The following side effects of stuttering medications are more than likely to occur as your treatment progresses: difficult breathing, unusual tiredness or weakness, severe muscle stiffness, loss of bladder control, fever, and/or irregular heart beat.

When are you likely to experience those side effects? Typically, if you will continue to use your stuttering medications for two or three months, you will experience them. Are you ready for more serious side effects of your stuttering medications? Here, they are...convulsions (seizures); high fever; high or low blood pressure; unusually pale skin; confusion; uncontrolled twisting movements of neck, trunk, arms, or legs; unusual bleeding or bruising; unusual facial expressions or body positions; trembling of fingers and hands; uncontrolled movements of the mouth, tongue, and jaw and many more. It will take you two, three, or four months to experience at least some of them. When the psychiatrist was asked about what will happen to a person after using these medications for a long time, he could even tell. You see all pharmaceutical manufacturers only conduct their trial studies of medications for a limited period of time. There is no scientific data that will tell you what illnesses you will acquire three or four years from taking these stuttering medications for a long period of time.

By the way, many people asked me if the drugs actually worked for me. I will tell you they did. No matter which drugs or medications I used, I noticed serious side effects sooner or later. I used Zoloft for a significant period of time. I felt like a zombie most of time. I used Paxil as well. It had a similar action on me. I got my hands on Xanax. I almost became addicted to it. This drug has a very calming effect on a person. Nevertheless, it is a highly addictive medication. I also used Propranolol. I constantly had an upset stomach and began to gain weight because it had an effect on my water retention. I only stayed with it for several months.

During the middle of my experimentation, I used Buspar and Elavil with some success. Both medicines improved my moods greatly. I have been depressed all my life. I did not think they had too much impact on my speech disorder. They relieved my anxiety to a certain degree. Since I did not notice any positive effect, I discontinued them. Later, I convinced my doctor to put me on Cloimipramine and Klonopin. I could not eat anything because I had an upset stomach all the time. My experiments with these two medicines lasted only two weeks. I could not tolerate this side effect any longer. After a short break, it was time to try other medications. I got my hands on Celexa. I kept improving fast. However, nasty side effects reappeared again. I got scared and stopped using it.

There are also some medications that can be used to reduce stuttering. One "scary" medication is called Zyprexa. In one study, it was able to reduce stuttering by almost 33%. Why don't many stutterers use it? Side effects are extremely scary. Originally, it was meant to treat psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. However, if a person without a severe psychiatric condition will use this drug, then it will produce schizophrenia-like symptoms. Hallucination is a common side effect. In addition, it has been known to damage permanently one's temporal lobe. Thus, using this medicine was out of question for many people who stutter.

Risperdal and Haldol were the other stuttering medications that people tried. Haldol was tried in two clinical trials with positive results in terms of stuttering reduction. However, almost all people who tried those medicines could not stay with them because they could not tolerate their side effects. Thus, they stopped using them even before realizing their potential benefits. I personally tried both of those medicines for one week. They both caused me to have a severe headache and dizziness. After a few days, I began to experience a very severe stomach cramping. I suppose it was my body's way of telling me to get rid of those chemicals or suffer severe consequences. Right away, I had to stop using them.

While I am discussing Risperdal, I have to mention that FDA only approved it for a short-term usage. It means it should not be used for more than a few weeks. This stuttering medication is currently only approved for the treatment of schizophrenia. It has been found that it increases the level of prolactin. It is a hormone that is responsible for breast growth in both males and females. What is even more important to know about Risperdal is that it can cause serious illnesses, such as cancers. These illnesses can be fatal.

There is one thing I forgot to mention about these "stuttering medications." It is the fact that these drugs can cause one to be obese. There are people who managed to gain anywhere from 25 pounds to 60 pounds just being on one of those drugs for several months. Have you ever seen psychiatric patients who were obese for no apparent reason? I think you understand what I am talking about. If you have problems already with your weight, these drugs are definitely not for you.

There are some other drugs that most doctors will not prescribe. Why not? The main reason is because these drugs are highly addictive. One of these medications is called Xanax. I will tell you that I hated the effect of this medicine. Stuttering did not decrease. However, my anxiety was "killed" for a few hours. This medication is a relatively short-acting one. It has the effect of alcohol without its smell. However, drinking alcohol is much safer than using Xanax. People can drink alcohol moderately for many years without developing any addiction. You cannot say the same thing about Xanax. You can develop a strong addiction within weeks.

