Helping Reduce Medications
In many people’s recovery, the time comes when they want to try reducing, or entirely getting off, psychiatric medications. Unfortunately, people too often find they must take this step without any assistance, even though competent assistance from a therapist who understands the issues might reduce the risk that something will go wrong.
I wrote the following guide to help therapists who may be interested in helping clients reduce or get off medications (and to do so without in any way crossing professional boundaries or appear to be “practicing medicine.”) Or, you might want to give a copy of this guide to your therapist, if you are wanting to work toward some reductions but your therapist is unsure of how to assist you in this!
This guide is written in two parts, click on the link to go to the part you want.
The first part provides background on “Why We Need to Change the Role of Therapists in Regards to Psychiatric Medications”
The second part is the “Step by Step Guide for Therapists in Helping Reduce Reliance on Medications”
If you want a printed version, you can also go to this Guide to therapists in helping clients rely less on medications in the form of an rtf file.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
. You’ve done all the groundwork! First time I’ve seen this kind of thing. Thanks for the guide. The only problem is to find therapists to pass it on to for the people that ask about going off meds. (temporarily not considering the question of funds). Is there a network of therapist such as yourself. For years people have asked me for recommendations.
The group I knew disbanded in the 90′s the head guy died, I don’t even know if anyone anywhere practices what they practiced. So I cannot recommend anyone to anywhere.
When I find someone practicing psychotherapy, I try to find out if it matches when I have known, but I haven’t had the opportunity to ask anyone beyond the superficial.
They ran two groups a day morning, afternoon and night (maybe one one at night depending)), I am only familiar with group psychotherapy as effective though I had some one on one , it was incidental or supplemental.
I see groups as being far more powerful and with more functionality.
Hi Max,
I’m not aware of a network of therapists specifically oriented around getting people off medications. However, the ICSPP http://icspponline.org/ is a group of mostly mental health professionals who are very critical of medications and who frequently help people get off, and ISPS http://www.isps.org/ is an international group of mostly mental health professionals who are interested in psychosocial approaches to psychosis, and many frequently help people reduce or get off medication as part of that.
We couldn’t locate support in Canada for withdrawing the medication and therefore undertook the task without support. The key is gradual reduction and where there are multiple drugs eliminating them one at a time. It is important to understand that reduction and elimination of psychiatric drugs causes withdrawl effects. The question becomes is the effect one of withdrawl or one that was intending to be treated with the drug in the first place?
We are now two years drug free and two years from the last (recent) psychosis to the second to last one. The last psychosis was experienced unmedicated and now appears to have passed. Unfortunately, it is considerably more difficult to overcome the effects of the context that all of this experience has created. If the context was as easily withdrawn (reshaped) as the drugs the task would be a whole lot simpler. The residual effects of the drugs are temporary. The residual effects of the experience and the context that develops as a consequence last considerably longer.
Forcing people to take medications is not the key. Firstly, by reducing medication one needs to have faith that he is healed and stick to a free mind full of love and happiness. listening to inspirational music helps a lot preferably gospel music. Let’s live under the faith principle that we r fine and we shall be fine. Jesus sorted the warfare 2012 years ago so just believe in that and you will be fine. Just know that no one can harm you unless u permit it. If schizo has a cure i’d say yes because the Bible says perfect love casteth away fear. Let’s live under perfect love and all these disorders will be behind us
Hi George,
I agree with you that a positive spiritual perspective can be extremely helpful in recovery, though just what that means can be different for different people.
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