Mental Health They want me on anti-psychs, I'm not sure

[keeping]

The situation goes that I suffer from extreme anxiety, yet come from a country where benzo's aren't used as a long or medium term solution.
I have panic attacks several time a week, leaving me mentally and emotionally drained and depressed.
Some of these panic attacks develop into full-blown psychosis, disassociation, hallucination, the works.

The thing is, they want to put me on anti-psychs, and I'm scared. For one thing, I don't think I'm that fucked up, and if I just had an emergency supply of temazepam the worst of the panic attacks would be gone. SSRIs give me akathisia, and all I've heard about anti-psychs is the horrible akathisia. I have an issue with under-eating, and the weight gain from anti-psychs is enough for me to say no flat-out.

I have a meeting in a week and they are really pushing for anti-psych, but I don't know what to do?
This is all stemming from a hospital visit from when I had one of the worst panic attacks I could remember, disassociated, and found myself in a pysch ward with self-inflicted wounds.

I don't know what to do, I don't want another tablet that's just gonna make things worse.
p.s. the drugs they've listed so far have been Respirodone, Aripiprazole, or Olazipine.

 

[Tweak Thizz]

Dude I HATE antipsychotics. I was on seroquel for insomnia and it slowed down my metabolism , made me eat a lot , I gained 40 pounds (which didn't help my depression ) hard to funxtion , etc.

Doctors believe that schitzofrenia or however you spell it is caused by too much dopamine being released , so antipsychotic block dopamine from being released.

 

[PsychedelicWizard]

Dude I HATE antipsychotics. I was on seroquel for insomnia and it slowed down my metabolism , made me eat a lot , I gained 40 pounds (which didn't help my depression ) hard to funxtion , etc.

Doctors believe that schitzofrenia or however you spell it is caused by too much dopamine being released , so antipsychotic block dopamine from being released.

That hypothesis has no scientific evidence.

The truth is the pattern works like this.

#1 Are you living the life you want to live and dealing with issues that affect you? If so, you are now happy. If not, proceed to point #2.

#2 You will now start getting anxiety. Are you still doing point #1 despite the new anxiety? If so, proceed to point #1, otherwise you will eventually move to point #3.

#3 You will now start getting panic attacks on top of anxiety. Are you still doing point #1 despite the new anxiety and panic attacks? If so, proceed to point #1, if not, eventually you will move to point #4.

#4 Your panic and anxiety have now stopped, however, you are now psychotic and no longer connected to reality. Are you still doing point #1 despite being psychotic? If so, proceed to point #1, if not, you will soon move to point #5.

#5 You are now fully dissociated from reality and will eventually hurt someone or yourself forcing you to move to any of the previous points. This state will force you to move to one of the previous points, if not destroy you.

This is how it works for every single person on the planet, it is 100% scientific truth that took me a very long time to figure out.

Anxiety, panic attacks, psychosis, and disassociation are nothing more than brain, body, and spirit, forcing you to address what you need to address.

It is the hardest thing to do something despite being anxious or psychotic. If you are reach the point of dissociation, then you do need help from friends, family, or medical practitioners, but every other state you can self-medicate.

You can use drugs to mask these symptoms, but if you don't face what you need to face, they won't really do much. Panic attacks are especially rough, and I find being cuddled, hugged, or petted by a loved one is key during an episode, and going somewhere quiet.

The more you do what you want to do despite being anxious, the less you will get anxious. As for psychosis you need to recognize when it is happening and be aware, although one benefit of psychosis is you can't be anxious and psychotic at the same time, although you can be very afraid and psychotic, but fear and anxiety are somehow different (I suppose fear is that you are certain something bad will happen but cannot stop it [psychosis makes you certain, whereas anxiety is by very definition uncertainty], anxiety makes you think something might, therefore you do something else).

Dopamine blockers don't work because dopamine makes you happy, without it, you will of course be depressed. Schizophrenia has never been proven to be related to dopamine at all, hence why anti-psychotics do nothing.

Psychosis and anxiety can be easier to deal with when your central nervous system is depressed with say benzos, opiates, or alcohol, however, but you need to work on these issues while under these substances, and eventually not depend on them, hence a short-term strategy, otherwise the rebound anxiety/withdrawal will make it counterproductive.

Often times central nervous system stimulants actually help with anxiety and psychosis, because people with say ADHD/ADD who lack dopamine, get anxiety and eventually psychotic without it, so they actually will REDUCE anxiety with stimulants! It is really complicated, I'll write more later if you have specific questions.

