Welcome to the channel! I offer encouragement and hope to people who are coming off psychiatric drugs, while also sharing my own experiences and things I’ve learned along the way.
You can reach me at the following email address:
RussellBYT@gmail.com
Please be aware that at this time I can only offer one-on-one support through Coaching/Support Calls. An announcement will be made in a video and/or community post whenever more sessions are available for scheduling. Thank you for your patience and understanding!
Many thanks, my friend! I am currently really really struggling with the effects of coming off my psych meds! 2 down 1 to go! I am currently volunteering with my local health authority and my local university, UCLAN in the UK🇬🇧 To tell my extremely frightening story of how... Like you and Sooooo many in the world... Psych Meds are destroying people's lives and robbing them of being fully functioning, healthy, and fully ALIVE! I am down to my Antipsychotic and plan to taper that with my pharmacist at my local mental health resource centre! By using the hyperbolic taper method over 18 months! I have severe Anhedonia and complete & utter apathy at present with everything! Which I hope will improve over time like you say, my friend! I am finding telling ' my story ' Very therapeutic, and it is letting those involved in the mental health services know just how serious the negative effects of the frightening meds can be!! I WANT TO REALLY THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART! As your powerful video message helped me feel not as alone in my struggles! And more importantly, it has helped me continue the fight!! With a good dash of hope now thrown in the mix!!... CRUCIAL!! Many thanks again!! Good luck to you!! and ALL the countless others in exactly the same boat as us!! WE WILL GET THERE AS YOU SAY!! Take care, my friend!... And all of you struggling!! WE WILL WIN!! Best wishes...Dave 😊
Thanks for noticing! Around a thousand of my replies were auto-deleted by RU-vid when I changed from a personal to a “brand” account. (Just a frustrating thing RU-vid does…) So there are a lot of older comments that look like I never replied to them. I don’t reply to the same percentage I used to though. I’ve had some burnout the last year or two and had to deal with some life stuff, and just needed to recover a bit before getting back into it. Which I am planning to do soon. Much love.
I've been taking different antipsychotic drugs for 8 years now, on and off. I never saw them as the ultimate solution, because whenever I stopped taking them, things became worse than what they were before taking them. I've gone to a few psychologists for this psychosis condition, and a one of them managed to help me more than the drugs ever did. Also, I've done probably at least 10 different treatment modalities on my psychosis, all of which are outside of "generally accepted healthcare", outside psychiatry and psychology... except one, shadow work, which is psychology too. Most of those "unofficial" treatments I went into, did certainly something to my psychosis. BioGeometry, shadow work, and chakra work were probably the most effective ones, and breathwork (buteyko method and breathing only through your right nostril, not the left one) are also very good for me. The worst part of my situation is, my psychiatrist has agreed verbally, saying that "yes there's other forms of treatment that work on psychosis," and then said straight after that "you need to take the antipsychotic drugs for the rest of your life." Geez! What ignorance, lying, and removal of my human rights to decide for myself what treatments to take and what not to take. And she breaks her hippocratic oath too, by doing harm to me through forcing me to take the drugs. I refuse to call them medicines, since they only suppress symptoms, nothing more. Thank you for this outcome, Russell B, we need more people to speak out and do their own research when psychiatrists refuse that. We need our human rights to be respected!
Really sorry you’re going through all this and having such an awful prescriber experience. And you’re absolutely right - we deserve to have our rights respected! It’s taking forever but I think we’ll get there someday. Most docs are moving at a glacial pace, if at all, but our community of survivors is doing a lot of great work to make this situation better.
