Posted by Elizabeth on July 5, 2001, at 23:12:31
In reply to Re: no more silly arguments :-), posted by Zo on July 4, 2001, at 2:46:10
> > Depressing? It sounds so bouncy and cheerful! :-) Is it a novel, biography, ...?
>
> Nonfiction. I've written alot, and thought I'd take a stab at describing the Chronic Fatigue life, in all its existential glory. . it's quite a peculiar thing.Yes, it is indeed. What approach are you taking?
Say, is any of your writing on the web? (Besides psycho-babble posts, of course < g >) If so, I'd love to read it.
> > Hmm, so you have CFS too? Is that related to the epilepsy? How do you deal with it?
>
> Seizures sure come under the CFS umbrella, more than people want to admit, or know. . .Well, CFS is probably a condition that can have a number of different etiologies (like other phenomenologically-defined disorders). But I'd imagine that interictal symptoms could include chronic fatigue.
> In my case both nature and "nurture," family dopaminergic vulnerability, probably that genetric glitch discovered on the dopamine receptor site, lots of ADD and genius. . .hard to separate from DDT exposures in childhood, later pesticide exposures which triggered full-scale CFS and other environmental factors.
That's interesting. How old are you (if it's not too personal :-) ), and how did you come to be exposed to pesticides to an extent that it could cause serious sequelae?
Does epilepsy run in your family? What about other, possibly related conditions? (My family history is loaded not only with depression, but also other conditions which might be related, notably migraine and cardiovascular disease; I'm interested in the common predisposing factors.)
> I deal with it with a *whole* lot of drugs. . .unlike most CFS people, who don't know what they're missing: Dex, Neurontin (fab for FM pain!) Effexor, Valium, and damned Zyprexa, which is helping my writing no end but has made me. . . FAT!
I gained a little weight on Zyprexa -- nothing compared to Nardil, but then, Nardil actually worked. Interestingly, Nardil also made my chronic back pain go away (the only other things that have worked are large doses of Soma (unreliable), a local corticosteroid injection into the relevant facet joints, and opioids). I bet MAOIs would be good for FMS.
A local doctor who has a lot of experience with fibromyalgia, epilepsy, and a lot of other conditions on the interface of psychiatry and neurology, says that he's had a lot of success using Meridia (sibutramine) for fibro. I thought that was interesting. Do you know if Effexor is used a lot?
> LOL. My pdoc has this theory that if I portray ex as the foolish ass he is, he won't be *about* to raise his hand and say, Hey, that jerk she wrote about is me. . .! But with NPDs, you never know! The best advice I've gotten so far is, Give that character a *really* tiny, um, appendage.
Of course. That goes without saying!
On a related note, something I've been thinking about recently: do you know anything about the psychopharmacology of NPD? (Is it ever treated with medication? I bet that if a NP were to respond to medication, it would be assumed retroactively that there was a comorbid axis I disorder.)
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:67040
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010701/msgs/69121.html