Posted by mellow on January 21, 2011, at 11:06:09
In reply to Re: Seems More Meds You Take More Needed Why? » Phillipa, posted by herpills on January 21, 2011, at 7:19:21
I also get frustrated with adding more and more meds with worse and worse results. I was doing a fairly heavy med cocktail for awhile and finally realized it just was a losing battle. It all culminated on my honeymoon a year ago when I had so much brain fog we didn't even get to enjoy our trip. I was glued to the bed crying and calling the pdoc everyday. You shouldn't feel that way if the meds are working.
My doctor would up my antipsychotics substantially to calm me down and things would be great for a month or two (at least I wouldn't want to kill myself, never mind that I slept 14 hours a day) and then I would be back all wound up and crazy again in no time. There would be nowhere to go but higher doses or try new meds. The only things that finanlly helped me were non medical things or what my pdoc calls "mental hygiene". From our first appointment 4 years ago he has always said "less meds is better" but my lifestyle eventually took me to a place where I was on high doses of 2 of my 4 meds in the cocktail.
One thing that has helped is the Alternative board. I'm working with a lot of vitamins that I never knew about. Magnesium in particular made a huge difference. I have also lost 40 pounds on the weight watchers program. I noticed yesterday morning while shoveling snow off my driveway that this is the first year that I wasn't worn out and having back pain while shoveling the driveway.
I'm in better physical shape and it is bleeding right into my mental health and mood. I'm down to 3 meds and my antipsychotic is very low. My doc says we can get me down to just one mood stabilizer by the end of the year if I keep up with exercise and diet.
Finally committing to talk therapy for a solid 2 years has also helped me deal with a lot of issues. All in all I think it is just a natural progression to increase the meds more and more. Life just gets harder and harder if we don't get to the root, whether it be vitamin deficiencies, poor physical health or emotional traumas from the past.
One thing that is scary is how much better I feel off SSRI's. You would think Antidepressants would make you feel better, but I had suicidal thoughts for years and it has gone away completely in the last 8 months. My fatigue has reduce a lot too. I don't understand how drugs that have such opposite effects for what they are prescribed can still be on the market. That makes me afraid to be on psych drugs period, but right now I don't want to rock the boat. I feel decent and will keep with my regiment.
Bipolar II
Lamictal 100, Topamax 50, Risperdal 0.5, Cal/Mag with D3, Fish Oil, High Potency Multi"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
poster:mellow
thread:977522
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110115/msgs/977592.html