Never, I will never feel like me again 😢 I am in a country where no one understands about mental health. They don’t even allow me to contact taper clinic doctor. I’m dead inside and waiting to be dead but I may have to suffer 60 more years. These criminal psych drug vendors destroyed me by addicting me to the meds. When I stopped due to not tapering ended up in a horror movie. By taking that chance the force me to be in meds again I am a child and I don’t know how to 10% taper ( I read the taper thing which is in surviving antidepressants) website but I am not capable of doing it none of the family members believe me. Could you please come save me ❤. I can’t even escape daily life.😢😢😢😢😢
Ive went through abilify withdrawls 3 times 😢. It is because something happens to my insurance (or in another case the psychatrist quit). Someting happens and my prescriptions get cut off abrupty. So i had to endure withdrawls that made the side effects worse. And made the initial condition come back at full force. I think being on them had bad side effects on me too 😢 It was a very shameful part of my life. I umm stick to weed nowadays. Mostly because weed is accessible and i dont need to worry about prescriptions being cut
Please don't feel shame over your bad psych drug-induced experiences. It's not really something we can help. Glad you found something that helps though, whatever it might be!
@@russellbyt thank you, I've always doubted my intelligence because the withdrawals and other side effects had me leave college unfinished 😢 It was like 4 years ago. Dropping college while being cut off from abilify abruptly really damaged my self esteem; always believing I'm just ducking stupid. There were some mental scars from leaving that I didn't realize back then as I was going through it. I managed to get my driver's licence and car this February. Took me 2 years of learning how to drive but it was worth it! Been driving ever since then and I feel good 👍
Hey Russel, as a medicated man myself I’ve got a few questions, hope you take the time to read them and respond dude :) do you believe that most people can survive off meds? I’ve been on meds for 3 years and honestly don’t know how I’ll be off them. Also, when I do eventually come off the medication, do you have any tips for staying mentally well? Thank you man, Connor.
Thanks, Connor! But I don't know if I'm _that_ put together Lol. I come off a little better in the videos than I am in real life. It’s the miracle of editing 🙌 But I am a lot more put together than I used to be and that's the important thing. And I don’t doubt you’ll get there too! (I did see your first question and will try to circle back to it when I get a chance.)
zaprexa 10 mg AM / PM from 07-22 will kill you and make you a zombie, you will gain 30plus pounds starting off, constipation on lactulose, this man is correct, this antipsych meds are corrosive to ones overall well being, and quality of life , personally i got off of itz now my med provider ( insert Gov drs here ) they hate me now and my lifes been wasted, please listen to this guy, and my dumb words although im not on 5 years yet, however Do Your Research, Do UR Research.... you have been WARNED !
Everyone around me seemed to say to take them. I kept avoiding them until a young her cousin forced them on me. I said no a few times but then went and did it. Twice. I went a second time a year or two later again because he told me to. Sexuality was reduced. I quit cold turkey and misused them taking them irregularly. Ended up almost homeless as a result of the behavior disturbance abruptly stopping them caused me. And yet I lack the intelligence to take them and tape them. Meaning I never should have started them!!! I needed different kind of help. People are lazy and will shove you a pill instead of actually problem solving what you need help with that would make a difference.
We definitely deserve and need the space to find our own solutions to our struggles. And to figure out if they're even problems in the first place. Hope you're doing better now!
its been 4 months+ i am doing tapering I haven't seen any improvement In my self I am on olanzapine for 5 years this December watching this video for hope
Do stay hopeful, as hard as it can be. You'll eventually start noticing small improvements, and they'll give you some motivation and make it easier to keep those hope levels elevated. Those little victories do a lot to keep us going.
I'm so glad you made it through the absolute hell that you have to live again and enjoy your amazing personality and your awesome creativity! God bless you Russell thank you for hanging on !
I wrecked my life one day within seconds and from then on I could not sleep. I am on 450mgs of this crap with 3 other sedatives to knock me out at night. My brain is fried and I know all of the crap I am on is absolutley destroying my brain. If I go off these I will not sleep in my lafe again.
If you’re asking if it counts as a drug that can have a dramatic negative impact on our thinking ability, then yes, it definitely counts. (Speaking from experience) The severity of it differs from person to person though, as does the time it takes to recover from it.
I’ll be off of Abilify in less than 2 months. By that time it will have been almost exactly 2 years on it. 2 years of my life ruined. I lost all excitement and motivation for life, not to mention I gained so much weight as the medication slowed down my metabolism. I am very excited to get off the medication.
