There's that guy who tells me to stop drugs but,,,

Seeking medical advice on a gaming forum. Quality.

@TotalInsanity4 disease does not imply transmissability.

It simply refers to an illness which is not due to injury. And it is literally just the words dis and ease, implying one is not at ease.

For instance - ever heard of Huntington disease? It is not a communicable disease.

Sorry if this comes off as rude - it is not meant to be.

Ah, good point, I suppose I hadn't realized that. The connotation still bugged me, though, so I looked up the technical difference between a disease and a disorder and "disease" typically refers to an illness that negatively impacts your physical health (in the case of Huntington's, it's degenerative), whereas a disorder impairs mental function but has no other "negative" physical properties (i.e. cell mutation or degradation). In that sense, again, autism is a disorder rather than a disease

Defo get a second opinion.
If it's a medicine that you can actually live without according to your doctor, then slowly easing out of it is a good idea. It is not ideal to live relying on pills. I'm planning on easing out of my meds too but it's a lot of work.

I had a buddy prescribed medication for being on the autistic spectrum and OCD from a young age, and we've been friends since we were young before he was on the medication. And I immediately noticed the difference it made in who he was (not frankly a good difference in my opinion), and as the years have gone by, I watched who he was slowly slip away. Now he's addicted to his prescription medication, can't hold down a job (he's been unemployed for well over 3 years at least at this point), and he's just not nearly as fun to hang out with as he was when we were younger. Now granted, he's still a good friend of mine, and his situation is not at all indicative of what everyone else with similar needs would go through. But, having watched what happened to him, I personally would think twice before having any children I may one day have put on such medication.

If I might ask, what were the differences you noticed? I'm wondering if it's maybe not so much an issue of medication as his condition worsening due to real-life stressors (which would make these changes in behavior temporary regardless of whether or not he's taking the medication, so long as he makes lifestyle changes)

@TotalInsanity4 He became quick to anger, he gets caught up with thoughts in his head all the time, and I have to say things to him like 4 times, before he snaps out of it, and says, "what?" And it happens all the time. He became incredibly antisocial and pushed away pretty much all of his friends, aside from me and one other buddy we both have. It seemed to me that all the medication he was taking resulted in what he became there, which as a byproduct led to him getting depressed and being prescribed even more medication by his therapist. And that medication only amplified those issues, though he says he doesn't feel depressed, so he's not about to stop taking any medication. Shame he doesn't recognize how it's made him not an appealing person to be around, in fact, I'm pretty sure the medication may be partly to blame for that, the reason he was depressed was because no one wanted to be around him due to how his other medication affected him, and instead of working on that, he just got more medication to numb away those feelings. I'm not saying that medication can't be helpful for such symptoms, but medication alone is certainly not the answer, you also need to work on bettering yourself, and he's so content on all his medication that he has no intention of ever doing that. It really bums me out to put this all into writing, but it is sadly the reality of what medication has done to him all throughout his life.

That's unfortunate, it sounds like either he's not on the correct medication for his condition or the dosage is too high

@TotalInsanity4 Well I know they've put him on many different types of medications and dosages over the years in an attempt to find the best drugs and dosage for him and the results, from an onlookers standpoint, always came out more or less the same. Plus changing the meds and/or dosage is really tough on him as well, because like I said, he's definitely addicted to his medication as well. Frankly I think he'd have been better off in life if he simply never got any prescription at all. I saw who he was before ever getting prescribed anything, and in those many years since then, no matter the medication, no matter the dosage, he just kept slipping away.

Does it work for you? If it isn't broke don't try and fix it. That said, I was on meds for most of my early life. I prefer living without them, but that's an entirely different story. But suddenly stopping meds intended for mental health can lead to some serious behavioral issues, never-mind the physical health aspect. You can end up doing things completely uncharacteristic of yourself. Violence is common in cases where this happens.

@sarkwalvein "About having heard someone saying "stop meds", I've heard it from many people, but never from a professional really, why? It has many risks, why would a professional risk killing their patients?"

I've heard professionals say stop taking meds when its proper for the situation. Especially ones that are causing more negatives than positives. Anti Depressants are ones that come to mind. Same with ADHD medication.

