Take MORE or...LESS?

Hi buddies

 

When one drinks large quantity of alcohol that his body cannot tolerate, he feels the urgent need to empty his stomach and vomits. When I asked a friend who is rescuer what to do in those cases the answer was: "Nothing! Just call Uber and get him home". There appears to be nothing better than a good dose of sleep for the intoxicated person to recover. The same thing happens when one ate rotten food, vomits and has diarrhea. To vomit is a natural reaction from our organism to preserve itself by expelling substances that would otherwise harm one's body. That mechanism is one of the many our body is equipped with and that are being developed along with human kind evolution over half a million of years. Without this extraordinary capability that shields humans from hostile agents, external and internal, human kind might have extinguished long time ago.

 

I mentioned the intoxication story because I somehow feel a very strong degree of sameness in many cases read in here. In the western medecine, to cure is synonym to take meds. Meds in tablets, capsules, liquid, powder, suppositories, inhalers, injections...seem to be available for ANY sickness with no exceptions. Your daughter is anorexic? Here are SSRI tablets to use. Your other daughter is obese? Here are tablets for weight loss. Your son is hyperactive, here are tablets to quieten him down. Your other son is too passive? Here are vitamines capsules to pump him up. You have insomnia? Here are your sleep oral liquid. Your husband seems sleepy? Here are tablets to reinvigorate him and bring him 20 years back.

 

I have come to gather a non exhaustive list of medications buddies have used and are using. Many of them took multiple meds of this list. Interesting enough, many of these drugs are taken to counter the side effects of others! And when one med does not give in short term the expected results, another med comes right after into the game and the vicious circle starts again. Ativan, Klonopin, Valium, Xanax, Librium, Neurontin, Gabapentin, Mirtazapine, Setraline, Buspirone, Ambien, Lyrica, Lexapro, Remeron, Trazadone, Hydroxyzine, Benadryl, Cymbalta, Amitriptyline, Oxcarbazapine, Propranolol, Imitrex, Prozac, Celexa, Paxil, Fluxatine, Cipralex, Lamictal, Pregabalin, Quetiapine, Lofepramine, Dosulepin, Imovane, Zimovane, Tramadol...and the list is still long. It's a whole pharmacy in movement! I can understand why pharmaceutical business is more and more successful nowadays.

 

We grow up with the belief profoundly rooted in us that any of our sicknesses can be fixed by means of a tablet. Never one moment do we seem to think that we have on our side an extremely sophisticated and smart mechanism that is our body and that can fix alone many of the diseases...provided we allow it to do its job! Obviously it cannot heal every sicknesses of this world, but it can do a lot. A wound that heals, a headache that disappears the day after, cold symptoms that end after few days, persistent cough that stops after a week...all these show that we have a smart ally with us. But do we treat it the way it deserves?

 

What if at a certain point we just say stop to MORE and opt for LESS? Less benzo, less antidepressant, less SSRI, less SNRI, less beta-blocker, less sleep med, less pain med, less opioids, less caffeine, less alcohol, less smoking, less recreational drugs...By limiting the harming substances that are unrelentingly hammering our system day after day with their adverse interactions and side effects we gather together the required conditions for our body to heal by starting to eliminate resident toxins from its cells.

 

To taper while continuing to swallow multiple drugs, trying new meds, updosing, stopping/restarting psychotropic meds is like fighting and chasing ennemies out of the main door while leaving free entrance for others to rush in by the open back door and stab us. It is no longer a fight on equal terms. It's a suicide. Stop to interfere! Leave your body in peace to recover itself!

 

What our organism needs is enough time to repair injuries we unknowingly self inflicted with the multiple drugs we swallowed/cut/interrupted/restarted... Our body needs our collaboration to find the optimal conditions to well operate. By not running after miracle remedies that are meant in few doses to fix all the errors and damages accumulated over months/years, we just abstain from inflicting further traumas to ourselves.

