I noticed these podcasts sadly have a small following. My belief is , that as more of us experience the HELL of psych med. withdrawal , the more attention these informative videos will garner .
Bear in mind, not all people have sideefects, so they don't "know" meds are not helpful and making them sicker. Some are bearly functioning, thinking it's "progression of symptoms" causing problems. They just don't know. I took it for 20y, hoping something might work. On the other hand, many people get off meds and just continue with life, they don't want to remember cs it was painful. So they are not here commenting.
@naomimara3340 yes agree. I thought the same thing. Too painful and want to move on and forget. I need a support person. And cant afford to join her program.
She speaks very well. She was lucky, as she said, to have a supportive family network. Not all of us have that. I'm a single, working dad with a mortgage and all of my family are interstate. I've been suffering PAWS for 5 years, though I reinstated after 54 days, it was too late. Those symptoms have been permanent since. Tinnitus in both ears 24/7, increased anxiety, fear, highly emotional, quick to anger, sadness, despair, dizziness, heart palpitations, etc. I've been tapering properly now for 3 years and thought I had a year to go, but due to the occupancy rate, it may be another 2 years. I'm so desperate to get off so that I can begin to recover yet while this poison is still in my body, I will never be normal. Life is a constant struggle, going to work etc. I'm pushing on because I have no choice but God it's tough. Thank you for the encouragement to keep on. Almost brought me to tears because I'm so desperate right now.
Same AJ..Im 71 and i dont see the point of trying to taper again…i have two rare spinal diseases and am in chronic intractable pain. Used to run marathons, gym rat, etc. and now i cant walk around the block without pain. No support from family.
The first two years of PAWS is hell. I’m 4.8months Paws and have almost healed 100%. It’s such a long journey. I’m one of the lucky ones with family support. My family have been horrified but thankful for people like Laura to help others. Love and peace from Australia 🇦🇺
Mine is 6 years and still dont know what to do. How can we deal with that trauma. It always remember me of the worst things. Also have neuropathy because of this meds. I dont know if i will make it.
@@marketrader1972 last time i was on Cymbalta 60mg, Seroquel 75mg, Lamotrigen 150mg for 3 years. And before other ads paxil, etc... I did go to neurologist. Nothing he could find.
Laura you are a lion you have more balls than millions if war brakes out tomorrow I’d want you on my team do not be nervous your life story will save many namaste 🙏
After 3 failed attempts that led me to hellish withdrawals, I am finally doing a proper taper down to zero mg of the drug. I’m glad I have my “why?” for coming off the drug. I’m looking forward to my sexual functioning to come back. I’m looking forward to my new or reborn life full feeling and experiencing what it means to be human again. ❤
I've been on psiquiatric drugs for 30 years, I' m 50 now. I think that my life would have been much better without having taken the misfortunate detour of medication. It is as if my life was hijacked. Inside me two lifes are coexistent, the apparent, and the aborted. Lost touch within, thus from the world. It is a kind of misery hard to understand for the people around me who haven t been through it. Plus the stigma of having a ' mental illness' The paradigm that has been casted upon society is unfair in so many cases in favour of big businesses, it s very sad.
Great talk today. I have been through this same experience as your body seems to come "alive" when you go through withdrawal. You can experience a new richness of emotions, greater memory in better detail and a better feeling of "being in touch with your body". This only happened for me by deliberate focus on the emotions of thankfulness, what I'm excited about, what I'm looking forward to, what great about today. Self Expression can also be a great healer - speaking out loud, acting, singing and BEING HEARD. She is so right is saying that healing comes through sitting with pain - whatever form that may take - emotional or physical. I think what heals more than anything is powerful purpose in our life that we can anchor on. And meaningful things/people that make us feel at ease.
Thank you for sharing your story Laura. Very powerful. I'm looking forward to reading your book! (I don't see the Q & A box. I guess it was taken down.) A few comments: "Treatment resistant" = the drugs don't work -- It is most definitely NOT that there is something wrong with you. They'll never admit that it wasn't someting wrong with you but something wrong with them and the drugs they hand out like candy and of course the social context which causes so much trauma. The best book I've read to date on this unholy business is BigPharma industry insider Peter Gotzsche's, "Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime." If that doesn't wake people up nothing will. Another great book that was just released in by the renowned Gabor Mate, M.D. : The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture.
I cold turkeyed Effexor about 25 years ago after I forgot to take it one morning and about 10:00 I could not move my eyes from one thing to the other on my computer screen without feeling like I had just jumped 5 feet from something and jarred my head. I went home and took it to stop the withdraws till I had an appointment with the psychiatrist and asked him what that drug was doing to me. He just said, "It is an anti depressant." I said, "No! What is Effexor physically changing in my body that would not be happening if I did not take it?" He said,"I have been taking it for three years.. It would be a few years before I had a severe break, being That was 20 years ago. I am very glad your stuff came up on my feed from a channel you started and have a handful of videos from 9 years ago.
