(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best books about psychopharmacology

PLEASE LISTEN. take it from someone who had to learn the hard way, please. doing what you’re about to do ruined my life and my health.

you really really REALLY do not want her to be cold turkeying any meds at all, let alone 4 meds at once. the withdrawal from one med can mimic mental disorders so severe she could be institutionalized for life. doing this can also cause permanent damage to her brain and body.

you need to find a way to get refills, first of all. if you can’t reach her doctor, try to get your pharmacy to give her a “loaner” which is when they give you just enough pills to last until you can get a refill. explain that she could suffer withdrawal which can be life threatening.

once you have enough pills to buy some time, you can figure out a plan. she should be getting off one medication at a time, and SLOWLY TAPERING. if you can get a doctors support and supervision for this, that is ideal. having someone she can trust advocating for her in the health system throughout this process will be crucial. since she is a woman, and a mental health patient, there is a lot of discrimination and gaslighting she might face in the health system, which is invisible and very hard to pinpoint - i would suggest you educate yourself on how this happens!

you may be able to get her current doctor to sign on with this plan, if they have already approved and supervised her tapering off two others. i would advise you against taking too strong of an anti-psychiatry stance in these settings, doctors won’t respond well to that. entirely getting off medication may be realistic or it may not be. but getting off 4 meds at once, could be a death sentence. for real. you want to take your time, research carefully, plan ahead.

as she gets off meds, especially if she’s been on them since age 6, she’s going to feel a lot of things she may have never felt before, it’s going to be a difficult and intense time. she should have someone else to talk to who isn’t you, some kind of counseling in which the big picture of the situation is understood ... she will need it

if you can do this the legit way, it will be a lot easier for you and your wife... and a whole lot safer. but you will need to be very educated so that you can advocate for her effectively in a corrupt system, and help her with the life changes that will come

EDIT:

https://www.amazon.com/Psychiatric-Drug-Withdrawal-Prescribers-Therapists/dp/0826108431

this book was recommended and purchased for me, you should read it. i cannot vouch for it though, i’ve lacked the cognition to read books for quite some time, i wish somebody in my life had cared enough to put the time into reading it and doing their own research.

some good resources here:
https://www.madinamerica.com/drug-withdrawal-resources/

advice for caregivers of withdrawal patients:
https://youtu.be/Mu27Q0sTXYU

online support groups:
https://withdrawal.theinnercompass.org/

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/

i’ve heard there are facebook groups also, i’m not on facebook though. reading other people’s stories and finding info on online forums and youtube was my saving grace through all this, because there is sooo little info out there, and a lot of the legitimate science is made inaccessible to the public. good luck. i’m wishing you and your wife nothing but the best.

> Care to share?

This would be a good place to start:

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2018/09/16/cochrane-a-sinking-ship/

https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Psychiatry-Organised-Denial-Gotzsche-ebook/dp/B014SO7GHS/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542263774&sr=1-4

https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Medicines-Organised-Crime-Healthcare/dp/1846198844

It's super fucked up indeed. Western psychiatry likes to be seen as scientific, but that's a massive lie. Psychiatry is still in the dark ages and I'm convinced we will look back to a lot of the current medicines as we look to bloodletting. People might well be better off getting acupuncture for depression as it at least doesn't do any harm.

This book recently helped open my eyes: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cracked-Psychiatry-Doing-More-Harm/dp/1848315562

Peter Breggin gave expert testimony at the Prozac trial. You can check out all the papers on this page. Ely Lilly suppressed a lot of information at the trial. It is now happening again for GSK and paxil. You can search for the court testimony on Youtube. The best two are the statistician and the CEO. Breggin also has papers he's submitted to the FDA and about all his court testimonies throughout the years.

http://breggin.com/category/ssris-and-other-antidepressants/page/2/

A good read of his is: Medication Madness. It tells of the Prozac trial. Or the whistleblower for Ely Lilly, Dr. Virapen, you can search him on youtube although his book is well known.

https://www.amazon.com/Side-Effects-Death-Confessions-Pharma-Insider/dp/1602645167

Good. If you publish filth like this, you deserve to get booted.

https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Psychiatry-Organised-Denial-Gotzsche-ebook/dp/B014SO7GHS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1538774212&sr=8-3&keywords=G%C3%B8tzsche%27

Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Revised Edition: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications

Read that book maybe; it is by psychiatrist Peter Breggin.

http://smile.amazon.com/Your-Drug-May-Problem-Revised-ebook/dp/B009SAV6SI/

Good luck to you. (=

You're welcome! If you are interested in the topic, I'd highly recommend two books: "Psychopharmacology and Women: Sex, Gender, and Hormones" and "The Science of Orgasm". Both cover, compare, and contrast male and female sexual response with a focus on the biology. They are a few years old but I can't imagine that there have been many earth-shattering breakthroughs (ha ha) in the field since then.