 

From a psychological viewpoint, we can certainly do a lot to assist our body during the hard fight against chemicals. When we are just tired to keep our nose above water amid unsettling symptoms, decide to give up and fully accept this sickness as an entire part of our conditions, there is in that moment no more rejection thus no more conflict within us. With coping techniques as meditation, yoga, friends, walk, pets, sightseeing, gardening, volunteer work...our distracted mind can just "forget" for some time that we are sick. At the beginning those blessed periods are rare and short, if any. Then one day they become more frequent and last longer along with the gradual elimination of drugs from our body. A complete recovery will take eventually years but it will come. Meanwhile let's do our best to limit interference with its natural course to not delay the healing.

 

May you all be well, happy and peaceful.

 

❤

❤️👍🏼

Their only concern is customers/money, there's no cures only "therapeutic medication".

Jim, You are absolutely right. Of course, at the moment I cannot c/t five medications, though my taper is going relatively well, but as I get better I am much more wary of even taking a painkiller for a headache. When I have eventually got rid of all the stuff that has been prescribed to me, I will be much more likely to ask myself "Does my body really need this or can it recover by itself?"

 

A good example is that of antibiotics. These are now less effective because people have used them too much and the strain has become a  "super-bug" and resistant to the medication. In less serious cases it would have been better to let the body fight the infection and, in doing so, strengthen the immune system.

 

Personally speaking, the biggest lesson in letting the innate intelligence of the body just "get on with it" was when I was pregnant and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Although this as not an illness, it shows that the body knows what to do if you just leave it to its own amazing ability.

 

We cannot just c/t. But we can learn a lesson from going through this process.

This is one of the best things I've read so far on this site. And I think its one of the many reasons people go thru years of symptoms blamed on being in withdrawal still. Its obvious some but not all have other issues or are still dependent on other chemicals that are causing these symptoms. Or just dependent in general. Addiction can be a huge factor. And no I'm not saying that everyone is making it up in their head. But not allowing yourself to fully heal and having 100 people convincing you you're in protracted withdrawal and add a pinch of obsessive thoughts and boom. I know once I'm thru my taper and off this poison the last thing I will do is log into this site. I think it becomes a void for some. And I am dependent and an addict and I even had to get right with myself at the begining of the my taper because all the horror stories made me sick....I've seen many people here recommend ADs or even dragging tapers out even longer when the person is actually doing fine on minuscule amounts. With that said we need to be mindful of listening to our own bodies.  I do think this site is a lot better than CrazyMeds tho. That place is a toxic rat hole of pharma addicted nuts who want to be sick and dont want to hear any other opinion or any alternatives. I was banned for life for talking about medical cannabis.

Hi buddies

 

When one drinks large quantity of alcohol that his body cannot tolerate, he feels the urgent need to empty his stomach and vomits. When I asked a friend who is rescuer what to do in those cases the answer was: "Nothing! Just call Uber and get him home". There appears to be nothing better than a good dose of sleep for the intoxicated person to recover. The same thing happens when one ate rotten food, vomits and has diarrhea. To vomit is a natural reaction from our organism to preserve itself by expelling substances that would otherwise harm one's body. That mechanism is one of the many our body is equipped with and that are being developed along with human kind evolution over half a million of years. Without this extraordinary capability that shields humans from hostile agents, external and internal, human kind might have extinguished long time ago.

 

I mentioned the intoxication story because I somehow feel a very strong degree of sameness in many cases read in here. In the western medecine, to cure is synonym to take meds. Meds in tablets, capsules, liquid, powder, suppositories, inhalers, injections...seem to be available for ANY sickness with no exceptions. Your daughter is anorexic? Here are SSRI tablets to use. Your other daughter is obese? Here are tablets for weight loss. Your son is hyperactive, here are tablets to quieten him down. Your other son is too passive? Here are vitamines capsules to pump him up. You have insomnia? Here are your sleep oral liquid. Your husband seems sleepy? Here are tablets to reinvigorate him and bring him 20 years back.

