I had to begin medication

stayfit65

stayfit65

Peer Supporter
Good afternoon Folks,
I started an antidepressant today after being off of them for 6 years. My husband lost his job in January and when that happened my nerves just couldn't take it. My pain level went from a 2 or 3 to a 7 or 8 and my anxiety was through the roof. I had really bad thoughts. I started seeing an anxiety therapist and today started Cymbalta. Dr will keep me on for only 6 months, along with Xanax if needed. I hate meds. But I have to function, go to work, etc. I am committed to continuing the TMS work. My family needs me. I am only using this med as a stepping stool to get over the hump. Anyone who has done short-term meds for TMS and then been able to taper off all while doing the work? I just ordered the book Waking The Tiger because I have PTSD. I'm hoping it will really help.
 
I am in the same boat, finally moved out of my house getting divorced and my levels are threw the roof...
As I learned from the great people on this site don't beat yourself up about it know they are temporary
 
stayfit65 said:
My husband lost his job in January and when that happened my nerves just couldn't take it.
Click to expand...

Hey Stayfit,

It sounds as if you were teetering on the edge of a precipice and your husband's job loss pushed you over. No shame in that at all and I hope you don't judge yourself too harshly. I'm fairly confident that no one here does.

I managed to get through four of my husband's job losses. The last one was a doozie, involving very large sums of unpaid salary and expenses. In addition there were complex legal implications. We had two dependent albeit adult children, one of whom had almost lost a job around the same time. We couldn't pay our mortgage and we were a few years away from owning our home outright. I was working part-time and begged for a few more hours a week. I became very adept at scraping together bits of nothing to make for dinner every night. We all got through it but not without some fallout.

I'm the type who weather's every storm but then collapses in a heap over some minor thing months or even years later. That's precisely what happened to me and I took every drug on offer. Thankfully I had plenty of knowledge under my belt and with support from various sources plus some basic pig-headed determination, I tapered off the meds within a few months. Mine were physical symptoms but at the heart there was fear, the same fear that fuels anxiety. One of the most helpful decisions I made was to take an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course. I was still pretty much a physical wreck when I started, downing pills before each session afraid I wouldn't make it through to the end of the class without pharmaceutical assistance. Slowly but surely I calmed that fight/flight/freeze reaction. I didn't put any time pressure on myself though. I took it one step at a time.

There are a few threads mentioning Bessel Van Der Kolk who has written a book called The Body Keeps the Score. I listened to the interview podcast mentioned in one of these threads and then I listened to an even longer one on Shrink Rap Radio. Van Der Kolk is asked about CBT for people with PTSD and he says that basically CBT is great if you have cognition. Anger management classes are wonderful as long as you don't get angry. In these circumstances he refers to people "going offline". Other measures, including medication, need to be considered.

http://shrinkrapradio.com/436-brain...ealing-of-trauma-with-bessel-van-der-kolk-md/

Keep sharing if it helps. Best wishes.
 
Yb44,
Thanks for the link to that podcast. I listened to it and really benefited from knowing we can heal without meds. I wound up having a horrible night of insomnia from that Cymbalta. Doesn't look like I'll continue.
Boston, thanks for the encouragement and back to you.
 
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