You will also build up tolerance to this drug fast. It means the dose has to be increased over time to get the same effect you had the first time you used it. Some side effects are scary too. Xanax seems to kill the nerves over time. It can destroy your short-term memory too. Upset stomach and doziness are side effects I experienced personally. I would prefer to use any alcoholic beverage over Xanax.

One other medication I wanted to mention briefly is Lorazepam. This medication is currently being prescribed for insomnia and anxiety. It is also highly addictive. As I know, most doctors recommend it to use only on a limited time basis. I used it a few times. Although my speech was somewhat better, I began to get anxiety attacks the next day. I would assume these anxiety attacks were my withdrawal symptoms. Also, if someone takes this medication before they go to sleep, they often have a slurred speech and anger problems the next morning. I experienced all these side effects myself.

I also tried nootropic medications to see if they will help me with my stuttering. Typically, nootropics improve memory and concentration. Many students try to use them when they have to study for exams. Piracetam is a well-researched nootropic drug. Some people have to use it for about three weeks to experience any positive effect of this drug. My experience with Piracetam has been cut short. I used it only for three days. I used the lowest possible dose I could use (800 mg). This drug raised my blood pressure so much that I could not continue. My blood pressure stayed dangerously high for some time. I could not lower it myself. I had to resort to using my high blood pressure medications. Needless to say, I did not experience any positive effects from Piracetam. There were only negative side effects from this medication.

There are several so-called dietary supplements that I personally oppose using. There are either derivatives or precursors of some substances that can be found naturally in the body. I found them to be just as toxic as conventional drugs when they are being used as dietary supplements. I tried Acetyl-L-Carnitine, DMAE, and 5-HTP. 5-HTP was totally useless. I got only horrible headaches from this supplement. DMAE gave me stomach cramps and vomiting. Acetyl-L-Carnitine mad me very irritable. I stopped enjoying life. Their effect on speech was either minimal or none. As I said, however, they were not short on side effects. I truly believe these so-called supplements are nothing more than conventional drugs with even less benefits. You will know what I am talking about when you read the content of their bottles. You will see many chemical have been added to them. On the top, adding these so-called supplements in large quantities can definitely do more damage than good. I did read somewhere that they caused several diseases, such as syndrome X.

As you can understand from this discussion, there was not even one medicine I had tried without any side effect. With time, side effects tend to "grow" in strength and become more bothersome. They do destroy one's health. You see you body is not a factory for processing medications. Also, please understand I am not against our conventional medicines. I believe under some circumstances, using pharmaceuticals might be necessary. However, a person should always be open-minded to explore alternatives.

The second reason why you should not take any medication to treat your stuttering is because every medicine is extremely expensive. I always said that you need to be wealthy in our society to use our conventional medicines or you need to have a great medical insurance. However, medical insurances will not cover any drug treatment for this condition. Thus, you are to bear all expenses, and there will be plenty of those if you decide to go this route. For instance, when I was taking Zoloft, I had to pay $ 200-250 (USD) each week to continue my routine. As I said earlier, many people will need to combine two or three medications in order to achieve a satisfactory level of fluency. If this will be your case, then you are probably looking at spending approximately $300-350 each week just to use this combination. Oh, I almost forgot. The doctor needs to eat too. You will be visiting your psychiatrist or your family doctor once per three weeks to extend your prescription and to be reevaluated again. This additional expense will come out to be $50-75 per three weeks.Listen, you are NOT LIKELY to stay with these medications anyway if you have such high expenses from purchasing them.

When I used stuttering medications, I always thought of discontinuing them. I do not know how some people manage to take conventional drugs for a long time. I felt depressed when I was on them. They were only "masking" the symptoms of stuttering without necessarily solving the problem. However, using stuttering drugs is one of two main ways of dealing with this disorder successfully. I do believe that not many people can use them for long. These people either cannot afford them or they simply cannot stand many side effects associated with them.

At this point of this discussion, you may be asking me if there are any alternative treatments that do not have my previously mentioned side effects of conventional stuttering medications and still can treat stuttering problem effectively. The answer to your question is YES. There are many so-called natural stuttering medications that can be used for stuttering. Homeopathic medicines and flower essences are just to name a few.