 

I have come to gather a non exhaustive list of medications buddies have used and are using. Many of them took multiple meds of this list. Interesting enough, many of these drugs are taken to counter the side effects of others! And when one med does not give in short term the expected results, another med comes right after into the game and the vicious circle starts again. Ativan, Klonopin, Valium, Xanax, Librium, Neurontin, Gabapentin, Mirtazapine, Setraline, Buspirone, Ambien, Lyrica, Lexapro, Remeron, Trazadone, Hydroxyzine, Benadryl, Cymbalta, Amitriptyline, Oxcarbazapine, Propranolol, Imitrex, Prozac, Celexa, Paxil, Fluxatine, Cipralex, Lamictal, Pregabalin, Quetiapine, Lofepramine, Dosulepin, Imovane, Zimovane, Tramadol...and the list is still long. It's a whole pharmacy in movement! I can understand why pharmaceutical business is more and more successful nowadays.

 

We grow up with the belief profoundly rooted in us that any of our sicknesses can be fixed by means of a tablet. Never one moment do we seem to think that we have on our side an extremely sophisticated and smart mechanism that is our body and that can fix alone many of the diseases...provided we allow it to do its job! Obviously it cannot heal every sicknesses of this world, but it can do a lot. A wound that heals, a headache that disappears the day after, cold symptoms that end after few days, persistent cough that stops after a week...all these show that we have a smart ally with us. But do we treat it the way it deserves?

 

What if at a certain point we just say stop to MORE and opt for LESS? Less benzo, less antidepressant, less SSRI, less SNRI, less beta-blocker, less sleep med, less pain med, less opioids, less caffeine, less alcohol, less smoking, less recreational drugs...By limiting the harming substances that are unrelentingly hammering our system day after day with their adverse interactions and side effects we gather together the required conditions for our body to heal by starting to eliminate resident toxins from its cells.

 

To taper while continuing to swallow multiple drugs, trying new meds, updosing, stopping/restarting psychotropic meds is like fighting and chasing ennemies out of the main door while leaving free entrance for others to rush in by the open back door and stab us. It is no longer a fight on equal terms. It's a suicide. Stop to interfere! Leave your body in peace to recover itself!

 

What our organism needs is enough time to repair injuries we unknowingly self inflicted with the multiple drugs we swallowed/cut/interrupted/restarted... Our body needs our collaboration to find the optimal conditions to well operate. By not running after miracle remedies that are meant in few doses to fix all the errors and damages accumulated over months/years, we just abstain from inflicting further traumas to ourselves.

 

From a psychological viewpoint, we can certainly do a lot to assist our body during the hard fight against chemicals. When we are just tired to keep our nose above water amid unsettling symptoms, decide to give up and fully accept this sickness as an entire part of our conditions, there is in that moment no more rejection thus no more conflict within us. With coping techniques as meditation, yoga, friends, walk, pets, sightseeing, gardening, volunteer work...our distracted mind can just "forget" for some time that we are sick. At the beginning those blessed periods are rare and short, if any. Then one day they become more frequent and last longer along with the gradual elimination of drugs from our body. A complete recovery will take eventually years but it will come. Meanwhile let's do our best to limit interference with its natural course to not delay the healing.

 

May you all be well, happy and peaceful.

 

❤

 

While I agree with what you write here, as someone who added a med (remeron) to help with tapering, I will tell you that I would not have been able to taper without it. I was vomiting constantly and unable to sleep before starting it, and there is no way I could have just let time heal, I have a job and a family. If I was going  to get off I needed to be functional. And I have no regrets. We all have to find our way through with what works for us. I refuse to stop living to just get off the drugs. There are many people on here very sick and housebound, and I really feel for them, and I will do whatever it takes to remain out living in the world, even if it means it takes longer for me to get off.

 

My goal is to eventually be off both the klonopin (maybe another year of tapering, maybe less), then get off the remeron. I really think it is all individual, we all bring different histories, DNA, etc. to the table, and people need to make the best choices they can for them.