so I've been off my mental health meds for about a month now and in this video
I'm gonna talk a little bit about what my experience has been with that and
give you some suggestions as well that's a little bit of hope so make sure that
you stay tuned what is up everybody this is Chris from the rewired soul where we
talk about the problem but focus on the solution so yeah all right not only make
mental health videos but I struggle with mental illness I've been diagnosed with
depression and a generalized anxiety disorder I was a full-blown drug addict
an alcoholic and I've shown some other symptoms from some other illnesses so I
have been on medications for a while now now before I get started before I get
started before you dive into this video big fat disclaimer right here big
disclaimer listen carefully okay I am NOT a doctor I am NOT a doctor I am
the furthest thing from a doctor okay and what I'm going to talk about I
need you to understand very carefully coming off of my mental health
medications for depression and anxiety I did it with a doctor's supervision never
ever ever ever ever change or adjust your meds on your own always do it with
a doctor are we good on that we're good we're good
also please please please and share this video one of the reasons I'm making this
video is because a lot of people who just started on these medications think
that they're gonna be on them forever and I'm here to tell you that that is
not always the case so please share this with other people who might be bummed
out that there are medications because they may not have to be on them forever
okay thanks okay so yeah when I first got clean over five years ago I was
having a lot of racing thoughts and panicky and heart racing all the
symptoms of panic attacks and anxiety no clue what was happening I went I got
diagnosed and all that good stuff they found out I had a generalized anxiety
disorder as well as some minor depression okay
so they gave me a medication called escitalopram which is a generic form of
lexapro and this is used as an antidepressant as well as an
anti-anxiety medication but anyways I've been on it for the most part for about
five and a half years so there has been times in which I have weaned myself off
of it gone back on again with the doctor's supervision but I've been back
on it for maybe a year and a half now before I got off of it I will make some
other videos about why I jumped back on the medication at another time for about
a year now and I follow up with my doctor regularly and she knows I am a
drug addict in recovery she knows about my mental illness like I have somebody
who like hates doctors I have never liked doctors but my doctor is a bomb
okay and she's very well versed in mental health and all that kind of stuff
too so my my life was going pretty well so a few months ago maybe three or four
months ago I talked to her about it and I was like what do you think about me
weaning back down on the medication and she says you know she asked me some
questions about my life my feelings and stuff like that and I'm and she's like
yeah I don't think there's an issue with you going down from 20 milligrams to 10
milligrams so I'm like okay cool so I did that now there's a few reasons why I
personally do this um one of them is kind of like what I said when I told you
to share this video I don't like being attached to a medication but I know how
important it is I just don't want to take anything that I don't have to a lot
of this for me personally comes from being a prescription drug addict okay
like it's just this weird part of my brain while I'm just like I don't like
having to be on something but if I don't maintain my mental health I'm gonna
relapse oh you know what I mean so it's it's always this kind of struggle
alright so if I don't have to take it I won't take it the other thing is too a
lot of antidepressants have side effects you know what I mean like I won't get
into the ones I have like one of them is just
kind of like a numbness you know what I mean like sometimes I lack emotions so
like that's one of the side effects and I just preferred to get off of it if I
could you know what I mean so anyways I went down to ten milligrams
I've been on until 10 milligrams for you know I was doing that for two or three
months what do you think about me getting off of it she talked to me a
little bit more about how my wife's were going to have these symptoms of anxiety
and I have it you know and that was after going for 20 milligrams down to 10
milligrams so she's like yeah you should be fine coming off of it again I'm like
okay cool so I just I stopped taking it I will say this I'm going to link to the
lost connections video I did up in the info card this was a depression
experiment I did based on the lost connections book by Johann Hari and like
that book really opened my eyes to antidepressants and I just want to be
honest with you like when I was listening to it and learning about the
studies learning about the real effects of these drugs and how much they
actually do help and don't help and things like that that was one of the
things that made me be like okay look I just want to come off this and see how I
actually feel right so it's been about a month now I wanted to wait until it was
about four weeks here's what I suggest for anybody who tries to do this okay
one of the most difficult things about mental illness like if you break your
arm you can see broken harm you can tell my arm is broken
