am I doing everything right? (with response)

[Guest guest]

***** Matt (and all who are reading Matt's post below this) -- This kind of

post can end up in you experiencing more harm than good. First, you haven't

clarified to people how many different psychotropic drugs you've taken (you

mention some only in passing), but these are all relevant amnd play a role in

how you feel and function today.

You are desperate and desperation leads to poor judgement. You were desperate

before and chose to keep trusting conventional medicine because you saw it as a

faster road to get to where you wanted to go. Now you know that was a lie you

werefed. But, nwo you can't make the same mistake and ask a group of 1000

people for their feedback. How will you evaluate their responses for safety and

efficacy? What you have to remember is that those who wouldanswer have only one

experience with this -- their own. And in that one experience you can be sure

is a story totally unlike yours except for one common thing -- you all took

Zyprexa. From that point on, you are all biochemically unique with unique

histories.

The people here will wisely give support and generic ideas. If they go

further, they haven't been here long enough to understand why this would not be

helpful to you.

Taking a few general ideas from here and adopting them may help somewhat but

is of very limited use when you're talking about having taken and stopped a

number of drugs. I can't imagine you've been doing much of this for very long

since I can recall long involved emails from you where you rejected the ways we

work here.

I am uncomfortable with anyone saying thay are doing what we recommend here

because in order to truly do that you have to have your case evaluated

separately which is what happens in consultation.

I would ask all members to be supportive with stories of their experiences

but to be cautious in stepping further into making recommendations.

--

Hey All,

Hope that everyone is recovering steadily. I haven't posted in awhile and as

such am uncertain whether or not anyone is familiar with my situation. Very

briefly: I was misdiagnosed and given a high dose of Zyprexa which I foolishly

withdrew from cold turkey, something which I regret more than anything in my

entire life. During one of my many extended hospitilisations in the year

following this I found this website (July, 2005). Basically I was hoping to hear

the opinion from some of the group (hopefully Kim and but any feedback

at all would be enormously appreciated) on whether or not I am doing everything

possible to ensure as close to a full recovery as possible.

For eighteen months I literally could not think. This experience was torture

and I have only met a few people over the internet who have ever experienced it.

It seemed hard for people around me to believe as I could hold a conversation

and function at a very basic level but I literally could not think a single

thought inside of my head. Thanks to an innovative procedure which I am

reluctant to discuss here on the group my thinking has improved slightly but it

is still far from what it used to be. I am begging anyone who has any ideas or

experience on how to improve thinking or make thoughts more frequent, quick or

powerful to share their knowledge with me. I pray every day that my thinking

will return to 100%. I can function but it is difficult to read and write and

concentrate and impossible right now for me to even consider finishing my

degree.

For the past six months, almost since I was permanently released from the

long-term care hospital which I was in for nearly a year, I have been following

the advice of the group and taking the supplements as advised. I take Carlson's

Fish Oil (2000 mg per day), a multivitamin, a Vitamin B Complex, 500 mg of

Vitamin C and I just ran out of Calcium/Magnesium but am going to buy some more

in seperate pills as per 's advice when I get my disability cheque. I

also used to take Ginko and 5-HTP but didn't feel as if either did anything for

me. Is there anything else I could be taking that would improve my thinking???

Are there any other supplements people have taken that could improve cognitive

functioning, particularly thinking and memory????? I have found some products

over the internet which claim to naturally increase dopamine and serotonin

functioning in the brain and am very skeptical. About this, from my subjective

experience and countless hours of research both

over the internet and at my local University library I have determined that

thinking is somehow regulated by neurotransmitter functioning. It is frightening

and shocking how little Psychiatry, Neurology and indeed medical science know

about the brain and feel strongly that medication being prescribed to millions

of people a day that alters normal brain functioning is a practice society

seriously needs to think more deeply about and reexamine. Zyprexa drastically

decreases the amount of dopamine in your brain and also makes serotonin

functioning irregular, basically my instinct at this point is that if I can get

these two neurotransmitters back to how they used to function then my thinking

will return to normal. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Kim and I have battled about my diet but it has improved gradually, I am a

young single male who can't cook and who is on a limited budget, my diet is

better but certainly not at the parameters established by the group. I've

stopped drinking soft drinks, never eat chocolate or chips and rarely eat fast

food, also I have started drinking about 2-3 litres of water a day. If anyone

has any thoughts about what food can improve thinking it would be greatly

appreciated.

Physically my condition has improved much more than my thinking. I estimate my

thinking to be at about 65% while physically I am at about 75%. I have stopped

shaking ever since I gradually withdrew from Lithium and feel much better these

past months which I equate to regular physical excercise. This has been

difficult but is highly recommended and has helped enormously, I work out for at

least an hour every day.

Believe it or not I am still taking Zyprexa, though I am down to about 1mg a

day which is a very low dose for this drug. It is unbelievably difficult to come

down off of, it's the crack cocaine of psychotropic drugs, someone else on the

group described Zyprexa as having been a nightmare created in hell and I feel

this is an apt description, this drug has now taken two years from my life and I

am still far from fully recovered and I worry every day that I never will.

Risperdal was a horrible experience for me but Zyprexa was much worse, if anyone

has any insight or links about recovery from neuroleptic drug use and

particluarly improving cognitive functioning (even more specifically thinking)

it would mean the world to me as I try to recover from this.

My situation has improved slightly over the past six months and I am praying

that if it improves as much again over the next six months then I can begin to

move on with my life. I feel confident that with regular excercise, coming

completely off the Zyprexa, improved diet, perhaps some natural products which

increase dopamine and more of this treatment called Transcranial Magnetic

Stimulation my thinking and body will both improve another 25% then I will be at

90% and capable of trying to move on with my life. Fortunately I am young and I

feel if this were not the case I would not be able to recover from this enormous

setback. Sometimes I wish I had lost a limb instead of having gone through what

I have gone through and continue to struggle with, this is how serious drug

withdrawal (particularly neuroleptic drug withdrawal) is in my estimation and I

have an enormous amount of empathy for anyone that is suffering witht this but I

now have hope that recovery is possible!

Any help at all with the questions I have posed in this letter would be

enormously appreciated and I thank you for reading and pray for your recovery,

Sincerely,

Matt McCormack

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