So sorry it's affected you in such a horrible way! I wish you the best as you start to go beyond the awfulness of the past and move ahead into a much better and more fulfilling life 😀
my advice is to convert to catholicism and take Jesus daily in the Eucharist. He said He is the living bread, he will give you strength and little by little you can go on. ❤
I’m coming off antidepressants because I feel ready, I still feel strong enough that I’m going to beat all of the bullshit anxiety and rumination that comes from coming off drugs. But it’s hard, the only thing I can do is take each day as it comes, keep to the plan I have and try not to beat myself up too bad about this stuff. Because for some reason coming off antidepressants has made me so self conscious and easily embarrassed. It’s got to be some strange chemical thing that’s happening, but having your conscious perception of the world skewed like that does not feel good, but it’s not going to win, those crappy parts are equally matched with a determination and strength that I didn’t have before and I’m seizing that as an opportunity.
You can do it! This process kinda strips away the armor and leaves us feeling pretty darn vulnerable. But it ultimately leads to a greater resiliency. And it helps to keep reminding ourselves that coming off meds can make us feel the opposite of whatever good effects the meds typically give. And it’s a really amplified version of the opposite effect. Just unnaturally awful. It’s a terrible trick the drugs play on us. That’s why not beating ourselves up over how we feel, or don’t feel, is so important!
I was at 7 different kinds of medications from the age of 17 till i was 28. A former psychiatrist removed them all in less than a month, and then putted me back on one single drug in a low dosis. It took me years to stabilize, and then it got better. I felt like i lost my entire youth, and began partying, getting interested in work and got to a lot of concerts with my favorite artists. Things i couldn't before. Now I have a different psychiatrist, and we are trying to reduce that one drug remaining further, but in the RIGHT way. I feel the depression and mood-swings coming back again, so it helps to watch these videos to remind myself it will get better ❤️🩹 it just takes a lot of time.
Going off psychiatric medication cannot be done in safety without getting help from a physician or a pharmacist who can offer their client a wider choice of predetermined for them according to weight, height and progressing less as time goes on dosages for that medication. If a medical care provider is refusing to allow us to be at the center of our medical health care team decision making for ourselves place then we must start looking for another care giver to replace them soon as possilbe.
All good points! I'll add to that by saying that it often can't be done safely _with_ the help of a prescriber either. They're still so lacking in knowledge, training, and a willingness to learn about tapering and withdrawal symptoms. It's frequently a lose-lose situation for patients. All the more reason prescribers need to learn best deprescribing practices ASAP.
Hello Dear Russell b, please i ve been given invega sustenna two shots, 8 months ago, you know the side effects, and what it does, i feel a little improvement, but it s not close to enough. Please i need to know do people return to normal after taking invega sustenna? What s reversible and what s not? Cause even 8 months after the injection i still emotionally blunted, and have sexual dysfunction , i can't produce semen, i am unable to fall in love, lost interest in people, can't love girls, nothing, i m completely dead, just breathing. Will i return to normal eventually? Please your honest answer is much needed?
I’m sorry you’re still having so many symptoms! As for whether or not you’ll recover: I find it really helpful to believe that we _will_ recover eventually. No matter how long it takes. It can take years for some of us to heal to a very noticeable degree, and worrying too much about not making a full recovery can really mess with our heads and make us feel so much worse than we already feel. We need to be looking for hope and it can easily take us in the opposite direction, especially if we fixate on the concern of never fully healing. It’s an all too easy path to go down. (Maybe “easy” isn’t the right word. It can happen without us intending for it to happen is the better way of saying it.) People can and do recover, even from Invega injections. I’ve spoken to some over the years. So it’s absolutely possible. And do keep in mind that it’s hard to find success stories online because most of the people who recover move on with their lives without sharing their success publicly. So we end up with more horror stories than hopeful ones.
@russellbyt Thank you so much, I appreciate your reply and your extensive elaboration . Thank you for making this content. A lot of people need this, and hopefully, they find people like you before taking these poisonous drugs. You re a good person. I wonder why this happens to good people. Take care, dear Russell, and good recovery to all of us.
