Symptoms: Akathisia, Brain zaps, Severe anxiety/panic, Muscle/joint pain
I'm here to share my mom's journey. My hope is maybe Lord-willing one day she will break free from the chains of akathisia, rise above depression, and share her own story.
The past 5 years we (her husband and 4 kids) have been in pursuit of finding a doctor who can give us answers and bring healing to our mom. Only to be sent from one doctor to the next and have them prescribe drug upon drug without results. She has been hospitalized 3 times in the last 15 years due to severe depression, been on countless depression medications, and has done ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy) sessions.
The last time she was hospitalized we took her to a behavioral health center because we didn't know what to do anymore. There she was drugged to the point of laying in bed all day and not even bothering to get up to use the restroom. The first time we visited her she had a fall risk note on her door, and it seemed so odd to us because she never fell at home. Soon after seeing how she was getting worse rather than improving, we got her discharged. We knew we could take better care of her at home. It was so heartbreaking and horrifying to see a parent like that. Words cannot express it.
After that we got home and we went a different route with TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation). We waited months for insurance to approve it because it's extremely expensive, with promises that it would help. We went through the treatments and never saw any signs of improvement.
It's hard to say the kinds of depression medication we tried because the amount was numerous, but I can name a few. She took Lexapro for years until she lost contact with her doctor because covid turned the world a little crazy and he only accepted appointments through Zoom calls. She wasn't the tech-savvy type and in no condition to find help herself. I remember Bupropion, Abilify, Pristiq, Zoloft, Prozac, Wellbutrin, Lithium, Vilazodone, Lorazepam. Side effect after side effect, you didn't know what's going to happen from one day to the next. Things got so bad she didn't get any rest, and she kept us from getting rest at night.
One day we decided we have had enough of this prescription drug story. Years with no signs of improvement, we decided to try a more holistic approach and focused on gut health and toxin removal. She got better physically and mentally, but she still complains all day long about brain zaps, hurt and pain throughout her body. But nothing compared to the extent of what we saw while on prescription drugs.