Jump to content
SurvivingAntidepressants.org is temporarily closed to new registrations until 1 April ×

question:how does one get out of the mental health system for good?


LightEmergesFromDarkness

Recommended Posts

so here is something that i have been thinking of recently. how does one go about getting out of the mental health system for good once they have completed all tapers and are completely off all psych meds they would have no need to be in the mental health system anymore. and when i say how, i mean in terms of personal and physical safety, so that lets say when one attempts to get out of said system, that they will not be threatened by authorities in their local communities, their former mental health outpatient clinic where they may have gone for previous treatment, etc. or not thrown back into a psych ward because they are merely trying to be well without forced drugging. i was told many yrs back that in my state, it is state law that a patient's *case* will be automatically closed out by the state after 6 mos of nonactivity. is there a safe way i can use this bit of info to my advantage later on when im ready to leave the system? any thoughts or knowledge how one might go through this process? anyone know of any valid websites where one can go to to research mental health laws for the USA by state if need be? 

Seroquel:off since 2011. rapid taper, no sxs of w/d.

Ativan:off since 2013. PRN only, no taper. no sxs of w/d.

Wellbutrin:off since 2012. rapid taper at first, then cold turkey. 

Topamax:off since 2014. slow taper.

Depakote:off since Jan. 2015. slow taper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you have some kind of legal injunction applied to you?

1st round Prozac 1989/90, clear depression symptoms. 2nd round Prozac started 1999 when admitted to dr. I was tired. Prozac pooped out, switch to Cymbalta 3/2006. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder due to mania 6/2006--then I was taken abruptly off Cymbalta and didn't know I had SSRI withdrawal. Lots of meds for my intractable "bipolar" symptoms.

Zyprexa started about 9/06, mostly 5mg. Tapered 4/12 through12/29/12

Wellbutrin. XL 300 mg started 1/07, tapered 1/18/13 through 7/8/13

Oxazepam mostly continuously since 6/06, 30mg since 12/12, tapered 1.17.14 through 8.26.15

11/06 Lithium 600mg twice daily, 2.2.14 400mg TID DIY liquid, 2.12.14 1150mg, 3.2.14 1100mg, 3.18.14 1075mg, 4/14 updose to 1100mg, 6.1.14 900 mg capsules 7.8.14 810mg, 8.17.14 725mg, 8.24.24 700mg...10.22.14 487.5mg, 3.9.15 475mg, 4.1.15 462.5mg 4.21.15 450mg 8.11.15 375mg, 11.28.15 362.5mg, back to 375mg four days later, 3.4.16 updose to 475 (too much going on to risk trouble)

9/4/13 Toprol-XL 25mg daily for sudden hypertension, tapered 11.12.13 through 5.3.14, last 10 days or so switched to atenolol

7.4.14 Started Walsh Protocol

56 years old

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No. just asking for information to have as general knowledge.

Seroquel:off since 2011. rapid taper, no sxs of w/d.

Ativan:off since 2013. PRN only, no taper. no sxs of w/d.

Wellbutrin:off since 2012. rapid taper at first, then cold turkey. 

Topamax:off since 2014. slow taper.

Depakote:off since Jan. 2015. slow taper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just call and cancel your appointment?

1st round Prozac 1989/90, clear depression symptoms. 2nd round Prozac started 1999 when admitted to dr. I was tired. Prozac pooped out, switch to Cymbalta 3/2006. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder due to mania 6/2006--then I was taken abruptly off Cymbalta and didn't know I had SSRI withdrawal. Lots of meds for my intractable "bipolar" symptoms.

Zyprexa started about 9/06, mostly 5mg. Tapered 4/12 through12/29/12

Wellbutrin. XL 300 mg started 1/07, tapered 1/18/13 through 7/8/13

Oxazepam mostly continuously since 6/06, 30mg since 12/12, tapered 1.17.14 through 8.26.15

11/06 Lithium 600mg twice daily, 2.2.14 400mg TID DIY liquid, 2.12.14 1150mg, 3.2.14 1100mg, 3.18.14 1075mg, 4/14 updose to 1100mg, 6.1.14 900 mg capsules 7.8.14 810mg, 8.17.14 725mg, 8.24.24 700mg...10.22.14 487.5mg, 3.9.15 475mg, 4.1.15 462.5mg 4.21.15 450mg 8.11.15 375mg, 11.28.15 362.5mg, back to 375mg four days later, 3.4.16 updose to 475 (too much going on to risk trouble)

9/4/13 Toprol-XL 25mg daily for sudden hypertension, tapered 11.12.13 through 5.3.14, last 10 days or so switched to atenolol

7.4.14 Started Walsh Protocol

56 years old

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good question.

