Is what I’m being prescribed safe?

[Sivacek]

Hello everyone! This is my very first post but I have been visiting Bluelight for a very long time and couldn’t appreciate more all of the information I’ve learned from you all over the years!! Which is a ton! So I guess I’ll get right to it, I’ve always used and usually pushed anything I’ve been prescribed to the limits, I tend to overdo everything, like usually going through my whole month script of lyrica in less than a week ect. just recently started taking things normally as prescribed, so normally wouldn’t have all of them to take every day together like I do now cause I would use one all up then get the next.. my psych nurse I have seems to be willing to give me anything I ask for, and I trust him but my current concoction of medications seems worrisome to me now, maybe it’s cause I’m older now and seem to care more idk lol but I feel like I’m on a lot of uppers or downers that might be putting too much strain on my heart or something, so wanted to list what I’m on and see your thoughts on it and if I’m just getting paranoid in my older age lol so I’m on..
Vraylar 3mg
Zyprexa 10mg
Adderall 40mg a day
Xanax 3mg a day
Lyrica 450mg
Gabapentin 1800mg
Hydroxyzine 50mg (as needed)
Ambien 10mg
Prasozin 2mg
Sorry if this is a stupid question lol just genuinely concerned these days :D Thank you!!

 

[Keif' Richards]

Hi there.

I'm on my phone so please allow me some brevity.

Most people in the know would tell you that you are on a moderate-heavy schedule of medication. There are some issues that come to mind.

I don't understand why you would be prescribed both Gabapentin (Neurontin) and Pregabalin (Lyrica) simultaneously. The latter is a more potent form of the former. There aren't any advantages to using both simultaneously. It's strange.

The Alprazolam (Xanax) at 3mg per day is a moderate-high dosage. Combined with the Z-Drug at night, you are likely to encounter issues with dependence. This is is you take them daily for an extended period of time, like months.

Most people would say that you have a liberal prescriber. I don't know what your history is, but yeah these could cause problems.

 

[WellTram]

It's very strange to be prescribed antipsychotics, hydroxyzine and amphetamines together. And u don't even need to take your gabapentin if u take your pregabalin. And if u can't sleep, take less Adderall and quit ambien. And if u have anxiety while taking olanzapine, hydroxyzine, and pregabalin, maybe u need your alprazolam only for your dependence. What do u even feel ? Are u happy ? Do u feel too sedated or too stimulated through the day ?

 

[MedicinalUser247]

That Psychiatrist is cool.

 

[Sivacek]

Thank you so much everyone for your replies! I have been on all of these for a year at least, most of them for years, I have Schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, adhd, ptsd and neuropathy. The only ones I choose not to take daily now is the Xanax, sometimes, and the hydroxyzine, I usually save some of them because the gabapentin or? Lyrica seems to help with the anxiety, more so than the benzos ever have for me. Actually back when I asked to be put on gabapentin instead of the Xanax he said ok and then said that he would still continue to give me the Xanax too, so I wasn’t going to say no to him, he said he was leaving it for break through anxiety, I think sometimes maybe he didn’t want to have to deal with trying to get me off of them cause I been on them since I was young and I’m 46 now, not sure. As far as how I feel I don’t feel sedated I mostly just feel constantly scared and trapped in my head most of the day trying to focus on what’s happening, my thoughts, what I’m feeling and if it’s real or not, I don’t really remember much minute to minute let alone day to day and I’m not sure anymore if all of it’s from my disorders now or my medications

 

[Antares]

Some of these meds conflict with each other (not experienced with these meds, but wouldn't antipsychotics and stimulants literally fight each other?) and overlap to such a degree (like gabapentin and pregabalin? I don't think I've ever heard of a single legitimate reason to take both of these at the same time unless it's explicitly so you can keep the doses of both low -- which you are not) that I think your doctor is not a serious person. I think he's on the same cocktail and similarly cannot think well.

