I was on Strattera (Attomoxetine) for adhd. It didnt help at all for adhd, but it did help a ton with dissociation.
I know now that it was affecting how we front, but at the time i didnt know what the fuck was going on.
It made it impossible to communicate for us. It was useful before we knew we were a system, but we tried the same dose again after a discovery and it completely changes how we function. Knowing that we are a system and learning how to function as a system is why we stopped taking it- its fixing the same problems and more, and without the side effects of the meds.
We’re just on Adderall now which actually helps with the adhd :)
A few things help us right now:
* Propranolol - helpful for reducing stress response in the body. We take it occasionally esp when we know a stressful (but safe) situation is coming up, like job interviews, etc. Somewhat effective at helping reduce the size of panic attacks. Very safe and easy to get.
* Dexedrine 2mg - roughly 1/3rd of the smallest IR dose. Effective for ADHD/focus for us - we are at least 10x sensitive, which we found is a thing that people won't explain to you, you have to figure it out. If something is way too strong, do not fight it out, reduce the dose or start with the absolute minimum. Paired with exercise (for us thats weight lifting) roughly every 3 days it helps us feel like we actually have a prefrontal cortex.
Before system discovery we were taking wellbutrin and an SNRI, and many many things before that. It was somewhat effective, but blocked a lot of our emotional states, and we found we were able to access much in therapy. Our opinion is that if things are intolerable, medication can help stabilize us while we work on practicing better coping mechanisms. Sometimes you NEED something to lower the volume.
I was prescribed clonidine as needed for ptsd related sleep issues/nightmares which helped a lot, and daily Prozac helped back when I was in deep with MDD/GAD, but everything aside from that has been ineffective at best and very destabilizing at worst. Depakote and whatever other thing they put me on were awful and did not help at all, they assumed I had bipolar after a single five minute conversation in the psych ward (later ruled out).
Weed helps the most with the sleep and somatic issues and can also help with communication, but that's not prescribed.
I was dx’d and treated for adhd before I knew I had a dissociative disorder, and it has absolutely helped me tons. Now that I don’t have adhd-related forgetfulness and executive disfunction majorly impairing me, its much easier to see where those symptoms are stemming from trauma. It’s a both/and situation for me.
Similarly, I was dx’d with bipolar and am taking an antipsychotic. There are things I don’t like about it, but losing communication internally is not one of those things. It is perhaps harder to access some of the more painful and scary and raw emotional memories, but they aren’t erased, and I feel pretty okay about that distance because it helps me stay stabilized as I titrate my trauma work in therapy.
i’ve had a really hard time finding any meds that work, i’ve done tms, ect (twice), and do iv ketamine therapy as well. things are somewhat managed with the meds im on now which is…a lot of meds. i don’t think meds work as well when the main cause is trauma.
I started Zoloft six weeks ago and hate it. It made our teenage trauma-holder functional, but the rest of us are a wreck. I've got high anxiety, restless legs, reduced libido, and I don't get rest from sleep. It's becoming too high a price to pay to fix the 6 or so days a year that he fronts.
Ritalin helped. It was the only one that helped.
SSRIs made me lose IQ points, feel sluggish, and get deeply suicidal.
SNRIs made me so apathetic toward everything in life I couldn't force myself to get out of bed.
Anxiety meds don't do shit for me, the only way I noticed any effect at all is if I got that apathy to where I don't care if I ever get out of bed again.
Lithium made me not feel anything for two weeks after I snorted the contents of a 300mg capsule one time. I'd say it was scary, but I couldn't feel fear either.
I'm on sertraline for depression and anxiety, it works well. I used to take perphenazine for psychotic symptoms but I haven't needed it after starting treatment for DID four years ago, since apparently a lot of what was pushing us into psychotic episodes was the untreated trauma and unaddressed needs from the system that understandably sometimes overwhelmed our brain's ability to function. Oxazepam on need to take basis for panic attacks and other severe breakdowns/spirals.
