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| photo by Salvatore Vuono |
I happen to agree with them, mostly. I don't consider myself well enough to even begin to think of getting off my meds these days. I wish I was better off. I want to say to people that I'm in a full remission.
But that is not the case. These days I'm either depressed or sleeping. I experience times with mild depression and other days I find myself entrenched in the dark mood. Most of the time I live with moderate depression.
Nevertheless, I persist with the hope that someday I will be able to be completely free of psych meds while holding the bipolar in remission. By remission I mean the disease is still there but it's not expressing itself in any significant way.
What are my chances of being symptom free without psychiatric medication? I don't know. But I do know that there are bipolar sufferers out there that have made it to a non-medicated state. So there is some chance. The possibility exists!
I'm not even sure of the steps I would take to get off meds. Would I start decreasing all my meds (abilify, cymbalta, lamictal, wellbutrin) at the same time or one by one? How fast should I get off each drug? The psychiatrist knows this information.
This is a delicate area. Nobody should attempt to go natural (off psych meds completely) without the supervision of a qualified mental health practitioner, usually a psychiatrist. Hopefully friends and family understand but that is not guaranteed.
Please note I am not a mental health professional and I am not giving medical advice here. I am just putting down my thoughts on the matter of being medicated for life.