And yeah, with that kind of complex cocktail, there's truly no way to have any idea where any of your symptoms are actually coming from. Honestly, I would try to find a new doctor and ask them about it. I don't know how you could feel anything on all of that, forget anxiety. Something is very wrong with this. I'm also a little worried about it with regards to your age. We become more sensitive to the effects of a lot of these kinds of meds as we get older... please get a second professional opinion about this cocktail. Don't stop suddenly, though. You're on a couple of things that could cause serious issues if they're not tapered off of properly. It's pretty obvious they're not working for your anxiety or ADHD, at least, if you're scared and can't focus.

 

[Keif' Richards]

Okay, I'm now realizing I have probably overstepped the bounds of our philosophy by giving advice out so liberally.

I come at this from the angle that I'm talking to someone using drugs "recreationally". The assumption is that we're talking to people without serious mental illnesses who are using drugs for "fun". You mentioned that you were seeing a psychiatrist. You also were pretty clear that this was not a case of recreational usage.

I feel like if I would have taken more time to read your post I would have acted differently. We don't ever want to give medical advice here. That's a big deal. It's not ethical, as I'm not trained to do any of this and it could lead to serious, negative consequences.

With that being said, we can definitely still discuss the drugs you're taking and support you with making your decisions. I just want you to take all of what we say as the opinions of strangers on the internet. I think we have a lot of helpful things to say, but always trust your doctor first and if you don't trust your doctor, get one that you do. Your health is the most important thing. Even though a lot of these drugs would be coveted by people like myself with addictions, that doesn't mean that having those drugs is actually what is going to make them happiest in this life

You say that you've been on the Alprazolam since you were a kid? That's at least a couple of decades. Did your dosage fluctuate a lot over this time period or has it been similar to what you're taking now this whole time?

If you feel like a prisoner in your own head, then something has got to change. I'm not sure if it's the medications or something else. I just know that's not how I would want to describe my life.

One thing I do know is that Benzodiazpines are categorically not a good thing to be taken chronically, on a regular basis. Someone might "take Xanax for years" but actually only take it once a month for panic attacks. I am talking about daily or almost-daily use. It's a pretty well-known rule that Benzodiazepines are not to be used for period of longer than 6 weeks, except for extreme circumstances (like seizures, severe mental illness) in which the negative side effects of the Benzodiazepines are outweighed by the benefit.

Out of everything you've listed, the Benzodiazepines, to me, are the most worrisome. The cognitive effects can be pretty harsh. I've met a lot of people who are chronic-Benzodiazepine-dependent and a lot of them describe their experience as "feeling crazy", "not real", "afraid" etc. The good news is that people have gotten better. It can be a long process, but if done right, it doesn't have to be hellacious.

If I were going to start anywhere, I would start by looking at the Benzodiazepines and seeing if a change is warranted.

 

[daturetard]

The antipsychotics are likely anticholinergic. Hydroxyzine is very anticholinergic. Combination of hydroxyzine and other AChe blockers increases the negative impact greatly and puts you at a risk of brain damage.
Anticholinergic cognitive burden calculator
Also, antidepressants are generally also slightly anticholinergic. I told this exact thing to a friend's doctor who was on hydroxyzine, she took him off it immediately.

 

[WellTram]

Thank you so much everyone for your replies! I have been on all of these for a year at least, most of them for years, I have Schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, adhd, ptsd and neuropathy. The only ones I choose not to take daily now is the Xanax, sometimes, and the hydroxyzine, I usually save some of them because the gabapentin or? Lyrica seems to help with the anxiety, more so than the benzos ever have for me. Actually back when I asked to be put on gabapentin instead of the Xanax he said ok and then said that he would still continue to give me the Xanax too, so I wasn’t going to say no to him, he said he was leaving it for break through anxiety, I think sometimes maybe he didn’t want to have to deal with trying to get me off of them cause I been on them since I was young and I’m 46 now, not sure. As far as how I feel I don’t feel sedated I mostly just feel constantly scared and trapped in my head most of the day trying to focus on what’s happening, my thoughts, what I’m feeling and if it’s real or not, I don’t really remember much minute to minute let alone day to day and I’m not sure anymore if all of it’s from my disorders now or my medications

My doctors Is cool too, i am prescribed benzos for 10 years, right now it's 120x10mg diazepam every month + vortioxetine for depression. Before diazepam i was on xanax but he thinks that diazepam Is better for me because i have epilepsy. Neurologist prescribes me tizanidine and levetiracetam and my pain doctor is goving me rotation of dihydrocodeine/tramadol/oxycodone.

