So I am trying, again, to wean myself sloooowly off of Tegretol. This med has done nothing to help me in the last 4 1/2 years....why am I still on it? My family doc and residents didn't want to fiddle with my meds to put me on something else.
Tegretol is prescribed for me as a mood stabilizer. It is also used for epilepsy patients who are having seizures. Unfortunately it also has a side-effect of Osteoporosis which is a brittle bone disease causing bones to break more easily. The psychiatrist who was giving me this drug never mentioned this side-effect (but side-effects can be looked up on-line or given out from your pharmacist).
Tegretol is fine and seems safe for people who are not petite or don't have a family history of Osteoporsis. But for someone like myself who was already underweight and petite I got the diagnosis of Osteo-penia (pre-osteoporosis) when I was 31, 4 years back because I had requested a bone density test (I had to beg since I was so young). Bone density tests are usually only done around 5o years of age!
I am happy to say that after 2 years of taking 1000mg of calcium in supplement form, and 400mg of vitamin D with it, I was cleared of any sign of Osteopenia even while continuing to take Tegretol and be underweight still...I have never in my life broken a bone either :-).
I have cleared it with my current resident doc that I will try to wean myself off Tegretol when I started to feel less anxious. That time has come seems like. I have been feeling pretty good for almost 2 weeks now (not long in the scheme of things or ordinarilly a good indicator one should think about stopping a med that is helping).
The psychiatrist I had 4 years back, Dr. Dinton, did wean me off almost completely over a 3 month period agreeing that it was not helping me and I had been doing OKish at that time. But then I had some major stresses including the ending of Dr. Dinton's treatment of me and I asked my family doc's residents to put me back on Tegretol. It has done nothing for me....
So, I know how to wean myself off Tegretol. My pills can be cut and I have a pill cutter. I stay at each new level of pill for one month making the weaning off period 4 months - IF I can hack this. I have been sleeping poorly the last couple of days after starting this but Tegretol does not affect my sleep so I think that this is life stress or fear. I am secure in knowing that if I get really worried about the weaning off I have my regular dose to take if I think at all it will help...I really get nervous not taking meds because getting mentally sick again is not fun. If I ever ended up back in the hospital they would not let me take my vitamins; Homeopathy or cater to my blood type diet.
Weaning off a med is something you should aways do only if you know how and are under a doctor's care for this purpose....there is always the risk that after you have been off a medication for any level of time that your body will metabolise it different if you decide to go back on it and so it may not even work for you anymore in the same way...
For people who just stop meds cold turkey when the meds are not prns (meds you take as needed and not daily), this can bring on withdrawals for even those who never needed the med(s) in the first place....
Many people don't like medications for the side-effects but meds work a lot faster then what I have been doing, Homeopathy, some with in half an hour of taking it....so the positives out weight the side-effects. I have been doing Homeopathy since December and spending moola to try to get better because my docs just told me my anxiety/ depression was in my head. They wouldn't send me to a shrink or touch my meds either...
Homeopathy and my blood type diet is a last resort so I don't want any one thinking its any better as there is major pain involved in Homeopathy and even the blood type diet....for these methods stuff comes out and it's really hard. Homeopaths are not regulated like doctors so unless you know there to go or someone who have a good one how do you know if you are just wasting your money or not...
I'm trying to say if you need help get some help and take meds if you need to. Meds do help and Tegretol does help some people a great deal. You may need watch that you are getting enough calcium in your diet and vitamin D. Exercise is important and taking extra calcium/ vitamin D in pill form has helped me too!
No comments:
Post a Comment