 So, I've been off my mental health meds for about a month now, and in this video, I'm going to talk a little bit about what my experience has been with that, and give you some suggestions as well as a little bit of hope, so make sure that you stay tuned. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. So, yeah, I not only make mental health videos, but I struggle with mental illness. I've been diagnosed with depression and a generalized anxiety disorder. I was a full-blown drug addict and alcoholic, and I've shown some other symptoms from some other illnesses, so I have been on medications for a while now. Now, before I get started, before I get started, before you dive into this video, big fat disclaimer right here, big disclaimer, listen carefully, okay? I am not a doctor. I am not a doctor. I am the furthest thing from a doctor, okay? And what I'm going to talk about, I need you to understand very carefully. Coming off of my mental health medications for depression and anxiety, I did it with a doctor's supervision. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever change or adjust your meds on your own. Always do it with a doctor. Are we good on that? We good? We good. Also, please, please, please share this video. One of the reasons I'm making this video is because a lot of people who get started on these medications think that they're going to be on them forever, and I'm here to tell you that that is not always the case. So please share this with other people who might be bummed out that they're on medications because they may not have to be on them forever, okay? Thanks. Okay, let's get started. All right. So yeah, when I first got clean over five years ago, I was having a lot of racing thoughts and panicky and heart racing, all the symptoms of panic attacks and anxiety, no clue what was happening. I went, I got diagnosed, and all that good stuff, they found out I had a generalized anxiety disorder, as well as some minor depression, okay? So they gave me a medication called acetalopram, which is a generic form of Lexapro, and this is used as an antidepressant, as well as an anti-anxiety medication. But anyways, I've been on it for the most part for about five and a half years. So there has been times in which I have weaned myself off of it, gone back on again with a doctor's supervision, but I've been back on it for maybe a year and a half now before I got off of it. I will make some other videos about why I jumped back on the medication at another time. But anyways, I've been on it for about a year now, and I follow up with my doctor regularly, and she knows I am a drug addict in recovery. She knows about my mental illness, like, man, I have somebody who like hates doctors. I have never liked doctors. But my doctor is da bomb, okay? And she's very well versed in mental health and all that kind of stuff, too. So my life was going pretty well. So a few months ago, maybe three or four months ago, I talked to her about it, and I was like, what do you think about me weaning back down on the medication? And she says, you know, she asked me some questions about my life, my feelings and stuff like that. And she's like, yeah, I don't think there's an issue with you going down from 20 milligrams to 10 milligrams. So I'm like, okay, cool. So I did that. Now, there's a few reasons why I personally do this. One of them is kind of like what I said when I told you to share this video. I don't like being attached to a medication, but I know how important it is. I just don't want to take anything that I don't have to. A lot of this, for me, personally comes from being a prescription drug addict, okay? Like, it's just this weird part of my brain where I'm just like, I don't like having to be on something. But if I don't maintain my mental health, I'm going to relapse, you know what I mean? So it's always this kind of struggle, all right? So if I don't have to take it, I won't take it. The other thing is too, a lot of antidepressants have side effects. You know what I mean? I'm like, I won't get into the ones I have. One of them is just kind of like a numbness. You know what I mean? Like sometimes I lack emotions. So like that's one of the side effects. I just prefer to get off of it if I could. You know what I mean? So anyways, I went down to 10 milligrams. I've been on 10 milligrams for, you know, I was doing that for two or three months, and I basically went back in there. I'm like, yo, what do you think about me getting off of it? She talked to me a little bit more about how my life's been going. Do I have any symptoms of anxiety, panic, that, that, and I haven't, you know? And that was after going from 20 milligrams down to 10 milligrams. So she's like, yeah, you should be fine coming off of it again. I'm like, okay, cool. So I just, I stopped taking it. I will say this, I'm going to link to the Lost Connections video I did up in the info card. This was a depression experiment I did based on the Lost Connections book by Johan Hari. And like that book really opened my eyes to antidepressants. And I just want to be honest with you, like when I was listening to it and learning about the studies, learning about the real effects of these drugs and how much they actually do help and don't help and things like that. That was one of the things that made me be like, okay, look, I just want to come off this and see how I actually feel, right? So it's been about a month now. I wanted to wait until it was about four weeks. Here's what I suggest for anybody who tries to do this, okay? One of the most difficult things about mental illness, like if you break your arm, you can see