Posted by stargazer2 on August 19, 2009, at 20:59:23
In reply to Will I damage my brain if I go cold turkey?, posted by Maxime on August 19, 2009, at 17:54:00
maxime,
What kind of brain damage are you referring to (physiological or functional)and how would that association be made? with a brain scan? you would have to have had scans throughout any med trials and how could you prove the effects of an event like med withdrawl with "brain damage", especially when so many of us have been on so many meds, combinations of meds and i'm sure no one really can tell what damage might have been caused by the meds or other factors, like environmental, alcohol in combination with meds, be it psych meds or other meds you take.
so many variables...I'm sure abrupt med withdrawl can cause some neurological stress or disequalibrium, whatever the term is, except that probably it is more of a "shock" to the neurons than real, long term damage, although then again to prove any of this would be impossible.
i'm sure, it depends on what med you are on, i.e. what chemical interaction is being altered by the medication, be it seritonin, norepinephrine, up regulation, down regulation, what dosage you are on, combined with the length of time you have been on the med(s).
i'm sure brain damage for many of us is just a given, i would think, depending on the length of time one has been undergoing treatment, what meds have been used, at what dosages, and in what combination. the possibilities are endless, but i try not to think about that since there hasn't really been alot of choices over the years (or studies) which would make an association between meds and brain damage.
I don't think (subjectively) I have sustained any major brain damage, but then again, if anyone wanted to look at the effects of any of the side effects or long term damage from the meds, there would have been alot of testing and screening for these things right along. it has all really been one experiment, hasn't it? It has for me.
Making a correlation between med withdrawl and brain damage would be an unscientific guess, at most, unless you were in a study looking for things like that, with before and after brain scans and then followup scans, off all meds, at points after that. forget about it.
Who knows, it is all a gamble in this process, if you want to continue to fight and live. the risk of damage is inherent in the process and the only way to minimize the damage, at least for me, is to minimize med combinations, minimize doses and minimize length of time taking any meds, not been an option for me. so the risk exists and i do accept it.
oh well, no one said life would be easy, it is harder for many of us, but not as hard for us, as for others, i am sure of that.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do with coming off your meds. i once came off marplan cold turkey and tolerated it relatively well, although i knew my depression would inevitably return, after a long period of success on marplan. i knew I was going to descend into the abyss again. it was the beginning of a very long and dark period in my life which essentially resulted in losing 10 good years of my life. frightening to think back on that.
good luck with the drug withdrawl process, taper if at all possible, but i understand if you have to do it quick too, sometimes we have to do things that are not optimal to get beyond a bad streak.
poster:stargazer2
thread:913023
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090818/msgs/913044.html