 

Are you referring to having your personal health records *disappear* as if you were never a patient..?

Pristiq tapered over 8 months ending Spring 2011 after 18 years of polydrugging that began w/Zoloft for fatigue/general malaise (not mood). CURRENT: 1mg Klonopin qhs (SSRI bruxism), 75mg trazodone qhs, various hormonesLitigation for 11 years for Work-related injury, settled 2004. Involuntary medical retirement in 2001 (age 39). 2012 - brain MRI showing diffuse, chronic cerebrovascular damage/demyelination possibly vasculitis/cerebritis. Dx w/autoimmune polyendocrine failure.<p>2013 - Dx w/CNS Sjogren's Lupus (FANA antibodies first appeared in 1997 but missed by doc).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I basically disappeared from the mental health system when I stopped going, did not need any more drugs (tapered off them) and when I saw any new non psych physician I handed my medical records to them. The medical records had been deleted of all references to any psychiatric treatment, psychiatric diagnoses and/or psychiatric drugs. I wanted to have the new doctor see me as "me"...not some label and so far I've been OK doing this. Request copies of your previous records from your family or specialist doctors and see what he/she has in it then if you don't care for their notes delete or change them. Hand deliver your records to the new doc, when filling out new patient form say what you only want known and don't look back doing it.

 

I was never involuntarily committed or had forced treatment. I know my diagnoses are out there but for now I feel safe having a few doctors who only know me as a lady who never took psych drugs or had a psych diagnosis. I was afraid my old pdoc would come after me but he didn't. To him I was simply another $ 100 med check (if you read my Intro you'll see why he didn't miss me).

Unable at this time to correspond by private message.

 

Link to my Introduction thread: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/2477-aria-my-psych-journey/

Reading my psychiatric records: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/5466-drugged-crazy-reading-my-psychiatric-records/

My Success Story is listed under "Aria's Recovery".

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have great concern of electronic medical records following me. They have to be maintained by some agency for legal purposes -- firearm purchases, for example. Not that I have any interest or plans to purchase a gun, but someone somewhere must keep hospital records forever.

Pristiq tapered over 8 months ending Spring 2011 after 18 years of polydrugging that began w/Zoloft for fatigue/general malaise (not mood). CURRENT: 1mg Klonopin qhs (SSRI bruxism), 75mg trazodone qhs, various hormonesLitigation for 11 years for Work-related injury, settled 2004. Involuntary medical retirement in 2001 (age 39). 2012 - brain MRI showing diffuse, chronic cerebrovascular damage/demyelination possibly vasculitis/cerebritis. Dx w/autoimmune polyendocrine failure.<p>2013 - Dx w/CNS Sjogren's Lupus (FANA antibodies first appeared in 1997 but missed by doc).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 8 months later...

thank you everyone for all the feedback to my post. i have been *incognito* if you will lol from the system for a few mos now. so far so good.  :)

Seroquel:off since 2011. rapid taper, no sxs of w/d.

Ativan:off since 2013. PRN only, no taper. no sxs of w/d.

Wellbutrin:off since 2012. rapid taper at first, then cold turkey. 

Topamax:off since 2014. slow taper.

Depakote:off since Jan. 2015. slow taper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

To answer the OP--you can't. Anyone following the Murphy bill?

 

The house sponsor is a clinical psychologist now in government. In 2014 he lied thus:

"Mr. Murphy said in an interview. “We know that when people get care, they get better"

 

What does this mean?

"Amends the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Act to reduce corresponding funding for protection and advocacy systems for mentally ill individuals."

 

I know what this means: a lot of people are going to be robbed blind by their "caregivers."

"Requires the caregiver of an individual with a serious mental illness to be treated as the individual's personal representative with respect to protected health information, even though the individual has not consented to disclosure of such information to the caregiver, when the individual's service provider reasonably believes it is necessary for protected health information to be made available to the caregiver in order to protect the individual's health, safety, or welfare or the safety of one or more other individuals."

 

That implies that they can ignore your chosen conservator's status, does it not?

 

The bill

https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3717

2009: Cancer hospital said I had adjustment disorder because I thought they were doing it wrong. Their headshrinker prescribed Effexor, and my life set on a new course. I didn't know what was ahead, like a passenger on Disneyland's Matterhorn, smiling and waving as it climbs...clink, clink, clink.

