Posted by jimbobwe64 on August 7, 2006, at 13:17:10
In reply to remeron withdrawal, posted by aleiya on March 9, 2006, at 15:59:21
Hello, everyone. Just thought I'd give a follow up on how I'm doing. I'm now on day 25 of no AD's whatsoever. As the days go by, I definitely think I'm on the right track, but, it most certainly hasn't been easy. For the last week, up until yesterday, I actually have started to feel like my old self, for the most part (just a few headaches, lots of itching, and the usual symptoms that mostly everyone has spoken about on here). Now the last day, I've felt depressed, but, it wasn't as severe and pronounced as the depression I went through a week ago, so, I'm obviously seeing improvement, but, like a lot of you say, It's going to take some time, before I'm scott free.
I have one question for any of you out there:
While on AD's, have any of you noticed that Alcohol interferes with the AD, to the point that you actually go through withdrawal from the AD for several days, perhaps even weeks. Now, I don't consider myself an alcoholic, as when I was drinking, I only drank once or twice a month, and in fact, I've actually abstained totally for the last year, because of it's interaction with AD's, in my case. And if this is so, do any of you know if this reaction goes away with the removal of the AD's from your system?
I'll quit drinking alcohol altogether if I have to, but, if I don't have to, I'd rather not, because it's the social thing that I could use once in a while for my sanity. I don't know if a lot of you are the same, but, I've found that the AD was worse than the actual depression for making a person more irritable, and withdrawn (the longer you use the AD that is)
So, I'm actually retiring from the military shortly after 22 years (due to my medical condition, imagine that :)) If you think doctors in general are bad, you should see the quacks we have in the military, lol.
All I'll say is that because my doctors prescribed AD's rather than talk to me about healthy alternatives, I've literally been through hell (off and on) over the past 11 years.
I started on AD's originally, because I developed extremely bad panic attacks and even blackouts from caffeine, and when I stopped all caffeine altogether, I went through extreme withdrawal. Because, at the time, I was in an extreme brain fog and wasn't able to think properly, I took the doctor's advice to go on the Anti-Depressant in order to counteract the withdrawal. The next thing I know, after trying to get off the AD several times unsuccessfully, the psychiatrist is telling me that I likely have to stay on that AD for life. That, I had resigned myself to for almost 8 years. Eventually, the AD (Paxil) stopped working (if you could call what I was going through at the time, because of the paxil, working). And subsequently, the dosage was raised, until the next thing the maximum dosage was achieved. Every time the dose was raised, I got even more irritable and upset when the previous dosage stopped working. I now know that this wasn't because of my illness, but due to the medications that I was on. About 3 years ago, I went from the maximum dosage of Paxil, almost directly to the maximum dosage of Effexor (why the doctor put me on another medication in the same class of SSRI's as Paxil, I have no idea)
The effects of Effexor deteriorated pretty fast, however, it was at this point that I started to do things on my own to get healthy. I started trying herbal AD's that were prescribed by a naturopath that I was seeing. These worked really great for awhile, but, unfortunately, almost exactly like alcohol, they eventually interfered with the effects of the AD and I had to stop them after a while. This happened with 5-HTP and St John's Wort. Over the years I've quit smoking (now 5 years free, woohoo), stopped eating anything with MSG, reduced my heavy protein intake, reduced my refined sugar intake as well. As a result, I've improved quite a bit, but, unfortunately, because of the AD's (now remeron for over a year), I wasn't able to get exactly where I should be.
I know this may sound totally crazy, because I haven't seen any of you write about this at all, but, the last clue of the puzzle for me was alleviating fluoride.
First of all I noticed that after literally every time I brushed my teeth, within an hour or two, my symptoms increased 10 fold. (I know, very weird). For the longest time, I couldn't explain it.
I happened to be on a naturopathic website trying to find the answer, and it mentioned about how fluoride poisoning could possibly bring on depressive and anxietal symptoms.
So, just on the off chance, I changed my toothpaste to a natural non-fluoridated one, and after about a week, I didn't have those symptoms at all, whatsoever.
In normal tap water (if your municipality uses fluoride), there are approximately 10 parts per million (PPM). In fluoridated toothpaste, there are 1000 PPM. Even in bottled water, there is still between 0.1 to 2.0 PPM. As well, believe it or not, in most pharmaceuticals, including Anti-Depressants and even vitamins, they add fluoride.
Now the theory is that if you have a poor diet, then you have a lack of healthy minerals in your system. These are the minerals that act favourably on things like Serotonin and Noripenephrine, etc. Add excess fluoride to the equation, and it leaches a lot of the remainder of these minerals out of your system, thereby adding greatly to a person's anxiety and/or depression.
Now, like I said I'm not a doctor and can't tell any of you that fluoride is the answer for you. For all I know this could be a placebo effect for me, but, I would be terribly remiss if I didn't mention it to you. I weaned from maximum dosage of Remeron to nothing in around 2 months with very, very minor symptoms (and they were very tolerable), so something is obviously working for me.
But, basically, what it comes down to (putting fluoride aside) is detoxifying your system from all excess toxins (mercury, iron, lead, etc). Having a diet high in vegetables and fruits (instead of high in refined sugars, etc) is definitely paramount to cleansing these toxins out of your system. Now, if you're not getting as many vegetables and fruits that you need, there are natural supplements that you can take that will help, and you can find these in any health or natural stores, just ask either your naturopathic or homeopathic doc. Also, these stores only have fluoride free supplements, so maybe that can tell you something.
So, as you can tell, I'm starting to feel a bit better, as I'm a little bit "chatty" today, lol.
Anyhow, if someone could kindly answer my "alcohol" question it would be greatly appreciated. In the mean time, I wish you all great success and hopefully minimal suffering in your quest for health. It most certainly is a long road, but, I think it can be achieved with anyone.
Thanks again for all your words on here.
Cheers.
Jim
poster:jimbobwe64
thread:618809
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20060627/msgs/674545.html