Integrating Pharma Drugs with a Holistic Treatment Plan

Tourettes and its common comorbid disorders are conventionally treated psychiatrically with a sleugh of medications from antidepressants, antipsychotics, and more.  Is this approach right for you?  Does it work?  Plenty of us veteran neurodivergents have had our fair run in with these drugs, and with mixed results.  Personally, after twelve years of taking them, I give the experience an intensely scowling one out of five stars.  BUT neurolgical disorder is intimately experiential as our symptoms experess in so many ways.  So how do we wisely integrate prescription medications into all the ways we manage our symptoms?

Three words: before, during, and after.

Before.  Take a couple of months to journal your symptomatic experience and everything that means to you.  For example, my depression feels heavy in my abdomen, and I’m bedridden for two days a week until I feel like I can get up. Or, I have a tic attack three times a day, usually moderate, but a couple times per week they are painfully severe.  Then write down what you want to change.  I want to reduce the severity and frequency of my tic attacks to one attack every other day, and no more painfully severe tic attacks.  These are just place markers.  Something to give us a range to relect upon later.

During.  As you work with your doctor to ween onto a specific drug, note any effects you may experience.  Are you more lethargic?  Do you get dizzy, and how often?  Has your appetite shifted?  So on and so forth.  After a month or so on, reflect back on what you previously wrote in the “before” page of your journal.  Has something changed?  If so, what, and how did it change?  Write it all down.  My depression isn’t as heavy, and I don’t feel restrained to my bed anymore even if I do get depressed.  Or, symptoms remain largley unchanged, but the tics are slightly less severe.  You undertand now.

After.  Are you satisfied?  Was there a big enough change in your experince with your disorders for you to consider it beneficial?  Pros vs cons, is this something you wish to continue?  Do you want to try a different drug(s) or do you want off entirely?  Talk to your doctor about the safest way do what you want to do.

We can always expand from here. If you have questions or comments, topics you want explored, or experiences you’d like to share you may email me at nick@tourettestictalk.com.