Posted by cmm on October 5, 2000, at 20:22:11
In reply to Re: 1st time taking an anti-depressant, posted by lp on October 5, 2000, at 17:37:07
I haven't told my parents, either - and I happen to be living with my mother at the moment (for better or worse), who has been medicated for depression in the past herself.
I think I've been fortunate in that most people I HAVE told have been supportive - bewildered, I think, but supportive. One friend of mine is almost a doctor (6 more months), and she phrased it this way - if I lost a limb, sure, I could fuction without a prosthesis and maybe do OK, but what's the point if there's a tool which could help me function at my best?
I like that one - the other one I've gotten (which is similar) is that if it were any other disease, I wouldn't reject care and feel like I should just exert a little more willpower and kill that cancer on my own.
Those were my two closest friends - then again, in a moment of weakness, I told someone I shouldn't, and she sort of circuitously said that there are other ways and medication interfere's with nature's plan. Which, naturally, deflated me for a week.
Part of it, too, is that a couple of days after receiving the prescription (in Canada, where I'm from), I came to Japan where I've been living for a couple of years. My doctor said she had no problem treating me in this very distant way, but I'm a bit uncomfortable about the fact that what treatment I'm getting will be by email.
I don't even know if Celexa is legal in Japan (they only approved the birth control pill for general use about a year and a half ago, so it's a distinct possibility).
Anyway, I really like that someone feels the same, too. I guess it's one of those feelings which would be almost impossible to imagine if you didn't have to feel it yourself - the idea of wanting to help yourself while all the while wondering what the action means about your character.
I have a question - have you wondered at all what Wellbutrin may or may not do to your personality? Fear number 546 that comes to me as I wait to fall asleep at night...
take care,
C> cmm-
> I've never been on this board before but recently started taking wellbutrin and have the exact feelings you do. I was looking for some answers and what you wrote is almost identical to what I was thinking.
>
> I too am not sure if I should be on something or not. I feel better just knowing there's someone else out there who has the same feelings that I do. My friends think I am absolutely ridiculous to take anti-depressants. I've never even told my parents, who I am very close with. I have always been a happy, upbeat person and it's hard for them to come to even imagine that I could ever be the slightest bit depressed. My advice to myself is to take it for 6 months and see how things go (I've been on wellbutrin for 1 month now). I don't see anything wrong with attempting to feel better, no matter how "deserving" I am. I may even start taking celexa, who knows.
> -lp
>
> > > One thing I've been wondering about, though - my doctor said that I should contact her after taking the pill for six weeks and we would evaluate if I was feeling 100% - what on earth is that? I don't mean to say that I never feel happy, because I do, but I assume the goal of all this isn't to turn me into some Gigit-like nightmare. What I want is to feel good and bad and ambivilent and everything else as situations demand, but I don't know how that would be.
> > >
> > > Thanks for your encouragement
> > >
> > cmm you are welcome for the encouragement and keep your chin up, things get better, really they do. as far as the doctor wanting to see u in 6 weeks to see if you are 100%, well are any of us really 100%?? even those in society that dont take medication?? the doctor did the same re evaluation w/ me but at the time i rated myself at a 75% < grin >
> > what dose are you taking again and are you just taking celexa??
> > T~
> > :-)
poster:cmm
thread:45725
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000926/msgs/45845.html