This is a good book. You can get the first edition pretty cheap. Not as in depth as the Stahl's, but provides a solid background in general neurochemistry, addiction and illicit drugs, neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, and prescribed psychotropics.

http://www.amazon.com/Psychpharmacology-Drugs-Behavior-Second-Edition/dp/087893510X/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Honestly I scanned it and made assumptions. I've been reading Cracked and this study came up about three pages ago!

Try this book: https://www.amazon.com/Psychiatric-Drug-Withdrawal-Prescribers-Therapists-ebook/dp/B0098JWEJO

PM me if you want and I'll try to help.

You may find these books 1, 2, 3 and 4 quite interesting.

>Dopamine itself is neurotoxic.

Yet again, this is bullshit. Poison is dose. Below a certain threshold, upregulating dopamine is perfectly nontoxic. For example, doses of adderall at 10mgs are not considered neurotoxic.

>As for amphetamine psychosis, you should try not being clueless before having this debate. It's pretty well-known that it goes away when you stop using:

The psychosis goes away. The long term effects of methamphetamine toxicity including neuropsychological residue and personality effects do not.


>Do your research before you debate.

Oh, I guess reading Schatzberg's Psychopharm was totally inadequate compared to the preparation you've done.

That's not how it works. If you want to learn more about it you can pick up this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Psychedelic-Renaissance-Muswell-Hill-Press/dp/1908995254/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509537741&sr=8-1&keywords=the+psychedelic+renaissance

> Do you have any sources to back up your claim that meth has more of a reinforcing effect?

He is right, here's a source if you want to dig into it. You could also look through pubmed if you've got the time to spare

> Dr Peter Breggin may have a withdrawal guide

He has, it's this book: https://www.amazon.com/Psychiatric-Drug-Withdrawal-Prescribers-Therapists/dp/0826108431/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=peter+breggin&qid=1565262325&s=gateway&sr=8-1

As for Prozac
https://www.amazon.com/Side-Effects-Death-Confessions-Pharma-Insider/dp/1602645167

Nope, I don't. I was just spitting out what the wikipedia article says, referencing this citation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_elf?123#cite_note-2 which leads here.. http://www.amazon.com/Ayahuasca-Hallucinogens-Consciousness-Spirit-Nature/dp/1560251603/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372788827&sr=1-1

This video is mass hypnosis. I'm the OP.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hilary+clinton+jean+houston
...

The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience: The Classic Guide to the Effects of LSD on the Human Psyche Paperback – 1966
by Robert Masters Ph.D. (Author), Jean Houston Ph.D. (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Varieties-Psychedelic-Experience-Classic-Effects/dp/0892818972

https://www.amazon.com/Opiate-Receptors-Antagonists-Contemporary-Neuroscience/dp/1588298817/

https://www.amazon.com/Neurobiology-Opiates-Physiology-Substance-Abuse/dp/0849379326/

https://www.amazon.com/Applied-Clinical-Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics-Psychopharmacological-ebook/dp/B01CHMORVQ/

drugs, the brain and behavior


https://www.amazon.de/Psychopharmacology-Behavior-Jerrold-S-Meyer/dp/087893510X


theres a pdf Available if you know where to look.

Talk with a doctor, but make sure it is one who will support you in your attempts to get off the drugs - not one who will force you back on. Every psychiatrist I have encountered has refused to assist any patient who wanted to come off the drugs against their advice. In my field this behavior would be considered unethical and you would lose your license, but apparently it is standard practice in the medical field - or at the least psychiatry.

If you want to come off the drug and cannot find a doctor or do not want to see a doctor, I highly recommend Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal by Dr. Peter Breggin. He provides helpful information on how to withdraw safely from psychiatric drugs.

http://www.amazon.com/Psychiatric-Drug-Withdrawal-Prescribers-Therapists/dp/0826108431

One tip in your situation is that if you cannot handle a dose reduction, go back up to the previous dose and try again with an even smaller reduction - perhaps half of the previous reduction. You cannot withdraw too fast because you could have a serious problem or fail in your attempt to withdraw. Try to find a doctor knowledgeable in withdrawing from drugs.

>That's why pretty much everyone has to try a handful of drugs before finding the ones that work long-term.

