Antipsychotics / Neuroleptics For Mental Disorders- Comments

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The Seroquel kinda sucks in my case.

For me, Valium is the best, It stops the racing and fearful head, even at a low dose for someone my size (5 mg. a day), plus it dampens sensory problems and allows me to handle disruptions to my routine better. The Seroquel doesn't do much for the anxiety, other than making me want to sleep it away. It is an anti-convulsant as well as anti-anxiety, and I think that's part of the reason why it helps.

Valium ?



Yup, I quite agree with you in that valium initially will be useful to certain people at the beginning in helping them to cope with various anxieties, emotitional and sleeping problems etc. Whilst at the same time, it has far lesser far less dangerous medicational side effects compared to other medications.



However, Valium, well, it's just like any other medications in that once the human bodies have got used to it, higher and higher dosages of such medication would be needed to achieve the same tranquilizing effects that one has experienced in the times before. And along with the higher and higher dosage of valiums, the risk of manifestations of its side effects will just rise together with that. I had tried valium and other tranquilizers before and my conclusion would be that, it would be the best for the human minds to naturally calm / tranquil themselves. Anyway, for any normal healthy persons with complete sanity, that's simply what they do.

I know. Luckily, I don't care much for the sedation effect, just the anti-anxiety part (which they say your body doesn't get used to). Plus, I seem to have a natural tolerance for the sedative effect too, which is common for people with an ASD.

I take a tablet when I've had a bad day, which works out every few days or so (it tends to open up to weeks when I've been having a good trot); it's perfectly safe taking it in such a way.

It's situational anxiety due to the ASD in my case; a change of routine, being overwhelmed from sensory bombardment, difficulty in doing "basic" things, etcetera.

The anti-psychotic seems to work if sedation is your goal; the past week that I took it seems to be a blur to me. For acute things like psychotic episodes, or if it works for Schizophrenia like they say (I don't know, as I don't have such), I could see how it'd help. But for pure anxiety, not in my case, anyway.

Some folks don't like psychotherapy. They may feel like the therapist is climbing through their neurons with jam-contaminated fingers.

Some don't like meds.

Some refuse both.



Actually, there's simply no hard and fast rules in getting something done, including the treatments for mental disorders.



Whilst in terms of psychotherapies, well, it's all about getting all the interactive, interpersonal, moral, emotional and communication supports from someone else which are needed as a part of the holistic approach for the treatment of mental disorders. And if a person actually feels uncomfortable to deal with any formal therapist, then by all means, they can just turn to their close / loved ones such as their family members, kin, friends etc of whom they feel really comfortable to get around with, to look for all these non-medicational supports.



Next, based on my suggestion of the solution to mental disorders made in my prior post, as quooted as follows :



1/3 of medicational helps + 1/3 of psychotherapies, interactive, interpersonal, emotional, communication, conselling supports from the others + 1/3 of self-determinations, self-initiatives, self-controls, self-wills and self-disciplines to think positively, rationally, realistically and practically as well as to lead a normal and healthy life



Well, if any persons actually refuse to take meds and the psychotherapy treatments, that probably, would just turn out to be ok too, although such a scenario would be very unlikely.



In this regard, provided that one's self-will / mental powers are strong enough, then under certain rare and unusual scenarios, one could actually and naturally dictate the activities of serotonin (the one responsible for mood, memory and other cognitive functions of the brain) in one's brain by using one's natural brain / cognitive / thinking powers / abilities through such natural self-efforts alone and with no medications and non-medicational efforts of psychotherapies, interactive, moral, emotional supports at all, of trying to think reasonably, logically, optimistically and always try to control their mood / temper, and remain cheerful and brightened up rather than immersing oneself in depressions, dejections, sadness, pessimisms and other negative feelings etc.



However, the underlying question involved would be that, if one's self-will, self-determination, self-cognition, self-thinking / mental powers and self-controls are actually so firm and strong that one could actually be able to overcome all those dissociative (such as schizophrenia) / non-dissociative mental disorders naturally with all these 'inner strength of 'selfs' and mental powers alone, it would then be rather paradoxical and ironical for them to get such mental disorders in the first place.



