Symptoms: Cognitive impairment, depersonalization/derealization, suicidal ideation, severe anxiety/panic, muscle/joint pain, body dysmorphia, severe depression, skin peeling, bone pain, acne scarring
Started college in fall of 2006, and did so with very little in terms of nutritional knowledge or natural health knowledge, so my diet was very poor that first semester. Because of this, I developed very bad acne on my face and chest/back that was very difficult to treat and made me feel pretty crappy about my appearance.
Went to the doctor in winter of 2006 and was prescribed Accutane, with no idea it'd be the beginning of 2 decades of literal hell on earth (because of the psych meds it ultimately led me to). Within 2-3 months on a high dose of Accutane, back at college during spring of 2007, I became severely depressed to the point I could barely leave my dorm room. I developed massive panic and anxiety to the point I could not even communicate with people. I felt like I was losing my mind. Developed a pretty bad case of body dysmorphia, to the point I was in front of a mirror for hours at a time. I understand I was previously self-conscious about the acne I had developed, but this was some otherworldly, pharmaceutically induced dreamland of torture I didn't know existed.
My skin peeled, my bones and joints screamed bloody murder. I had even gotten to the point that summer where I was probably in the best shape in terms of fitness and body composition in my life, and yet the body dysmorphia raged on. It was truly a bizarre experience and I would warn against people ever using this garbage.
All it would have taken was some nutritional knowledge and lifestyle changes and I wouldn't have had to worry about any of what I'd gone through. At the end of July 2007, my parents took me back to the doctor and he told me, "I'm sorry, but I think the drug I put you on f*cked you up." These were his exact words. He suggested a psychiatrist, who I then saw and was prescribed Lexapro, after stopping the Accutane, at which point I'd been on it for about 6 months. No washout period. No "let's stop this poison and allow your body to heal." Just right onto other drugs that I should have never taken and never needed. Criminal.
That mistake led to the well-known "merry-go-round" of pharma and psych pills that have destroyed the past 20 years of my life. Will share my story in terms of the rest of those benzos and SSRIs in another post.