When you're so far below the floor, everything's a ceiling
-Death
Cab for Cutie
"So far down in this hole, there's little daylight. I feel the shards of the midday sun and then it's black as midnight." |
I am, indeed, in a hole - a new hole since I last wrote - and I don't know if I can get out. In fact, it's starting to occur to me that I may have just plunged myself into a hole where there is no healing path – or at least not one I can endure anyway. To heal, you have to understand what's wrong - where the pain is coming from. There are too many variables and too few knowledgeable experts for me to feel confident in taking any direction.
HOW IT STARTED
Let me just quickly go back and try to delineate the
process that's led me here.
One time in college, I smoked too much pot and I
experienced the unnerving sensation of depersonalization so extreme, it
triggered a potent panic attack. That one experience, I believe, carved out a neural
pattern that made it easier for me to have future panic attacks.
Later, in my young adult life, I made the same mistake
with marijuana and had another debilitating panic attack that led me
to the ER. And about a year after that, yet another panic attack came on –
this time without any chemical assistance. I was so frightened by
this that I made a doctor's appointment the next day. This was in
1999, when the growth of prescriptions of SSRIs was exploding. The
information I was reading on the internet at the time said they were
effective in 70-80% of people who took them.
Paxil had recently come out and was touted as the first SSRI with an “anti-anxiety” component in addition to anti-depressive. The doctor I saw prescribed that and xanax, as needed. He stressed the habit forming aspect of xanax but said paxil was nonaddictive. When in a state of anxiousness, my decision making habits are made quickly, oftentimes without thought of long-term consequences. Which is exactly the model of psychiatry and the pharmaceutical companies they rely on – find medicines that provide relief to immediate crises.
For two weeks, I grew more obsessive and fearful of
having another panic attack. I was told the paxil wouldn't start
“working” for two weeks or more. In that time, I sank into the
first depression I'd ever experienced. I attributed it to the nervous
obsessing panic that wasn't really abating unless I took a xanax. It
didn't occur to me then that the paxil was contributing to the
problem – that it was “temporarily” destabilizing my brain in
that two-week window.
But just like they said, around two weeks later, I
started to feel normal again. The paxil “worked”. However, I would
continue to have panicky, depressive episodes periodically lasting a few days and then rapidly dissolve. In no circumstance was there a clear, specific life circumstance that I could attribute to these dips.
They were frequent enough that I started to see a
psychiatrist regularly. I'd been switched over to the controlled
release paxil at some point. But in 2005, there was a shortage of the controlled release version and I
had to take the standard paxil. In that time period, I sank into the
deepest anxious depressions I've ever experienced. In my emergency state of
mind, I called my psychiatrist in crisis mode and he prescribed 1.5mg
of xanax daily to "augment" the paxil– I had only used it sparingly before that. As all
times before, I “pulled out” of my depression about a week later.
Benzo Harm Awareness
As the years went on, I developed problems from daily
use of xanax – extreme lethargy and intense inability to stay awake
while driving long distances. I took frequent naps, I feel asleep
watching movies a lot of the time. In 2011, I decided I didn't want
to be on xanax anymore and I tapered off it quickly without any
consultation with my doctor. Things weren't right with me as I went
off. I had heavy legs and strange parathesia-type sensations in my
head. It got more extreme and several doctor visits before I made the
connection with the medication. I found the Ashton Manual online and
presented that to my doctor saying I wanted to go back on benzos –
this time Valium – and taper per her 10% a month protocol.
As soon as I got on the valium, my symptoms remitted. I
was so relieved and felt my troubles were over as long as I stuck to
this tapering method. But I was naive. Even cutting 10% a month gave
me horrible withdrawals – depersonalization, increased generalized
anxiety, irritability, etc, etc.
Eleven months later, I took my final dose, hoping I'd
been through the worst. But the worst was still to come. Extreme insomnia, emotional lability, myclonic jerks at night and a host of other bizarre psycho-physical symptoms pervaded.