It seems that whenever I listen to you, Laura, since my own journey began, is to get emotional - even deliberating whether I want to continue listening. But I know I must, so I continue. In my own case, I was put on Serenace (Haloperidol) at the age of 20 in 1970. The drug was new. I have fond memories of my doctor. I had debilitating nervous tics and I wanted a solution. Over 40 years later I developed mysterious symptoms, the last being TD. I went off my 1.5mg d dose almost cold turkey. You can imagine what I went through and still am - maybe forever. But it was because of that I learnt so much about the mechanisms behind my current discontinuation condition. Needless to say one of these was watching your videos. Thank you so much! Yes, it was a journey. It was a journey I can impart onto others. Once again, thank you!
Yes wish there was a wellness center specifically for this. I've withdrawn from 4 antidepressants. Not fun. One caused suicidal thoughts in 2 days. I went off the second day and the 'thoughts' lasted a week. Luckily I knew it was the drug and survived.
Alternative to Meds Center have harmed people in wd by making them take multiple supplements when one should be extra careful about any substance during wd.
I want to start weaning off of 5mg of olanzapine. Dropped from 20 to 5 with no issues but going to the 2.5mg was awful my anxiety was through the roof. It’s so annoying the first week and a half was fine but after that was hell and I didn’t realise it was withdrawals initially. Fell out with best friend during this time and our relationship never recovered. So that wasn’t worth it!! I now have no support to help me with this taper
IF WE WERE INFORMED PROPERLY HOW TO TAPER IN THE FIRST PLACE IT WOULD NOT TAKE MANY OF US YEARS TO GET OFF ( not shouting :) Sadly we are sent away to taper with little to know education, information or what to expect. It can be very scarey when u run into awful side effects, side effects you would not have had, had you started reducing by a smaller amount in the first place :(
I am never one to comment on videos but I just wanted to say how much I appreciated this video and Laura's Journey. Thank you SO much for sharing your personal journey to healing and coming off of these medications. As I'm currently going through my own healing journey off of Sertraline for over 6 years and struggling with all the withdrawal symptoms, I feel hopeful and inspired to one day be able to speak to my experience and story, and hopefully be able to encourage and educate others as well. Thank you for what you do and I look forward to reading your book!
Wow, I’m so glad I came across this. My own WD has been so hard and I’m at the very beginning. I had chills and tears through Laura’s speech, it meant so much to hear that what I’m going through can have a greater purpose. I want to get involved in this community, thank you for this!
Great interview. Laura, you are so amazing and inspirationionail! Thanks so much to both of you. I am stuck in protracted w/d from alcohol and 2 years of rx opioids for pain mgt. The alcohol was an addiction for most of my adult life but the opioid dependency developed from taking them daily for a back injury. I quit the alcohol 1.5 years ago and jumped from the opioids 6 months ago after a 4 month taper. I've been off of everything now for 6 months but the PAWS is still raging. I suffer 24/7 from depression, anxiety, insomnia and a general feeling of malaise (nausea/headache) like nothing I've had before. My sleep has improved somewhat but it's still very inconsistent. I pray I can recover some day and feel healthy and balanced again. It's been an epic struggle to stay positive when my brain and body are just so compromised.
Great vid regarding your difficult time, very well explained, I understood your past feelings and how you had to cope Fromm day to day, I must say you seem fine and also look great so I would take on board all your advice and knowledge as someone that has had the experience thank you for this and all the best for your future great life , baz.
All wd heals. But not all major brain injury from psych heals. A truth i had to sit with every day all bc i couldnt find the inner compass website when it mattered
Who was the Dr who ok your "tapper" thd one issue I have is we in a way protect these Dr by not calling them out Just stating a fact, We say as my Dr prescribed Hell why not say as Dr Smith !!! Why prescribed !!! Why protect them ??? We are to soft on these Dr, it's a war and us patients are losing
What do you think about limbic system training/mind body connection/neuroplasticity of the brain?My gut is wrecked ..its so much gut/brain connection? Thoughts?
True. I also wrote to the minister of health care to change the law because my insane doctors gave me clonazepam in October as so called non habit forming sleep aid!!! I used for 12 days but the damage was done so in hell and only halfway taper yet and I feel my brain is black so there's definitely more than just withdrawal.
I was completely sane and high functioning with literally everything going for me in life ready to spread my wings. I got cortisone for something I shouldn't have and was in cortizone withdrawal and said everywhere I don't understand why I cannot sleep, something is weird in my brain and no doctor took me seriously and now I'm obviously way worse and feel like dying. I don't think I'm strong enough to even last this taper.
I’m on 7.5 mg of remeron and .75 mg of Klonopin Been on since end of 2021 after COVID I developed insomnia and ended up polydrugged on psych meds and diagnosed with bipolar after having an adverse reaction to an SSRI celexsa I’m stuck What do I taper first Heard bad stories about mirtazapine I’m in MA
What was your menstrual time like? Omg I’ve been horrible week before and during so bad so bad never this bad in my entire life literally I dread that time of the month because I feel so so bad so insane
@@brokenwingedsongbirdplease don’t. Have you tried the ketogenic diet? I think it might help greatly. Please do your research on it and see if you can do it as many people have healed their original mental illness on it not just withdrawals.
