27th of April. Today was my 3rd year anniversary living medication free. Yay! So excited and how absolutely gorgeous are my bunch of roses that were delivered today! Thanks Hubby! Instead of raving on about how amazing I am to have achieved this. I want to talk about something else. It’s more important,  and it can change your life. Today I’d rather not focus on what I ‘stopped doing three years ago‘ but rather what I ‘started doing’. This to me, is a far more important message, and one that if you take on board, will change your life.

Many people want to stop taking their meds and many do, and many fail. In fact most fail. Why is that? It’s because stopping meds is their plan. Stopping medication is not a plan! There was a reason you were put on that medication in the first place. You weren’t walking around healthy loving life then you randomly decided to start taking meds. I know there are a million different scenarios, for me I was initially unwell but then mis-diagnosed for a long time which added to my complications. Regardless of your story which may or may not be like mine. Facts are you were put on meds for a reason. Stopping meds because they are not working or maybe the side effects are unbearable or they might even be contributing to your poor health. Either way, stopping is NOT a plan. Especially cold turkey! That is just dangerous! Very dangerous.

So what is a plan? How can it be done?

Prepare Prepare Prepare!! You are going into battle. You need to know what it is you are up against. This is hard work. This is not easy. After I had come off my long list of heavy psychotropic medications and started seeing a new doctor, I gave him a list of meds that I had just withdrawn off. His jaw dropped and he looked at me as said, Melissa how did you do this? This is worse than coming off heroin.

The unfortunate thing is that you would have more community support if you announced you wanted to come off heroin. So if you’re going to do this, you’ve got to be prepared to suck it up and do the work. You must tell your doctor, whether he agrees or not. You must do this under medical supervision. I required hospitalisation a few times during my withdrawal period. It initially took me four months to slowly wean off and then I still suffered withdrawal symptoms for months after this. Understand that medical supervision does not mean support. None of my doctors or nurses agreed with what I was doing, but they helped me do it safely.

So you want to stop your meds? If so, what are you replacing them with? If you are not going to use medication to balance or heal then what are you going to use? Remember psychiatric meds are not a cure anyway, they do not heal they bandaid. Psychotropics were never designed to be used as a long term treatment. Yet I was told I’d need to take them for the rest of my life, despite the controversial crippling side effects and what would be an eventual early mortality.

If you have decided to stop band aiding with medication then you must get serious about finding out what it is your body needs. What is the cause? No more just treating symptoms, instead getting to the root cause and look at actually healing. This is not an overnight solution. This is a long tedious process. It’s about pulling apart every area of your life and asking yourself – Is this contributing to my wellness? If it’s not, then it’s gotta go. It means making some tough choices about relationships, work, addictions, diet and the list goes on. You know what you need to do. It’s just about being brave enough to start. One small choice at a time.

As I said, it’s not all about what you are stopping it’s more about what you are STARTING. It’s about developing new daily habits that will contribute to your wellness. It’s coming to the realisation that there is no one magic pill and that as I’ve said a million times, It’s not one thing – it’s everything! So what can you introduce into your lifestyle today that is going to lead you towards a better life, a more healthier you? There is no change too small that is not worth celebrating. You might want to start meditating for 5 min in the morning or cut back on sugar or simply just start being more grateful. I don’t care what it is, just start! You will be surprised once you intentionally start choosing even the smallest of positive changes it will shift your focus. It will spill over into other areas of your life and before you know it one small change will lead to another and then another. You can finally become the YOU that you have laid in bed at night dreaming about becoming.  You can take control rather than being controlled by your body! Don’t listen to those who say it’s impossible. I’m telling you it absolutely is possible. Start today! I’d love to hear what your changes are!

Happy Anniversary to me!

Big love and strength to you all.

Meli x