I muscled through it at work, missing many days, until I couldn't
continue and took a three month leave of absence. In that time I went
through the windows and waves of withdrawal well documented by others
who've gone through this.
I was not much better when I went back to work, but I
made myself go. Staying at home had only been making my ballooning
self-loathing worse and being distracted by work helped pass the
time. Pretty close to a year after my last dose of xanax, my
symptoms eased and my mood stabilized. I still
couldn't feel happiness strongly and felt little need to socialize. I
wasn't “healed”, but I was better.
PAXIL NOW TAKES ITS TURN
About two years after my last dose and having read about
the potential long-term harms of antidepressants, I decided I was
going to go off paxil, which I'd taken daily for 15 years. I'd heard
some talk of serious withdrawal from SSRIs but the accounts seemed
fewer and less severe than those withdrawing from benzodiazepines. Because I had now
turned on the profession of psychiatry, I wanted to purge myself of
this last medication.
So in October of 2014, I started cutting 5mg a week of
my 25mg dose – a rate I now realize was far too fast. I should have
learned my lesson. Deeply obsessive ruminating thinking took ahold of
me followed by a growing depression. By January, I was a mess. In
that time, my mom developed stage four breast cancer and I decided to go back on paxil. But there was no response. In fact, things
were getting worse day by day.
For the first time in all of my experience with these
problems, I had the urge to kill myself. I tried it with a belt
around my neck a couple of times but I couldn't stand the choking
feeling and stopped. On Super Bowl Sunday in February 2015, I was so
depressed and unresponsive, that my wife took me to the ER where I
was admitted to the in-patient psychiatric unit at our local
hospital. I was a wreck – and I was visibly worse than everyone
else I encountered. It was baffling – they were all dealing with
extreme life circumstances that brought them to
attempt suicide. My life, by comparison, was far better – I have a
job I like, a wife I love, two kids and some great friends.
They were getting better – the group sessions were
helping them, but I felt horrible no matter what I was doing. That
said, I was released a week later and felt slightly better. I
returned to work for a few days, but began to sink again. I then
re-admitted myself to the psych unit. I seemed to have complete
amnesia about the failings of psychiatry and the nature of my
illness, that I was willing to try anything they suggested. After two
more weeks there and no improvement, I pursued their suggestion of electroshock therapy (ECT). That took me to a hospital in Spokane (3 hours away) where I
stayed for a month and received 11 treatments. Compounding the difficulty of my current situation, however, was that they also prescribed 150 mg of zoloft as well. I had gone off Paxil in the hospital in Missoula.
The first two days after an ECT session, I would feel
better but over the weekend, when there weren't any sessions, I got
much, much worse. After a month in the hospital and 11 shock
treatments, I was released and was no better.
I went back to work for a few days but then took myself
back to the ER. The in-patient unit wouldn't take me and I was told
my only option was state hospitalization. I decided to go home and
try to tough it out, but my future felt extremely bleak.
THE FRYING PAN OR THE FIRE?
In addition to the zoloft, I was given a prescription of ativan (prn). After all I had been through to get off of benzodiazepines, I did not want to take the ativan. But I was starting to develop a growing inner restlessness called akathisia. Feeling like it was either that or unendurable restlessness, I periodically took an ativan before work. I noticed that on
those days, I would improve. I didn't want to take it daily so I
fought through several days of severe unease hoping the periodic improvements weren't related to the ativan. But the akathisia was festering. I could feel it up and
down my spine – like my nervous system was in a vice and it didn't
relent at any time of day until I went to bed.
So I made a Faustian bargain.
I started taking ativan three times a day. This was my
last stand. If this didn't work, I would take my life. The level of
suicidal ideation I had after release from the hospital was intense. I've never
experienced it so dramatically. In fact, just thinking of suicide
gave me relief. I would tell myself just to wait until the evening
and then slip out and hang myself. But in less than two days of
taking ativan regularly, I started feeling much, much better.
Astoundingly better. At times, better than I felt before I went off
benzos.
