Can psychiatric drugs cause mental illness?

I hope that im not going against any rule snce its a place for discussing, theories etc.

 

  Whats your point of view on that ? Im adressing not Just benzos, but benzos aswell

 

Psychiatric drugs may help extreme cases , but when its not needed that much ?

 

It is whats happening

 

Im tired to see buddies who had sleep problems, being medicated with psychiatric drugs, z drugs or a benzo, as a way to "treat It", but instead of treating and fixing the problem, It escalates to extreme ocd, severe anxiety, more severe insomnia, depression, paranoia and the list goes on ..

 

. Instead of treating It and fixing it, thee drug induced a mental illness that many folks Just end up seeking for relief with ADs and other drugs, and the problem at the beggining was only imsomnia,

 

Look at my particular case, i had "behavior" problems, i never felt any sort of mental or phisical distress prior to this drugs

After being drugged with in case APs, AEDs and others, not benzos

I ended up with a extreme mental distress.. with dozens of symptoms i never had felted in my life, and since u got heavily medicated, the distress was Just extreme, i cant even explain How much distress i felt. Many months later free from this drugs i got better

 

I was drugged against my Will again , and again i ended up feeling the same sort of mental distress afterwards... Instead of waiting tô get better, i relayed on benzos tô counteract symptoms caused by this drugs,

 

instead of getting better the drug Just injuried my brain even more, and left me at the end with a much more extreme level of mental distress...  My behavior is Just my personality, the only thing that differs is that I went from functional tô disabled

  So yes, i really belive that these drugs can cause, If not cause" induce a mental illness, so Whats the point in prescribing It like they do ?

I was polydrugged, each psychiatric med an attempt to try to fix the problem. But it made me worse by far. And each tome the brain has to adjust coming off the one only for them to throw another one at you far too quickly. I can see all of this now but at the time I was so messed up I couldn't think straight. Sadly its a very broken system that needs a complete overhaul on how they prescribe and diagnose.

I'm still pretty angry about the whole thing honestly.

 

But I choose to move on, move forward:)

Psychiatric drugs have caused mental illness in me because they damaged my brain. 

Not only mental illness, they cause brain damage and auto immune disorder, neurological malfunction, which can result in all types of mental, cognitive and physical illness and disorder.

 

How many of us were totally normal with only a normal health issue, ended up a total crippled both physically and mentally.

 

 

When I was in tolerance w/d and had symptoms from it, I went to the docs and was diagnosed with Lupus, an autoimmune disorder.  I personally believe these drugs caused my Lupus.  Autoantibodies to my damaged nerve and blood vessels. 

Becksblue,

Hate these drugs and all the pushers of them!

Did the lupus go away for you?

 

4 mom

 

 

That psychiatric drugs can cause mental illness is really not in doubt. Even the pharmaceutical companies see this - check out the list of side effects in literally any one of them.

 

Do they cause more harm than good? Certainly in my case they did. I was profoundly unwell for the vast majority of the time I was on them and now, as I recover, I am doing much better. I was better before I took them and I'm better after. I am not unique in this.

 

I wonder how many people who are on psychiatric drugs are too impaired to know how unwell they are? Some people know it's not ideal but can't face the lengthy, arduous and uncertain withdrawal so stay on them. This happened to a grandparent of mine. Her cognition has declined rapidly in the past few years and I have a strong opinion about the role of the drugs she is trapped on. She was on a high dose of Ativan and faced hell getting that down to a reasonable dose. She now takes a low dose of oxazepam and fluoxetine. Having tried and failed to rid her dependency in the past, she gave up and rationalises that they're not so bad. Realistically, it's too late now. She could do it, but for what? Withdrawal could kill her. I lived away from my family for a little while and when I came back home and started to see more of her, I could see a severe decline. I'm not going to share with her my opinion that they have contributed to a deterioration in her condition. There would be no good in doing so. I think she had to delude herself that they have helped more than they harmed her... there's no good way to identify how many people like her there are but there must be many.

 

Of course, the people who go the course with a painful withdrawal are the ones who really understand the difference. I hope anybody going through it can take heart that they will see the benefits of sticking it out.

I get you bam , Hope ur doing ok

 

  I dont even know Whats my baseline anxiety, ir depression, since i Just became tô feel mentally distressed after being forcely drugged, when i managed to recover on the First time my anxiety was gone, after the Second i got on benzos to counter act, now i need lyrica to counter the WD of benzos só probably i developed some serious mental issues, due to them .

Since i go completely insane free from those drugs its Just sick and grim what my parents did to me 

I want to offer the other side of this story. First, there are many people who are helped tremendously by these drugs. I have family members who responded beautifully to SSRIs, classmates made functional by mood stabilizers. There are some drugs that should never be prescribed though, and benzos are definitely among them.