Interestingly there was a study done with patients with chronic pain who were prescribed a number of pain killer medications. If the first one didn't work, they were given the second and so on. By the sixth drug all the patients had recovered, but the reality is that all of the drugs were placebos. The placebo effect can explain why it can sometimes takes several different psychiatric medications before the patient finds one that "works" for them.

You seem to have a strong belief that antidepressants do more good than harm. I do not agree but I doubt that arguing with you will do much good. Instead I will link to some resources you may be interesting in checking out for yourself. I hope that you can at least have an open mind and try and become informed of the other side of the argument especially if you are taking any of these drugs.

Here are some books I urge you to check out:

Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good

Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients

Anatomy of an Epidemic

The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth

The Myth of the Chemical Cure

Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How big pharma has corrupted healthcare


You can also check out talks by most of the authors on youtube and various other places. Ben Goldacre has a couple of good TED talks. Also cepuk.org has some good info and videos as well.

I've posted 2 guides on low dosage neuroleptics, check on r/criticalpsychiatry.

Also check this book: https://www.amazon.com/Psychiatric-Drug-Withdrawal-Prescribers-Therapists/dp/0826108431

Sorry to hear that. I was repeatedly being pinned with the Somatization Disorder label while experiencing a life-threatening (but acute) illness - and did actually end up on a psych ward, which I left when they refused my request to see a medical Doctor. In my experience it's somewhat of an anomaly for the patient to be right after all - especially when it's rare disease. It seems the rarer it is the less it gets taken seriously.

And as for these psych "disorders", there really should be more information on how many of these bizarre constellations of symptoms were pretty arbitrarily cooked up into mental conditions in the various editions of the DSM (and ICD 10). See the book Cracked if anyone's interested.

It's very sad to hear about your situation, but as you were saying - you can now get treatment for a disease you actually do have. It's probably not much consolation, but I completely empathise.

He did a speech at an event founded by scientologists (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) because they too are against Big Pharma, so it's a common ground, it was relevant to get a big name Pharma exec in to blow the whistle and confirm their beliefs as fact.

Dr John Rengen Virapen (1/4) Big Pharma Whistleblower Speaks Out at the AZK in Germany (Full Edit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmi3ihrUHJU

Dr John Rengen Virapen (2/4) Big Pharma Whistleblower Speaks Out at the AZK in Germany (Full Edit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NuAQ-x2Ijc

Dr John Rengen Virapen (3/4) Big Pharma Whistleblower Speaks Out at the AZK in Germany (Full Edit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yonLy3BHrc

Dr John Rengen Virapen (4/4) Big Pharma Whistleblower Speaks Out at the AZK in Germany (Full Edit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_bTP5cK-J0

Side Effects: Death. Confessions of a Pharma-Insider

http://www.amazon.com/Side-Effects-Death-Confessions-Pharma-Insider/dp/1602645167

1. The Bipolar Book: History, Neurobiology and Treatment
   
2. Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression, 2nd Edition
   
3. Behavioral Neurobiology of Bipolar Disorder and its Treatment
   
4. Genetics of Bipolar Disorder

holy fuck you're actually retarded

i was kind of joking before, but wow, you must have a carer to literally wipe your ass for you

i mean... i can understand not wanting to lose an argument, but this is an all new low

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0888683251/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=savedbygracemini&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=0888683251

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6301800

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2165569

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0309071550/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=savedbygracemini&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=0309071550

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11440936

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6985702

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/293141

there, 5 citations

i now have more backing up my side of the argument than you do


i didn't not only not accept anything you provided... the ONLY links you provided backed up MY side of the argument.

>Here's my sources:
www.google.com

looks like a blank page to me, guess that's you throwing in the towel with no sources. FINALLY.

No. Many 'mental illnesses' are diagnosed and defined subjectively and the 'chemical imbalance' theory of depression has never been supported with a grain of evidence, and there is even evidence to the contrary (e.g. lowering the serotonin levels of 'non depressed' people does not cause them to become depressed) The number of new mental illnesses increases with each new edition of the DSM that they bring out.

Antinatalists in particular need to be very skeptical of the notion that just because you're not enjoying life, you're mentally ill by definition. That anyone who says that life isn't worth living is incapable of forming a competent judgement about life, because if they were capable of forming a competent judgement, they would have decided unequivocally that life is worth living (and worth starting). Any kind of difficulty that a person might have in adjusting to and coping with the demands of their existence is now defined as a mental illness.

A book worth reading on the corruption and pseudo-science that is rife within psychiatry is Cracked by James Davies:

https://www.amazon.com/Cracked-Psychiatry-Doing-More-Harm/dp/1848316542/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=cracked+davies&qid=1567273380&s=gateway&sr=8-1