A question asked: (Withdrawing from psychiatric drugs) caused chronic fatigue, muscle pain, burning skin and brain fog. I NEVER had any of these symptoms prior to meds or during meds. I guess the thing I worry about is if your body can truly heal from these symptoms. Can they go away on their own? Can they go away with time?
my answer:
We need to learn to listen to and cooperate with our nervous systems…and heal…in the way that they dictate. This will be different for everyone and therein lies the challenge.
These below articles I link to might help…but to answer your questions, yes, we heal, it takes time and it’s rarely something that happens quickly once we are gravely impacted. I am still healing…I am always getting healthier in ways that actually astonish me…in some ways I’m healthier than I’ve ever been in my life…in others I still have limitations people would consider being “sick” … calling this situation being “sick” doesn’t really make sense to me anymore because of the ways I’m healthier than ever…I have a sort of mental clarity that is priceless. …even while continuing to have physical issues (mostly in the fall and winter — not as much in spring and summer) Still even these issues continue to diminish, clearly, if also, still, slowly.
- Posts on the autonomic nervous system and how it’s involved in psychiatric drug withdrawal syndrome and other chronic illnesses – coming to understand this stuff is very helpful
Dietary healing has also been critically important for me…again, everyone is individual in their needs so I don’t get too specific really…these are some articles about my trip with it: Healing with Whole Foods — there are additional links with more info in some of those posts…also look at the top of the site at the drop down menus in the chronic illness section…
- Detoxification (which is really about balancing the internal ecosystem): healthy living for body/mind/spirit
- Food and diet for profound healing
- Heal with whole foods: transform body/mind/spirit. Heal drug damage too
we need to learn how to live well…frankly none of us know how to live like the part of nature that we are and it’s why we end up here in the first place…getting healthy means learning how to be a successful human ANIMAL…society doesn’t support that. We need to find it. Anyway…that’s what works for me…again, we are all different and what is resonant and works for you will be somewhat to very different. Trust the pull of your heart…it will take you where you need to be to heal. We do need to learn to cooperate with our individual healing process however…that’s true for everyone.
- Information and inspiration for the chronically ill
- Chronic illness is trauma embodied
- Fall into winter: a time of contraction
- Autoimmune issues, transformation and holistic wellbeing
More on learning to cope and heal:
- Surrender more. Seek less.
- healing is about letting the wisdom of the body re-emerge (and other reflections)
- Stop. Trying. To. Fix. Yourself.
- Meditation. This simple. This difficult.
See also this old post from early on when I was really in the thick of it: Tool box for coping with psychiatric drug withdrawal syndromes (and some chronic pain and/or illness too)
It really does get better: It Gets Better: the series – this collection highlights just how bad it was and how much healing can happen.
It’s become clear to me that whenever it’s possible that it’s helpful for folks who’ve not begun withdrawal and have the time to consider a carefully thought out plan to attempt to bring greater well-being to your body before starting the withdrawal. That means learning how to profoundly nourish your body/mind and spirit prior to beginning a withdrawal. For suggestions on how to go about doing that check the drop-down menus on this blog for ideas. Anything that helps you learn how to live well can be part of your plan. That plan will look different for everyone as we learn to follow our hearts and find our own unique paths in the world. Things to begin considering are diet, exercise and movement, meditation/contemplation etc. Paying attention to all these things as you do them helps too. The body will start letting us know what it needs as we learn to pay attention.
*it is potentially dangerous to come off medications without careful planning. Please be sure to be well educated before undertaking any sort of discontinuation of medications. If your MD agrees to help you do so, do not assume they know how to do it well even if they claim to have experience. They are generally not trained in discontinuation and may not know how to recognize withdrawal issues. A lot of withdrawal issues are misdiagnosed to be psychiatric problems. This is why it’s good to educate oneself and find a doctor who is willing to learn with you as your partner in care. Really all doctors should always be willing to do this as we are all individuals and need to be treated as such. See: Psychiatric drug withdrawal and protracted withdrawal syndrome round-up
For a multitude of ideas about how to create a life filled with safe alternatives to psychiatric drugs visit the drop-down menus at the top of this page.
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