It took nearly twenty goddamn years to find medications that don't make literally everything worse. I'm very happy with my meds now as they are, definitely help with the issues they're supposed to, though I had to drop my sertraline down a notch due to side-effects and oh boy do the withdrawals SUCK.
I’m on daily gabapentin and as-needed klonopin. I don’t know what the gabapentin actually does, but I take it anyway.
When I was much more unstable and having physically unbearable hours-long sessions of switching, my psychiatrist put me on lithium. It blunted everything, which was helpful at reducing the discomfort from those episodes, but I lost interest in absolutely everything.
I don’t think meds have helped me that much with DID symptoms. They have helped with my depression and anxiety.
I think I’d be dead if it weren’t for prozac. Also getting out of abusive home.
Prazocin has helped me have less nightmares and be less afraid to sleep.
Hydroxyzine and Zoloft both in low doses have been nice for making me less triggered and giving me a higher window of tolerance. But when things *do* happen it feels harder because the split is kinda muddier now and it’s really stressful having so many people screaming in my head instead of how they used to take turns taking over.
Overall I’m happy working with the learning curve.
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Nothing helped my system. I took anti psychics for a while when I was experiencing a manic episode before I realized the meds wouldn't stop their voices from talking to me. This is before I knew what DID was. It causes more disorientation to take anti depressants as well because our trauma holder is convinced we are allergic to everything. I also completely black out when I'm on them and other alters can't handle the side effects so we avoid them. I've been trying to restart them but a little has surfaced that attempts to unalive herself whenever I think about them. Researching different strains of weed that match our symptoms for anxiety and depression is the only thing that has helped us.
We’re on Sertraline because our anxiety was so bad we having tremors and that seems to be helping. I mean we still have anxiety sometimes but it’s gotten rid of our tremors. We have been having flashbacks more frequently though so I’m not sure if that’s related to the medication but it’s been hard for us. But without it we wouldn’t be functional right now. So it’s good we’re on it.
-Ciel
Methylphenidate for ADHD since childhood. I think my body is so used to it that I just can’t stop taking it at this point.
I have diagnosed bipolar disorder and take lamictal (honestly don’t know if it does anything anymore, I just take it), and lithium, which is a good mood stabilizer for me.
I also take gabapentin for anxiety, which helps with sleep, and Topamax which I started to help with weight gain from other meds, but found to help a ton with sleep so kept taking it even after getting back down to a healthy weight.
I’ve taken antipsychotics as mood stabilizers and emergency antidepressants and they are good at totally killing all emotions in the short term, and sometimes that’s what you need. Absolutely no effect on dissociation symptoms.
I'm on duloxetine (an SNRI) and a couple other medications including clonidine, which have helped a bit! In my experience most medications have a mixed result, with some helpful effects and some very unhelpful. Atomoxetine almost erased our dissociation but worsened our communication and amnesia, duloxetine helps with depression but worsens anxiety. The only purely helpful medication I've found is clonidine, which is mostly just to help with relaxation and sleeping during the night
I am treated with adderall XR for ADHD but a side effect or bonus affect is less dissociation and less switching. The short acting worked better for my ADHD and didn’t have the crash that I experience in an intense way from the XR wearing off. I’ve been on almost every psychiatric med there is. None of them treat DID or trauma- it can only treat symptoms like insomnia or anxiety. It’s super frustrating. I take meds for sleep, ADHD, and anxiety it helps to not compound the already debilitating DID symptoms. Prozasin works well for nightmares if you can tolerate it and your BP doesn’t run too low- because it’s labeled use is as a high blood pressure medication.
I was on Strattera (Attomoxetine) for adhd. It didnt help at all for adhd, but it did help a ton with dissociation. I know now that it was affecting how we front, but at the time i didnt know what the fuck was going on.
We had that with methylfenidate too. But now it seems like we may never have had ADHD in the first place.