When I was three weeks off from psychosis meds (poisons really) this year, I was like a scary powerhouse really. I got stuff done and almost went to stop an ancient forest from being cut down by some money-hungry company. Almost. More than our environmental minister Kai Mykkänen did about it, it seems... one thing that always happened to me when I was off the "meds" was I got more energetic and thoughtful. It's great to be off them, and I no longer need them, as I got other forms of treating myself. But by our Finland's law, I am forced to take them as long as the doctor says so. Otherwise they can lock me up to psych ward indefinitely. What bs.
FINALLY someone is talking about REAL situations.. and addressing intelligence. My daughter graduated salutatorian from grammar school ..and later valedictorian from high school. She graduated from college with high honors . She became a teacher and was a good one. I am an avid reader and my daughter USED TO READ BOOKS EVERY DAY, now she h doesn’t read and no longer engages in creative writing .She was planning to publish a book of poems But after a prolonged psychotic episode she was medicated with INVEGA. She s no longer talkative she no longer writes poetry, she can’t seem to land a job . She sleeps lot. iShe seems to be she’ll of her self. IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT TO ACCEPT THIS NEW REALITY. After nearly a year of witnessing her mental decline she finally agreed to come off these dangerous meds . I encourage her to d yoga, take vitamins, meditate and eat a healthy diet. Over the past few weeks k I’ve seen gradual and subtle improvements. This video gives me HOPE . I will continue to support my beautiful daughter to live her best life and to regain her brilliant mind and outgoing personality.
Antidepressants are prescribed like candy while opiate pain medications are now impossible to obtain. I have an ongoing 30 year migraine headache that never abates. That headache has caused several mental health problems that now include anhedonia. Which became severe when my pain meds were taken from me. AFTER 25 YEARS ON OPIATES, WITH NO ISSUES (LOST PILLS, EARLY FILLS, ETC), I LOST THE ONLY RELIEF THAT I HAD. WHY? IDK I have been on psych meds for over two decades, they do not work, yet you cannot see a psychiatrist without being put on one. I want to get completely off of all of my antidepressants...and now I am finding out just how bad the withdrawals will be. Especially from Cymbalta, had my doctor informed me of this, I would never consented to take it. Opiates are no less safe than antidepressants.
I’m so sorry you’ve lost access to what works. It’s become so frighteningly clear that patients can’t have peace of mind when it comes to the prescribing and deprescribing knowledge and practices of docs. We deserve so much better!
The thing that sucks about meds is, you’re 100% right they suck the enthusiasm right out of life, drives you suicidal. However coming off them, the effects of schizophrenia can be hard to tack you wish you were on them again just to make the delusions and voices go away. There’s no in between state for me where I can still feel the beauty of life and also be in a good state of mind.
It’s a tough choice for so many. I’ll add that people have found that coming off meds too fast can worsen “positive symptoms” like hallucinations and delusions, whereas a slower taper can make them more manageable. And by worsen, I mean in comparison to how disruptive they might have been before meds, or while taking psych drugs without being in the middle of a taper. It’s something that pumps a lot of noise into the signal so to speak. Makes it hard to know how bad the problem truly is. But we also need more ways to frame and manage people’s relationships with reality when those relationships branch off from the norm. The current default way of doing things leads to too much isolation, despair, countless psych drug side effects, and too many bad outcomes overall. Definitely need a better path forward. And speaking of paths: I hope you’re able to find your own, whatever it may look like. You deserve a good life and some peace of mind!
The simplest answer is that we can start “rebuilding” as soon as we’re able to. It happened very naturally for me as I became more able-minded and this seems to be the common experience. We just sort of follow our intuition and let our emerging capabilities guide us.