PS: It doesn't slow your metabolic rate, it just makes you eat to get dopamine, because your brain is starved of it, and food is a good generator of dopamine, much like how weed doesn't make you hungry, it just enhances your senses so food tastes better (but so does music sound better, art seem more beautiful, etc).

 

[PsychedelicWizard]

The true cause of schizophrenia has nothing to do with dopamine, same with conditions like social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, bipolar, borderline, psychopathy, etc, all of them stem from trauma.

Someone who gets regularly raped or beaten will become psychotic (or scizotypal, schizophrenic, all these conditions are the same thing in essence), because they cannot physically escape, so their mind creates its own world to escape. In order to help a scizophrenic, bipolar, psychotic, etc, person, you need to show them love and help them. Eventually they will snap out of it once their brain realizes they are no longer in unavoidable danger. What separates psychosis from anxiety? Psychosis = the brain knows you are in danger and cannot stop the danger, so it dissociates from reality to reduce the pain response.

As for anxiety, the brain doesn't know it is in danger or it knows it is in danger but can do something about it, so it doesn't dissociate, it simply gives you the fight, flight, or freeze response by dumping a truckload of adrenaline into your system. While you are anxious or if the brain thinks it is very serious, in panic, you are actually extremely capable of kicking ass, running, or hiding. Depending on who you are as a person, the situation at hand, and many other factors, while anxious or in panic you will either physically fight, and fight better than you ever could normally, run, and you will move faster than you ever before could, or you will hide, and you will make no sound or movement unlike what is normally possible. This is a built-in survival mechanism.

An anxious person and a psychotic person's brains are both different at that state. The psychotic person (be it bipolar mania, psychosis, scizophrenia, scizotypal, etc), knows they are in danger and can't do anything about it, so they simply shut off their emotions and pain receptors. The anxious person thinks there might be danger so they move with caution or avoid a possibly dangerous situation, the panicked person is in danger, but unlike the psychotic one, can do something about it, so they WILL fight, flee, or freeze.

The reason psychosis, anxiety, panic, anger, sadness, happiness, etc, cannot be medicated successfully, is that they have legitimate purposes in our survival. People are happy when they are doing what they should be doing, peace is the absence of danger, laughter is a way of signalling there is no danger, anxiety is a signal of possible danger, panic is a direct response to danger, and psychosis is the submission to fate.

If you are having frequent problems with these types of conditions, you do need drugs to help you cope, but you also need to modify your life and behavior. Usually love is all that is needed to break psychosis, anxiety MUST be faced directly to reduce it, and panic must be harnessed and understood as adrenaline, not a heart attack, stroke, or going crazy.

Anxious people get panic because their brain cannot stay uncertain forever, so eventually it will force them to make a decision and either go into panic or psychosis, depending on the circumstances and individual.

It is sad people hurt each other in this world, but everyone who abuses others either has PTSD (where they are in constant fear and anger and panic), psychopathy (their brain's empathy is shut off and/or they get a positive response from hurting people, because they were psychotic too long), so the whole world could be cured if we cured people's brains.

Yeah if you are dissociated too long eventually you will turn into a psychopath, where the brain then goes from being disconnected to redirecting its pain to others, that and/or a complete neutralization of empathy (the built-in mechanism of social cooperation, when someone's trust gets violated too much, empathy gets shut off, but it also can be turned on with love, even the worst serial killer could be reprogrammed through good deeds done to them, but it would take a long time and be difficult, same with any other mental illness).

Will write more if requested.

 

[keeping]

Thank you wizard for that in-depth (I'm assuming, in-vitro) analysis.
i feel i have been disassociated for a little too long. preliminary consultation with a psychiatrist in two days.
i do not feel like Hamlet; faking his madness avoid paying my dues. I'm genuinely cracking up. Have been for a while. maybe i'm a cultural deformity, maybe this culture is deformed. who knows.
I'm going to refuse any and all anti-psychs - i don't wanna be tranquilized out of existence - just medicated properly when life gets in top of me.
my parents are fully behind me; anything that changes my metabolic rate is OOTQ.
I don't want new-age thaozines, miltowns, libiriums, or stelazines. I want a coping mechanism. maybe something as subtle at hydroxyzine on my better days, temazepam for my evil moods (which only my parents will have access too). seems better than just becoming another resident of the local cuckoo's nest.
going to ask to be put on busiprone, MAYBE vebflaxin; but like i said, i want emotional stability, not to be FAT and tranquilized 24/7 - I have a life to lead. i have a family to make proud.