This is to say, if the ones troubled by such schizophrenia mental disorder are actually the persons with very strong self-will, self-determination, self-cognition, self-thinking / mental powers and self-controls, then it would be very unlikely for them to get such a mentally dissociative mental disorder at all in the first place.

It isn't a tranquilizer. It's a mild anti-convulsant. Valium is diazepam, the famous stop-a-seizure drug. It's use for that, in spite of it's mildness, has to do with the fact that it works immediately and anti-convulsants of the other sort don't. The sedation is a side effect. One of the psych-med side effects that tends to go away with continued use.

Anti-convulsants and mood-stabilizers are pretty much interchangable, drugs that have one effect also have the other, this is why Valium is nice for Daniel in spite of him not experiencing the sedating side effect.

I am sure Daniel will not be offended that I now desire to experiment upon him and dose him with more powerful anti-convulsants. Which might be an evil thing to do, as they are more dangerous, but might put him in a consistantly non-anxious state. Hmm.

The studies I have glanced at re: Seroquel and autism seem to indicate that it mostly sucks for that. I wonder why they keep prescribing it.

Actually, Valium is classified as a benzodiazepine, not an anti-epileptic. The benzos (Klonopin and Xanax are other common ones) are mostly used to stop panic attacks, but they can be used for epilepsy. The reason the benzos can protect against seizures is because they allow Cl- channels in the brain to open more frequently, which increases the brain's amount of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. Seizures are thought to be caused by an excess of glutamate, the brain's main excitatory neurotransmitter. As for anti-epileptic drugs and mood stabilizers being the same, this is often true but not always. Many common mood stabilizers, such as Depakote, Tegretol, and Lamictal, all were created as anti-epileptics and were then found to have mood stabilizing properties. (No one knows the cause of mania yet, but the brain conditions may be similar to those found during a seizure.) However, lithium was the very first mood stabilizer, and it has no anti-epileptic effect whatsoever. The same goes for the atypical anti-psychotics, which many bipolar patients take.
-OddDuckNash99-

Valium is the number one choice for status epilepticus (actually, I think it's number 2 now), which is actually a somewhat common cause of death in individuals with Autism. So, it's is technically an anti-epileptic, just not a chronic medication for such like Tegretol or whatever.

It's an anticonvulsant, in addition to all its other effects (anti-anxiety, hypnotic, sedation, muscle relaxant, etcetera).

Electric_Kite,

I've been thinking of trying Tegretol again at some point, as much of my anxiety is caused by being overwhelmed mentally via sensory problems, in addition to routine disruption (which really, is a sensory problem). I took it when little for seizures (the usual Autism ones).

benzodiazepines = mild anticonvulsants.



True. My generalization too broad.

Good Points. By the way, In regard of Valium / Diazepam,



please consider the following excerpts :


Diazepam can lead to drug abuse and psychological dependence/drug addiction.At a particularly high risk for diazepam misuse, abuse or psychological dependence are:



Patients with a history of alcohol or drug abuse or dependence. Diazepam increases craving for alcohol in problem alcohol consumers. Diazepam also increases the volume of alcohol consumed by problem drinkers.


Patients with severe personality disorders, such as Borderline Personality Disorder



which are drawn from the website as follows : -


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valium




As a matter of fact, for certain people taking valiums, like what I have observed in my real life, well, they just tend to take an ever-increasing dosage of that medication from time to time, eg. from an initial daily 5 mg maintainance dosage, up to eventually 30 mg or more.



So, just what does that imply ?

It's not a good idea to take benzos daily, because that class of drugs leads to increased tolerance (and possible addiction) very quickly. I have daily panic attacks, but I take a Klonopin maybe once a month, if not less than that, for extremely severe panic attacks where I don't function. And this is why I haven't developed a tolerance to the low dose I originally started with (0.125 mg).
-OddDuckNash99-

" I have daily panic attacks, but I take a Klonopin maybe once a month, if not less than that, for extremely severe panic attacks where I don't function. And this is why I haven't developed a tolerance to the low dose I originally started with (0.125 mg). "



Yup, that shall be the way.