I’m sorry you’re still struggling! Tapering is all about limiting, and _possibly_ preventing, withdrawal and withdrawal-like symptoms, but it’s no guarantee we won’t have any. The speed of the taper can make a big difference too. But again, no guarantees with any of this… Which is of course really scary and frustrating. For those of us who struggle with coming off meds, it’s not uncommon for it to take a while to feel like we’ve made some good progress. So 4 months isn’t a very long time in recovery terms. It’s a very long time to feel so bad. But it’s not long enough for our bodies to very noticeably heal. The good thing is that healing is taking place whether it feels that way or not. We can build a withdrawal and post-withdrawal toolkit. We can find ways to get through each day. Even each moment of the day. But time makes the biggest difference. In the meantime, check out this page on Surviving Antidepressants called “Symptoms and self-care”: www.survivingantidepressants.org/forums/forum/8-symptoms-and-self-care/ The info there applies to antipsychotics too.
@@russellbyt thank you for your time. You did 5 year taper. How long to wait not to feel withdrawal depression ? I lost many things to the drug one of them is enjoying music. I used to say i cant live without music. Will i ever get it back ?
@DovahQueen1994 There’s no way to know for sure how long this will last unfortunately. Our bodies basically heal on their own timeline. But you’ll notice gradual improvements as time goes on. Most people won’t take as long as I did, so I wouldn’t worry so much about that 5-years number. And yes, the ability to enjoy music should return eventually :)
If a person is really delusional Rather than taking psychiatrist treatment? (Because psychiatrist drugs have side effects )What His/her guardian do? Can you answer i mean what is the solution?
This is something I won’t pretend to have all the answers for. Delusional thinking was never one of my symptoms so I also lack experience dealing with it firsthand. Though I do have people close to me who struggle with this, so it’s not a complete unknown to me. This secondhand experience is why I don’t have a very favorable view of psych drugs as a useful way of “treating” delusional thinking. Too many people are shut down by the meds. I’m actually interested in talking to others who have non-psych med solutions, maybe as content for the channel. Those people are definitely out there. If you come across any, feel free to let me know!
My reasons for coming off, was I had been on them since I was 4. 25 years. I had spent so much of my life drugged and on so many cocktails of drugs that I felt like I had never in my life been given the opportunity to be WHO I AM. I had suffered greatly at the hands of these cocktails. I felt like I wasn't a patient. I felt like a lab rat at worst and a customer at best. I felt like the pills and the labels had dehumanized me. In school I got bullied relentlessly by my peers. I was treated like a disease. I was NEVER okay with any of this. As a kid, I couldn't revoke consent. As an adult? My parents and peers pressured me against coming off. Yes I was 18 and could legally make my own decisions. However, as long as you live with your parents, you're not TRULY autonomous. My mom was the biggest source of coercion. I tried coming off my meds at 18 or 19. As soon as I had any problem, my mom coerced and pressured me back on. So as soon as I moved out, I ordered my doctor to begin tapering and he would constantly, express reluctance and a few times I'd listen. So it took, me 4-6 years to taper off seroquel. I don't think that was the right timeline. I think my doctor was dragging his feet to keep me strung a long and on the hook as long as he could. Eventually I gave the order to stop it completely and THEN all of a sudden he's all for patients coming off medication. Whenever I'd call him on the weightgain he'd say oh it's an imperfect science and he made a mistake. I countered with my experience on another anitpsychotic that did the same thing to me when I was 13. I was 29 or 31 when I said this to him. So I said, I don't think you did make a mistake. I think you know about these side effects and have known about them for decades. This is nothing new. At that, I decided I had had enough. Enough of being an experiment. Enough of not being who I am. Enough of hearing naysayers try to tell me what I couldn't do because I was disabled. People second guessing my judgement and treating me like I was stupid. There could be no peace in my world until the control psychiatrists had over my life had been completely eliminated. Never to return. Then only could healing begin to happen in my life. Then only could I live a life that's true to my values. I don't value psychiatry and yet I was taking their pills. I could live a life, as I AM. I could be myself in mind, body and spirit. I was scared. I would ask "Without these pills, what will I be?" And the answer to that? Free.
Free indeed! Really profound and relatable ending. (Actually, much of it is relatable. For me, and I'm sure others too.) That’s a helluva journey and you got through it. Thank you for sharing your reasons, and I hope you’re able to now start having the life and sense of wholeness you’ve always deserved. Much love to you!