okay when it comes to mental illness the biggest problem with mental illness is
that it's inside here it is inside the thing that thinks and makes us act and
respond so what that means is if we start acting wacky if we start acting a
little weird if we start acting overly irritable angry withdrawn all these
things sometimes we won't notice it so my suggestion to you is to do what I did
and what I always do when either getting on or off of medication I tell people
what I'm doing and I tell them that I need them to let me know if I start
acting differently so in this case I told my girlfriend and my best friend
I said hey went to the doctor I'm coming medications if I start acting crazy
please let me know because I might not realize it so that is my biggest
suggestion for anybody who wants to come off something or if you're going to
start taking something new okay so like please get other people to kind of
monitor you because you might not realize it all right all the time with
my clients at my rehab they come off their medication and they just they'll
fly off the handles and they'll just be so irritable so upset and and they don't
understand it which makes them even more frustrated and and they don't get that
it was because of the medications so so we often have to point it out to them
I actually had one of my clients come apologize to me because he was off he
went off his meds and didn't tell anybody and it kind of freaked out on me
one day and he came back and apologized said you know I went off my meds I'm
really sorry about that bad anyways the results are you know over the last four
weeks that I haven't been taking my medication I feel great I feel amazing
anxiety hasn't hit me depression hasn't been there you know I have my ups and
downs but it's not depression symptoms it's like oh man I had a rough day or
something sad happened or you know what I mean like just normal human emotions
you know what I'm saying hey Mike for me like I said my generalized anxiety
disorder is like severe whereas my depression is low and my anxiety has has
not been there which is insane it's really crazy because I should be anxious
constantly with what's going on in my life right now like I don't know if you
guys understand this but like those of you who are my loyal subscribers you see
how many videos I post if you follow me on Instagram by the way follow me on
instagram at the rewired soul if you don't thank you but hey like I do so
much for the rewired soul on top of that I also work in a drug and alcohol rehab
my responsibilities at my rehab have I've gotten more because my old boss she
transitioned to a new department so I've taken on a lot of her responsibilities I
have a lot of new projects start in the last week or two that is the type of
stuff my anxious brain feeds off of but I've been able to keep a calm head and
strategize and organize and not lose my mind and some of you are saying like hey
Chris how do you do that you may or may not like my answer Mac dictation
meditation is why I talk to you guys about it all the time like meditation is
scientifically proven time and time and time and time and time again to decrease
symptoms of anxiety depression emotional dysregulation and all sorts of stuff and
because I've been proactive about meditation my brain has changed I'm
experiencing the effects that they've proved through a ton of neurological
studies so like that's my next suggestion if you are thinking about
coming off of your meds make sure you are being proactive to get your mental
health right start creating your own neurotransmitters though your own
dopamine your own endorphins your own serotonin and all those things before
you come off of them that way it's this kind of smooth transition you don't just
want to yank these SSRIs out of your head and then you don't have anything
that's creating them naturally if that makes sense now some of those
medications are designed to increase the ability to reproduce those
neurotransmitters but you've got to be really proactive about this stuff so so
yeah again please share this video I hope this video helps some of you but I
really want you to share it because I know that a lot of people get really
bummed out thinking that they're gonna have to be on some kind of psyched man
forever and that's not the case but the caveat to is you've got to put in work
and the work I put in comes in the form of about five to ten minutes of
meditation a day that's it that's it five to ten minutes of meditation per
day there you go so be proactive about the stuff talk to your doctor again I'm
not a doctor talk to your doctor okay if any of you have come off your meds or
have any experience with medications leaving down the the comments below and
please remember everybody reading the comments that most of the people posting
it are not doctors everybody has different experiences with medications
and all that stuff if you would like me to do more videos on medications please
let me know in the comments down below too
alright but anyways if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if you
are new here I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental health
click that little round subscribe button and if you got some time in clicker top
on one of those videos right there and the thumbnail alright so thanks so much
for watching be sure you consult a doctor before you do anything stupid and
I'll see you next time