From the article: About Stopping Your Medications: Reasons Why or Why Not
A lot of people with bipolar disorder stop taking their meds. Many others want to stop but don't. What are the reasons you stopped - or what keeps you from stopping? Share Your Reasons
they diagnosed me wrong!
- I thought they must have diagnosed me wrong, after all I am educated and a professional and just have a lot of motivation and a ton of energy! They had to be wrong...they just want to diagnose everyone with something.....I quit my meds.....well I'm back on because I woke up after this last manic phase once again. I was wrong...I need help....need meds!
- —Guest Jackie
Staying on meds
- Medication left me with no motivation, no ambition and stripped away my instincts. Obviously, I haven't found the right balance of meds! When I feel numb to life for so long, I really start to miss my manic episodes of super creativity and productivity and think that maybe the depression wasn't really that bad and maybe I could deal with it better now. Hands down...its tough. I struggle with it everyday - just being and not really feeling like I'm living.
- —Guest blissful1
afraid to stop
- did it once and was hospitalized... am on prozac only for now
- —catysuzgirl2000
I am too scared to try to go off my meds
- I have been bipolar since I was very young,but was not diagnosed with it until about 7 or 8 years ago,when I almost went over the edge and almost did some pretty awful things,just because my docs were treating me for everything you can think of except bipolar,at first,so it was like being on a roller coaster. I could not hold down a job for more than a year or so,just because I would miss so much work, because of my horrific mood swings,and would go into complete depression,where I didn't even want to get out of bed,or it would be the complete opposite, and I would be so high on life that nothing or no one got in my way of doing whatever I wanted to satisfy all my urges. So, now I take my meds religiously,and even tho I still have urges I'm trying to learn self discipline since unfortunately my meds can't control that aspect. It is VERY difficult being bipolar & schizophrenic also,let me tell you.It can really mess with your head if you let it,but I am trying to learn to control both.
- —Guest jessejames2448
questioning
- I am a 30 year old gay man. I was diagnosed as bi polar almost a year ago. It sucks right now. The medication has definatly helped me by seeing the people i love feel proud and excited to have me as part of their life without the episodes they could not understand. I however feel numb, distant, and mechanical. I often feel like I am only doing things so that people in my life are not burdened with my disease. I am so afraid of living like this for the rest of my life. I have no desire to have sex or to be in a relationship I avoid it. I don't feel like myself anymore. I know that not being on meds creates an uncertancy, harm, fear, anxiety ect., but i miss feeling excited, passionate, creative, loving, intamite ect. I want my life back. I feel like I am so selfish to even say that but I miss me. My psychatrist doesnt seem to really understand, and is 100% for drugs. I understand what he means,because there is a difference. I am torn.I feel so alone.Thanks for reading.
- —Guest lee
Bipolar Disorder
- Well I have never gone off my meds ever. I would like to be off of them soon because I want to get pregnant. I know that it is healthy to be off your medicine for at least 3 months before becoming pregnant. I would also be off my meds for the entire pregnancy so this would be like an entire year. I wounder how I would feel.
- —Guest liberatti
to keep the stability I have
- The meds and talk therapy seem to help keep me level. I want to keep that stability in my life so I will take my meds and do my talk therapy.
- —Guest CruiseAustin
No Meds for Me
- I chose to drop my meds a year ago and have been loving it ever since. I tried every cocktail imagineable and suffered a lot at work because of it. Finally, I was on a good mix that I maintained for a while. I would have sworn by it as you all do now. In the months to follow things changed and I was only a little better off than I had started. That and because my sex drive was killed; my boyfriend and I decided that I should see what it would be like if I dropped them. So I did and have felt great ever since. I still have some symptoms of bipolar, but they're not debilitating. Especially if I control my trigger by getting enough sleep, eating healthy, exercising, keeping a regular schedule, avoiding news, etc. Being off the meds has dramatically improved my career and productivity. My boss actually commented on my attitude change. I agree that bipolar symptoms exist, but I do not agree that it's a disease that only meds can cure.
- —purpleasparagus
resigned to the inevitable angst
- I've stopped and started again plenty of times. Not too many, but enough to have the full range of experiences. Ending up in the hospital. Having friends tell me I'm losing it. Getting manic. Suicidal. Bloody. Not making sense. Being sure I'm losing my creativity and spark and then coming up with brilliant ideas and being able to carry them out even on the meds. Wondering if my inability to have orgasms is caused by the meds and in agony about it. Still questioning the DX after 13 years of BP 1, 2, NOS, ultradian cycling, mixed states. Hating the side effects when I take them, hating the symptoms when I don't. Being sure I'm not really "sick enough" to warrant them compared to other people but unable to bear living with myself when I stop them even for a few hours. Ultimately I know I'll continue taking them and then quitting them for the rest of my life. I feel crazy on them and crazy off them. I doubt I'll ever truly be convinced either way. I just want some peace.
- —Guest steven 1111
money not available
- at one time I didn't have money for my meds. I ended up in the hospital because I was unaware how bad off I actually was.
- —Guest kfrost30
Med stopping
- I think that it is very common when dealing with bipolar to stop taking your meds at one point or another. One reason for me was because I was manic - felt great - and thought I didn't need them. BIG mistake. Perhaps, another reason is you want to try and cope without them for once. See what life is like without having to take meds every single day. Another BIG mistake. If you are properly diagnosed with BP, you most definitely need to stay on meds for the length of your living days. They are there to help you. Or at least " try " to help. I know we all have had to experience a lot of trial-and-error. No fun. Just outweigh the good to the bad.
- —Guest Kascia
Stopping Meds
- I stay on my meds religiously because I've stopped them many times in the past only to experience extreme withdrawal symptoms, seizures, high anxiety, immediate return of my bipolar symptoms, suicidal ideation, sleeplessness and a host of other extremely unpleasant symptoms. When I'm on my medication, I don't feel totally normal all the time. I still have my mood swings and anxiety and sometimes I doubt they work, but all I have to do is go a week without them and I know they do work. I'm much better off with my meds and they do need to be tweaked every now and then. I don't think anyone ever gets it perfect.
- —fotoldy
Reasons I stop Medications
- There are many reasons for me stopping medications. Often the side effects are terrible and regardless of what the editors notes say we simply do not know what the long term effects of the medications we are asked to take are. Often doctors and family members think a medication is working when it isn't. I may appear docile, productive and quite pleasant to be around but that may be because the medications have left me with no motivation, no ambition, no reasoning or sense of self and stripped any instincts I have as a human being. I often stop taking medications for the simple fact that we are treated as ginuea pigs by pharmacutical companies, doctors and family. The statement of the editor that "[Psychotropic medications do not cause Alzheimer's disease.]" is false and misleading. There is no data to back this up and no generational studies to confirm or deny this claim. Statements like these belittle the plight of every BP sufferrer out there struggling to find the right "Cocktail".
- —Guest Jaffa420
Taking Bi-polar meds
- I have stopped meds plenty of times and everyone kept telling me to take them. I don't know how they knew I wasn't but nothing was wrong to me. I have been bi-polar for many years and never quit medication successfully. I have plenty of other illnesses and 26 meds and still my family and doctors are convinced that I am bi-polar. I'm still working on believing.
- —Guest amysroses
computer scientist
- The last time I stopped my meds I became so suicidal I almost did myself in, and would have if I hadn't started seeing a new pdoc. So what keeps me in line is the fear that the depression will return; it was so horrible, words fail me.
- —Guest macindog
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