Sure in an ideal world I wouldn't need to take them.  In an ideal world I also wouldn't need to take medication for my asthma, or avoid peanuts (allergy).  Its frustrating at times, but since there's really nothing I can do to change it, I try to spend as little time dwelling on it as possible.   I've tried going to lower doses at times but in my case the OCD always comes roaring back.  Its possible I could stop taking the meds, do some intense CBT and get to the point where I am now with the meds, but who knows how long that would take, and as long as things are ok now I figure, why rock the boat?

So for now at least, the medication is part of what you need to stay healthy, no different from anyone else with a chronic condition who takes medication.  Maybe you'll be able to stop taking them someday, maybe you'll need to keep taking them every day, its not something you can know now, so best to focus on getting healthy for the time being and dealing with the future as it comes.  Easy to say of course, often hard to do, but try your best!

Link to comment

Hi Lisa, I'll be on medication for life too. I've become used to the idea and it doesn't bother me any more. Would much rather be on the meds than go through months and months worth of OCD hell. I've been on a high dose of Prozac for around 6 years and the status quo is relatively good. At least I can deal with the usual life stressors when they happen, pretty much the same as non OCD folk.

Link to comment

yes so far I imagine meds for life too...I tried coming off a few years back and had a terrible relapse after 6 months off them...

I try to keep the dose on the lower end and try to do as much other stuff to help...cbt, diet, supplements etc

I do wonder if I did a big lifestyle change or something that I might reconsider coming off but for now I'm staying on!

Link to comment

Hi it's good to hear that other people are in the same predicament as myself! I suppose I'm lucky in that my OCD only flares up when I'm under stress but now I'm a single mum with a mortgage and up to my eyes in debt I'll be under stress for a while so for now I'll be staying on the meds for the foreseeable future!

 

BelAnna I take citalopram 20mg. It just helps me be more rational but I also have to employ cbt to break free of the OCD.

Link to comment
1 hour ago, Lisa123 said:

BelAnna I take citalopram 20mg. It just helps me be more rational but I also have to employ cbt to break free of the OCD.

That's the same for me, but I am hopeful of at least being able to reduce to 10mg in the Spring. 

I think it aids my resilience and balances out mood peaks and troughs. 

Link to comment

I take fluoxetine 40mg daily . When I got my latest prescription there was a note from my doctor asking me to make an appointment to have my annual medication review.  I have been on it for almost 3 years now.

I have never tried to either reduce my dosage or stop completely. In my last couple of reviews it was agreed due to life pressures to not 'rock the boat' by tinkering with my medication.

Not sure how to approach the next review with my doctor, life is still full on so at the moment I think I am reluctant to change things too much. 

Link to comment

Caw this is a interesting post as In January I stopped taking anti depressants slowly weined off !!!  I’ve been on mainly flouxetine for about 17years.. i just really want to see if I can live with out medication even though they seemed to stop me getting to low I always felt like I was never excited for anything as well . I feel the older I’m getting the more I can control and accept my ocd. But the problem I’m getting now is every high I get in life even a simple thing like one of the kids doing well at school or sport I’m feeling happy emotions I’ve never really felt before. But the down side is every little problem is keeping me feeling like the world is ending.. I hope I can find some balance. But to answer your question Every stressful event so far has been quite minor. And I’ve got a feeling I won’t be strong enough to handle anything to big and end up back on the pills ... good luck to you thou 

Link to comment

I am not resigned to being on meds forever. Different mindset, I guess. Why do you need to be resigned?

For a lot of people, psychiatric meds do a good job. They reduce anxiety and reduce dives into depression. It's no different than taking cholesterol reducing meds or insulin. It just is what it is.

Link to comment

I have been on 40mg for years and had hoped that this would help me not to enter the worst phases of my OCD however life events with the death of my father has meant that I am re-experiencing all my latent OCD themes . I have now increased to 60mg but in the first weeks had a torrid time. My only concern with staying on the medication is how to manage dosage controls so that I don’t need to keep upping ( which I cannot do ) . When I feel better I will talk to my Dr about reducing my dose again gradually so that I still have some headroom for future events in life that may cause another stress and anxiety nightmare .

Link to comment
7 minutes ago, Skippy said:

I have been on 40mg for years and had hoped that this would help me not to enter the worst phases of my OCD however life events with the death of my father has meant that I am re-experiencing all my latent OCD themes . I have now increased to 60mg but in the first weeks had a torrid time. My only concern with staying on the medication is how to manage dosage controls so that I don’t need to keep upping ( which I cannot do ) . When I feel better I will talk to my Dr about reducing my dose again gradually so that I still have some headroom for future events in life that may cause another stress and anxiety nightmare .

Skippy I would suggest you might focus on psychological tools to help you manage and minimise stress. And also work some CBT methodology to tackle the OCD issues. Plenty of guidelines on the latter here - and plenty of self-help books on both available to download. 

We can't buy our way out of stress and OCD just by taking tablets. We have to work on the thinking and behavioural changes that create the root causes of our distress. 

Link to comment

I am awaiting CBT Taureen I have been trying not to come on this forum for several days as it gives me reassurance and is part of my compulsions to search for the answer and that I am not alone in my intrusive thoughts and that I am not going mad or anything else . My OCD is principally intrusive thoughts with endless rumination for hours and hours a day. I need to find a way to get support from this community without it becoming part of my compulsions . Haven’t worked that out yet . I often come here in despair 

Edited by Skippy
Link to comment

Hi Skippy. I am sorry to read about your difficulties. 

