Hi, I'm Lrak

Hi, I’m Lisa. I’m here as a mom trying to support my 27-year-old son, who has been through an extremely difficult and prolonged withdrawal/nervous system sensitization experience after coming off several psychiatric medications. He had been on psychiatric medications for many years, including lamotrigine for about 16 years, gabapentin for about 8 years, antidepressants for many years, and Adderall for about 2 years. He came off several medications over a relatively short period of time, and what followed became much more severe than anything our family ever expected. Last summer was the worst of it. He became so sensitized that light, sound, smells, noise and even normal conversation could be too much for him. His world became incredibly small for months. He has made progress since then, but recovery has been very slow and he is still dealing with daily dizziness, nervous system symptoms, severe OCD, food fears and restriction, and difficulty getting back to normal life. It has now been about 20 months, and he is exhausted by how long this has gone on. He has made progress from the worst of it, but he is tired and struggling to believe there is an end in sight. One of the hardest parts has been how isolated this experience feels. We recently attended a psychiatric medication withdrawal support group, and while everyone was very kind, nobody there had experienced anything as severe as what he has been through. I joined TaperCommunity because I’m hoping to find people my son can actually connect with, especially younger adults who have experienced severe protracted withdrawal or nervous system sensitization and understand what this feels like from the inside. I would especially love to hear from anyone who experienced extreme sensory sensitivity, OCD or intrusive thoughts, food fears, dizziness or autonomic symptoms and eventually improved. More than anything, I’m hoping to find community for him, people he can relate to and talk with, real stories of recovery, and some hope that life can open back up again after being this limited for this long.