And you are right about treating societal issues as mental health issues when we shouldn't. Because the problem is with society and not the persons brain chemistry. For example America has a poor social safety net so during a recession rates of suicide and depression goes up. But in countries with stronger safety nets they don't rise.

People misuse psychiatric labeling for things that are caused by external factors and not by the person themselves. Proper labeling can help people and save lives. Bad labeling can cause problems for them or even cause premature death. Like the person in this video i'll link. Which was caused by psychiatrists being bad at their job.

@TotalInsanity4 "I disagree, I'd say that that just reflects increasingly stressful work environments that are permanently affecting workers. Yes, there is a slight overprescription problem, but it's far outweighed by the people who are actually helped by antidepressants"

I don't know if people who are helped outweighs over prescription that does a lot of damage. And something like Anti depressants is essential for some people, but can be harmful to others. Under diagnosis is much better because if needed you can always later on move up to a proper psychiatric diagnosis labeling. But if you over diagnose its a lot harder to get rid of the labeling. Usually only people that have clear signs of clinical depression and that need anti depressants should be ones taking them.

And over prescription problem isn't slight. People using Anti depressants for at least 5 yrs rates have tripled since 2000. And is especially a problem since anti depressants were never originally intended for long term use. They were only considered for short term treatment of 6-9 months. There are a number of people that benefit long term use but doctors can't agree on what that number is since we lack long term data.

You should listen to random strangers more instead of professionals. Stop taking drugs and go to Church and become a vegan. Then get withdrawals from not having your meds and go on a mass homicidal rampage. Where was I going with this again?

I think you jyst want to stop taking your meds

@MiguelinCrafter oh... I'd like to

@SG854 Where are you getting the idea that people who don't display signs of clinical depression are being diagnosed?

I have found that people who say medicine is this or that, have had people say its a cage or also a "crutch", I found that these people just don't understand a real mental disorder. The most important thing is how do you feel? Do you feel like your life is better while you are on the medicine, considering all consequences on both sides? If you do decide to try living without the medicine, just make sure you don't stop taking them right away, because of course that will make you feel like shit. Consult with a doctor about the best way to ween yourself off slowly. If you don't like the results, don't feel bad about going back on them either, forget what other people think and just do whats very best for you.

@TotalInsanity4 Its happening. Loose definitions of diagnosis. Doctors are too quick to prescribe Anti Depressants after a short visit as a quick fix. And Doctors prescribing who have no experience in Psychiatry. Pharmaceutical pushing pills to more to make more money.

And considering Anti Depressants can have severe withdrawal symptoms if used for too long that some people end up going back on them and have a hard time quitting.

And taking Anti Depressants can cause symptoms like emotional numbing, sexual dysfunction, and weight gain which are common causes. Some people are mad that they weren't informed of the negative effects and possibility of severe withdrawal, which happens with poor communication, and said they wouldn't have taken the drugs if they were aware of the negatives to begin with.

Heres a recently published article on Anti Depressants from the New York Times. Probably one of the best Psychiatry type articles written especially on Anti Depressants. Which should be read by Medical Doctors and Patients taking the drugs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/health/antidepressants-withdrawal-prozac-cymbalta.html

@SG854 I would never take a medication without a full rundown of the potential side effects, which comes with the bottle when you pick up your prescription even if your doctor doesn't give it to you in the office. And while there can be some pretty extreme side effects, they're typically localized to recurring offenders, which typically are indeed the result of doctors incompetent on the subject mis-prescribing. However, there are definitely medications that work better than others without nearly as many side effects, especially as you dial in per individual. Venlafaxine, for instance, has a horrible withdrawal side affect of fatigue, veritgo, and a pounding headache, whereas Buproprion is a more generalized medicine that targets similar hormones and has a much less significant withdrawal effect. Just by way of example

You can read the side effects all you want. A lot of medication -- especially relating to neurological disorders -- don't have a long history we can read into the side effects of.

We know that anti-depressants destroy the synapses in the brain, which links to alzheimers, etc.. but there is very little known about the brain so tampering with it is probably a bad idea unless strictly necessary.

Doctors have an agenda to keep patients medicated and in need of ongoing medical assistance.