Will your intelligence return after you’ve discontinued your psychiatric drugs?
I answer that in this video, while also touching on the subject of creativity and whether or not it will return for those who have lost it. For creative people, our intelligence and our creativity are intrinsically linked and the loss of the former often begets the loss of the latter. It's a tragedy at the soul level. And a full recovery isn't simply longed for, but desperately needed. If this resonates with you, then hopefully this video can aid you in some small yet meaningful way.
I should mention that I mainly focus on antipsychotics in this video, especially during the on-meds portion of my life, since they seemed to have the most devastating impact on my ability to think. While coming off meds, however, it would be difficult if not impossible for me to narrow it down to any one medication or even class of drug when trying to figure out what was doing the most damage to my mind. Odds are, it is the process itself, the one of coming off meds, that is inherently hostile towards one’s ability to form thoughts, be they simple or complex, and process information in all its forms. Simply put, it devastates the brain.
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About Russell B:
I was 11-years-old when I was first taken to a psychiatrist. Like so many children, I was struggling to deal with a stressful home environment. Rather than embarking on the complicated, difficult, and delicate task of thoroughly exploring all of that and attempting to solve the problems at their origins, the psychiatrist instead gave me a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and promptly prescribed the antidepressant Luvox to treat its “symptoms.”
This sequence of events kickstarted nearly two decades of wandering through psychiatry’s labyrinth of symptom management and prescribing cascades. By the time I was 25, I had received a half-dozen diagnoses, taken countless psychiatric drugs - including ten straight years on antipsychotics - and had more side effects than I could keep up with or manage. I weighed 400 lbs (181 kg), had out-of-control Type 2 diabetes, and felt like I was dying. And honestly, I had felt so bad for so long, I sometimes welcomed it.
I didn’t know where the DSM labels and all the treatments for my supposed “disorders” stopped and I began. I was sad, broken, and worst of all, someone I’d never had the chance to know.
But then I experienced a spark of hope. A light bulb-over-the-brain moment. Maybe I didn’t have to live that way. Even though the belief had been drilled into me for so many of my developing years that coming off the meds would surely seal my doom, something deep inside told me to take a chance and bet big on Russell B. Using this internal guidance, I began a psych drug taper and slowly started coming off every single one of the drugs in a psych drug cocktail: Lexapro, Concerta, Ritalin, Geodon, Klonopin, and Rozerem. None of them were safe. All were on the chopping block.
It took 5 god-awful years to complete the taper and with almost no help from the docs who’d put me on them. But I succeeded.
I’ve been off all meds for 10 years now (as of August 2023) and haven’t seen a psychiatrist since way back in 2009. It’s been a brutally long journey down a nightmarish path. One that was often too dark to see in front of me and littered with steep drops and soul-testing trials. But you know what? I survived. And my life has been improving, slowly but surely, ever since I escaped the house that psychiatry built.
If you’re wandering down the same path, please know you’re not alone. You’re not fated to lose your way - or yourself. You can succeed. We all can.
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Support Calls:
Support Call appointments are not currently available, but you can send an email to RussellBYT@gmail.com if you would like to be added to the list of folks who will be notified as soon as more Calls are being scheduled.
Just put “Support Call Notification” in the subject line and you’ll be added to the list!
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Video notes:
Note 1: When I say “intelligence,” I am NOT saying that I’m “smart” or a “genius.” I am strictly referring to my ability to think. That’s the simplest way to put it. It’s the subject of this video: whether or not you will be able to think again-at the level that matches your full intellectual capability. No more, no less.
Note 2: This video's lightly edited. I currently have one scheduled to publish next Tuesday that'll have a little more spit and shine on it.
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Here's a link to a video where I go into more detail about my psych patient history. I left all that out of this vid to keep the time down and to avoid going over previously covered material.
The link:
• 3 of My Reasons for Co...
Time stamp for the relevant section: 0:01:00 - 0:04:16
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Disclaimer:
Any advice given on this channel is not a substitute for medical advice. Please consult with a licensed medical professional before coming off psych drugs.
17 июл 2019
