psa to everyone on antipsychotics during the summertime
some antipsychotics can make you more susceptible to heat exhaustion because they make it so your body cannot regulate your body temperature correctly. I learned this the hard way last summer, I got really nasty heat exhaustion while on a high dose of quetiapine. so check if your meds react badly to heat, and if they do, please be sure to wear your sunscreen, have light cover ups on or with you, wear a hat, and stay hydrated! be safe
especiallyduloxetineandclozapine,know the signs of dehydration,take cooling breaks if you have to be in the sun
duloxetine is commonly branded in the USA as Cymbalta.
Note: many anti-bipolar meds are also antipsychotics. I found a list of psychotropic meds that can increase risk of heat exhaustion here:
Can personally confirm that Latuda/Lurasidone can also mess with your heat response and lead to heat exhaustion if you aren’t careful, like I wasn’t.
[ID: Screenshot of a page with two columns listing trade names beside generic names of medications; the columns have been compiled into a list for ease of comprehension/reading.
Common psychotropic medications that may impair the heat response:
ramadan is coming up so fasting muslims on medication please remember to be very careful and hydrate more than you normally would at suhoor and iftar!!!
Can confirm that Seroquel also exacerbates my preexisting photophobia as well as temperature regulation!
Trazidone and Prozac are also often prescribed to pets with anxiety issues.
Also, I had no idea that literally every anti-depressant I’ve been on can cause this issue. My inability to handle being in the sun much over the last few years suddenly has a very possible root cause.
Possible alternate title “Such a Magical Fucking Journey”
Artist statement(/rant)
I can’t decide between the titles because this is both political and personal, much moreso of both than my work usually is. I am currently pregnant, very much by choice, midway through second trimester. I have been making these relief prints at each stage of pregnancy depicting the current stage of fetal development. A few days ago we ran into an acquaintance at the statehouse while we were protesting the probable overturning of Roe v Wade, and while catching up I mentioned just a couple of the pregnancy side effects I’d been struggling with. He was utterly shocked having never heard of most of what I described which made me think, if this well-meaning pro-choice man has no idea what pregnancy really entails, that’s probably even more true of the men making the laws. I expect a lot of the people suggesting adoption as a viable option for an unwanted pregnancy see pregnancy as a temporary inconvenience and have no idea how much it can disrupt one’s life.
For the record, for the most part I pulled this side effects list from the “what to expect when you’re expecting” website, and with a few exceptions most aren’t even considered complications, these are almost all things considered normal. Most aren’t even treated or treatable since even basic over the counter medications (including ibuprophen and Pepto bismal) are not considered safe during pregnancy. There are tons more potential effects many of which can be life threatening that I didn’t list.
I hope anyone who would consider forcing someone to go through with an unwanted pregnancy learns exactly what that means.
And on a more personal note, I’ve been frustrated with the way the narrative of pregnancy is framed. When people talk about unwanted pregnancy they talk about horrifying body changes, health issues, and so on, but when people talk about wanted pregnancies the narrative is always how beautiful and magical it all is. I’m pregnant on purpose, this will be an extremely planned and wanted baby, but as an experience, this still sucks. Being in the midst of a combination of ever-changing body horror and illness has made it especially frustrating to hear people constantly telling me how wonderful it all is, I feel like I’m getting gaslit by society at large.
has anyone had any experiences with SNRIs? I’ve been prescribed many SSRIs and it’s been decided they don’t work for me. I have an appointment tomorrow to switch off Lexapro to some SNRI(possibly Effexor) but I’ve been reading lots of reviews and I’m not sure what to expect
Hey. If you are currently taking or considering taking medication for depression/anxiety/other mental health things, first of all: I’m with you. I feel for you and I wish you the best success at getting better and feeling like yourself again.
We’ve seen flashes of what it looks like to detox from Heroin on TV. But they never show detox from CymbaltaorEffexor. And those guys have a nasty detox too.
Disclaimer 1: This post is notanti-medication. It’s not meant to scare you out of taking them. If they help you - take them! It’s just here to help answer questions you might have, such as “Are my new tremors related to the medication I’m taking?” or “Why have I been dizzy for three weeks?”
There is no shame in taking medication for your mental health.
