Posted by CrazyGuy on March 26, 2004, at 19:38:55
In reply to Bipolar Disorder and Crack, posted by Nirfoochile on March 23, 2004, at 3:41:48
Hey, sorry to hear about your friend. I think crack is an EVIL, EVIL highly addictive drug. (The same can be said of crystal methamphetamine, in my opinion.) From what I've read, the stimulating high from crack is *INTENSE*, but short-lived. Unfortunately, successive highs are not as intense and those who become addicted to crack are chasing that initial high but will never again experience it. And, of course, I think we've all heard about how crack addiction can lead to a myriad other problems (e.g. losing your job, getting evicted, turning tricks to support yourself/your habit, contracting HIV, going to jail, losing custody of your kids, even a violent death). I think the time to intervene with somebody who's using this drug is IMMEDIATELY. I would strongly urge you to talk to your friend (in a nonjudgmental, support way) about your fears regarding her crack use and encourage her to tell her pdoc about her use of it. Since it sounds like she turned to this to get herself out of a depression, she and her pdoc REALLY need to consider a modification to her meds (dosage change or adding/changing a med). The way to approach your friend about this, I think, is to tell her that this experimentation with crack is an obvious sign that her current meds are NOT working and she desperately needs to contact her pdoc for an appointment ASAP (or pretty dang soon anyway). In the past, I've been on Provigil (a non-addictive stimulating drug originally developed for narcolepsy) when my depression wasn't responding to my (then) antidepressant and mood stabilizer combo. It started working (extremely well, I might add) for me in a matter of days. This might be something her pdoc will want to consider. (There has been a case report in the medical literature about the use of Provigil for treatment-resistant depression which, I'm sure, is where my pdoc got the idea for this.) Good luck!
poster:CrazyGuy
thread:327287
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20040130/msgs/328861.html