I was always a very anxious / fearful person. In 1997 I was put on Prozac for social anxiety and it started a cycle of where my brain would get more and more damaged and I eventually wound up on over 20 psychatric medications, medication cocktals etc. Luckily I was able to get off all meds in early 2007 and have a decent life. Brain damage was verified by Amen Clinics SPECT. However, anxiety still remained plus a host of iatrogenic damages. I decided to try and be normal and drink alcohol so I could hang out with friends and maybe find a girlfriend but it caused insomnia and I paniced.

My parents forced me back on valium and I wound up in my 6th inpatient psychiatric hospitalization for benzo withdrawal. Instead, I got pumped full of 600mg of Tegretol, 150mg of Trileptal, 7.5mg of valium and 30mg of temazepam. I of course want off of these medications because they have never done anything good for me. I need to start with Tegretol because it is causing a rare side effect where it is making music sound a semi-tone lower. I've seen at least 10 different articles on this side effect and how it goes away once Tegretol is stopped. I want to know how to stop Tegretol safely. I've been on a week and my doctor told me I can quit by Tuesday but I do not believe him. I do not have MS or seizure disorders or anything, just severe anxiety and a mess of brain damage from psychiatric medications and I need to get off the antiseizure meds first and then the benzos so I can resume my life.

Hello Zant and welcome to Neurotalk. Wow, I sure wish I could help w/your problem, but for now, all I can offer is I'm glad you found us and I hope you make yourself at home. It's nice to meet you.

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Great to see you have come to be with us. Just let us know if we can be of any help. We are all here to assist each other as possible.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around.

Darlene

Hi zant, and welcome to NeuroTalk!

I'm sorry about all the problems you've been having with your meds. I can't help you with any of this as I have no experience with it.

I wanted to tell you that NT is a great place with a lot of nice and caring people. Feel free to jump in anywhere you would like to post.

Hi, and Welcome to NT

Glad you found us. I don't have the answers for you either. I think you're a very strong-willed person to overcome so many drug dependencies, if they truely were causing you dependency issues.

For starters, here's a link to the medication forum:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum72.html

Then you may find some peace in the spiritural forum:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum27.html

It can't hurt. I find peace in my spirituality.

I hope you find some peace for your anxieties. I have dealt with anxiety I guess all my life. First you have to recognize the signs of "RED ALERT." Until you reach "RED ALERT" levels of anxiety it's okay to be anxious about some things. Not everything, though. Find some good on the other hand. Ask yourself what the other end of the spectrum would be like. It's within our reach too.

And it may be my anxiety kicking in but times are bad everywhere. Reason for concern. Yes, I do see some good... some, but it's really hard times coming our way. We need to get stronger if we can.

Here's a link to the anxiety forum:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum50.html

You're not alone.

We understand...

welcome to neurotalk ... there are lots of friendly and supportive people here ... i see broken wing has given you 3 different starting points so jump right in and start posting ... should you need help, don't hesitate to ask someone ... we are here to help

I always use the term braindamage when referring to my disability. But as you can see that doesn't make much difference when someone says you have a sickness. If we come right down to it it should be about health and sickness not about what type we can clasify you as. If you have braindamage then that should be okay. You should be able to have support for that. Not the opposite. Sorry to hear about all of your troubles in regards to not getting the right treatment.

That is a very large dose of tegretol. Indeed, it is more than epilepsy patients are given. I remember reading about using antiepileptic drugs to ease depression---- but only in miniscule amounts, amounts that would not even be noticed by the patient. I have suffered a great deal of CNS damage from tegretol (carbamazepine) If you dont need it then get off it --WITH GREAT CARE