For about two weeks this went on and my goal was to go
off the zoloft slowly while staying stable on the ativan. But the
ativan fix didn't last. I slipped down again, where I'd wake up
feeling both incredibly anxious and bleak. It would lessen as the
day went on and I wasn't nearly as bad by the evenings. At
times, I would have strongly over-emotional responses to negative
thoughts or sudden changes. Thinking about anything in the future
that I had to do – no matter how routine or insignificant – would
give me an instant feeling of crushing despair. When I'd re-run the
thoughts, the emotion wasn't as strong. It seemed to be related to
whatever part of the brain is involved with immediate emotional
reactivity.
But it wasn't monolithic – it came and went. I had
times where I felt mostly normal. I started running two miles a day –
exercising more than I ever have before. I was much better even at my
worst then I was months before, but I was constantly worried I'd slip
back to the point I'd been when I was hospitalized. I knew what I
was going through was a reaction from the medication, but the
psychiatrist I'm currently seeing unsurprisingly doesn't see it
through that lens. I had to underplay the severity of what I was
feeling for fear she'd prescribe something else.
She switched me over to klonopin in August (equivalent
ativan dose). About a week into it, I again had a resurgence of
improvement – the morning restlessness abated and the
over-emotional responses vanished. For about three whole days. And it
all returned again. Only this time, there have been far fewer breaks
and the malaise is lasting longer throughout the day. I haven't
missed a day of work due to this in six months, but each day is a
fight to get to 5 pm. And it's getting harder.
When I decided to get off of benzos, I had a dedicated healing path and goal. Faith in that goal and the testimonies of healing from others kept me going. Now I don't see a path - I feel like I've gone 10 steps backwards and the right direction to turn now has vanished. This is where I'm at now. And why I'm scared and
despairing and have the same question going over and over in my mind.
WHAT
AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?
Thinking it may be due to tolerance to the benzos, I've
tried increasing my klonopin dose, but it seems to have the perverse
effect of making me more depressed while doing nothing to abate the
internal restlessness – this feeling of being in a vice and the
hyper-emotional (dis) response to any form of negative thought or
thought of the future. I haven't made significant increases in the
dose because I'm not sure it would help and I already hate taking the
benzos as it is.
I don't know if this is withdrawal from the paxil I took
for 15 years or a response of akathesia from the zoloft I'm taking.
I'm scared that if I cut down on the zoloft, I'll get worse but I'm
also afraid that the zoloft is causing the problems. After harrowing
responses to changes in my medication, I'm scared to do anything. I
simply can't stay home and endure another withdrawal process. I won't
make it. But doing nothing is increasingly untenable.
What's making this worse, as anyone who has experienced
severe withdrawal reactions to psych medications can attest, is there
are no experts who believe this is a possible response from
medication. The psychiatrist I'm currently seeing doesn't see it that
way – she's told me that I control my thoughts and that I probably
have to go to counseling to deal with these issues. The therapist
that I see, and who I've seen for years and knows me far better than
any psychiatrist ever could, absolutely believes that it's a
complicated response to psychiatric medication. He really doesn't
know what to do to help.
Nobody does.
What's even worse for me is that the absolute dearth of
people who know what I'm going through and the seemingly small
numbers of people who experience severe reactions like this make me
doubt myself. Complaining of unobservable internal nervous system
symptoms sounds so vague and, frankly, annoying to others. And as
someone who has struggled with self-confidence issues, it's hard for
me not to worry that this isn't from the drugs – that it's a
personal failing of my own somehow.
A comment from psychiatrist Jeffrey Junig made once haunts me. He had been writing a blog on Psych Central where he was dismissing the likelihood of prolonged protracted withdrawalsymptoms from benzodiazepines. Several of us went on the comment site to rebut and share our experiences. To one person claiming problems of cognitive fog, etc, he wrote the following:
You
must recognize by now, after your frustration with the medical
system, that whatever is going on with your health has no ‘plausible’
explanation. I suspect, though, that someone trained in neuroscience
and medicine will have a better likelihood of coming up with a
plausible theory, than someone without that training.
