05-12-2009, 04:54 AM
You're asking the wrong people, you should consult your doctor. 
You should negotiate your medication with him. He's likely to be willing to reduce your doses IF you show you can handle it. This is where you must take responsibility. You must learn the factors that can destabilize you and organize your life around it..
Suspects are Alcohol, Drugs, Lack of, or irregular sleep, Caffeine, stress and over exciting yourself.
You must get to know how you respond to these and other factors in your life, and identify which destabilize you. Then you must reduce their effect. You could grade your days on a calendar in your bathroom. And if the grade is bad try to find the most likely suspect. After a few months you should gain insight in your weaknesses.
I expect your doctor will be willing to reduce your medication in small steps. But he will need to be convinced that you'll take responsibility of your state of mind. That you don't overestimate yourself. And that you believe this to be a serious and non trivial matter. In short you must become a partner in your own treatment.
Your doctor will reduce your medication, then wait for a while and check if there are symptoms. If there are none he will reduce them even more, and wait and see a little more. If you get symptoms he will hold the doses at that level or increase it a little. If you responsibly take control of your mind and take the above mentioned steps to avoid those symptoms. Then you can reduce the dose one step at a time. His goal is to keep you as symptom free as possible with as few side effects as possible.
This requires discipline, this requires you to recognize your weaknesses and accept them. Your drinking binge was one of those symptoms. Your family might have over reacted or they might not have. But this situation even if it was overrated is definitely one of the things you should try to avoid. Lets put it this way, abandoning all alcohol is a small price to pay for avoiding this medication.
I started with "Consult your doctor" I'll end with it too. He is your buddy in this. And he should be willing to negotiate with you. If he has authoritarian problems, you can consult another doctor for a second opinion. You cannot consider yourself an expert, ignore his advice and be responsible at the same time.
You should negotiate your medication with him. He's likely to be willing to reduce your doses IF you show you can handle it. This is where you must take responsibility. You must learn the factors that can destabilize you and organize your life around it..
Suspects are Alcohol, Drugs, Lack of, or irregular sleep, Caffeine, stress and over exciting yourself.
You must get to know how you respond to these and other factors in your life, and identify which destabilize you. Then you must reduce their effect. You could grade your days on a calendar in your bathroom. And if the grade is bad try to find the most likely suspect. After a few months you should gain insight in your weaknesses.
I expect your doctor will be willing to reduce your medication in small steps. But he will need to be convinced that you'll take responsibility of your state of mind. That you don't overestimate yourself. And that you believe this to be a serious and non trivial matter. In short you must become a partner in your own treatment.
Your doctor will reduce your medication, then wait for a while and check if there are symptoms. If there are none he will reduce them even more, and wait and see a little more. If you get symptoms he will hold the doses at that level or increase it a little. If you responsibly take control of your mind and take the above mentioned steps to avoid those symptoms. Then you can reduce the dose one step at a time. His goal is to keep you as symptom free as possible with as few side effects as possible.
This requires discipline, this requires you to recognize your weaknesses and accept them. Your drinking binge was one of those symptoms. Your family might have over reacted or they might not have. But this situation even if it was overrated is definitely one of the things you should try to avoid. Lets put it this way, abandoning all alcohol is a small price to pay for avoiding this medication.
I started with "Consult your doctor" I'll end with it too. He is your buddy in this. And he should be willing to negotiate with you. If he has authoritarian problems, you can consult another doctor for a second opinion. You cannot consider yourself an expert, ignore his advice and be responsible at the same time.