Many of you and many of my clients ask for success stories from people who have come off psych meds after being on them for a long time. People ask this because they want some hope that it is possible. It can feel impossible. Here are some links to success stories.
Please comment with additional links and i will add them to the blog. If you have a story to add but haven’t written it yet, please check out my blogger guidelines here and submit your story. It can be anonymous if you desire.
story here: This blog is about my experiences with getting off Lithium. The first 33 years of my life was filled with great loss, trauma, and illness. I was heavily medicated, somewhere around 45 or more medications, for 20 years of my life for my mental health. My past diagnoses began at age 15 and consist of Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Panic Disorder, Depersonalization, Derealization. Since October 2017, I have been totally free from any psychotropic medication for my mental health. It took me two years to slowly taper off of four psych meds completely. I had tapered off of medications before, but only to have another medication replace it. This specific blog describes my experiences while taking the drug, Lithium.
story here: My taper took 5 years to get off a cocktail. My tools were nutrition and acupuncture, therapy and a functional medicine endocrinologist. While tapering I became disabled from withdrawal symptoms, although I didn’t figure out that’s what was making me so sick until later on.
Laura Delano
I met the mental health system when I was thirteen, spent fourteen years as its patient, and left it behind in 2010, when I realized that psychiatric diagnoses and drugs were not my answer. Read or listen to some of her story here.
Monica Cassani
This site documents and shares many natural methods of self-care for finding and sustaining health in body, mind and spirit. This blog also deals with wider issues in the socio/political and spiritual realms as they pertain to mental health and human rights issues surrounding psychiatry. Monica was on psych meds for a long time and got off. Her story is here.
AN ADVOCATE TRAINER, Pharmaceutical Chemist, JOB CREATOR, and SOCIAL CHANGE agent: In the last 10 years I trained 39 Peer Recovery coaches, 9 Certified Peer Specialists, Helped coordinate 345 Resilience Messaging Events, and made Behavioral Health Recovery an Expectation for as many people as possible.
From Twitter:
Connect with any of these folks on Twitter if their stories interest you.
Jean Davison
@jeandavisonTDT
I was on them for 5 years (though I know that’s a much shorter time than for many) and have been off them successfully for 54 years.
Reach Out
You can reach out to some of these survivors/writers/speakers if you have questions, such as the ones from Twitter (at the bottom). Some of these people have lots of writings, videos, and podcasts available. Generally those of us who have a lot of content online might get flooded with questions and correspondences and might not be able to keep up. But those with less or no content available publicly might be more available for correspondence. You can always try to reach out to individuals or look them up to read/hear more of their story.
Disclaimer
One more disclaimer. Getting off psychiatric meds after a long time on them is not usually easy. Many of these people had more than the average amount of resources and support. If you or your loved ones have a safe way to stay off of them or go off of them sooner than later, it could save you a lot of difficulty later on.
Other Stories
My Prayer
Here’s to wishing for everyone who wants to, to be able to withdraw safely and easily, and have safe alternatives at all times. That is the prayer with which I come to this work, always.
They seek hope. It seems inconceivable.
Laura Delano decision to leave the mental health system after fourteen years and realizing that psychiatric diagnoses and drugs were not the answer is a powerful narrative.
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It is not always easy to stop taking psychiatric medications after being on them for a long time. A large number of these individuals possessed above-average means of support and resources. IO games
It’s great to see such a variety of success stories from individuals who have come off long-term psych Drift Hunters meds. These narratives offer hope and inspiration to others who may be on a similar journey.
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