 

[pentouch]

Find a good therapist that specializes in CBT . I would be so worried about weight gain as about that they are really addictive and hard to quit,because withdrawals cause new symptoms and extensions of your old symptoms. So yea wizard basically says right thing,sort out your life ,anxiety has its core,find it and fight it. But panic attacks are not the thing you fight,those are that you invite and dwell on them,the fastest way to deal with them as they disappear with time.

 

[keeping]

But panic attacks are not the thing you fight,those are that you invite and dwell on them,the fastest way to deal with them as they disappear with time.

exactly, but my specific panic attacks are about sleeping, or, the lack of. i end up an insomniac wretch and sometimes stay awake for 4-5 days at time, slipping into a panic attack whenever i doze off, and eventually experiencing full-blown disassociation when my body can't take the stress and paranoia anymore; like you said, i need cbt for this, because its highly specialized and pretty fucking weird imo.

 

[Hemptress]

I took seroquel and the slightest movement would cause my heart to pound out of my chest so hard. I googled this, and found that soldiers nicknamed it serokill because it caused so many heart attacks! Quit that immediately.

It is extremely irresponsible of the medical community to not give you any benzo. At this point the pros would def outweigh the cons, but I digress...

If SSRIs cause bad side effects for you...you ain't seen nothing yet like you will on antipsychotics. Food will be your only joy in life. Lol I guess if you try it and it doesn't work, you will be that much closer to the script that does work, though. Good luck!

 

[keeping]

yeah, appointment is tomorrow, i'm just going to ask for counselling and emergency benzos.

 

[Dresden]

If you're not delusional or manic, then you shouldn't qualify for anti-psychotics in my opinion. I would not start taking them if I were you. I started them when I was 19, and now many years later I can't quit taking them. Plus, they made me gain 50 lbs. I know that because one time I stopped for 4 months and lost 50 lbs then without dieting. However, I also ended up in a psych ward for 2 weeks.

 

[paranoid android]

Out of the 3 anti-psychotics you mentioned only Olanzapine is effective at all against anxiety. Risperidone often causes anxiety and insomnia and it definitely worsened mine. I have never taken Aripiprazole as it is not covered for me but it tends to be a stimulating anti-psychotic and is thus useless against anxiety. Over here some doctors prescribe low dose Quetiapine for anxiety and although at 100mg's or below it is only going to be working as a H1 antagonist and anti-adrenic it can still fuck with your metabolism enough to cause weight gain and type 2 diabetes at low doses. Though thankfully unlike Risperidone Quetiapine as well as Olanzapine don't mess with your prolactin enough to cause male breast enlargement.

I have Bipolar disorder and even though i am prescribed Lamotrigine and Quetiapine to control the mood swings i still take 6mg`s of Clonazepam a day to control the GAD as well as panic disorder i have. Oddly enough my doctor doesn't mind prescribing benzos as much as he does anti-psychotics as he has had patients of his end up with Tardive Dyskinesia, Akathisia and other movement disorders due to their shrinks putting them on ridiculous doses of anti-psychotics. He once had to visit someones house because they had been unable to get out of bed for 3 days due to a movement disorder caused by a high dose of Olanzapine. Once he took the patient off the Olanzapine and gave them a benzo with some Benzatropine they came around though and where fine within a few days.

Personally i think that unless you have a psychotic disorder or have bipolar disorder you should not be taking a anti-psychotic unless benzos and atleast a few Tricyclics have been tried and failed. Although anti-psychotics are used to stop people from harming themselves. If you haven't tried a Tricyclic such as Trimipramine, Amitriptyline, Doxepin and a few of the other more sedating ones i would suggest trying them. Mirtazapine (brand name Remeron) is a very sedating anti-depressant in low doses (as in 15mg`s or under) that is a Norepinephrine and Serotonin enhancer. It is a potent H1 antagonist much like Quetiapine is so that's where it gets it's sedation from. Also as bad of a rep as they get a MAOI such as Nardil or Parnate may be worth trying as i have heard of a few people who have had them work when nothing else has. Baclofen which is mostly used as a muscle relaxant as well as Pregabalin and Gabapentin may work for you as well. I never found Pregabalin or Gabapentin to help anxiety on their own but they do work for some people.

Also sedating anti-histamines such as Hydroxyzine have been shown to have anti-anxiety effects. Hydroxyzine is a strong H1 antagonist as well as somewhat of a anti-serotonic with little to no anti-cholinergic action and unlike say Diphenhydramine it has been shown to help anxiety. Other anti-histamines such as Promethazine (which may or may not be OTC where you live), Doxylamine and Diphenhydramine have all been used against anxiety due to their sedative properties and they do help some people. They would be worth a shot imo atleast.