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

Feeling like a victim


bluebalu86

Recommended Posts

Hi Blubalu,

 

I think that sometimes on this site we all get so wrapped up in the process of trying to get off harmful meds, that we forget the original issues that brought us to consult doctors and psychiatrists in the first place. You describe your issues Blubalu, and they sound very difficult to deal with and I'm truly sorry to hear about their impact on you.

 

I think we all acknowledge that the pills can't take away the suffering and that they are no more than a sticking plaster which often goes on to cause us more issues. We're united on here regarding the harm these drugs cause. Maybe though, we need to think more about "people" rather than just "the process" ?

 

People come here for advice and for the accumulated wisdom and knowledge that they can't find anywhere else, and that is more helpful than I can state. However, many people need more than practical advice. They need understanding and support and yes, no judgement. When it all gets too much and they hit a crisis point and reach out they need to know that there is empathy.

 

I've got through the emotional turmoil part of withdrawal and I can't tell you how pleased I am to see the back of it. I remember the heightened emotions, the intense anxiety, feeling out of control emotionally and frankly frenzied at times. In this state it's hard to be practical, sensible and strong.

 

I think its actually very good that you have brought this topic up and that we can all reflect on how empathy, rather than advice, can be beneficial at times, and to remind us that although we might disagree with the medicalization and drugging of human distress, distress still exists and often undermines and contributes to the problems we encounter in withdrawal.

 

I'm sorry you feel judged and I feel a little guilty myself. That's actually why I returned to this thread after my initial comment. I realised that by sounding strong and giving advice rather than empathy I was selling you short. When I first had my cardiac issues I remember having "brave children who battle cancer and run marathons" quoted at me. If I'm honest it made me feel inadequate and invalidated. What I wanted and needed at the time was someone to acknowledge the hurt, not tell me that others coped better with it than I did. All it achieved was to make me feel worse! I apologise if anything I've said has made you feel that way. We all sink and feel weak and unable to cope at times....and it's normal and OK to feel that way. By giving you the message that you should be strong too, perhaps I'm trying to persuade the vulnerable part of myself that it needs to stay buried and denied ....and that's not helpful for you is it?

 

Maybe it would be better to acknowledge that we all feel like you at times, and that we need this site for understanding, peer support, empathy and encouragement as well as practical advice.

 

You will get through this Bluebalu and when you do you you can go on to tackle the underlying issues differently....but we don't expect you to be strong all the time and sail through this unscathed. You're a normal, vulnerable human being like the rest of us. What you're going through is hard and you're justified to feel the way you do and to ask for support when you feel low.

 

Keep speaking out. You need to. xxx

I want to thank you for leaving this message for my friend, Blue.  Her name was Alisa.  She needed compassion and understanding and what you said here was beautifully stated.  Sometimes we forget how damn hard it is when the darkness covers your very soul.  You can't seen anything but blackness, despair and hopelessness.  Some make it out alive.  Others, like our beautiful Blue, aren't so lucky.  May her soul rest in peace, love and light.

Celexa 20 mg from 4/28/11 to 9/28/11 - RESULT - Didn't help enough.  Was moved to a new medication.  Med prescribed by PCP with diag of GAD and AD.

Zoloft 50 mg from 9/29/11 to 10/17/11 - RESULT - Symptoms getting worse not better.  Moved to a new medication

Prozac 20 mg from 10/18/11 to 11/1/11 - RESULT - It made me homocidal.  That was new to me!  So fun!  :-(

Effexor 75 mg to 150 mg  from 11/2/11 to 6/9/12 - RESULT - Requested increase in dose as a work situation triggered PTSD and severe depression

Zoloft 25 mg to 150 mg from 7/9/12 to 11/6/12

Zoloft 200 mg from 11/7/12 to 5/13/13 - RESULT - Medication not working.  Was graduated off this too quickly by an emergency PNP who diagnosed me as BP

BUSPAR 30 mg from 1/4/13 to 5/13/13 - RESULT - one 10 mg tab 3x/day - RESULT - Severe hot flashes, lethargy, unable to function

Lamictal 50 mg 4/17/13 to 5/13/13 - RESULT - new PNP told me Lamictal could kill me and that we needed to transition me off immediately.  Tried again for three days in March 2015.  Had severe chest pains on day 2 so quit taking.

Dropped all meds after going to yet another psychiatrist who gave me yet another diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder and wanted to change meds again.

Cymbalta 30 mg to 60 mg to 20 mg from 12/27/13 to 2/24/15 then stopped taking altogether until 3/23 when reinstated 10 beads.

Ativan .5 to 1 mg as needed since 2011 (at least).  Not a daily med.  Used mostly during periods of detox from antidepressants.  Stopped taking in March 2015 due to fear of dependency and risk of causing further depression.

Link to comment
  • 3 months later...