Millions
(literally) of people have started and stopped benzodiazepines who
have no complaints of ‘problems following lists or written
instructions, reduced ability to think creatively and abstractly,
poor focus and concentration.’ Your theory is that there is
something special about YOUR brain, causing you to have a different
experience that other humans. Yes– there are enough people with
symptoms like yours to fill a web forum or two—- but among the 200
million people in this country alone, there are large groups of
people complaining of pretty much any symptom you can imagine. That’s
human nature.
The
idea that you, and perhaps another 0.1% of the population (that’s
generous), have something different about your brain that made it
respond in the way you describe, is not plausible to me.
On
the other hand, conditioning is a universal phenomenon– in almost
all animal life. Conditioning is why you find your way home at the
end of the day. I am confident I could ride a bike today, even though
I haven’t been on one in 25 years; that’s the power of
conditioning.
The
first issue in your case is distinguishing whether you truly HAVE
‘trouble following lists or written instructions, reduced ability
to think creatively and abstractly, poor focus and concentration’–
or if instead you only THINK you do. If you want to know the answer
to that question, see a neuropsychologist and go through the battery
of tests that determine those things. But if you do that, be prepared
to accept the likely answer– that you are normal in all of those
things.
If
you DO have those problems, then you have to consider a mechanism—
and a reason why you are uniquely effected. You also have to rule out
other reasons…. for example, something must have been a problem for
you, for you to start benzos in the first place. Either you had
anxiety, or you had an addictive nature that caused you to take them.
How do you know that one of those things– things that were present
BEFORE the benzos– didn’t progress to your current problems?
This is often what I fear is wrong with me, that I've conditioned myself to have these reactions. My mom was on zoloft for several years and went off it with only a few days of brain zaps. Why is this so severe for me? I don't have the self-confidence to be calmed by the thought that I'm an outlier or that maybe way more people do but don't recognize the problem as from their medication. There are millions of people who are taking or have taken SSRIs and benzos who, as Junig mentions, seem to have nowhere near the trouble getting off the meds that I have had.
And
on the other side, I read from those critical of psychiatry that
these drugs cause irreversible changes in brain functioning. Trust
me, when you have exaggerated anxiety to negative thoughts, reading
that only heightens the feelings of helplessness. Maybe there isn't
anything that can be done for me. I can't go on like this
indefinitely, I know this. So I ask you again non-rhetorically:
WHAT
AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?
9 comments:
Hi. I hope your feeling somewhat better after surveying and writing down your situation.
I'm afraid you might not like the general tendency of my answer, but I hope you get something out of it. And also I'm going to let it structure itself as I go. (And also "sorry my English" lol)
Like thousands of thousands of people you've got sucked up in the medical system, and it finally worsened your mental and physical health.
This same energy, time and money you spent in "their" thrall could have been invested in a whole gamut of naturally health enhancing techniques, with deeper more stable results. Naturopathy, osteopathy, acupuncture come to mind easily but also basic good habits of life, sleeping, eating, exercising.etc.
You have probably checked some of these lines of action, but the way you were always going from drugs to drugs, expert to expert, tells me you were mostly expecting answers from those who supposedly knew better, waiting for the pills to kick in, etc. rather than reassessing yourself and! befriending your emotions.
Other lines of inquiry would also include meditation,, yoga, Tai Chi or perhaps taekwando... Also there are many types of psychological treatments. I would recommend the most intensive ones - rather than babbling 50 minutes every two weeks.
Finally spirituality would integrate the whole of your life and give meaning and purpose to your ordeal of depression and anxiety. -Try prayer and meditation?
You should remember that nature has healed itself for billions of years, while our modern apprentice sorcerers have been at it for less than 150 years, and have ignorantly rejected thousands of years of traditional knowledge.
Even the word Holistic will throw 90% of "them" in fits of spite and anger. Anyway...
We are barely going out of that deplorable state of general delusion regarding our wonderful science.