 

[Keif' Richards]

The antipsychotics are likely anticholinergic. Hydroxyzine is very anticholinergic. Combination of hydroxyzine and other AChe blockers increases the negative impact greatly and puts you at a risk of brain damage.
Anticholinergic cognitive burden calculator
Also, antidepressants are generally also slightly anticholinergic. I told this exact thing to a friend's doctor who was on hydroxyzine, she took him off it immediately.

Your post is fascinating man. Very cool information. We have a lot of folks who actually use, for instance, antihistamines as auxilliary substances. Users of Opioids might use Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) with their Opioids for an extra kick. I am one of these people. I inexplicably like the feeling of Opioids with sedating antihistamines. I have a theory. It goes that the sedative effects, especially the physical effects of these sedating antihistamines mimic in some ways the warm rush that we are all familiar with when one takes Opioids. I feel it could be a Pavlovian kind of response, in that we have trained ourselves to associate this warm rush with positive feelings. So the antihistamine makes us think our Opioids are working. We are human. We all know how powerful psychosomatic stuff can be.

I always think about how I could be violently sick from Opioids. As soon as my phone buzzes and I see my dealer is finally awake and on his way, well, I'm not feeling so sick anymore. Anyway, that's my theory on the antihistamines.

The cognitive thing; I've experienced this before. If I take more than 50mg Diphenhydramine for instance, like say 100mg, I can function and do basic things, but I find myself going blank in the middle of conversation. I'll be asking "what is it we were talking about" frequently. That's why I stopped doing that shit.

Your post was very interesting. Thanks for that.

 

[daturetard]

Your post is fascinating man. Very cool information. We have a lot of folks who actually use, for instance, antihistamines as auxilliary substances. Users of Opioids might use Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) with their Opioids for an extra kick. I am one of these people. I inexplicably like the feeling of Opioids with sedating antihistamines. I have a theory. It goes that the sedative effects, especially the physical effects of these sedating antihistamines mimic in some ways the warm rush that we are all familiar with when one takes Opioids. I feel it could be a Pavlovian kind of response, in that we have trained ourselves to associate this warm rush with positive feelings. So the antihistamine makes us think our Opioids are working. We are human. We all know how powerful psychosomatic stuff can be.

I always think about how I could be violently sick from Opioids. As soon as my phone buzzes and I see my dealer is finally awake and on his way, well, I'm not feeling so sick anymore. Anyway, that's my theory on the antihistamines.

The cognitive thing; I've experienced this before. If I take more than 50mg Diphenhydramine for instance, like say 100mg, I can function and do basic things, but I find myself going blank in the middle of conversation. I'll be asking "what is it we were talking about" frequently. That's why I stopped doing that shit.

Your post was very interesting. Thanks for that.

Thanks. Appreciate that. I have a full post on the cognitive burden of ACh blockers, but it never got any attention... think it's something a lot of folks right now on psychiatric meds would benefit from knowing. The majority of doctors don't know anything about it, and if OP told this to their doc, I can say with a high degree of certainty that they would be immediately removed from hydroxyzine, no taper, due to how dangerous they quickly realize that combination of medicine is.

After talking all that shit about anticholinergics, you'd think I'd be strongly against them. Well, I am, but I agree with you a lot. I still use them in pretty high doses with opioids. Sometimes even going as far as low doses datura or brugmansia to pair with opium. Helps with nausea.... Alone they would be a God send for my insomnia if they weren't so God damn damaging to the brain.