"As a matter of fact, for certain people taking valiums, like what I have observed in my real life, well, they just tend to take an ever-increasing dosage of that medication from time to time, eg. from an initial daily 5 mg maintainance dosage, up to eventually 30 mg or more."



Unfortunately, when I ask around the related persons about their ever-increasing dosages for Valium, well, they just show me the formal drug plastic packets / containers and say " these are simply the instructions from my doctors".




In this case, how saddening.

"Anyway, the antipsychotics keep me sane, but at the same time I indeed developed akathesia and TD. I recently made a Youtube video about this, I talk about the sideeffects randomly after talking about the bird, and if you pay attention, you will notice I just look strange, I will have to live with this the rest of my life probably:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcQf9mr_V-Q"


Dear Angnix,


I have gone through your video clip, and well, maybe I could be wrong.



But when I see the way that your eyes keep on blinking during your speech, it just somehow reminds me and the others of what we have gone through during the very initial stage when we have started to develop the Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) symptom of rapid eye-blinking (which eventually deteriorates from bad to worse, or rather, visually incapacitating).



In this regard, as a social worker working for the health care and benefits of others, I would like to recommend to you the following needleless, self-administered, and hence free-of-charge acupuncture technique - with the related acupuncture point located on one's wrist / hand, rather than the other vulnerable parts of the human body which have got us and the numerous others fully cured once and for all within weeks / a few months. And kindly take note that before I get totally cured from this debilitating eye-related illness through the acupuncture technique about 5 years back, I have actually spent a fortune seeking numerous formal but futile treatments from various doctors, medical experts, specialists etc, including receiving Botox injections (3 sessions in total) from a neurosurgeon.



Full Details of The Acupucnture Technique :


http://www.curezone.com/Forums/fm.asp?i=1233341#i



Whilst about the antipsychotics that you have been taking, well, in fact in my case, rather than still taking the older version / first-generation ones, my new psychiatrist (that I have been seeing when I still suffer from schizophrenia) just prescribe and dispense to me the newer second / third generation ones which come with greater curative benefits and far lesser side effects, especially when it comes to Tardive Dyskinesia (TD).



Lastly, I hope that what I have recommended will be helpful and useful to you in dealing with that frequently eye-blinking symptom (as a matter of fact, my eyes blink only about once or twice when I go through the entire video clip of your speech, and that's the way I fee about the TD problem with you, and again, I could be wrong, but I definitely mean well).

As I understand it, that one is quite good for 'We don't know why they're happening' seizures because it works on most different kinds of seizures, but it is an inferior mood-stabilizer. But then again, hey, so's Valium. But another again, the side-effects and safety of Tegretol is supposedly worse than the newer, nifty anticonvulsants that are often used for bipolar and are sometimes used off-label for anxiety.



It, and the wikipedia quotes you posted, imply that valium is an addictive substance. This is true. It is not news. Benzos act immediately and they feel nice. So of course they are potential drugs of abuse. Ooooh, aaahh.

It's not even interesting, unless you find 'addiction' and 'drug dependance' to be scary exciting words. I see no reason to care if Daniel (or whoever else) is dependant on Valium when being dependant on Valium makes his life better. It's only worth noting in that one would like to be sure he doesn't run out. 'Withdrawl syndrome' is a scary phrase.



I understand that many people become addicted to them almost immediately. I am not entirely sure, but I think the tolerance business isn't an increased tolerance to their anticonvulsant/mood stabilizing action, but to the sedating, happy side effects. Those go away with continued use, to get them back you take more. In this case the weak anticonvulsant/mood stabilizing action isn't really the thing that's helping you, it's the sedation that helps.

Seems to me that if you have daily panic attacks, taking an anti-anxiety drug that's meant to be taken every day and actually having the panic controlled so you don't have to deal with it all the time is a much better answer than taking Klonopin on the rare occassion that you've got an especially bad one. I used to do much the same thing with Xanax and anxiety and am a lot happier and better functioning now that I take Citalopram daily instead.