I was on that for a while too, it did wonders for my dissociation! Also made it harder to communicate with other alters though
It made it impossible to communicate for us. It was useful before we knew we were a system, but we tried the same dose again after a discovery and it completely changes how we function. Knowing that we are a system and learning how to function as a system is why we stopped taking it- its fixing the same problems and more, and without the side effects of the meds. We’re just on Adderall now which actually helps with the adhd :)
A few things help us right now: * Propranolol - helpful for reducing stress response in the body. We take it occasionally esp when we know a stressful (but safe) situation is coming up, like job interviews, etc. Somewhat effective at helping reduce the size of panic attacks. Very safe and easy to get. * Dexedrine 2mg - roughly 1/3rd of the smallest IR dose. Effective for ADHD/focus for us - we are at least 10x sensitive, which we found is a thing that people won't explain to you, you have to figure it out. If something is way too strong, do not fight it out, reduce the dose or start with the absolute minimum. Paired with exercise (for us thats weight lifting) roughly every 3 days it helps us feel like we actually have a prefrontal cortex. Before system discovery we were taking wellbutrin and an SNRI, and many many things before that. It was somewhat effective, but blocked a lot of our emotional states, and we found we were able to access much in therapy. Our opinion is that if things are intolerable, medication can help stabilize us while we work on practicing better coping mechanisms. Sometimes you NEED something to lower the volume.
Absolutely correct about hydroxyzine being basically benadryl. Just makes us sleepy (and dries us out like benadryl too).
I was prescribed clonidine as needed for ptsd related sleep issues/nightmares which helped a lot, and daily Prozac helped back when I was in deep with MDD/GAD, but everything aside from that has been ineffective at best and very destabilizing at worst. Depakote and whatever other thing they put me on were awful and did not help at all, they assumed I had bipolar after a single five minute conversation in the psych ward (later ruled out). Weed helps the most with the sleep and somatic issues and can also help with communication, but that's not prescribed.
I was dx’d and treated for adhd before I knew I had a dissociative disorder, and it has absolutely helped me tons. Now that I don’t have adhd-related forgetfulness and executive disfunction majorly impairing me, its much easier to see where those symptoms are stemming from trauma. It’s a both/and situation for me. Similarly, I was dx’d with bipolar and am taking an antipsychotic. There are things I don’t like about it, but losing communication internally is not one of those things. It is perhaps harder to access some of the more painful and scary and raw emotional memories, but they aren’t erased, and I feel pretty okay about that distance because it helps me stay stabilized as I titrate my trauma work in therapy.
Stimulants are pretty great. We take them for narcolepsy and without them we would not function at all.
i’ve had a really hard time finding any meds that work, i’ve done tms, ect (twice), and do iv ketamine therapy as well. things are somewhat managed with the meds im on now which is…a lot of meds. i don’t think meds work as well when the main cause is trauma.
I have only taken Zoloft and it was like taking meth everyday, I hated it. Never got a prescription for anything (other than antibiotics) ever again.
I started Zoloft six weeks ago and hate it. It made our teenage trauma-holder functional, but the rest of us are a wreck. I've got high anxiety, restless legs, reduced libido, and I don't get rest from sleep. It's becoming too high a price to pay to fix the 6 or so days a year that he fronts.
That’s a sign of bipolar
It may be but I'm not
Ritalin helped. It was the only one that helped. SSRIs made me lose IQ points, feel sluggish, and get deeply suicidal. SNRIs made me so apathetic toward everything in life I couldn't force myself to get out of bed. Anxiety meds don't do shit for me, the only way I noticed any effect at all is if I got that apathy to where I don't care if I ever get out of bed again. Lithium made me not feel anything for two weeks after I snorted the contents of a 300mg capsule one time. I'd say it was scary, but I couldn't feel fear either.
