Posted by ShelliR on January 24, 2003, at 19:46:03
In reply to Re: opiates and major depression, posted by Blah on January 23, 2003, at 22:40:06
It's an amazing thing to me how seldom it is that doctors can really relate to true suicidal urges, and how horribly painful depression can be, both physically as well as psychologically. Suicide is obviously not just a threat, and a week of hospitalization (usually the commitment for suicidal ideation) is not going to do very much to change such painful, long-term miswiring.
I recently seen several articles talking about the interaction between pain and depression. If there is any physical aspects to your depression/pain, I would go to a pain specialist before ordering opiates off the internet.
I was able to be honest with my pain doctor, saying that I was very depressed but also I had unrelenting pain in my chest. And I didn't know where one started and the other ended. My honesty with psychiatrists mostly got me labeled a drug addict, although one psychiatrist put me on oxycontin which was not a good idea either. If I was trying now to save my life, I'd lobby for buprenorphine; it just came out in sublingual form. It's purpose is to treat addiction, much like methadone, only buprenorphine is allowed to be prescribed in a doctor's office and is a partial opiate. I know the liquid form (for IM use) is also legally prescribed for pain; I'm not sure if the new sublingual release can be prescribed for pain yet. Buprenorphine can also be habituating, but less likely, since it has both agonist and antagonist properties.
It's hard for me to believe that after trying over 20 combinations of drugs to try to relieve my depression, doctors were way more worried about me becoming an addict than me being dead. The last time I was put in the hospital, taken off of opiates and pumped with too much effexor for my body, I got out and tried to kill myself. (Seriously tried). That was the last time I allowed byself to believe it was better to be dead than to be addicted (habituated) to opiates.
I think it is a very serious decision to take opiates for depression, but it's hard for me to believe that it was so hard for me to choose opiates over death because of the total lack of help and total lack of support I received in the psychiatric community for treatment resistent depression. I am also still looking for other options so I won't have to be dependent on opiates for the rest of my life, if there is another equally effective and less controversial alternative. I have become habituated to a pretty large dose of methadone and don't know when or if this dose will lose it's effectiveness. Presently, I am also being treated by a homeopathic MD.
"Be careful out there"
Shelli
poster:ShelliR
thread:81414
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030119/msgs/137384.html