Hi. I used to feel like a victim too. But then i took my on faith in my hands and realised i was the only one who was responsible for my own life. It may sound hard, but trust me i know. I have a braindamage damage and im am still living a mostly good life. Trust me, it is possible, you just have to let go off how it is supposed to be. Dosent mean you have to let go off your old self, remember it and honour it.. And remember, youre not a bad person, som bad things happened to you

When I was 15 years old i had a kundalini rising. It was a wake up call from what I had been my whole life, a person who always did what others told me to do and never loved anyone. I was a very scared child because my mother was always very worried. In december 2010 i got locked in a psychiatric hospital. I was there for almost a half year, they felt they could do nothing to help me. Then I got locked in again i august 2011 and got the strongest antipsuchotic drug there is, Cisordinol, its not allowed in the US. I was a zombie for one year, my psychologist said I had got a prefrontal lobotomy, that I had PTSD and the the only thing worse was war torture. My parents did nothing else than bullying me with the things i couldn´t. For a couple of years, I did nothing. I mourned over my life who I had lost and time flew as it does to those who had lost their sence of time. In december 2014 I was close to death because of the drugs. From around march 2015 things started to turn the right way for me, my near death experience was a wake up call for me, I was filled with love and accept and I met my boyfriend. I was also at a psychiatric hospital again from january 2015 to september 2015. When I got out I thought that now was my life starting to go the right way for me. I stopped with the medication from one day to another and it was the worst mistake I ever made. I was in withdrawal and I started to forget and it just continued to be worse and it still does. Along with that I got locked in again from january 2016 to may 2016. I had no other choise than to take medication otherwise they would let me do nothing. The place where I live now forces me to take medication, otherwise I cant live there and I have nowhere else to live. I had left my first boyfriend despite i still loves him and believes that we one day can be together again but I felt that he didnt understood what I was going through. I have a new friend/ boyfriend who I feel understands my feelings and that it is okay to be sad and frustrated. Whenever my mom is visiting me I just wanna vomit and thats one of my main problems. Please write to me if you find me interesting or you have experienced something similar to me.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

 

... but i do believe i can say this with a fair degree of universality. at the point where we take the whip that has been lashing across us at the hands of another and begin applying the lashes to ourselves; the moment of urgent introspection has arrived. we absolutely owe it to ourselves to cease the perpetuation of inflicting the suffering we have endured. we must find a way to set down the whip, deal with the echoes and reverberations of its former cracking, and move forward as our varying states allow. we must afford ourselves the love, time, and compassion to heal while not drowning in the mire we were led into. no easy task. it is why i admire each of us...

 

I

 

I agree with this point so beautifully expressed. Many of us have been victims, genuinely abused when we were in no position to be able to protect ourselves from being harmed. This needs to be recognized, heard and validated, if not by someone else, then by ourselves. We are owed validation, its the first step towards healing.

 

But if our lives are going to improve we have to find a safe way to escape from the ongoing abuse, reverse any patterns of self victimization take control of our own lives and redefine ourselves as no longer a victim. This is usually a very difficult task which takes courage, time and the help and support of others. Not everyone has the resources or help available to them, we can all only do the best we can within the confines of our own circumstances.

 

For me, that same thing has been repeated through therapy. Therapists actually took out the whip in moments where what was needed was compassion. But through practices and learning to deeply care for myself, that is slowly beginning to heal.

 

Me too freespirit, I've also been re-victimized in therapy, but at the time, I was so used to blaming myself for every wrong and harm in the world, I took it on board and didn't recognize it for what it was. But I think part of learning how to step out of the victim role we have been cast in, is learning how to connect with and honor our inner sense that something is harming us and then being able to walk away or say no, to seek more appropriate, nurturing support. Like you wrote... by 'listening to that still, small voice'. Of course it may take some practice to start hearing that little voice if through most of life its been drowned out by the voices of others.

 

I haven't yet ventured back into therapy since casting off my victim status, but if and when I do, I'm going to enjoy practicing my new powers of deciding what is and isn't

 

I wish you well, should you decide to return to therapy...for me, that is simply no longer an option.

 

In the same week that I began doing qi gong, I made a promise to myself that I would never go back to therapy. Perhaps my sleeping through the night again after nearly 30 years since beginning therapy was just as much from that decision as it was from doing qi gong. It reminds me of the sense of internal safety that began when I made a permanent break from my family.

 

In my case, it wasn't just a situation of bad therapists. I have come to believe that therapy itself is not a good path for me. When I began, I never believed I was broken. I believed I had some difficulties with intimate relationships, which I later came to know was true of every person alive. All those years of focusing on what was wrong, what my problems were, why I couldn't be like other people led me to feel like a victim. I am not alone in that...I saw it quite commonly in my work and several of my friends have also gone through the same thing.

 

For me, therapy is a rather crude tool. I don't do well with anyone poking around in my psyche, however well-intentioned they might be. I have in fact, always had the ability to turn inwards and find ways through the tangles. If anything, therapy messed with that natural inclination. It's only been in the times away from therapy that it's returned in ways that are more beneficial. I feel a deep sense of freedom from not needing another person to find my way.