The problem is that SSRIs don't work for my panic attacks (or my OCD). I've had them since I was a preschooler, so the SSRIs aren't potent enough for me. Anafranil, which I take for my OCD, has helped somewhat with the panic attacks, but I still get them daily. Klonopin is the only medication that has ever truly worked for my panic attacks, and sometimes, if I'm really bad off, even Klonopin doesn't have an effect. I've also tried CBT, but the therapists didn't know how to help me with either my panic attacks or my OCD.
-OddDuckNash99-

Medicines & CBT aren't final solutions to mental disorders




"The problem is that SSRIs don't work for my panic attacks (or my OCD). I've had them since I was a preschooler, so the SSRIs aren't potent enough for me. Anafranil, which I take for my OCD, has helped somewhat with the panic attacks, but I still get them daily. Klonopin is the only medication that has ever truly worked for my panic attacks, and sometimes, if I'm really bad off, even Klonopin doesn't have an effect. I've also tried CBT, but the therapists didn't know how to help me with either my panic attacks or my OCD."



Hey, as a matter of fact, me, as well as other mentally-illed people that I have reached out to as a part-time social worker, we have also experienced schzizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) etc before.




Now, let's consider what I have written in my prior posts :



"As a summary,



I'm suggesting the following as a solution to mental disorders :



1/3 of medicational helps + 1/3 of psychotherapies, interactive, interpersonal, emotional, communication, conselling supports from the others + 1/3 of self-determinations, self-initiatives, self-controls, self-wills and self-disciplines to think positively, rationally, realistically and practically as well as to lead a normal and healthy life"



"Next, I must admit that it's quite arbitrary for me to do so in the first place. However, given the fact that there are more and more people nowadays, especially the ones having the mental disorders who would tend to rely heavlily, and if not completely, but at the same time, rather ignorantly upon medications as their sole and only means of dealing with their mental disorders, hence, by assigning the numerical proportion of '1/3' to each of those 3 variables for that 'equation' I'm just trying to convey a message to the intended readers that such factors as external psychotherapies, interactive / interpersonal, emotional / moral supports from the others as well as self-controls / self-efforts to think positively, they are just fairly as important as the medications when it comes to dealing with mental disorders."




"Actually, in terms of mental disorders which may come along with hallucinations / delusions, all those external aides of medications, psychotherapies, interactive, interpersonal and emotional supports etc, they are all meant for the same ultimate goal of bringing such disorders under control and there is simply no doubt for that.



Next, since it's the ones having mental disorders are the ones who are actually suffering from such illnesses, which arise from negative perceptions, negative feelings and negative thoughts formed in their own brains / minds (instead of other people's brains / minds), it would eventually necessitate they themselves to put in their very own self- efforts, having received both external medicational and interpersonal helps from the others, to exercise self-controls and self-disciplines on their own to direct their own brains for self-reasonings, self-introspections and self-rationalisings.



This is to say, for the self-cognition / thinkings psychological part of the ones having mental diorders to form those positive feelings and positive thoughts in their own minds on their very own, and then to naturally develop postitive behavioural / personality changes, such a cognitive thought / thinking process actually can hardly be 'dictated' by anyone else other than they themselves. In such connection, as to the cognitive / thinking abilities / processes of different individuals, one of the simplest examples will be the process of learning a knowledge or something else whereby a person can get the best text materials, teachers, lecturers, tutors etc to assist one in his / her learnings, however, it would still ultimately depend on the very cognitive ability / process pertaining to that particular person which is then the key decisive factor in determining whether the knowledge is successfully acquired in the end or not.



In short, those self-efforts (related to self-cognitions), in the very end, will eventually be very much essential, or rather the decisive factor in determining whether the persons having mental disorders will achieve improvements / recoveries for their mental conditions or not.



