Posted by Mark H. on April 21, 2000, at 4:03:21
In reply to Re: I am soooooooooo sick of this, posted by JohnB on April 21, 2000, at 0:52:20
Hi Allison,
Love your story! Here's my totally off-the-wall hit, which I only have the audacity to share after reading bob's wonderful post: you're on too many meds, and at least some of them are definitely wrong for you! A "difference" is *NOT* good enough. If a med doesn't give you a clear improvement in mood, stop taking it. If it makes you worse, stop taking it at once -- don't wait six weeks to see if by some miracle it's going to suddenly stop making you sick and start making you better.
I never cease to be amazed at the number of doctors who just keep piling on the pills and increasing the dosages without asking whether they are CLEARLY making things better for you or not. I personally have not met one single person who actually had to wait six weeks (the current gold standard for "fair chance") to know whether an antidepressant or adjunctive helped or not.
Most *untreated* depression will remit in six months or less, so the longer you take an antidepressant without a clearly noticable improvement from the drug, the more likely it is that any improvement you experience has nothing to do with drugs anyway.
I remember the miserable weeks I wasted on Prozac, chasing side effects around my body while my depression stayed the same or got worse. People who respond well to Prozac usually feel better very quickly! I had different but equally miserable experiences with Zoloft, Paxil, desipramine, Remeron, Serzone, Depakote, Lithium, Nardil, Neurontin, Maprotiline, Clonidine, Ascendin, Nortriptiline, Trazadone and Ultram.
Instead of upping everything until your body is a toxic mess and correlations become impossible to discern, try *stopping* something. Once you've tapered off and its been clear of your system for a few days, do you feel better or worse?
Then stop taking something else. Stop taking as many of your meds as you can until you begin to feel clear differences and can discern between differences and improvements.
Then start over with your psychiatrist and only take stuff that actually helps. If you don't feel better, stop taking it and try something else.
Whether you have to take antidepressants for the rest of your life will depend a lot on whether your depression is "merely" situational based on the extreme suffering you've experienced for the last couple of years, or whether you've genetically and experientially "run out" of neurotransmitters. But either way, you have the right to keep trying different things until you find a mix that actually makes you feel better, not just different. (Or until you've healed enough that you come out of the depression all by yourself.)
And to reinforce what bob said, psychiatrists are for drugs; counselors are for therapy. See your pdoc regularly until you find the right meds; then see him three or four times a year. Find a good counselor and see her/him every week -- they are usually less expensive, too, especially if it works for you to join a therapy group.
Please forgive my boldness -- I certainly wouldn't give this advice to most people -- and use your own good judgment on what information to accept or reject. Listen to your body.
Best wishes,
Mark H.
poster:Mark H.
thread:30771
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000420/msgs/30798.html