Tablets and Pau d'Arco

[brydee]

Hi iv been eating Raw for 8 days, i bought some pau d'arco and i want to drink it but before i found out about the Raw lifestyle in general i started taking anti-depressents, i had been avoiding them for a few years but thought it was a last resort, other than suicide, which now seems a ridiculous thing,.

what im bothered about and wondering, is reading about pau d'arco tea is it safe whilst im taking anti depressents, will it have an effect?bad?good?
Im really confused what to do, i mean 2 weeks ago i was close to suicide, i was on them a week then i found out about Raw, i want to stop taking them, because now i know why depression is caused etc and how bad these chemical are for me, but what am i to say to the doctors? what am i to do if depression comes flooding back??

Thanks,
:)

[KittyMommy]

If you want to come off antidepressants, it must be done carefully to avoid withdrawal symptoms, which I understand can be very unpleasant depending on what medicine you're taking. Talk to your doc about reducing your dose, if that's what you're determined to do. Personally, I don't have the aversion to allopathic medicine that many rawbies do; if the medicine is helping to alleviate dangerous symptoms, that's a good thing.

[brydee]

Thanks for the reply,

Yes, as iv only been on them for a couple of weeks, (some people stay on them for years) im sure shes going to try forcing me to stay on them, i dont know how to get out of it, it seems abit pointless me doing a juice fast or anything whist iv got the toxins of the tablets in my system, im on the lowest dose at the moment, so im hoping it shouldnt be to bad coming off them

[crystalmoon]

Hi it depends which sort you are on but i have had prozac in the past & it doesnt get into your system properly for at least 14 days so it is ok to stop them if you have been taking them for only a few days...check with your doctor ofcourse but just wanted to let you know that many of these types of drugs take 2 weeks to actually work/change your internal chemical balance.
since finding the raw lifestyle I have been able to come off antidepressants after being on them for 18 months :)

[justinesmith]

I've been off and on antidepressants for 5 years. Haven't had any in 18 months thanks to raw. I went off my meds cold turkey ( I am NOT endorsing this, more of an FYI) and suffered withdrawl for about 3 days. It frightened me to think about what I was putting in my body. I still have bouts of depression but nothing serious/life threatening when I am raw. Best of luck....:)

[brydee]

Thanks for the replies!!:)

That was very brave of you to come off them, cold turkey, my doctor wants me to stay on them for at least 6 months, which i do not want to unless i have to, i can handle depression now and again but not continuous for 5 years, i just have it on my mind all the time of the testing that would of been done on them, whats in them and what they are doing to my body, i tryed to sort myself out before and i ended up failing everytime, iv been off work for two weeks and my boss was not at all happy for the reason i was off, this is why i am worried about coming off them...im arguing with myself!!:mad:
Im hoping to change my whole lifestyle and career, and me, my entire life, as i was not made to be where i am now,

Does anyone know about the pau'darco tea?
I was only asking as i know it can be uncomfortable for the liver, so i did not want to do any major damage, i'll just save it for when im off them if it could react. im on citalopram at the moment.

[queenfluff]

Pau D' Arco tea is VERY detoxing...so it is great is you are trying to clean yourself out but you may end up with some heavy detox symptoms because it speeds up the detox.

I was drinking alot of it in the summer because I was thinking I had candida (which it is good for) and I some heavy detox (I was weak, couldn't keep anything down etc).

Since you just went raw and you are on the pills, you might have a lot to detox out so just be aware of how powerful the Pau D' Arco can be.

I might have been drinking too much of the tea - I made it as a sun tea so I was adding it to everything plus I was adding other detoxers to it - so I may have overdid it. But when I got really sick with detox - I stopped drinking it.

If you get any detox and it too hard for you to handle, just drink less of it or stop it for a while until the detox goes to a level you can handle.

Taste wise - it kind of reminds of root beer a little bit. :)

It definately does its job though! Just be cautious with how much you drink. I think a few cups a day is recommended. I was drinking a whole glass every morning. I think it took a week or two for the detox to hit me though.

[brydee]

Thanks for that!

I might save it then and wait abit longer, the tablets are already making me feel weak and tired so i dont want to over do it.
I think i will do a full detox when i come off the tablets

[VeganGypsie]

I'm on citalopram, too. when i started it, six years ago, i was reluctant, but also close to suicide. my mom got mad at my sister for telling me not to do it. she agreed with me that one shouldn't take OTCs for every headache, but thought that this was a different type of situation. she said "you wouldn't tell a diabetic not to take insulin." But i'd never heard of raw - a means by which diabetics CAN get off of insulin shots - or at least reduce the amount a lot. so here's hoping depression turns out to be a similar situation. It was better than suicide at the time. but it cause dependence/withdrawal, and requires ever increasing doses throughout life. so celexa/citalopram is a stepping stone for me, I will be free of it and of depression someday.