In such a connection, I would like to add that in terms of all those self-determinations, self-initiatives, self-controls, self-wills and self-disciplines to think positively, rationally, realistically and practically as well as to lead a normal and healthy life, great patience maybe would take a long way in trying to achieve that. However, once such goals are achieved, it would also mean that the people trouble with mental disorders are just achieving leaps and bounds further and further towards the ever-improving mental conditions and then to the final complete recovery of their very mental disorders in the end.



Lastly, such goals, instead of being just sheer fantasies, they are actually the very realistic ones which in fact have been achieved by lots of people, especially the ones with tremendous patience."



Next, I would like to say that in terms of the Obsessive-compulsive disorders that me and the others are having, whilst the related symptoms which had got our daily lives greatly troubled, well, they would include washing our hands repeatedly, whilst subsconsciously with us telling ourselves that 'my hands are still dirty', involuntarily 'display' certain funny facial expressions, gestures and other eccentric behaviours when we came across certain situations, to make us feel more 'mind-easing' etc. And I can tell you with 100 % honesty and certainty that whilst we actually detest such an OCD disorder very much, we nevertheless simply have got no other choices but to just live with that, especially during the time when we are still not yet fully cured from that mental illness.



Whilst in many cases, I believe that those 'weird behaviours' associated with Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) also would have original causes leading to them. And maybe they are simply associated with certain unpleasant experiences of a person in the past. Subsequently, the fact that one would simply feel an urge to doing those 'weird behaviours' under those specific circumstances, and simply cannot stop such behaviours, well, it may just be due to the fact that one have repeated all those things again and again until they are habit-forming to the person already.



In this regard, in the case where one actually wish to quit all those 'weird behaviours' associated with Obsessive-compulsive Disorders (OCD), well, that would take some self-reasonings, self-rationalisings, self-controls and self-disciplines on one's part to stop doing those things gradually, slowly, step by step and little by little.



Essentially, the logic behind this is that, if those 'weird behaviours' can actually become habit-forming to a person over a period of time with one keep on repeating them over and over again, I believe that one certainly can form new sets of personal normal and natural behaviours on one's own, or with the helps of others, by repeating those new normal natural behaviours over and over again, until they completely replace all those 'weird behaviours'.



Besides, another factor especially about the Obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) is that, they are actually and closely associated with one's level of intuitive urges, whims and obsessions with all those weird and eccentric thoughts that lead to all those weird and strange habit-forming habits / behaviours. As such, this is to say that the more and more the persons troubled with such Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are able to overcome their deep intuitive urges, whims and obsessions with such weird and eccentric thoughts that lead to all those weird and strange habit-forming habits / behaviours, maybe by gradually thinking lesser and lesser about them and eventually stop thinking about them at all in the end etc, then the more and more improvements of their mental conditions would then get to be achieved, and this maybe will just bring him to the path of full recovery in the end.



Besides, since there're in fact no actual physical dangers or threats at all associated with any attempts to quit all those 'weird behaviours' associated with Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD), one may just proceed naturally in a mind-easing way without any cause of worries.



In such a connection, in my case and most of the others that i have known, we actually have overcome all those Obssessive-compulsive Disorder-related intuitive urges, whims and obsessions with all those weird and eccentric thoughts that lead to all those weird and strange habit-forming habits / behaviours, very much through tremendous and considerable amounts of positive and rational thinkings as well as self-realistic-explanings on our parts, so as to convince ourselves that 'it will simply be totally harmless for us to just act and behave normally like the other normal healthy people'.



Subsequently, having repeated all those normal behaviours again and again from time to time, we then slowly and gradually sort of get use to and then comfortable with them and then, in the end, we simply do not feel the Obssessive-compulsive Disorder-related intuitive urges, whims and obsessions to act abnormally, eccentrically and weirdly anymore.

I'm a pure obsessional. I don't have overt, behavioral compulsions related to my obsessions. Rather, I heard obsessional phrases/thoughts, songs/tunes, and random words in my head all day long, nonstop, before I started the Anafranil. This is why CBT failed for me. Twice. Because I could not habituate to not doing a compulsion. I don't have them.
-OddDuckNash99-