 

Doctors are trained to try to help people in the best way that they can. The education is flawed and the system is flawed, but I don't think most doctors are thinking "I'm going to prescribe this drug because I want to harm this person." The education system is horribly flawed. I attended a top medical school, prestigious training programs. I never learned about benzos, not even in passing. That said, as a physician, I am always trying to do the best that I can to help my patients (I have never prescribed a benzo as this is not a part of my specialty).

 

The system is horribly broken. As physicians, we are pressured to see as many patients as we can per hour. If we do not meet requirements, we don't have jobs. Insurance companies, HMOs, etc rule our lives. I am not saying this to feel sorry for myself. I rejected and left this system long ago. I am just trying to state the other side.

 

Personally, I refused to work in this system, and eventually left private practice altogether. I ran behind because I DID want to find the root cause for my patient's problems (I am NOT a psychiatrist though, very far removed from mental health). I investigated a lot. I was criticized by colleagues for unconventional treatments that actually did heal patients (doctors are not trained to think, just to follow the status quo, I just refuse to do it). I was criticized because I could not meet volume requirements because I DID want to spend time with my patients. I am not a saint and not saying I am somehow superior. It is just who I am, and guaranteed me for burn out and disillusionment. I am sure I made mistakes, but I always wanted to make my patients healthy. Not everyone is like this - there are some who really care, some who just want to get through the volume and maximize income, some who are just demoralized and burned out.

 

The truth is, doctors spend too little time keeping up with medicine and studying the treatments they provide and too much time doing senseless paperwork. If they looked at the studies on SSRIs, there is no support for the use of these beyond 12-16 weeks. Exercise out performs SSRIs after 16 weeks but there isn't time to discuss this. Funnily enough, I remember trying to counsel my patients in things like diet and exercise and literally being asked "isn't there just a pill you can give me?" 

 

Laboratory work can reveal medical issues that need to be addressed including thyroid issues that, when resolved, fix the issue. However, when this isn't "the standard of care" insurance won't pay for it. I spent countless hours fighting with insurance companies, even when I found problems that needed to be addressed.

 

Anyway, if doctors had time to investigate serotonin and its increase in acute stress, they would choose carefully who should get an SSRI instead of throwing it at everyone (and causing horrid adverse reactions). Some don't even acknowledge this (there's a buddie on here who I know of who is an MD and argued with me on this point).

 

Pharmaceutical companies ensure that older drugs that might be less harmful like tianpetine, with a 50 year history of NO discontinuation syndrome, far fewer side-effects, and an excellent safety profile, are not on the US market while SSRIs remain. They vilify it because at inappropriate doses it can be abused, despite it's clear benefit when used correctly.

 

Although low allopregnanolone is well-known in the medical literature to cause depression, anxiety, brain fog and other mental health issues, there is absolutely no attempt to study this until recently when the 20k per dose brexanolone entered the market for post-partum depression. Not until a profit might be made is there study into this. Your doctor is just a pawn in this system, likely with 250k in med student debt that they won't pay off until their kids are grown.

 

So, yes, psychiatric drugs can cause a whole host of problems when used without care. They can also help people when used appropriately (and though BB is biased against them, you will hear a lot of positive testimonials in other places). Your doctor is likely NOT your enemy. They are just over-worked pawns with a whole pile of debt trying to get by in a horribly broken system.

 

Sorry this is so long. I just think this feels so simple to people, and it really isn't.

I still have Lupus and also diagnosed with Lupus Encephalitis in Jan.  I'm convinced my Lupus is drug-induced.  Autoantibodies to my damaged nerve cells and blood vessels.

Becksblue, I am so sorry that you have lupus. Lupus is awful. I hope that you find some competent medical doctors who can help you. Whether drug-induced or not, the right treatment might help to give you your life back.

 

I have worked with some functional medicine doctors who have done some amazing things with lupus via the A4M (American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine). However, they are dreadfully expensive. I hope this changes one day so that everyone can have access to care from doctors who want to heal rather than just medicate.

I have the APS Lupus or Hughes' Syndrome.  I have high Anti-Beta 2 glycoprotein 1 IGM autoantibodies in my blood.  Nothing they can do for me and I don't have the money for other stuff.  Tried Plaquenil and it made me sick.  Can't take gabapentin either.  She did give me a script for Seroquel and that made me sick too with side effects.  She did say to take a baby aspirin each day and I take that.  Also diagnosed by a Hematologist with Thrombophilia.  My SED rate was only a 2.  Not good.

Becksblue, I am so sorry. That has to be so incredibly difficult. 

Was diagnosed with Lupus Encephalitis in Jan.  My brain blood vessels are swollen inside my skull, I believe.  The encephalitis explains the constant head pressure.