And you're so fucking right about the part where you'll be super into a conversation, look away for a second, look back, and it's like the conversation never happened. Like the other person will still be talking but I'm trying to use context clues to put together the topic that I was devoutly interested in a few seconds prior.

 

[Sivacek]

Thank you again everyone!! As far as my benzo that I have been on for the majority of my life they are constantly switching them between benzos and dosages, Klonopin to Valium to Ativan then back to Xanax ect, I myself don’t know if that makes a difference or not just going with what they tell me to do.

The antipsychotics are likely anticholinergic. Hydroxyzine is very anticholinergic. Combination of hydroxyzine and other AChe blockers increases the negative impact greatly and puts you at a risk of brain damage.
Anticholinergic cognitive burden calculator
Also, antidepressants are generally also slightly anticholinergic. I told this exact thing to a friend's doctor who was on hydroxyzine, she took him off it immediately.

Wow!!! I never heard of this! I’m going to have to research to understand more about it thank you very much!! So do you mean I should not take the hydroxyzine at all and that alone would benefit me?
I’ve honestly considered maybe I should try and detox from all of these medications and start from scratch again to see where I’m at not on anything and then go from there again? But I know I would most likely have to be in somewhere for them to do this and observe me. And being locked up triggers my ptsd from past very bad experiences in hospitals, not these days but back in the day growing up in them as a child/teenager it was very traumatic back then, and I don’t know if I could be ok with that

 

[daturetard]

Thank you again everyone!! As far as my benzo that I have been on for the majority of my life they are constantly switching them between benzos and dosages, Klonopin to Valium to Ativan then back to Xanax ect, I myself don’t know if that makes a difference or not just going with what they tell me to do.

Wow!!! I never heard of this! I’m going to have to research to understand more about it thank you very much!! So do you mean I should not take the hydroxyzine at all and that alone would benefit me?
I’ve honestly considered maybe I should try and detox from all of these medications and start from scratch again to see where I’m at not on anything and then go from there again? But I know I would most likely have to be in somewhere for them to do this and observe me. And being locked up triggers my ptsd from past very bad experiences in hospitals, not these days but back in the day growing up in them as a child/teenager it was very traumatic back then, and I don’t know if I could be ok with that

I mean, it depends how long you've been on the hydroxyzine. It would definitely benefit you to stop taking that, but I'd recommend a taper if you've been taking it for a long time. Honestly, I'm not a fan of psychiatric meds of any kind, I think they're handed out like candy and you'd do very well for yourself to get off of them. Then again, if you see much benefit from some of them particularly, they can be good, it depends on whether you're ok with the side effects and that being your life. I guess it depends on the person.
And yes, you'd need to inpatient or do a very very slow taper.

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

Totally agree with daturetard that antipsychotics & antidepressants get handed out like candy.

I've had doctors try to force antipsychotics on me so many times & it pisses me off. My issues are mostly depression related, why would you wanna go & block my dopamine receptors with an antipsychotic ontop of that? So that I can feel even less pleasure?


It's always wise to question wtf your doctor is doing. And a lot of them hate when you know anything about pharmacology or medicine yourself. They take it as some kind of "jab" at their "education" that they "worked so hard for".


Also, it's not always the active ingredients in meds that you need to worry about. The inactive ingredients can be just as dangerous or potentially toxic to your health.


I just dealt with a "mystery" heart arrhythmia for 5 months. Had an entourage of doctors at my disposal & even did testing with a cardiologist & not a single one knew what the problem was. I ended up figuring it out myself and I'm a high-school drop out. And it turned out to be the artificial sweetener in my Suboxone causing it.

So you can never really full be sure wtf is safe or bad for your health in today's age. Pharma companies love throwing 50 different unnecessary & toxic inactive ingredients in their pills cause it makes them more money. And then the FDA allows it because they're corrupt as well.

 

[tryptakid]

This is a hell of a med list..

How could you even tell what is doing what at any given time. There's so many different things doing complimentary and contrasting things....

OP needs needs a new psychopharm

 

[daturetard]

This is a hell of a med list..