broken arm. You can tell my arm is broken, okay? When it comes to mental illness, the biggest problem with mental illness is that it's inside here. It is inside the thing that thinks and makes us act and respond. So what that means is if we start acting wacky, if we start acting a little weird, if we start acting overly irritable, angry, withdrawn, all these things, sometimes we won't notice it. So my suggestion to you is to do what I did and what I always do when either getting on or off a medication, I tell people what I'm doing and I tell them that I need them to let me know if I start acting differently. So in this case, I told my girlfriend and my best friend. I said, hey, went to the doctor, I'm coming off my medications. If I start acting crazy, please let me know because I might not realize it. So that is my biggest suggestion for anybody who wants to come off something or if you're going to start taking something new, okay? So please get other people to kind of monitor you because you might not realize it, all right? And I see this happen all the time with my clients at my rehab. They come off their medication and they just, they'll fly off the handles and they'll just be so irritable, so upset and they don't understand it, which makes them even more frustrated. And they don't get that it was because of the medications. So we often have to point it out to them. I actually had one of my clients come apologize to me because he was, he went off his meds and didn't tell anybody and he kind of freaked out on me one day. And he came back and apologized and said, yo, I went off my meds. I'm really sorry about that, da, da, da, da, da. All right, but anyways, the results are over the last four weeks that I haven't been taking my medication. I feel great. I feel amazing. Anxiety hasn't hit me. Depression hasn't been there. I have my ups and downs, but it's not depression symptoms. Like, oh man, I had a rough day or something sad happened or, you know what I mean? Like just normal human emotions. You know what I'm saying? And like for me, like I said, my generalized anxiety disorder is like severe, whereas my depression is low. And my anxiety has not been there, which is insane. It's really crazy because I should be anxious constantly with what's going on in my life right now. Like I don't know if you guys understand this, but like those of you who are my loyal subscribers, you see how many videos I post. If you follow me on Instagram, by the way, follow me on Instagram at the Rewired Soul if you don't, thank you. But anyways, like I do so much for the Rewired Soul. On top of that, I also work in a drug and alcohol rehab. My responsibilities at my rehab have changed. I've gotten more because my old boss, she transitioned to a new department. So I've taken on a lot of her responsibilities. I've had a lot of new projects start in the last week or two. That is the type of stuff my anxious brain feeds off of, but I've been able to keep a calm head and strategize and organize and not lose my mind. And some of you are saying like, hmm, Chris, how do you do that? You may or may not like my answer. Meditation. Meditation. It's why I talk to you guys about it all the time. Like meditation is scientifically proven time and time and time and time and time again to decrease symptoms of anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation and all sorts of stuff. And because I've been proactive about meditation, my brain has changed. Like I'm experiencing the effects that they've proved through a ton of neurological studies. So like that's my next suggestion. If you are thinking about coming off of your meds, make sure you are being proactive to get your mental health right. Start creating your own neurotransmitters though, your own dopamine, your own endorphins, your own serotonin and all those things before you come off of them. That way it's this kind of smooth transition. You don't just want to yank these SSRIs out of your head. And then you don't have anything that's creating them naturally, if that makes sense. Now, some of those medications are designed to increase the ability to reproduce those neurotransmitters, but you've got to be really proactive about this stuff. So yeah, again, please share this video. I hope this video helps some of you, but I really want you to share it because I know that a lot of people get really bummed out thinking that they're going to have to be on some kind of psych meds forever and that's not the case. But the caveat to is you've got to put in work. And the work I put in comes in the form of about five to 10 minutes of meditation a day. That's it. That's it. Five to 10 minutes of meditation per day. Boom. There you go. So be proactive about this stuff. Talk to your doctor. Again, I'm not a doctor. Talk to your doctor. Okay. If any of you have come off your meds or have any experience with medications, leave them down in the comments below. And please remember everybody reading the comments that most of the people posting it are not doctors. Everybody has different experiences with medications and all that stuff. If you would like me to do more videos on medications, please let me know in the comments down below too. All right. But anyways, if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you are new here, I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental health. Click that little round subscribe button. And if you got some time, then click or tap on one of those videos right there in the thumbnail. All right. So thanks so much for watching. Be sure you consult a doctor before you do anything stupid. And I'll see you next time.