[DontTrustheGov't]

Learned helplessness is a leading theory on why people become complacent in mental disorders after developing the belief that nothing they do can change their situation.

I was on Klonopin 4mg/day and I became tolerant and dependent. It is important to note that before this I had been on Paxil, Lexapro, Zoloft, Seroquel, Wellbutrin, and Ativan. None of these worked except Klonopin.

Eventually the Klonopin stopped helping and I started thinking that my anxiety would never get better no matter what I did. I started drinking alot and my life got much worse. I got very depressed and I started to have a flat affect for much of the time.

I eventually got off the Klonopin and now take Celexa and Xanax, go to therapy, and exercise. Basically getting of Klonopin helped me realize there was still many ways to improve anxiety and it got me out of the cycle of learned helplessness thinking.

Does this type of **** happen to other people?

 

[euphoria]

Yes, that is part of how I feel all the time. I get moderate/severe anhedonia (quite dysphoric), flat affect, and other schizoid bull****. Except I have always felt like this, my entire life. Taking drugs wasn't my downfall; it was the only time I have ever caught a fleeting glimpse of the world from eyes that feel something.

CBT was about as pointless as eating a bar of soap, for me. I was just acting due to my lack of emotion and motivation. You might say "just stop acting and be honest", but if I didn't act, all I'd be capable of doing is sitting there and zoning out on the world.

If you want to see what it's like for me, try taking a potent, selective antipsychotic dopamine antagonist. Now imagine 18 years of that feeling. It's been like a prison sentence spent in solitary confinement. Even when I keep myself stoned for weeks on end, I get zero paranoia or psychosis (like being on haloperidol).

 

[Medline]

If you want to see what it's like for me, try taking a potent, selective antipsychotic dopamine antagonist.

Hmm... Haldol at 10mg didn't change my feelings at all. An idiot prescribed me the drug years ago without any clear reason (like psychosis), but it didn't turn me into a zombie or so.