How could you even tell what is doing what at any given time. There's so many different things doing complimentary and contrasting things....

OP needs needs a new psychopharm

Exactly. This doc is a pill fiend(me)'s dream, but that regimen/cocktail of drugs is definitely doing more harm than good, especially seeing as op seems to be taking all of them everyday.

Which is another thing... 99% of medicine (excluding antibiotics and thyroid replacement) should not be used every day. That counteracts it's effectiveness because you develop a tolerance as well as your body attempting to reach equilibrium (which is- I think- the main reason for development of tolerance). You adjust to having the drug in your system as if it were a neurotransmitter that's been there all along after a certain point, and the only reason you're still taking the medicine is to avoid withdrawal.

RIs (reuptake inhibitors) in for example are slightly different. They won't be something that you grow a 'tolerance' to per se, because they level out the amount of serotonin, rather than agonizing the receptors themselves. It's also possible that your immune system (or rather your ability to developing a more efficient metabolism due to inherent toxicity) has something to do with development of tolerance, in which case, the dose could eventually be making less to your bloodstream requiring a higher dose.

I'd love to have a doctor like that, because I don't take any pharms every day, and a few of those could be great in certain situations.

 

[Sivacek]

I forgot to mention I’m also on the Wegovy injection 1.7mg, once a week, to try and counteract the weight gain from the medications, it’s been four months now, I’m not gaining,OR losing like I should be, I think the medications (Zyprexa, Gabapentin, and mostly the lyrica) are over powering it could that be true? I been so dependent on my medications for my whole life practically, I’m really terrified I couldn’t live without them now anymore, I’m honestly afraid if there is no medication anymore if they’re none of them anymore, there won’t be me anymore either..

 

[daturetard]

All three of the meds you mentioned above do cause weight gain as a side effect, maybe choosing one or the other (lyrica/gab). It will decrease the efficacy slightly, but you should still probabaly be saving money with one script over 2. This will also start to decrease the weight gain issue. Not that it's a cure all or anything.

 

[Quasimoto]

I forgot to mention I’m also on the Wegovy injection 1.7mg, once a week, to try and counteract the weight gain from the medications, it’s been four months now, I’m not gaining,OR losing like I should be, I think the medications (Zyprexa, Gabapentin, and mostly the lyrica) are over powering it could that be true? I been so dependent on my medications for my whole life practically, I’m really terrified I couldn’t live without them now anymore, I’m honestly afraid if there is no medication anymore if they’re none of them anymore, there won’t be me anymore either..

I do not know how wegovy works, I have not looked into it... but I presume it works by lowering blood sugar levels?

Zyprexa is an antipsychotic medication that is actually known to cause significantly increased blood sugar levels, the most metabolic change / weight gain among modern AP medications.

It probably is counteracting the wegovy to some degree.

There are other AP medications that cause less metabolic change.

 

[Antares]

To add to stuff in regards to hydroxyzine -- realistically, if you're on stuff like benzos and gabapentinoids, the hydroxyzine isn't going to do anything for you because those are already have way more powerful anti-anxiety effects. Benzos in particular basically can't be beat in that department. It's honestly probably the easiest thing to remove from your cocktail.

I forgot to mention I’m also on the Wegovy injection 1.7mg, once a week, to try and counteract the weight gain from the medications, it’s been four months now, I’m not gaining,OR losing like I should be, I think the medications (Zyprexa, Gabapentin, and mostly the lyrica) are over powering it could that be true? I been so dependent on my medications for my whole life practically, I’m really terrified I couldn’t live without them now anymore, I’m honestly afraid if there is no medication anymore if they’re none of them anymore, there won’t be me anymore either..

But are you really even you right now, with how you're feeling? Seriously ask yourself that. You don't have to go off all your meds. You had some problems originally, before you went on any of them, right? That means you do have legitimate underlying issues that justify the use of at least some medication. Don't let yourself think that seeing a second professional about cutting back on this complex mess is going to leave you with nothing to help you out.