 

Working through the body, from an energetic model takes away all the notions of good or bad emotions, or even needing to know where that energy came from. I don't have to wait for an appointment, hope the therapist is having a good day, or resurrect something I felt when I actually booked a session. If I wake in the middle of the night, I can breathe and allow the energy to move through..or get up if I need to and do some qi gong or stretching. Things move, minus all the drama and angst that happened for me in therapy. I go on about my night or day, and meet the next thing that arises, when it calls my attention. To me, it's far better teaching someone skills that they can use for themselves. That's why I've always been drawn to things that acknowledge and build on a person's inner knowing.

 

As a child, I turned to music, nature, animals, books, and a deep and rich imagination and inner life. I was physically active and I had community through playing sports. In many respects, I was thriving, in spite of the terrible conditions in which I was raised. Therapy took me away from all those things....I was told repeatedly that my profound need for silence and solitude was unhealthy, that it was wrong for me to want and need to live alone...that the things I did that nourished me were 'distractions' from the "real work". If any one of those therapists I'd seen had once been interested in the gifts of being sensitive, inward oriented, insightful, caring, compassionate, wise etc....that might have been beneficial.

 

I have over time, financed many vacations and homes for therapists...when I couldn't afford those things for myself. If I hadn't entered therapy, I wouldn't have ended up on antidepressants. It was my "therapy failure", more than my childhood wounding, that led me to drugs. Right now, I could be sitting on a beach in Hawaii, sipping a mai tai..or I could be living in the cabin in the woods I've dreamed of for nearly my whole life. I could afford the bike tours I'd like to go on...I could be surrounded with art and music...not because I'm interested in acquiring things, but because these things nourish my soul. I only hope there is still time for me in this life to unravel the crazy beliefs I took on that I was somehow broken. I was never broken. I am who I am, based on causes and conditions.

 

Therapy, like medications, ought to come with certain warnings. People need to make informed choices and consent, which actually rarely happens in either case.

 

the last quote really resonates with me. It felt like therapy destroyed the coping I had used for so long and put in place things that were not helpful to me at all, even harmful.

 

I havent read the entire thread and have much issue navigating on an iphone, but just wanted to say Thankyou. I figured my brain was wrong to think therapy was unhelpful, even though I left each week with the instructions of "take a benzo when you get home" since I was so distressed.

Currently on 50mg Fluvoxamine. Reading more before the next attempt at tapering.

 

Started Lexapro 04, have been mostly on med combinations since for 12 years.

May 2015 - zeldox 80 - 100mg, fluvoxamine 200mg, dexamphetamine 10mg

Lorazepam and clonazepam on and off for over a decade. Heavily sedated with antipsychotics - mostly Zyprexa and seroquel. Many hospitalisations. Many types of therapy, last being 7 years of psychodynamic that only figured out my pain was real.

Pain meds - Lyrica 150mg palexia 100mg - discontinued eary 2016

Done ok so far but cant drop the last antidepressant without physical illness.

Link to comment
  • 5 months later...

I would just suggest looking at the reality for what it is.. Far more people have it far worst in life but their attitude is a lot better. They appreciate what they have.

Link to comment
  • Moderator Emeritus

Lindux, thanks for looking around the forum and replying in topics.  I'm certain that you intended your post to be helpful.

 

Sometimes being reminded that other people have it worse and have positive attitudes does the exact opposite of helping -- it gives us one more thing to be negative about ourselves.  This is more likely to happen when we are already feeling hurt and betrayed, and finding lots of reasons to blame ourselves.

 

Thanks for understanding that hard doses of reality are best saved until someone has experienced our empathy and encouragement.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.
1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results

Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to  0.0 mg  Aug. 12; details here


scallywag's Introduction
Online spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet

Link to comment
  • Moderator Emeritus

"it gives us one more thing to be negative about ourselves"

 

I totally agree with this.  Thanks for the explanation Scally.  It's not something I had consciously thought about before, but it so true.

* NO LONGER ACTIVE on SA *

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:  (6 year taper)      0mg Pristiq  on 13th November 2021

ADs since ~1992:  25+ years - 1 unknown, Prozac (muscle weakness), Zoloft; citalopram (pooped out) CTed (very sick for 2.5 wks a few months after); Pristiq:  50mg 2012, 100mg beg 2013 (Serotonin Toxicity)  Tapering from Oct 2015 - 13 Nov 2021   LAST DOSE 0.0025mg

Post 0 updates start here    My tapering program     My Intro (goes to tapering graph)

 VIDEO:   Antidepressant Withdrawal Syndrome and its Management

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...

Hi, I think it's perfectly fine to feel like a victim. It's a world of victims, after all.

1 year risperidone, 1 year olanzapine (10 mg). attempted first withdrawal cold turkey, failed. 2 more years olanzapine, switched to abilify which was very disruptive so attempted quitting cold turkey, failed. then 4 years amisulpride at 150 mg and about 3 zoloft at 150 mg. attempted withdrawal from both in 3 weeks, failed. reinstated zoloft and bridged to olanzapine (10 mg), successfully withdrew it over 10 months. tried withdrawing zoloft over 12 months, failed. bridged to prozac, at 40 mg,  now at 12 mg.

Link to comment
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy