We are taking dd off meds

[Cadam]

We are weaning her off the last one now and she will be medication free starting Monday. The plan is to give her 2 weeks free before trying the next medication. I am really dreading this time. The Med she is on isn't working well enough, but it is helping. So, we end up with about 10 days of coming off meds, 2 weeks med free, and then an unknown number of weeks before the new medication really starts to kick in. :001_huh:

To say I am not looking forward to this would be a very large understatement. Any advise from those in the trenches would be great. I am going to be talking to dh about making sure I get down time but please reassure me that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

[EKS]

I'm not sure what medication your daughter is on, but when my son came off of Celexa (for anxiety, similar to Lexapro) he had several awful weeks. He felt terrible and his behavior was the worst it has ever been, ever. I almost put him back on. Then, about two months after he came fully off he finally felt better.

I weaned him much slower than the doctor recommended. The doctor assured me that after a week or two off the medication it would be completely out of his system and he shouldn't be having any problems at all, that any problems he was having probably meant that he should be placed back on medication. IMHO, the doctor had no clue about this phase of treatment. Everything my son was experiencing was what you read about on the internet when people come off of antidepressants. The doctor said that all those stories on the internet were a bunch of hooey, but my son had the same experience as the others.

This is rambling, I'm sorry. Just know that it will probably get worse (than it was before she was ever on medication) but it will probably get better. Two weeks will probably not be long enough for her body to adjust back to its premedicated state (judging from my son's troubles). The doctor will probably insist otherwise. Two weeks might actually be the extreme low point.

I'm sorry that I can't be more optimistic. As for light at the end of the tunnel, a year after coming off of the Celexa, we started my son on dextroamphetamine for ADD. The change in his ability to do school work is like a miracle. Night and day. He doesn't like some of the side effects, but we are just using the medication in the mornings on school days so he doesn't have to deal with them all the time. He has been on it for about 8 weeks now and I'm beginning to see his confidence improve overall. He seems much more mature and at ease with himself, all the time. So meds can help, if you find the right one(s).

[cillakat]

Sending hugs.

In our house, some are on meds, some aren't b/c of side effects. Personally, I have found the book _Depression Free Naturally_ (covers much more than depression) to be lifechanging. It saved my sanity and treated, in a very fundamental way, the root cause of both anxiety and depression.....along with some bipolar tendencies. I do take small amounts of adderall, sometimes, for ADHD......but very small amounts. The orthomolecular intervention deals with about 50% of my ADHD symptoms on it's own.

It's a book worth owning, not borrowing from the library. I'm not sure I'd be alive right now if it weren't for what I gathered from the pages in that book...

:)
Katherine