Disclaimer 2:I am not a doctor. Always always always consult your medical professionals. This is only meant to add some knowledge to your vocabulary of things to ask that your doctor might not mention.
I’m giving examples from Effexor because that’s what I know, but the general principles in this post apply to any psychiatric drug.
Below is an incomplete list of withdrawal symptoms from coming off of VenlafaxineakaEffexorakaViepax (the check marks are ones I have experienced):
brain shivers
agitation✅
anxiety✅
confusion
mania
mood swings
anorexia
impaired coordination✅
dizziness✅
fatigue✅
lethargy✅
headaches✅
night tremors
tremor✅
sensory disturbances✅
electric shock-like sensations
vomiting
vertigo✅
sweating
diarrhea
dry mouth✅
… the list goes on. Anything could be a side effect. Nightmares. Loss of appetite. Muscle aches. Sleep disruption. A completely whacked sleep schedule.
I’m posting this because people should know.
First of all,
NEVER STOP TAKING A MEDICATION WITHOUT CONSULTING A DOCTOR.
Second of all, even if you are on a regular dose of Venlafaxine, you might still have some withdrawal symptoms.
Third of all, if you suddenly start having these symptoms, you deserve to know that it could be caused by your medication.
Now, you might be wondering why anyone would ever take this drug if there are so many side effects and such horrible withdrawal? And that’s a fair question. And the answer is that sometimes it’s worth it. Venlafaxine does help with anxiety and depression and their side effects, such as brain fog. It can restore someone to functionality enough that they are not incapacitated by their mental illness. Sometimes it’sworth the side effects if it means you can have a job, take care of yourself and your loved ones, enjoy a drink with friends, feel emotions, drive, etc.
There is no shame in taking medication for your mental health.
There is no shame in taking medication for your mental health.
There is no shame in taking medication for your mental health.
And sometimes it’ll work for a little while and then stop. And if you go to the doctor with just your symptoms, they’ll take a thousand and one tests and conclude that nothing is wrong with you. And you’ll be caught in a loop of asking yourself, What is wrong with me? Is this my life? Am I just…like this now? And that can be terrifying in itself.
So spread the word. Make sure people who are taking or considering taking this drug know what symptoms might be connected to it. It could save a lot of time wondering why we suddenly have extra headaches or get random shivers when it’s not cold outside.
Knowledge is power. Advocate for yourself. Make your psychiatric prescriber inform you of the possible side effects and symptoms you might experience from the medication they just gave you. If you are a highly sensitive person like me, let your doctors know that.
I am going through withdrawal right now. If you are too, I feel for you. If you are screaming into the void of a medical system wondering why you have a zillion symptoms and perfect test results, my heart is with you. You are not alone in this.
In an interaction with DNA Hindi, Priyanjali said that her mom motivated her to be an engineer and innovate for good. “Nowadays people are doing so many startups, doing innovation, you are also engineering student, you should also do something,” her mother told her when she had come to her home in Delhi.
Priyanjali, 20, said that she had noticed the Alexa device which takes commands when a user speaks. She realised that for those who cannot speak or cannot hear, Alexa is of no use. “That’s where the idea of making an AI model came to my mind and I started working on it,” she said.
One reason it is so exciting that this technology is coming out of India specifically is the high instance of deafness as a side effect of the tuberculosis treatments used there today.
One of the most common side effects of the previous (and often ineffective) old-generation tuberculosis drugs still used in treatment, is that one in four patients go deaf. Kanamycin is a fifty-year-old drug that would not get approved today. New generation drugs (such as bedaquiline) are either completely unavailable or priced far beyond affordability. The high occurrence of TB in India, coupled with poor diagnosis and management through private healthcare, and an ignorance among medical professionals of this common side effect, mean high instances of sudden deafness. (For more reading I suggest Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History by Vidya Krishnan)
In India, 6.3% of the population are Deaf or significantly hard of hearing. That’s roughly the same percentage as the number of children under 5 years old in the US. India has only within the last decade begun codifying and standardizing sign language (though it has been in use for centuries), but tools like this could significantly impact quality of life for those who use sign, and open opportunities for communication that are currently closed to many.
Thanks to @lazysunjade for bringing the light of progress to that I-still-can’t-remember-the-proper-word place where retarded bears usually sleep away their lives.