There is plenty of material on the topics on the forum about the essentials of CBT, that can encourage people to start whilst they are awaiting interpersonal CBT. 

Plus some good topics on how to stop ruminating. Polar Bear did a video on this, I will see if I can find it and post the link here for folks. 

Link to comment
On 19/02/2019 at 19:44, bluegas said:

Caw this is a interesting post as In January I stopped taking anti depressants slowly weined off !!!  I’ve been on mainly flouxetine for about 17years.. i just really want to see if I can live with out medication even though they seemed to stop me getting to low I always felt like I was never excited for anything as well . I feel the older I’m getting the more I can control and accept my ocd. But the problem I’m getting now is every high I get in life even a simple thing like one of the kids doing well at school or sport I’m feeling happy emotions I’ve never really felt before. But the down side is every little problem is keeping me feeling like the world is ending.. I hope I can find some balance. But to answer your question Every stressful event so far has been quite minor. And I’ve got a feeling I won’t be strong enough to handle anything to big and end up back on the pills ... good luck to you thou 

Hi Bluegas, 

So do you actually experience more happiness when you're not on medication? 

Link to comment

Hi yes I would say  ido as I don’t really feel anything happy or sad ..  when on pills where as now I seem to be going from feeling very happy to very dark hole sad !!!  Really don’t want to take pills every day thou .. 

Edited by bluegas
Misread post
Link to comment
Guest OCDhavenobrain

Hi Bluegas, I stopped taking them because I had to sleep a lot or I felt horrendous, 9 hours and still was tired and if I got like 5 hours well the day was over. Nowadays I can go with 5 hours, overall I need 7 hours. I can relate to you feeling what you feel because I felt the same, things didn't seem to excite me that much, and now in hindsight I have to say that the effect on me had to be pretty big, because I went for some years without motivation to do anything, and I felt good about it.. Was on and off (mainly on) for about 10 years. I stopped because I had intense OCD and didn't saw the point in taking the medications if I didn't even get any benefits. I have a theory that medication can be used as a help (it gets easier to overcome OCD) but if you let yourself slip you will be in the bad spot anyway, with or without medications. 

Have been off for maybe 1 year and going back on SSRI is not an option for me, even when I feel bad I don't see it as an option. But be prepared, because it can take years to come off, 17 years is a long time and you will probably need some time to get off it. But withdrawals are very individual, some people don't even get them, others (like me) need to taper for a long time.

 

OCD+Pills-Therapy= bad spot

OCD-Therapy= bad spot

 


EDIT: I forgot the threadmaker, if you tapering off to fast you will very likely get withdrawals and depression and anxiety are two effects which can happen! It is pretty common that people who stop gets depressed and thinks they need it for life when it's just because you are tapering off too quickly. My advice to you would be to taper off really really slow. It is not before you have tapered off slowly you really can say that you can't live without medication.

Edited by OCDhavenobrain
Link to comment
46 minutes ago, OCDhavenobrain said:

EDIT: I forgot the threadmaker, if you tapering off to fast you will very likely get withdrawals and depression and anxiety are two effects which can happen! It is pretty common that people who stop gets depressed and thinks they need it for life when it's just because you are tapering off too quickly. My advice to you would be to taper off really really slow. It is not before you have tapered off slowly you really can say that you can't live without medication.

I agree, tapering off slowly is the way to go on antidepressants, but having said that, I come off of Prozac relatively quickly, in the belief that I built up a tolerance to them having been on them so long.

Having had very little in the way of withdrawal symptoms, & no increase in OCD/depression, I am all the more convinced that I have had a condition called ADT tachyphylaxis (AKA Prozac poop-out effect).

I too were over sleeping on them!

 

 

Link to comment
Guest OCDhavenobrain
35 minutes ago, felix4 said:

I agree, tapering off slowly is the way to go on antidepressants, but having said that, I come off of Prozac relatively quickly, in the belief that I built up a tolerance to them having been on them so long.

 Having had very little in the way of withdrawal symptoms, & no increase in OCD/depression, I am all the more convinced that I have had a condition called ADT tachyphylaxis (AKA Prozac poop-out effect).

 I too were over sleeping on them!

 

 

I know right, oversleeping was not even the biggest problem for me, it was this dreadful condition I got in when I haven't slept enough, it could crawl on my skin and my concentration was totally gone if I didn't sleep enough, and enough was too much. I was convinced that I just needed more sleep than others but that wasn't true, it turned out.

Just want to say that this could be due aging, people need different amounts of sleep depending where in life they are, but this seems unbelievable to me because this change happened just when I had weaned off myself. Being emotional blunted was nothing I thought about then, I do now however, it most definitely happened in my case. I have been thinking about if me going on SSRI in my early adulthood/late teens could be due to me not being able to live with my emotions and that I turned to SSRI, just as I have turned to compulsions to relieve myself of anxiety for all my life. I have always had big problem accepting life and uncertainty in general, yea that most definitely has been my case, there are just so much with life which can scare you if you are a human. That last part is why I am really interested in enlightenment. Enough of my ramblings. 

Sad thing is that everybody needs to test for themselves if one is able to go off SSRI. MY advice would be to overcome OCD with therapy if you want to take it up a notch after you are recovered that is fine, go off them. I went off them before I got better. Have been off now for 1 year, before that I was tapering for maybe 4 years, had my worst time ever (OCD-wise) 2017/2018 so I didn't do as I teach, 

Edited by OCDhavenobrain
Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...