Up Against The System Again

Actually, since I wrote this story, my son's psychiatrist has been weaning him off his existing meds including clonezepam in order to get him back onto just one tablet he always used to take when he was younger and did much better on. The only reason my son had to have the clonezepam was to help him with the catatonic reaction to coming cold turkey off his meds three years ago.

It is precisely because someone gave such advice to my son that he ended up as sick as he has been. He was doing the best he had ever been and was working in New Zealand for the army. The people he was staying with are heavily into natural therapies and made the suggestion to him. Going off his medication made him extremely ill. It nearly killed him. If someone as sick as my son does decide to go on "natural" remedies instead it needs to be done under close medical supervision. The "natural" alternative to my son's medication is St John's Wort, but the problem is this. St John's Wort is high in serotonin, and so is fluoxetine. If the one is being taken alongside the other there is danger of serotonin poisoning. Also, the amounts in St John's Wort capsules are not as regulated as they are in fluoxetine. So the danger of serotonin poisoning is high in the case of someone like my son. But I appreciate your point. Sometimes so called natural remedies are more effective; it depends on the individual. But no-one should ever come off an existing medication unless it is under close medical supervision.

I didn't say he should come off medication - and my dad didn't either, but sometimes the *right* natural remedy can work well and they can work in combination with medications too. I'm not saying that *all* natural remedies work in all cases. But I'd like to point out that just because St. John's Wart was toxic to him, that doesn't mean nature doesn't have something *else* that might have helped him. Not to argue, but I'm just making a point.

But I do get what you're saying. Things need to be closely monitored. Even when switching from one medication to another, things can go wrong. For example, my dad had his last congestive heart failure and heart attack episdoe because he was abruptly switched from one medication to another. the old one worked but was slowly damaging his liver, so the doctor wanted to try something more "gentle'. The new medication did not work and so he died. I can't say the doctor didn't mean well, but he should have been closely watched. Also, he had a bad habbit of not calling the doctor about his symptoms when things were not working. they did not know until it was too late.

You are absolutely right, and I apologise for over reacting. It was a knee jerk reaction. Those people my son stayed with were assertive natural therapists. Whenever their son came to stay with us there was a big list of what we could and couldn't give him to eat. He once had a slice of chocolate birthday cake and his parents blamed the cold he got afterwards on him having eaten that cake. They were quite snippy with me about it. You can imagine how I felt about them having advised my obsessively compulsive son about going on to natural medications. He didn't seek medical advice; he just did it. He suffered a catatonic withdrawal that nearly killed him. It has take three years for him to stabilise and we had to employ a full time carer for him for over a year. I do realise that your approach is a different and balanced one, and it is sound advice. Thank you for sharing.

That's ok. I can understand your reaction. It sounds like the people you were dealing with were health extremists. They are not real natural doctors and I agree they went too far. In fact, my mother got sick, partly because of some nut like that who wrote this stupid book about what to eat and what not to eat. It was so extreme, but she took it very seriously and changed her diet and tried to impose her diet on everybody else. She thought she was benefiting everyone, but she made herself sick and we refused to fully adopt or go along with her crazy diet. So I can understand why you would be put off by this type of person. They were the same type that influenced my mom and caused her to become ill. I do agree that these are crack pots and they are not what I was talking about. They give natural doctors a bad name, but not all natural doctors are like this at all, so it's good to remember that and ignore the crazies.

Yeah I feel badly for your son... catatonic states aren't a joke and I don't understand how they would do anything like that.

I did notice you avoided ECT... sometimes it can be helpful...

Yes, and I was open to it. But they only like to use it as a last resort.