AIBU to think I'm better off without meds?

[madcatsforever]

Hi All,

Posted in mental health but no replies

I have been taking Vortioxetine for around 2 years and during my recent admission to the psychiatric ward added in Lamotrigine, I had a fairly severe allergic reaction to that and so had to stop using it. I'm now tapering off Vortioxetine with a view to starting Venlafaxine in a few weeks - so why do I feel better? Has anyone experienced this? The last few days I feel like my mood has really lifted and I almost don't want to start a new drug.

Am I being naive to think that I will be better without any meds?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Hi. I was in vortioxetine a few years ago & had to come off it as it gave me such bad anxiety & nausea. The thing that could be happening is that a lower dose actually suits you better - would you consider staying on that dose? Why are you switching to venlafaxine? I'm on venlafaxine, lamotrigine & bupropion.

Major depression often lasts less than a year? So yeah, you might not need medication any more, so it's worth considering tapering off. I'm not a doctor though!

"During my recent admission to the psychiatric ward - "

I say this as a fellow sufferer of poor mental health, but that sentence above is why you need to also seek some medical and professional support as well as forum user's opinions.

Medication is not the be all and end all, but in the right context it can provide much-valued support to help deal with things.

A qualified psychiatrist should be responsible for the dispensing of your medicine and reviewing your plan. Don't leave it up to forum users or your own whims.

Venlafaxine works well for me.

You need to be really careful about this.

It's not unusual for people with lifelong conditions to go through umpteen medicines and never find a satisfactory one, only to end up managing their conditions successfully through lifestyle choices and coping strategies that don't involve pharmaceuticals at all. However, it's also fairly commonplace for people to taper off a medicine at a time when they are relatively stable, conclude that they do not in fact require medication due to feeling stable, only to later relapse dramatically when staying on medication may well have prevented the relapse.

There are really no hard and fast rules, all you can go with is your own feeling about your current state versus how you have felt in the past both on and off of meds. I'd strongly recommend you discuss this in detail with your responsible medical professional, but be aware, unless you are subject to a compulsory order, you do have every right to try a period where you are completely free of medication. Perhaps some sort of Advocacy might be of use to you to help talk through the options, potential outcomes, and what each course of action would entail?

A qualified psychiatrist should be responsible for the dispensing of your medicine and reviewing your plan. Don't leave it up to forum users or your own whims.

Totally agree with this. Please talk to your GP, consultant or other expert with access to all the facts and your medical history and discuss this with them. Don't just unilaterally decide to stop taking medication.

Thank you all, I'm not planning to do anything without the agreement of my psychiatrist - it's her who wants me to taper off to start the venlafaxine as Vortioxetine hasn't been working for me and I've been in a bad way for over 6 months. I just feel that my mood has lifted only since starting to taper off it.

@QueenOfOversharing lamotrigine is the one I'm allergic to, it was being added as a mood stabiliser but now that's not an option so the psychiatrist has suggested a complete change. I'm not against medication - I've been on various combinations of antidepressants for almost 10 years, I just feel better since reducing my dose than I have for such a long time.

I see my GP weekly, psychiatric nurse weekly and psychiatrist every few weeks - I'm definitely not going off on my own ideas ill talk it through with all the team, just wanted opinions from people who have actually taken these meds long term :)