Say I had a friend who has gone through several different prescription regimens over the last 10 years (with reportedly modest benefit). How might I he wean off the current prescription and get away from artificial pharmacology?
You need to slowly come off it, perhaps longer than six months to a year and start doing strenuous exercise to let your body and brain naturally replace those chemicals. You must replace the habit with something else.
High intensity cardio and going to the gym would be my suggestion.
I know from personal experience, and from a few comments I've read in the last month alone, that it's not entirely uncommon for people to end up on a rather low dose after a few years of dealing with such meds.
Usually after rejecting doctor recommended doses and controlling their own dose to min-max with regards to any benefits vs side effects. Standard recommended doses for a lot of these meds are just godawfully high, and it takes a while for some patients to recognize and address this themselves.
There's also a fair bit of variation in efficacy and potency between different generic manufacturers that throws things off a lot too.
Say I had a friend who has gone through several different prescription regimens over the last 10 years (with reportedly modest benefit). How might
Ihe wean off the current prescription and get away from artificial pharmacology?You need to slowly come off it, perhaps longer than six months to a year and start doing strenuous exercise to let your body and brain naturally replace those chemicals. You must replace the habit with something else.
High intensity cardio and going to the gym would be my suggestion.
Depends on what dose the patient's already used to taking. Lower doses are going to be at least a little easier and quicker to wean off over time.
The poster specifically asks about 10 years of depression meds, but of course you are correct.
I know from personal experience, and from a few comments I've read in the last month alone, that it's not entirely uncommon for people to end up on a rather low dose after a few years of dealing with such meds.
Usually after rejecting doctor recommended doses and controlling their own dose to min-max with regards to any benefits vs side effects. Standard recommended doses for a lot of these meds are just godawfully high, and it takes a while for some patients to recognize and address this themselves.
There's also a fair bit of variation in efficacy and potency between different generic manufacturers that throws things off a lot too.