Comments on: The Pillbox (or, On Wanting But Finding it Hard to Go Off Medication)

By: Helen

Helen — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 00:56:11 +0000

Just finished reading Monkey Mind last night and anticipated writing you a long email (I may anyway, but about other thoughts from the book) about wishing you had spoken more openly about whatever pharmacological tools you have chosen to utilize. My husband is a Ph.D. chemist at one of the largest pharma companies in the U.S. I get SO tired of hearing about conspiracy theories. Ninety-five percent of those scientists truly go to work each morning, hoping to discover something that will make someone’s life a little bit easier. I can say that with all sincerity.

By: m.o.

m.o. — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 22:54:59 +0000

My dad had been on an antidepressant and ativan for many years for anxiety.
When he went into assisted living, for liability reasons ~ older adults are supposedly not supposed to have ativan because they could fall. Well, I never saw a crueler thing happen to a human being with respect to medication in my entire life. Once he was taken off Ativan,
and then put on heavy sedative drugs which he didn’t need, once they wouldn’t give him ativan,
even knowing that he had been on it most of his adult live, he was suffering and never the same.
He died a year later.
Anxiety Disorders are real.
Medication and therapy really do make a quality difference in a person’s life.
Someone ought to lobby to fight the hosptials and the assisted living places,
they ought let the world know what is going on and not, with ativan.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:23:16 +0000

Ugh.

By: peggy andrews

peggy andrews — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:23:50 +0000

This is absolutely terrific, as was the NYTimes piece. The part that is really crippling about being chained to an Rx is when lose your health insurance once the pills are working. Anxiety and depression super escalate when you are asking a pharmacist to sell you one of your SSRI’s, which are $6 each day, so that you can break it in half and not experience too much of the brain shivers of withdrawal while you wait for some kind of medical insurance miracle. The only reason I consider weaning off medication is so that if I ever lack insurance again I won’t have daily breakdowns at Walgreens.

By: Flávia Santos

Flávia Santos — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:41:03 +0000

Why don’t you practice Kundalini Yoga? I’m also a very anxious person and, by practicing it, I’ve been able to control it.

By: Flávia Santos

Flávia Santos — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:39:28 +0000

Yeah, you’re right.

By: Serena

Serena — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:53:23 +0000

Agreed: thank God for meds. It makes me very angry that people assume that one is somehow ‘better’ for leaving meds behind, when going on and off drugs can decrease their efficacy. The whole point of SSRIs and SNRIs is that they affect the brain in meaningful and subtle (and still not well-understood) ways; by contrast, benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Clonapin can be immediately felt, but leave one prey to the underlying symptoms. Benzodiazepines react to existing symptoms; SSRIs and SNRIs, when they are working effectively, remove the symptoms altogether. Thus the fact that we can’t tell that they are working. Who cares if some portion of the effect is placebo? Some portion of it is not. I am so, so grateful that they work, and so, so angry at those who downplay the life-destroying consequences of these illnesses and stigmatize those who get real help. I grew up with a mother who had and still has a major untreated anxiety disorder and depression: my childhood could have been so much richer and happier–and my mother’s life could have been so much richer and happier–if she was not so terrified of the stigma of mental illness that she never sought or received treatment. Right now I’m so angry that if I had a hippie standing in front of me telling me about herbs and meditation, I would punch him in the face with the best right hook I have.

By: Marybeth

Marybeth — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:54:33 +0000

I have suffered, and you know what I mean when I type “suffered,” from anxiety disorder for over 30 years. Ten years ago my psychiatrist who I see just for the twice-yearly med checks, put me on zoloft and ativan, as needed. I do not care if I have to be on these meds for the rest of my life.

My cocktail of choice, as I call the zoloft/ativan prescription, has helped me to enjoy my life the way I should enjoy it. It has not changed my personality. It has not altered my perception of daily life. I am not in a dreamland. I have ups and down days. My cocktail, by inhibiting my anxiety (which I know is clearly hereditary for me), from going to the red zone has helped me be ‘me.’ The real me. The fun me. The empathetic me. The serious me. The real me without the walking on eggshells fear that at anytime I could become paralyzed by my anxiety.

Thank gawd for meds.

By: Sleepless No More

Sleepless No More — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:01:27 +0000

I was put in a situation where I would be living abroad for several years and would have to get off meds. It was really the best thing that ever happened to me, because it forced me to find other ways to deal with anxiety. I broke down and ordered Lucinda Bassett’s As-Seen-On-Tv tapes, which opened my mind to the fact that I could detach from the thoughts in my mind.

That gave me some mental preparation for reading Eckhart Tolle’s amazing book “A New Earth.” That got rid of my long-term anxiety and need to be medicated for good. I still have spikes, but once I realize that I’m on the verge of an attack, I know on a deeper level that my mind is either in the past or the future, and if I can just ignore it and be in the present, my anxiety will melt away.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:18:17 +0000

I recently reduced my dose of Prozac from 40mg to 20 mg, and there is definitely a difference in my anxiety levels! I have learned enough coping mechanisms to deal with it, but if other medical factors did not exist, I would stay on the higher dose. I hate that doctors are so ambivalent about decreasing dosage. Having the responsibility to decide makes me MORE anxious!