In the short term I would recommend an almost forceful detoxification and/or fast. Look it up, or go for 2 ounces of cider vinegar with one whole lemon, twice a day for a few days, then cool down to once. That should clear the poisonous byproducts of drugs and anxiety.
You should walk as many hours as you can every day, sometimes briskly, sometimes meditatively. If you can afford it I would recommend you immediately retreat into nature for as long as needed. The air, wind and sun will energize you, Sleeping on the ground, walking barefoot, playing in dirt, feeling heat then cold, etc. will do much to rebalance you in the short term.
Write, talk, sing dance, do anything that you find playful. This not diversion, this is stopping the self obsession, and reconnecting to the built in human potential for well being.
"Without awareness, compassion and surrender, depression-as-healing decays into depression-as-disease, and wallows in self-pity"
Depression is the abrupt need to quit every non-meaningful conduct that has been sustained until now, in order to reevaluate the whole of your values, purpose, and action. It is the calling of your most authentic aspiration that breaks into your senseless life. Surely it is to be addressed directly, and not side-tracked, your personal responsibility being handed out to the care of some external savior...
I wish that you see how you probably locked yourself out of yourself.
Contact your feelings "to the best of your presence". And fucking cry as much as you need to. That one permission has helped me a lot, once I realized crying is in itself the liberation process. (not a "symptom"...)
Confidence and Serenity to you.
~ Alain L.
Thank you for your thoughtful, heartfelt comment. I deeply appreciate the concern and support embedded in what you wrote.
I already absolutely agree with what I did wrong - that you describe so well. I am not looking for any more medical interventions to help me.
Rapidly detoxifying from the medications I'm taking has great risk and serious reprecussions for me and my family, who depend on me. I recognize the need to be free of the medications, but I need to determine the most sensible approach. When I went off benzos the first time, I did it very slowly (over the course of 11 months) and it still traumatized me. I can't risk something that severe again. I need to know if the primary source of my current symptoms are tardive withdrawal symptoms from the Paxil, current akathisia from the zoloft and/or development of tolerance to the benzos.
I don't have depression. I have an iatrogenic illness. There is love and meaning in my life, but I am physically afflicted with disruption to my nervous system caused by the medications I took and am still taking. Acupuncture and ACV are both great suggestions as, of course, are meditation and mindfulness. They are practices I am working on.
Thank you, again, for your thoughtful, caring perspective.
About drugs and depersonalization...
In my youth, while LSD would make me extremely real, like coming back to 3D, mushroom would do absolutely the opposite, something like dissociation, or rather schizoidy, in keeping with what I now know of my temperament. Anyway people, including myself, would feel utterly fake and meaningless, and ugly...
I now understand the utter reality of this utter unreality... that is, my basic sanity would show me a deeper truth about the way we live, the way we go through the motions of preset patterns of thought and feelings, not living up to our true capacity, our full humanity.
So I'm suggesting that your depersonalization was exactly the same...
We all build ourselves a prison of words and standard reactions, self-sustaining and self-realizing.
This is such a narrow outlook it's no wonder we cherish our tragedies!
Once I've gone through my dramas and had enough of them, and the more I've grown the more I've realized that my most personal problems were finally also the issues of our human condition. it's humbling and liberating...
Let's have real compassion for ourselves.
Oh! I had not seen your reply...
My best friend has fallen once again in the Ativan trap... But this time around he can't force his way out, having had a heart attack recently, at 51, but with a very favorable prognosis. So it's hell again for him just like for everyone that I've known taking benzodiazepams...
Now, about detoxification, I wasn't referring to the withdrawing of your drugs, but about the general purification of your body from all the toxins generated as byproducts of inadequate ways of living, including high level of stress and anxiety....
Like cleansing the blood liver, intestines, etc. Do try the cider vinegar and lemon "miracle"... Good night.
I was looking for myself then thought of you...
Fasting is the highway to health as the body goes into self-repair mode. But that's no profit to be made for the medical world to investigate it, or go beyond prejudices.
