My main compulsion is seeking reassurance from search engines. Currently, I am tapering off a medication and my doctor’s tapering instructions don’t match the new hyperbolic tapering instructions available online and I spend hours asking how to proceed. Does anyone else spend hours on “Dr Google”?
I absolutely did and still catch the urge to do so, but it does get better when you resist! Earlier this year I was spending probably a minimum of six hours a day googling. Resisting at first felt impossible, but the longer you go without giving in, the easier it gets to not do so at all. I started a new med two nights ago, googled once for an answer, got the answer I needed, and then felt myself keep scrolling… that’s when I realized what I was doing was compulsive. And then, I just stopped!! I exited google and haven’t looked it up since. I know it’s so so hard, but I believe in you and I can offer you my lived experience that not engaging and sitting with the discomfort helps immensely over time. What helped me for awhile was starting a note in my phone that I filled with everything I wanted to google. So instead of typing it into google, I would just type it in the note. Was wild to look at how much of it was the same thing or nearly identical just looping. Anyway, I hope my testament helps! You can do this!
I do. I really try not to especially with AI now i feel like it's not even reliable! I would absolutely listen to your doctor.
@Anonymous My sister told me that a certain medication helped her son with anxiety. My primary doctor has two nurse practitioners who work under him and they just prescribed it to me with no questions asked. I didn’t google before taking it. They just said to take it for 4-6 weeks and then let them know how I felt. I did and by week 5 I have never felt so depressed and numb emotionally. I messaged my doctor through the app and the other NP said to cut it in half and take it for a few weeks and then stop, I had my annual doctor appointment with the actual doctor during this time and he warned me not to follow those instructions and to take it much slower. I was doing fine taking it slowly but I hit a point where I felt withdrawal symptoms and then I went down a rabbit hole and found out about the hyperbolic curve and how at the lower doses at the end of the taper is the most difficult and that it takes 2-4 weeks of stabilization between dropping the dose and I am now on 1mg and I went to 0.75mg and had a severe reaction and went back to 1mg and now need to drop down by 10% every 2-4 weeks and I’m looking at a 5 to 10 month taper for a medication I was on for 5 weeks. This makes it hard not to scan my body for symptoms and google. But yesterday I did go back to message my doctor and I asked for the main doctor to give me guidance on the taper and I explained my reaction at 0.75mg so hopefully I will get a good answer from my doctor this time
@Anonymous81! oh man i'm sorry that's one of my worst fears. it sounds like an antidepressant the way you are talking about it. the medical advice i have gotten is yes you have to taper them but the longer you are on them, the harder they are to get off and you should do a slower taper. so perhaps the annual dr didnt know it had only been 5 weeks? i have a friend that just got off lexapro and she was having the same issue at the end of the taper and her doctor said actually just get off completely because the slow taper was causing the reaction. I am not a dr and i was skeptical to hear her tell me that. but it ended up working for her. I hope they advise something that works for you. please take extra care of yourself while you're going through this
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