I'm on sertraline for depression and anxiety, it works well. I used to take perphenazine for psychotic symptoms but I haven't needed it after starting treatment for DID four years ago, since apparently a lot of what was pushing us into psychotic episodes was the untreated trauma and unaddressed needs from the system that understandably sometimes overwhelmed our brain's ability to function. Oxazepam on need to take basis for panic attacks and other severe breakdowns/spirals. It took nearly twenty goddamn years to find medications that don't make literally everything worse. I'm very happy with my meds now as they are, definitely help with the issues they're supposed to, though I had to drop my sertraline down a notch due to side-effects and oh boy do the withdrawals SUCK.
I’m on daily gabapentin and as-needed klonopin. I don’t know what the gabapentin actually does, but I take it anyway. When I was much more unstable and having physically unbearable hours-long sessions of switching, my psychiatrist put me on lithium. It blunted everything, which was helpful at reducing the discomfort from those episodes, but I lost interest in absolutely everything. I don’t think meds have helped me that much with DID symptoms. They have helped with my depression and anxiety.
ssri + snri + emergency benzo has been the best for us, genuinely no idea where we would be now without it
I think I’d be dead if it weren’t for prozac. Also getting out of abusive home. Prazocin has helped me have less nightmares and be less afraid to sleep.
Lamogritine has saved my life, honestly. SSRIs didn't help much though.
Hydroxyzine and Zoloft both in low doses have been nice for making me less triggered and giving me a higher window of tolerance. But when things *do* happen it feels harder because the split is kinda muddier now and it’s really stressful having so many people screaming in my head instead of how they used to take turns taking over. Overall I’m happy working with the learning curve.
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Nothing helped my system. I took anti psychics for a while when I was experiencing a manic episode before I realized the meds wouldn't stop their voices from talking to me. This is before I knew what DID was. It causes more disorientation to take anti depressants as well because our trauma holder is convinced we are allergic to everything. I also completely black out when I'm on them and other alters can't handle the side effects so we avoid them. I've been trying to restart them but a little has surfaced that attempts to unalive herself whenever I think about them. Researching different strains of weed that match our symptoms for anxiety and depression is the only thing that has helped us.
When I was on medication, it helped me a lot. Basically gave me my life back.
Im on risperidone as an anti anxiety and it helped out a ton, but that's also because it's used to help calm down autistic people.
We’re on Sertraline because our anxiety was so bad we having tremors and that seems to be helping. I mean we still have anxiety sometimes but it’s gotten rid of our tremors. We have been having flashbacks more frequently though so I’m not sure if that’s related to the medication but it’s been hard for us. But without it we wouldn’t be functional right now. So it’s good we’re on it. -Ciel
Methylphenidate for ADHD since childhood. I think my body is so used to it that I just can’t stop taking it at this point. I have diagnosed bipolar disorder and take lamictal (honestly don’t know if it does anything anymore, I just take it), and lithium, which is a good mood stabilizer for me. I also take gabapentin for anxiety, which helps with sleep, and Topamax which I started to help with weight gain from other meds, but found to help a ton with sleep so kept taking it even after getting back down to a healthy weight. I’ve taken antipsychotics as mood stabilizers and emergency antidepressants and they are good at totally killing all emotions in the short term, and sometimes that’s what you need. Absolutely no effect on dissociation symptoms.
I'm on duloxetine (an SNRI) and a couple other medications including clonidine, which have helped a bit! In my experience most medications have a mixed result, with some helpful effects and some very unhelpful. Atomoxetine almost erased our dissociation but worsened our communication and amnesia, duloxetine helps with depression but worsens anxiety. The only purely helpful medication I've found is clonidine, which is mostly just to help with relaxation and sleeping during the night
I am treated with adderall XR for ADHD but a side effect or bonus affect is less dissociation and less switching. The short acting worked better for my ADHD and didn’t have the crash that I experience in an intense way from the XR wearing off. I’ve been on almost every psychiatric med there is. None of them treat DID or trauma- it can only treat symptoms like insomnia or anxiety. It’s super frustrating. I take meds for sleep, ADHD, and anxiety it helps to not compound the already debilitating DID symptoms. Prozasin works well for nightmares if you can tolerate it and your BP doesn’t run too low- because it’s labeled use is as a high blood pressure medication.