Posted by cybercafe on July 18, 2002, at 14:54:01
In reply to Re: Mood stabilizers, posted by Angel Girl on July 18, 2002, at 14:16:03
I'm sorry you're having trouble Angel Girl... I've been there myself, and I know how frustrating things can be... and how desperate you can feel...as for mood stabilizers prolonging moods being a bad thing: i was wrong, you are right... they first evened out my mood, then prolonged that even mood ... they let me feel that "balanced" and "stable" way instead of having my mood bounce around... all in all it was a good thing ...
> So what you are saying is that mood stabilizers prolong your moods???? I don't see the point in that. I was hoping that they would even my moods out so that I control them more. My current mood started with getting some more bad news from the health system that seems to want to let me fall through the cracks once again. In a 10 minute phone call I went from having an extremely rare good mood (not manic) to being angry. Now, I am continually subjecting everybody that comes anywhere near me to all that my anger entails and I KNOW that this is not helping my relationship problems but yet I continue. It's like I have no control. I'm not satisfied until I destroy everything in my life. I know I'm doing it, but yet I continue... yeah i have dealt with teh system in London (UK) and Toronto (Canada) and wherever i go i get really frustrated with the system... i feel like all i need is 5 minutes of a docs time to write me a perscription and my life will be so much better... but to get that perscription i need to wait months ....
anyways now i am seeing a really good doctor several times a month and i am quite happy :)
the dumb part is that now that i am feeling good i really don't need to see a doc that often anyways :)
i feel concerned that if i express anger doctors will not want to see me == another 4 months of waiting.... or it is impossible for me to legitimately feel angry ---- if anything upsets me, it is because i am insane and not because the system could have possibly done anything wrong....
but that is in the past... now i am well aware that people acknowledge the system is in trouble, and i find some of the better doctors are surprisingly very reachable ...
all in all there is quite a bit of hope... when you realize that the system works very well for people who know how to use the system... how to take advantage of it.. where to look... then you start to really see some benefits...
.... personally i find gabapentin is wonderful for agitation and anxiety and i would suppose anger as well.... but if i were dangerous or unmanagable to the people around me i suppose i would go for a gold standard treatment like lithane first .... i also hear it has an antidepressant effect, which sounded worth investigating when i was depressed...
> I was thinking of taking either Lamitical or Topomax. My doctors are urging me to take Lithium but I'm fighting that with all I've got. I don't want to go anywhere near that drug. They're urging me to keep an open mind. The more I read about it, the more I hate. What mood stabilizer are you on?... right now i take gabapentin from time to time... i also tried depakote/epival/valproate but found it wasn't as good for anxiety ...
... i have met a lot of people on lithium who don't seem to mind it too much... i guess it depends on how severe your symptoms are...
.... personally i would rather try lamictal, but that is only because i very rarely go into hypomania and of course it seems to have an awesome side effect profile ... and because i tend to be so often depressed that i was desperate for something with an antidepressant effect.....who knows... lithane could be the magical cure you are looking for... perhaps it would be worth trying, and then if you had problems with the side effects you could try something else?? ...
> Isn't there something that can be taken to even out my moods so that I don't inflict all the innocent people who have the misfortune to talking with me to all this anger I am engrossed with right now???for sure... there are plenty of things that will do that...
> Because of some upseting news, it's having a domino effect on everything and all I want to do is cry and bite everybody's heads off. I know I'm doing it but it's like somebody else has taken over control of my mind and body and I can't seem to stop. Then of course, once I create all the damage from this mood, I will be extremely upset to what I've done and angry at myself and so the viscious cycle will continue.don't give up -- some of these medications have worked wonders for me and many others... they may just do the same for you ...
... in my experience, i have taken medications before that didn't work 100% but i always got some beneficial effect from them.... things were always better than when i was not on medication...
> Does ANYBODY understand what I'm talking about or am I completely insane and beyond help.
i think i understand how you feel.. and i think there is probably a drug out there that you would really benefit from ...
i hope you feel better soon :)
cybercafe
poster:cybercafe
thread:112786
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/112807.html