How long will I have to take these medicines like fluoxetine, fluvoxamine amitriptyline and clonazepam? I don't want to rely on medication for my whole life.

Question

Atleast 6 month after the remission of the illness, and medications needs to be tapered and stopped and should not be stopped abruptly. It's always best if you do it under the guidance of a psychiatrist.
I wish you stay healthy!

Sartaj Deepak · Accepted Answer

Atleast 6 month after the remission of the illness, and medications needs to be tapered and stopped and should not be stopped abruptly. It's always best if you do it under the guidance of a psychiatrist.
I wish you stay healthy!

Aaradhana Reddy · Answer

Dear Lybrate user, it must've been difficult going through that. I understand your concern of not wanting to depend on medications your whole life. For the conditions you mentioned of anxiety, ocd, insomnia etc. I suggest you take psychological counselling/therapy. A combination of medications and therapy works best. Therapy teaches you strategies and skills to manage anxiety, ocd and insomnia. Once you have learned to manage, you can reduce your dependence on medications. Therapy helps you in the long term as well. Especially cognitive behaviour therapy is proven and widely used to treat anxiety, ocd and other disorders as well. All the best! if you need anymore help you can contact me as well through Lybrate.

Saranya Devanathan · Answer

Dear lybrate-user, the duration of medication depends on the diagnosis. In few diagnosis, you need life long medication like diabetes, hypertension, hormone replacement, etc. Talk to your doctor and manage your medical conditions with alternative treatments like jpmr (jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation), cbt (cognitive behaviour therapy), erp (exposure and response prevention), cognitive enhancement therapy, sleep hygiene etc. Then you can slowly withdraw these medicines.

P K Sukumaran · Answer

Dear Md I,
Until and unless the illness is cured May take a long time. You are reating BP, Dabetes fr along time you now..Like that you may to treat.  See your doc regularly