2010: Post surgical accidental Effexor discontinuation by nurses, masked by intravenous Dilaudid. (The car is balanced at the top of the track.) I get home, pop a Vicodin, and ...

Whooosh...down, down, down, down, down...goes the trajectory of my life, up goes my mood and tendency to think everything is a good idea.
2012: After the bipolar jig was up, now a walking bag of unrelated symptoms, I went crazy on Daytrana (the Ritalin skin patch by Noven), because ADHD was a perfect fit for a bag of unrelated symptoms. I was prescribed Effexor for the nervousness of it, and things got neurological. An EEG showed enough activity to warrant an epilepsy diagnosis rather than non-epileptic ("psychogenic") seizures.

:o 2013-2014: Quit everything and got worse. I probably went through DAWS: dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome. I drank to not feel, but I felt a lot: dread, fear, regret, grief: an utter sense of total loss of everything worth breathing about, for almost two years.

I was not suicidal but I wanted to be dead, at least dead to the experience of my own brain and body.

2015: I  began to recover after adding virgin coconut oil and organic grass-fed fed butter to a cup of instant coffee in the morning.

I did it hoping for mental acuity and better memory. After ten days of that, I was much better, mood-wise. Approximately neutral.

And, I experienced drowsiness. I could sleep. Not exactly happy, I did 30 days on Wellbutrin, because it had done me no harm in the past. 

I don't have the DAWS mood or state of mind. It never feel like doing anything if it means standing up.

In fact, I don't especially like moving. I'm a brain with a beanbag body.   :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://psychrights.org/

How the Legal System Can Help Create a Recovery Culture in Mental Health Systems

 

Conclusion A final word about the importance of the potential role of the courts and the forced psychiatry issue. While it is true that many, even maybe most, people in the system are not under court orders at any given time, it is my view that the forced psychiatry system is what starts a tremendous number of people on the road to permanent disability (and poverty) and drives the whole public system. Of course, coercion to take the drugs is pervasive outside of court orders too, but again I see the legal coercion as a key element. If people who are now being dragged into forced psychiatry were given, non-coercive, recovery oriented options, they would also become available for the people who are not subject to forced psychiatry. I hope this paper has conveyed the role that strategic litigation can play in transforming mental health systems to a culture of recovery.

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you ever get a fancy background check, your records will definitely show up.  If you don't do that, it won't happen - most likely.

 

The best thing you could do is just not tell doctors you ever took psych meds. I told a new primary care doctor I took them and she immediately labelled me as mentally ill.  Last time I will ever do that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What do you mean by a "fancy" background check, oskcajga?

 

Great question, LightEmergesFromDarkness. Thanks for posting the question.

 

I wonder if doctors have access to insurance company databases. If they do, then they'd know what we'd been treated for in the past by other docs. Our diagnoses, hospitalizations, medication histories, etc. are recorded by them, and I believe insurance companies do maintain those records indefinitely though I'm no expert.

After being on (over 25) psychiatric meds continuously during a 16 year period, I began in July 2014 to taper off 1mg Klonopin. In September 2014, I came off Brintellix, Trazadone, Zoloft, Proprityline & Hydroxyzine in 2 weeks on my own without knowledge on how to taper properly. I've been off all psych "meds" since 10/2014 and am currently experiencing protracted withdrawal.

 

Medication history: Vibryd, Wellbutrin, Lithium, Prozac, Xanax, Celexa, Cymbalta, Trileptal, Lamictal, Abilify, Zoloft, Trazadone, Citalopram, Effexor, Seroquel, Klonopin, Paxil, Brintellix, Protriptyline, Lexapro, Pristiq, Buspar, Clonidine, Lorazepam, Notriptyline, Hydroxyzine, Serzone.

 

Introduction: http://bit.ly/1SIxWwl.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What do you mean by a "fancy" background check, oskcajga?

 

Great question, LightEmergesFromDarkness. Thanks for posting the question.

 

I wonder if doctors have access to insurance company databases. If they do, then they'd know what we'd been treated for in the past by other docs. Our diagnoses, hospitalizations, medication histories, etc. are recorded by them, and I believe insurance companies do maintain those records indefinitely though I'm no expert.

 

Any background check conducted by a big organization that is very serious about giving you clearance to highly important things (e.g., getting a job for the FBI or something).

 

It's probably not that tough to get these medical records for any law enforcement agency, court, or government organization.  Think of the patriot act.  They can and will get any information on you no matter how many laws are there to protect you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy