The information presented here is not medical advice, and has been written by a layperson with no medical training. There is no suggestion that you should follow anything written here. In fact, the only part of this post that constitutes advice is this: If you even consider the contents of this post at all, it should be considered as part of consulting qualified and licensed medical professionals and following their advice.

 

You are making your own decisions, and part of that is reading information posted by anonymous individuals on the internet and deciding how much you want to consider it.

 

 

 

Medications, Supplements and Other Substances in Withdrawal

 

Introduction

 

Based on the stories of many suffers, across a range of support groups over many years, a number of individuals can have significant negative reactions to introducing new non-psychiatric medications, supplements and other substances.

 

This can present as an increase in the severity of withdrawal symptoms, or as the presentation of entirely new ones.

What is clear, is that introducing any new medication, supplement or substance in withdrawal comes with a potentially higher level of risk than doing so when not in withdrawal.

 

 

Medications

 

When considering introducing a new medication whilst in withdrawal, it is important to weigh the risk of doing so against the reasons for introducing the medication.

It may well be that you have other health issues that you are seeking advice from doctors for, and that the necessity of treatment of these issues overrides the potential risk of introducing new treatments/medications.

 

It is worth considering yourself “drug-sensitive” in withdrawal, and acting accordingly. If a treatment is absolutely necessary, then it may not be sensible to avoid it, although it would be sensible to discuss being “drug-sensitive” with the clinician(s) overseeing your treatment and what options there are for you on this basis.

 

If medications/treatments are unnecessary, then it is very much worth evaluating the risk of them making withdrawal syndrome significantly worse and causing setbacks against the purported benefits of the treatment. As an example, you may decide that introducing a medication purely for symptomatic relief of another condition is not worth risking a significant worsening of withdrawal syndrome.

When faced with other health issues, this decision might be quite difficult and unfortunately it is not one that anyone can make for you. What is important, is that you realise that withdrawal syndrome can make you very sensitive to further adverse drug reactions when evaluating this decision.

 

 

Over the Counter Drugs

 

Following on from the example given above, many “over the counter” drugs and substances (ones that do not need a prescription) are often seem as “harmless” or much less risky than prescription medications.

 

However, the statement in the introduction is as true for these as prescription drugs:

 

What is clear, is that introducing any new medication, supplement or substance in withdrawal comes with a potentially higher level of risk than doing so when not in withdrawal.

 

Some people in various support groups for withdrawal syndrome have reacted extremely negatively to over the counter drugs/remedies/substances, even ones that they previously tolerated fine.

As many of these substances are for symptomatic relief and do not actually treat significant health issues, often the risk to benefit ratio of them is very much skewed towards them being a lot of risk for very limited benefit.

 

To put it in plainly: you must balance the risk of making yourself a lot worse against short term relief these things provide, if any. This goes for any and all treatments and substances, such as antihistamines, painkillers, sleep aids etc.

 

 

Herbal Remedies

 

Anything marketed or sold as having psychoactive benefits (calming, stress relief, mood-boosting etc) seems very risky in withdrawal, as they often interfere with the very bodily systems that are thought to already be dysregulated in withdrawal. The same goes for sleep-promoting substances.

 

Even remedies and supplements that are not marketed as such carry risks, and I’d personally (you do not need to listen to me) question the point of taking any substance with no clear, obvious benefit and exposing yourself to the risk of significantly worsening your situation.

 

 

Supplements

 

Stories of people significantly improving withdrawal syndrome with any kind of supplement are uncommon. At best, positive experiences mostly suggest some relief of symptoms.

The majority of people seem to experience no benefits at all from supplementation, particularly severe cases.

 

At the time of writing, there is no proof that withdrawal syndrome is caused by any kind of nutritional deficiency and the advice given in many support groups to eat a healthy, balanced and nutritionally complete diet as much as possible is likely to mean that you are not deficient nutritionally if followed.

 

If supplements are to be introduced, there are a few suggestions that you may wish to consider (but are under no obligation to follow):

• Do not add supplements from a position of desperation expecting significant relief from severe symptoms- this is a recipe for an adverse reaction that makes it worse.
• Similarly, introducing various supplements in the acute stages of withdrawal is very risky and unlikely to fix it- the risk/benefit ratio is very poor.
• If you decide to introduce a supplement, introduce it slowly at a low dose and see if you react to it in any way. Only then, slowly over time is it sensible to increase the amount you are taking.
• Introduce supplements one at a time.

 

It is important to consider that the risk to benefit ratio of supplementation can be quite poor for supplementation in withdrawal. Some have reported some mild symptomatic relief (but not “fixing” withdrawal syndrome), such as magnesium slightly helping sleep, however the majority report that supplementation has no positive effects for them.

 

In addition to this, a significant number of people report introducing supplements (including magnesium as in the above example) significantly worsening their symptoms.

 

 

Alcohol and other Narcotics

 

Alcohol has been observed to make a significant number of people with withdrawal syndrome a lot worse, both in terms of significantly worsening symptoms and in terms of seeming to prolong it by causing extended setbacks. It is best avoided entirely.

 

The same goes for other recreational substances and narcotics, although the number of cases in support groups that have been observed is much smaller- it would be incredibly risky to introduce illicit and poorly quality controlled recreational substances that act on the brain and body whilst you are already significant dysregulated and unwell.

 

 

Summary

 

In withdrawal syndrome, introducing any new substances can be very risky. Unless doing so is medically necessary, it is likely best to avoid doing so entirely. There are many examples of people ignoring this risk and doing it anyway only to significantly worsen their condition in various support groups.

 

Everyone is free to make their own decisions for their own health, and this post is merely to draw attention to what has been observed across many patient stories for you to consider.

 

 

thank you for posting this, i was taking magnesium at night, and I would wake up 2 hours later with the most painful headache I had ever experienced. I did not even connect the magnesium to the pain..

As soon as i stopped taking it, the headaches at night are gone.. 

8 hours ago, sunshinekitty said:

As soon as i stopped taking it, the headaches at night are gone.. 

Good to hear. Many don’t tolerate even magnesium.