Prescription. I will call on Falcor to rain swift death on this thread should discussion turn to current, active use of illicit substances. For the purposes of this thread, illicit = {federally illegal where you live OR prescription-only but not prescribed to you}. Relevant and necessary mention of past use is acceptable but please keep it to a minimum. This is not a therapy thread.
These caveats arenāt about adhering to BB community guidelines, theyāre about staying on topic.
Stay healthy and stay sane, you mutants.
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ETA: The origin of this thread is entirely selfish. Iād initially shared my own Rx woes on the āFuck Meā thread, when Iād forgotten to request a renewal of my mirtazapine script and was paying dearly for it through its withdrawal effects (hellish insomnia, nausea, and loss of appetite). Given the responses to that post, I got the impression that many other BBers have had similar experiences. So I figured why not make a thread for others to share their own current/ongoing Rx woes.
Allopurinol and lisinipril. Super common medications that are currently making me feel like crapālight headed, nauseous, that sorta thing. I had a stronger BP med last year, but every time I stood up Iād fall down . Great party trick, kinda like a human fainting goat.
(But I feel better not having high BP than the alternative)
Wellā¦ They donāt call Effexor āSide-Effexorā for nothing. I had to drop a doctor over his inability to keep my refill authorizations in order for that one. Days of gastrointestinal mayhem every time he and the pharmacy were having togetherness problems was just not tenable.
Risperidone: If you have an illness where this cure isnāt worse than the disease, you have my deepest sympathies. Otherwise, just fuck this stuff. A comparatively lightweight .25mg oral trial had me feeling a flavor of awful I canāt really describe and didnāt even know was an option until I terminated that experiment. Nasty stuff.
More generally, my insurance company appears to be completely insane in terms of what they will or wonāt provide in 1 vs. 3 month supplies. Cheap, ubiquitous, and has been off-patent since forever? Hahaha, no. Your 90 day prescription is now a 30 day supply. No generic available, relatively new, you are using it off-label? Hereās 3 months worth(sticker price north of $1600) and have a nice day!
I am intensely grateful for the time I was on antidepressants, they are an incredibly useful tool. I am even more grateful I donāt need them any more.
Iām gonna be on the 'purinol for the rest of my lifeāarthritis isnāt curableābut I am quickly approaching no other meds. Heh, I wonder when the next Shkrelli will scoop up allopurinol and raise the price from a buck every thirty days to a grand.
as i lost 90 pounds over the course of 5-6 years i watched with dismay as my blood pressure went higher with ever loss of 15-20 pounds. at 405 pounds i was taking 60 mg of inderal la and 20 mg of lisinopril a day to control my blood pressure. at 315 iām taking 0.3 mg clonidine 3/day, 20 mg lisinopril 2/day, adlodipine 5 mg once a day, 100 mg attenolol in the morning and 50mg at night, chlorthalodine 25 mg once a day and my blood pressure is only minimally controlled with that. a larger dose of chlorthalodine is next on the agenda if it creeps up again. and here i was thinking iād be able to get rid of my blood pressure meds if i lost weight. (is there an emoji for head-desk?)
You will, it does work. 155/110 three years ago. 108/70 two weeks ago. (70 over a negative number the last time I was at the doc, my circulatory system was making an audible sucking sound (insert Ross Perot joke))
Yeah I get lisinopril and diltiazem which both do the same thing via different uptake blocking. They are doing wonders for my BP which had gone from a bit high from nervous about the doc but nothing to worry too much about at 30 to that is just short of stage one and not nervous at the time at 48. I am finally getting over the dry cough. I have come to really like the menthol of cough drops.
The doc tried metoprolol cause my heart was racing a bit longer than it should have after hiking up the hill from my parking spot in all my bike gear. While it was awesome for my BP it was also awesome for making me AWAKE and for the 2 or so hours at a time I could manage for sleep I had some really freaky dreams.
I think it was diltiazem that was the Goat Problem. Just too strong. Heck, Iām gonna get a pill cutter and break the lisinipril in half. This honestly amazes meāi am not a small person, morphine barely does anything, but blood pressure meds kick my keister.
Well it has taken close to a year now and I am finally not feeling wiped or spaced out in the late afternoon as well.
Oh yeah the other fun thing of the beta blocker, you need to go poop NOW, wait scratch that 5 MINUTES AGO so hurry up guy.
Iāve gotten off everything else over the last few years, but I canāt shake lamotrigine. I apparently go into withdrawal much quicker than most users, fucking up a Rx means head spins, dizziness, sensitivity to light and sound, anxiety, depression, and sugar cravings(why?); back when it was just me there were times I just hid on the floor under a blanket for a few days until I could rally to get to the phone and then the pharmacy. Good times.
Been on concerta (time release methylphenidate) since I was 12. Eventually switched over to modafinil. That wasnāt easy. Taking away my brainās expected general-use dopamine trigger like that left me in withdrawal and feeling completely wiped out and exhausted for months. And switching from a classical stimulant to a eugeroic didnāt lower my blood pressure either!
Thatās what they told me, too. I ached 24 hours a day in every joint and bone, and occasionally locked up completely. āNo cureā they said. āItās Scienceā they said.
Arthritis free for well over ten years now, probably closer to 20ā¦ canāt say what worked for me will work for you, but for me, rolfing did the trick. As it has for many others.
Of course, Wikipedia says rolfing āis a pseudoscience and its claimed benefits are not substantiated by medical evidence.ā (I used to be disgusted, but now Iām just amused.)
On topic, the Indomethacin and Compazine didnāt work (but at least I got none of the horrible side effects) so now I have a pocket full of Frovatriptan, which costs $232 dollars for nine pills.
Uric acid, man. Those damn little crystals get into joints, and just break down cartilage. Me, my brother, my father, my grandfather, and so on just canāt deal with it.
Could be worse, at least I donāt need an epipen
(I have a five year old bottle of indomethacin. Yeah, it doesnāt work)
Ugh, gout! I have a friend who claims sheās an obligate piscivore because itās the only way sheās found to manage her gout. She eats lots of fish and takes fish oil supplements.
I donāt use the prescription drug model, I think it is authoritarian nonsense. Fortunately I donāt need any drugs now. But when I do, I still avoid prescriptions. YMMV
Lamotrigine is somewhat unique since (as you already know) missing just a few days means dropping to a much lower dosage to reduce risk of The Rash. Not really a withdrawal effect so much as a conditional risk. Those sound like miserable withdrawal symptoms, though.
My own experience is that, in terms of side effects, lamotrigine has been by far the most benign among psych meds. There might be memory side effects but since my attention process does a shit job of registering memories in the first place, I wouldnāt know. All I know is that I have fewer lows, which might be as good as it gets for me but hey, Iāll take it.
iāve never had that effect from beta blockers. the hardest one for me to acclimate to was the clonidine. it took about three months for my salivary glands to compensate for the chemical. until then my mouth was a desert.
Oh I agree on that point; itās the only one that Iām willing to put up with the side effects as they are so negligible. And I turn into a monster without it. Never made it through the tapering off process without the spouse telling me enough was enough, turn around.
It just seems Iām an outlier on withdrawal effects.
I did force of will for two decades. It nearly killed me. On the plus side I trained myself so well I can have long periods of incredible focus when I really need to. I just have to pay it back with interest, to a very cruel loanshark.
ETA
Is intellectual dominance of the whole self still authoritarianism? I think so.
. Great party trick, kinda like a human fainting goat.
(insert Ross Perot joke))
