Posted by E1027 on July 23, 2002, at 10:14:10
I’m a first-time poster-- just discovered this super resource. My impression is that there are a number of articulate, informed, and experienced people here. I’d like to get some feedback from a few of you on what’s reasonable to expect through medical treatment.
For example: I am in the midst of the long and bleak business of trying to determine the proper cocktail of drugs to manage a bipolar disorder diagnosed two years ago after years of misdiagnoses. My impression from my psychopharmacologist is that some degree of suffering is good for the soul and that I ask too much if I expect to be able to maintain an energetic, creative stasis. By the textbook definition, I suppose the state that I’d most like to maintain is some sort of mild hypomania. I make my living by creating / inventing on command. When I am medicated to therapeutic levels, i.e. I don’t display symptoms, I simply cannot make anything. I presently find myself having to risk a manic episode by titrating my meds down in order to meet a deadline. That leaves me shaking, filled with rage, and hopelessly overstimulated; but finally creatively productive... It’s a terrible and exhausting cycle, though admittedly better than being unmedicated (read: dead)... I simply don’t trust my own judgment any longer. Am I hoping for too much from medication and therapy? What are reasonable goals for wellness?
It would be nice to keep the discussion broad enough to be pertinent to a number of people, so though I used myself as an example, don’t feel compelled to respond too specifically.
Thanks.
poster:E1027
thread:113407
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/113407.html