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Saturday, May 19, 2012 717-898-2220

Alternative Treatments for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

My Personal Story With Psychiatry and Benzodiazepines

I have had mental problems like depression and the symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and ADD all my life. This has been extremely hard and made my 20 yrs of living not very happy ones.

When I was 15 I started seeing a psychiatrist and I was just a sophomore in high school. I trusted that this Dr was going to help me and that his best interest was in getting me well. I believe that he was a genuinely caring man but the fact was that all he was doing was prescribing pills and seeing if there was a reaction of some kind.

Basically I was a guinea pig. Now from all the knowledge I have learned about pscyotropic drugs, mental illness, and the like I have found that he really didn't know much about how to get people well from mental illness other than he knew the symptoms of "labels" like bi-polar disorder, OCD, depression, ADD, ADHD, etc. Also, he knew about medications but he abused his prescribing them. I was first given a drug called Paxil which can cause very serious side effects. I actually have talked to one guy who has been off now for 2 1/2 years and is only 40% back to normal. I was then prescribed about 7 different anti-depressants over the next few years. None of them did anything but turn me into a zombie. After this, he started prescribing me meds for things like bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia which I don't have. I had horrible side effects from these medications. One med called Tegretol broke me out in a horrible rash called Lyell's syndrome that last a couple weeks. My whole body was covered with a red bumpy rash that burned for 2 whole weeks. Tegretol did nothing whatsoever to help my depression and OCD symptoms. Throughout the whole duration of me meeting with my psychiatrist he never taught me anything but just handed me pills to take and said this "should" help.

Unfortunately, I was very ignorant on everything that was going on. I trusted him and thought he was helping me but I now know he was only making me worse. I wish I knew that then. I was given ten medications from the time I was a sophomore in high school till I was 20 years old. None of them did anything to help except Prozac helped my depression a little. All of them did nothing but cause side effects. The last medication given was possibly the most addictive drug of any kind in the whole world. He gave me Klonopin which is in the class of drugs called Benzodiazepines. Klonopin was supposed to help with anxiety which I have had since I was a little boy. I was told to take 2 mg each day. I did this for six months and it didn't help with my anxiety at all.

After a couple months I developed something I now know is called tolerance withdrawal because when I did not have my second dose in the evening I would feel like I needed to throw up. But when I actually did throw up I didn't throw up really. It was more like I had this burning acid in my stomach that was needed to get out. It was weird and painful. I knew that there was something wrong and I needed to get off the pills. They weren't helping and I felt as if I needed to throw up when I didn't have them. So I tapered over a months time this in January 2005 by 25% a week off 2mg. After I had did this all hell broke loose. I started to feel absolutely horrible and I had horrible anxiety. The worst I have ever had actually. After looking on the Internet I found I was going through something called Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Syndrome that can take years to recover from. My Dr. never once warned me of something like this and said that it would go away very soon. He said that my taper was a proper taper and that I will be fine. He then tried to prescribe another pill and I was so disappointed. This was the man I trusted my well-being with and there I was absolutely miserable not knowing what to do.

I decided to see another psychiatrist and the same thing happened. He wanted to prescribe pills and said that the withdrawal syndrome symptoms would leave very shortly. He was also very insensitive about my state I was in. So I decided to see a different psychiatrist and the same thing there happened. At least this one actually tried to get to know me and see what "label" I had by me describing my symptoms to him.

I said heck with psychiatry. I am now over 7 months off klonopin and am only 70% back to normal. Here is a list of common side effects that could possibly last years: PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS Excitability (jumpiness, restlessness) Insomnia, nightmares, other sleep disturbances Increased anxiety, panic attacks Agoraphobia, social phobia Perceptual distortions Depersonalisation, derealisation Hallucinations, misperceptions Depression Obsessions Paranoid thoughts Rage, aggression, irritability Poor memory and concentration Intrusive memories Craving (rare) PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS Headache Pain/stiffness - (limbs, back, neck, teeth, jaw) Tingling, numbness, altered sensation - (limbs, face, trunk) Weakness ("jelly-legs") Fatigue, influenza-like symptoms Muscle twitches, jerks, tics, "electric shocks" Tremor Dizziness, light-headedness, poor balance Blurred/double vision, sore or dry eyes Tinnitus Hypersensitivity - (light, sound, touch, taste, smell) Gastrointestinal symptoms - (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, pain, distention, difficulty swallowing) Appetite/weight change Dry mouth, metallic taste, unusual smell Flushing/sweating/palpitations Overbreathing Urinary difficulties/menstrual difficulties Skin rashes, itching Fits (rare).

I know I will recover but it will take a while unfortunately. I now know the truth about psychiatry. A lot of the Drs. mean well while some actually don't but I have not heard many positive stories at all with psychiatry. I have never heard anyone say that the pscyotropic meds prescribed to them ever cured them of their mental illness. Some meds do help like Prozac helped me at one time. So I am not saying that I am totally throwing it out but I am saying that people need to learn about their illness first. If a med needs to be prescribed for a short while till that person can get on their feet then that would be positive. But these meds are VERY dangerous actually and the ads you see on TV wont show you that. For example, when I have looked at the side effects of benzodiazepines on the net it shows around 10 or so effects. This is with all the sites and they never warned something of a benzo withdrawal syndrome. My Dr definitely didn't because I would have never taken the pills.

I am in two withdrawal groups for benzodiazepines on the web and each have around 500 members. This proves that it is pretty common that people are going through this from these meds. Everyday there are new members. Even though I am going through this I have more hope than ever because I have learned about my illness and met people like Dr. Mary Reed who has overcame my illness through nutrition. I have met people who have overcome full blown Bi-polar disorder with nutrition. It is a matter of giving your body what it needs and meds are not the answer. Look up benzo withdrawal syndrome on the net and join a group to see what pain people are going through from these meds.

These stories are very common. There is a lot of mental illness going around these days because of our lifestyles and very poor eating habits. I don't want to totally turn people away from psychiatry because I know it can help in some cases but scenarios like mine are very common. I just wanted to warn people of the effects of pscyotropic meds and especially benzodiazepines because if you are visiting the OCD-free site then there is a good possibility you are on a drug or thinking about seeing a psych doc to get one.

Join safeharbor2 eGroup on yahoo or visit Alternative Mental Health and learn first.

I hope this can help someone in some way.