That is how I was cured from severe mononucleosis in one month! Rather than 5 or 9.... After 2 or 3 days fasting is paradise on earth!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-intermittent-fasting-might-help-you-live-longer-healthier-life/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10878625/Fasting-for-three-days-can-regenerate-entire-immune-system-study-finds.html
More on google obviously.
Greg, it's so good to see you writing again given your situation. I am not a prolific or articulate writer but a fellow sufferer of 'cold turkey' Klonopin withdrawal after 10 years on it which were filled with iagrogenic illness that my psychiatrist, nor GP recognized. Instead, I was blamed in many ways for my debilitating symptoms which I still suffer PTSD from that withdrawal almost 3 years later, I then went 'cold turkey' from Effexor, Trazodone, & Lithium telling myself no withdrawal can be as bad as the mental torture from my Klonopin withdrawal but, I was wrong. For 5 months I became so sucicidal & homicidal from the anguish of the withdrawals, again, that no doctor could or would recognize. The ONLY thing that helped me deal with the severe emotional & mental pain caused from the withdrawals was for me to smoke pot which abated my suffering immediately with this music that I discovered. Both those things literally saved my life while trying to understand if I was going to survive. I know the pure state of hell your in. It is not your fault, nor does it have anything to do with past emotional issues as they tell us repeatedly. It has nothing to do with whether you have an addictive personality as they drill in our heads. When I was in Klonopin Tolerence Withdrawals for years I felt like I was always high on acid (LSD) without taking anything, and that intensified as I went through the terror of psychosis (complete seraration from Reality) for 6 horrendous, torturous weeks while home alone from my benzo withdrawal while everyone in my Mental Healthcare facility didn't believe me when they where the ones who told me it was 'just fine' to cold turkey from my Klonopin. I know the torture of 'survival mode' on a daily basis. I had to hang a sign on my refidgerator in big, block, bold lettering that said 'DO NOT THINK ABOUT SUICIDE THIS SECOND, THIS MINUTE, THIS DAY' where I would see it often because I lived alone, and had no one. Somehow, I survived, and I have to believe that you will too. You are a very gifted writer, which brings no relief to your ongoing suffering but when you write to us, believe me, our hearts are with you where we somehow wish that just our loving thoughts will help heal you. If I had just one thing to say. Please don't have anymore ECT's. I've had them too while trying to fix my iatrogenic illness caused from my years taking psychiatric drugs, especially the damage from Klonopin, but they only made matters worse. I feel you need your entire brain working to heal from this madness your embroiled in. Allow family love to help heal you. Allow us readers to help heal you. And it's going to take time.
If I have learned anything since my multiple psychiatric drug withdrawals is that the brain heals in it's time, not ours. Greg, please hang on and continue your fight, because it's going to be the fight of your life, your wife & children will forever thank you...and then, you will thank yourself...
Much love from Michigan
Sandy - I can't thank you enough for this comment. It really helps to know that you are not alone in this cruel process.
I can assure you, I will never do another session of ECT again. No matter what. I will also not allow myself to be hospitalized in-patient. My wife is on the same page and we will find ways of getting through crises differently than what I just went though.
Thank you again for your comments!
Alain - Thank you for your additional comments as well. I am going to start taking ACV regularly as well as magnesium and vitamin d.
I will explore fasting as well. I tried that before but didn't stick with it. I will try to correct that as I believe there is a lot of validity in its health benefits.
While out walking today, you were again heavily in my thoughts. I wasn't going to write this because I certainly didn't want anyone to think I'm gloating, but, today is my 59th birthday, and where most people would think 'so what, we have birthday's every year'. Only, I never in a million years thought I would live this long after enduring years of iatrogenic illness and suicide attempts from taking my psychiatric drugs and the horrors of their withdrawals. But here it is... I am alive, I don't know how or why, I don't question it anymore. I just consider it a gift, and you too, will see your birthdays continue to roll in year after year. That will be your gift to your loving family and to yourself.
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