Hello, lovely people of suicideproject.org. I’m asking a favor from all of you. I’m currently undergoing DBT therapy. I’ve only been doing it for about three months, so I’m in the early stages of recovery. While I’ve learned a few useful skills, I feel as though it’s not enough. My panic attacks and feelings of emptiness are getting worse. I’m still very suicidal nearly every day, and I think dying would (obviously) interfere with my treatment. That’s why I’m considering taking medications.
For context, I’m doing DBT therapy to treat my emotional dysregulation problems. For now I don’t have a specific official diagnosis written in my records, but my symptoms are very similar to BPD. Take this with a grain of salt because I have memory problems and my perceptions aren’t always accurate. It’s possible I might get diagnosed with something different in the future. Someone in my immediate family already takes anxiety pills (but not every day). Also, I’m a minor.
Should I bring this up to my psychiatrist/therapist? What kinds of medications should I avoid? What kinds of side effects should I expect? Is this a bad idea and should I run the other direction? Please help, I have no idea what I’m doing.
9 comments
This might sound weird but it’s authentic… you should stop asking other people what you should do.
personally what i did was searched what felt best for me.
when i first went to the psychiatrist they put me on antipsychotics so i started there. but they werent helping, the hallucinations went down anyway and my anxiety got worse so i personally started my own research into antianxiety meds. things i looked for was what they helped, and the side effects. at the end of every page it would always say “The doctor feels that it could help so its worth the risk” (paraphrased, i dont remember exactly what it said) and thats true for you too. if you dont like the risks then you dont have to take it.
my psychiatrist told me that i “wasnt giving it enough time” and to “wait it out” but these meds were making me more suicidal, sleep 15+ hrs and made my stomach hurt so bad all i could do was stay curled up in a ball, yeah, im gonna wait out those.
A lot of people are telling me anti-anxiety meds work really well, I might start taking them. I’ll also be researching about the side effects, it’s good to be prepared for them at least. Thanks for replying.
I’ve never heard of DBT before but it sounds interesting and I hope you have luck with it. Anything to report so far?
As for meds, I’m not sure what’s commonly prescribed these days but I can tell you my experience with SSRIs (fluoxetine, sertraline) was AWFUL. It made everything much worse like I was totally losing control of what little brain I had left. I took myself off it after a week otherwise I would probably be dead.
I guess my point is whatever meds you try, be really careful to observe the effects and if anything seems off, then don’t be afraid to stop taking them and tell your doctor to give you something else. All these meds have that convenient disclaimer “may increase thoughts of suicide” so please watch yourself carefully.
DBT stands for dialectical behavior therapy, it’s supposed to teach you how to manage intense emotions/self harm behaviors/relationship conflicts. So far it’s been helpful. I haven’t learned anything life changing but I’m not spiraling as badly as before. Thanks for your advice.
Just watch out for anti depressants
(SSRI’s)
yeah, it seems like that’s a common sentiment. I’ll make sure to avoid those.
cool, i found this and thought you could use it.
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/mental-health-medications
i prefer to hang around the less side effects, less addictive ones. thats probably good advice for everyone but i have a sensitivity to meds apparently and if i can, i probably will get addicted to it (just anything to make this existence a little more bearable) so i have to be extra careful.
also keep an eye out for interactions.
a really good example is buspar and grapefruit.
actually if you take buspar you shouldnt really take any other med. its a serotonin thing, im sure youll end up reading about it. (thats what im suppose to be on now)
thanks for the article. I didn’t even think of drug interactions. thankfully I don’t take many meds (or like grapefruit).