Posted by Sleepy on November 9, 2001, at 16:25:08
In reply to Re: SickNTired of Meds » Sleepy, posted by JohnX2 on November 8, 2001, at 21:37:47
>No, never have tried Lamictal. Wow, there sure are a lot of meds out there I've never even heard of! Wish I could say any med I've tried so far has managed to improve the quality of my life--I guess either I haven't tried the right one yet or there is no right one for me.
Your Serzone story is exactly why I won't continue on the Effexor. When something messes with my mind so much I can't even remember whole chunks of time--well, that's scary business. My normally mild-mannered brother was on Serzone once and ended up disrupting our entire Thanksgiving screaming and swearing at our older brother. I've got to add here that our family is one of those rare anomalies--a family that doesn't fight during get-togethers. So it was obvious to all of us that that was NOT the med for him. I wish I'd have recalled it WAS Serzone before I let the doc try it out on me. I think I'd have avoided it at all costs! Incidentally, my brother has been worse in the past than I am (with his ups and downs), but is somehow managing without any medication at all at this point. Don't know how he's doing it, but he seems to be functioning okay. So far, so good.
> Hey, I remember something about my 2 months
> on Serzone: read-ending the person in front of
> me. That was my last memory. Only med I can't
> tell my doc what doses I was taking because I
> don't remember a darned thing besides the
> car accident and 1 other person that followed
> me to Blockbuster to accuse me of drunk driving!!!
>
> Ever give Lamictal a run? Only med I've taken
> without noticeable side effects after initial
> titration. Cured me of all Major Depression, but
> not dysthymia, after 1.5 years of trying every
> other med in the book and dealing with all those
> crummy side effects, etc.
>
> I'm sick and tired of meds too. But they do
> improve the quality of my life, so be it.
>
> good luck
> -john
>
> > I'm just writing to see if there is anyone out there who's been diagnosed bipolar and has successfully gone off all meds--? I was misdiagnosed at one point and put on Prozac for a time, which led to bouts of extreme mania, then put on Serzone, which gave my life entire blank voids (memory blackouts I still haven't filled in). Now I'm on Depakote, which suppresses the mania okay and does absolutely nada for depression. So my dr. put me on Effexor, which he seemed to think would do the trick, but after a brief and horrible time I took MYSELF off that drug. I had awful memory lapses (during one incident I had both my children in the car with me and forgot how to get to my daughter's music lesson--I'd been driving her there for months and suddenly I couldn't recall how to get there! I drove around frantically searching before realizing I was scaring my kids to death) and decided it was NOT for me. I've gained 20+ lbs. on the Depakote and that in itself makes me miserable. I start with a new therapist today and I'm going to start making noise about getting off the Depakote and staying off of everything. I know this probably sounds outlandish to some of you out there, but isn't there some way to get beyond all this without medication??? I keep hearing, when I complain about the weight gain, "Isn't that a small price to pay...???" Well, it isn't a small price to pay. I've never weighed this much (nonpregnant) in my entire adult life and it's making me so, so unhappy. *sigh* Friends and family seem to think it's their job to make sure I'm taking my meds and it's just really getting to me. Sorry to be such a downer. Thanks for any advice/suggestions, etc.
poster:Sleepy
thread:83541
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011104/msgs/83703.html