Support Groups
May 2, 2007 by giannakali
In an older post I recommended a withdrawal and recovery yahoo group that gives support and advice to people coming off of psych meds. It has not been active lately and questions are being left unanswered. I now suggest another group that gives lots of information and support. The Safe Harbor Alternative Mental Health website is here. If you’re interested in sharing your journey and learning from others you can sign up for their yahoo support group here.
Update: the other withdrawal and recovery group has started up again. You can sign up here. There can be a delay to get involved as there are so many people participating. Also I believe there is a vetting process. Not everyone is allowed to participate. (I have no idea what that process is or why it is in place)
Also for benzo withdrawal a good group that stresses natural alternatives is here. It’s appropriate for people in post-withdrawal crisis as well.
Another site that offers support for alternative treatments for bipolar disorder is here.
I do not endorse any of these groups and think that everyone needs to participate with care. Do your own research and don’t take anyone’s word as gospel. Trust your gut, but don’t be gullible. These are valuable resources for information, but not everything works for everyone and you have to be careful with any information you choose to follow.
For an easy to the eye list of these groups look in my side bar under the heading “Support Groups for Withdrawal and/or Alternative Treatment.”
Where can I get help to cope with these withdrawals from Lamictal? Is there natural help for bi-polar[vitamins and nutrients] thank-you really ever somuch,mary
Mary,
these support groups are a good place to start. (click on the links and you can sign up for them) there are many nutrients and having a good diet can help support your body as well.
Also if you are still withdrawing think about stopping and waiting until you feel better again before continuing. You might even want to increase the dose a bit and wait until you feel better and then start tapering at a much much slower pace. I know that when I finish my lamictal taper(I’ve only done 200 mg of the 400 mg I’m on) I’m going to go much slower. Even 3 % cuts of current dose will get you there eventually.
Please do seek out support with the above groups. I’ll see you there as well as I am a member of them.
I am looking for a support group for natural alternatives for schizoaffective disorder. We live in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Nancy the best group for that that I’m aware of is Safe Harbor’s yahoo group.
You can find them here:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/safeharbor2/
Ask questions and stick around and “listen.” It takes time to learn and feel competent. Start doing google searches on stuff you learn in the group too. Do everything you can do to learn.
Also on my about page are some good books to look at. The nutrition books on mood are good for schizoaffective disorder too, even if they don’t say so explicitly.
You might try “The Brain Chemistry Diet” as well, by Michael Lesser, MD. He does a personality test that he then recommends orthomolecular treatments for.
good luck.
http://bipolarblast.wordpress.com/about/