Organizations concerned with coming off psychiatric drugs

[Altostrata]

All over the world, people are starting organizations specifically concerned with patients' rights and coming off psychiatric drugs safely. Some have their own phone support lines

• The Bristol and District Tranquiliser Project, Bristol, UK, helpline 0117 962 8874 http://www.btpinfo.org.uk/

• Council for Information on Tranquillisers, Antidepressants, and Painkillers, Liverpool, UK, helpline 0151 932 0102 http://www.citawithdrawal.org.uk/

• Patients' Rights Advocacy, Hamilton, New Zealand http://www.patientsrights.org.nz/

Please add other organizations you know of to this topic.

[Glaucus]

Recovery Road in the UK provides free counselling services to people with withdrawal from anti-depressants and benzodiazepines.

 

www.recovery-road.org

[UnfoldingSky]

 

 

[*]Patients' Rights Advocacy, Hamilton, New Zealand http://www.patientsrights.org.nz/

 

 

I just looked up this site but I didn't read it in its entirety so maybe they made these points elsewhere, but, there is an article on there that lacks some crucial points about "mental illness". Just as an FYI to anyone visiting the site, the generally sound article "Noncompliant Mental Patient" does not mention that the medical profession never found a chemical imbalance; nor does it say that stopping drugs can actually cause "mental illness" in the form of withdrawal syndromes. The author wrote they stopped meds twice, and the first time they went "crazy" and had to go back on them. It is possible that was a withdrawal syndrome and had little to do with their initial problem. There is not enough info to determine if that is the case or not. Also, abruptly stopping psychiatric drugs can be very dangerous, and in some cases can even kill a person (benzos can cause seizures if stopped abruptly; and almost all psych drugs can cause akathisia if they are withdrawn abruptly, which can lead to suicide.)

 

Just thought that was important for people to know.

[Altostrata]

You might drop them a line and help them revise their material.

[primrose]

Battle Against Tranquilisers BAT

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Sorry, I don't know how to delete my post so I'll just edit it out.

[Jemima]

What were the SKF drugs introduced in 1954, I wonder and was I given any of them? 20 to 30 years later? I know at one time I was on tri's and Prozac twice. Just reading summaries of a google search for '1954 SKF antipsychotics' leads me to think no. But I was given Cymbalta and at the time, not even sure if it was FOR depression. But something worked.

 

I think the drug that was being referenced here is Thorazine, an anti-psychotic with which I became familiar when I worked in a state mental institution in the late 1960s. It is no longer in use to my knowledge and was likely not in use at the time you requested help. The anti-side effects drug was Stelazine which was believed to alleviate tardive dyskinesia. I think this is still prescribed, although rarely.

 

I don't need an answer, really. I need a roadmap for living in a foreign interior landscape which is only vaguely familiar as 'me'. Don't really know how I got here, not really sure what to do, and I fear losing it completely through no fault of my own except in the past: I felt miserable, asked for and got medical help (which was all I knew how to do), and was a very compliant patient.

 

I think Ms. Cranky here needs a nap.

 

I think we've all been in that strange land more than once. As the drugs leave your system slowly but surely, the landscape becomes less and less foreign. We do get better, although not quickly, so cultivate patience.