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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Camille Dumont on June 26, 2004, at 13:53:34
After finally finding the right meds combo and feeling good for 3 months, my doctor found just the right thing to put me down ... there I was ready to discuss when to start tampering the meds and he goes :
Him : You'll most likely need to take them for the rest of your life
Me : WHAT?!?!?!?!
Him : Well, you've been depressed before so there is a 85% chance that it will come back so you have to stay on them. Its like being diabetic.
Then he handed me a prescription for 12 months and told me to come back in a year.
I'm so pissed. I think I'll wait six months and start tampering them off on my own. I can't believe how uncaring he can be sometimes.
I was fine before being depressed, so I don't see why I should depend on those pills for the rest of my life.
Has anybody here ever been told something similar?
What did you do?
Posted by LG04 on June 26, 2004, at 16:39:03
In reply to Pissed off at my doctor, posted by Camille Dumont on June 26, 2004, at 13:53:34
I've been told by two different doctors that I will need to be on anti-depressants my entire life. For me, I tried to go off them on 3 different occasions (if I remember correctly, twice I went off them without a doctor's permission) and I spiraled downward very quickly and even became suicidal.
So for me, even though I'd prefer that it be different, I accept that I need them and always will, though it definitely took me time to feel this way. Initially it was very upsetting to me. But now, I see anti-depressants (for me) as an equivilent to a diabetic's insulin. I feel very grateful that I am alive in a time in history where we have these medicines. I can't imagine what people did before anti-depressants were available.
It sounds like your doctor wasn't very sensitive in the way he told you his opinion about you needing them for the rest of your life. It is not an easy thing to hear and IMO he should have spent more time talking about it with you at the very least. It must have been very jolting for you. I can understand you being pissed. What's the deal with insensitive psychiatrists? I've had my share as well. It's not pleasant.
LG
Posted by shadows721 on June 26, 2004, at 18:49:08
In reply to Pissed off at my doctor, posted by Camille Dumont on June 26, 2004, at 13:53:34
I was told that, "I was as good as I was going to get". I got another doctor after that.
Posted by mair on June 28, 2004, at 6:48:17
In reply to Pissed off at my doctor, posted by Camille Dumont on June 26, 2004, at 13:53:34
Camille - it sounds like you've got an insensitive doc, although his assessment may well be right. I'm not sure anyone has ever told me I will be taking ADs for the rest of my life - I pretty much figured out on my own. When my old Pdoc and I would talk about it, he'd usually say he didn't know. But I'm at the stage where I don't dare stop taking them, for fear of slipping back precipitously - I do plenty of slipping while on the drugs.
As I understand it, the more depressive episodes you've had, the more likely you are for them to repeat. The name of the game is to make those episodes less frequent and to keep them shorter when they do occur. Being on medication can do that.
Someone on this Board once told me I had a chronic remitting relapsing illness. Strangely, she explained more to me in that one sentence than my doc had in years. If you look at it this way, it really is like diabetes. Maybe it's not curable (at least it isn't with me) but it certainly can be manageable.
Mair
This is the end of the thread.
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