Posted by Mr.Scott on January 26, 2002, at 13:45:59
In reply to Re: Last post of it's Kind.., posted by OldSchool on January 26, 2002, at 12:02:53
> > This sums up where I'm at and asks one final time for ideas on how to proceed. Henceforth I shall restrict my posting from being so desperate like and complaint oriented and accept that life is not ever going to exist on my terms. It seems the wisdom I seek is not to be found where I seek it. And so I will bandage up my wounds and proceed onward as I always have.
> >
> > Here goes..
> >
> > This happened a while ago, but I feel compelled to tell the story.
> >
> >
> > I saw 4 shrinks in 6 weeks...
> >
> > One was known to diagnose BP II a lot (or see it where others miss it as my referring shrink put it), and he said he was diagnosing me with BP II but seemed disturbed that I never ever ever had a time in my life where I needed less sleep than usual. He said to take Depakote or Lithium, because not enough research has been done on the others for first line use. And that I can't take AD's. I tried the Depakote up to 750mg and was constipated and tired all the time...To the point where I could barely communicate. It helped a little but not much considering the side effects. I took it up to 1500mg, where I heard for the first time in my life absolutely no noise in my mind at all, yet I was conscious. I also began eating like a bear.
> >
> > Another shrink said "Take Prozac if it worked for you before" So I did and all it did was make me tired this time. Slept non-stop. He Adderall which made me overall worse. He then got as frustrated at me and started to punish me I believe with Depakote repeatedly saying my mood was unstable.
> >
> > Another shrink Said I have a neurological condition requiring anticonvulsants and his first choice was Dilantin which he said would "wake me up". I din't notice anything significant at all from the Dilantin.
> >
> > Another shrink said I had ADD as a child and am now depressed and anxious because of it. He gave me Serzone and Provigil. Serzone made my face swell.
> >
> > They all ignored the fact that I had broken up with a girlfriend of 5 + years not long before that. Or even consider that I could be in Zoloft Withdrawal which I recently discontinued due to muscle pain.
> >
> > So in the absence of any clear consensus I decided to seek out a physician who would give me both what worked in the past or the alternative I wanted to try.
> > Klonopin-Effexor-Provigil/Adrafanil-Omega 3
> > But I worry a great deal one of them was right and I've missed the boat entirely, or that I've made a bad choice about the meds, and think about the withdrawal syndromes, and side effects.
> >
> > Any thoughts?
>
>
> Four Pdocs in six weeks is apt to make you confused. Nobody here could diagnose you so Id say that you coming here to ask what you should do specifically is not going to help you much. You have learned first hand about psychiatry's weakest link...subjective, psychology based diagnosis. Which can literally change with a change of psychiatrist...or with a change in your psychiatrist's attitude or mood towards you as a patient. Diagnosis in psychiatry is extremely poor and is frequently incorrect. Ive been misdiagnosed several times and several times the misdiagnosis led me to being put on different classes of psychiatry medications other than antidepressants. And each time that happened to me, I began feeling markedly worse from any drug I took other than an antidepressant. I have never taken a psychiatry drug outside the class of antidepressants that made me actually feel better. With the one exception of benzos, Amantadine and Ritalin. Anticonvulsants, lithium and anti-psychotics all made me feel markedly worse, markedly more depressed and sometimes even more suicidal feeling (when I took atypical anti-psychotics).
>
> When I complained, none of the psychiatry people acted like they even gave a shit some of these drugs made me feel worse. In fact, Ive even had a few psychiatrists who actually wanted me to keep taking drugs which were making me feel markedly worse even after I complained about it to them! Largely as a result of my experiences, I have pretty much lost faith in psychiatry. I think it is largely a joke and so do many other people. Psychiatry has a bad name, always has had a bad name since its inception and probably always will have a bad name no matter how good the drugs get. Because the diagnosis sucks. Also, there is what I call an "institutionalised attitude problem" within psychiatry. Psychiatry needs an attitude adjustment in a major way.
>
> None of these doctors really know whats wrong with us in the medical sense because psychiatric disorders are not considered "real" biological (neurological) disorders. There are no tests available in clinical psychiatry. When you have a psychiatric illness, it is not considered to be "medical" its considered to be a "psychological" problem. But the reality is we are truly sick in the medical sense. Functional neuroimaging is beginning to prove this. Functional brain scans of mentally ill people are clearly different than the brains of health people.
>
> And the really sad thing is there is little interest within psychiatry itself to try to technologically improve diagnosis methods. Most of the interest is on developing new drugs for treatment.
>
> Its all stupid to a large degree. Millions of people in the USA are suffering from bona fide brain based illnesses but most of the time we are not treated like we have a physical disease. This is why there are so many complaints in psychiatry.
>
> I really dont know what to tell you. Psychiatry sucks. Lots of people all over the world are highly dissatisfied with psychiatry. Tons of complaints...more than in any other branch of medicine.
>
> All I can say to you is you are not alone. You are not the only one who has been made confused, scared and disgusted with subjective, screwed up psychiatric diagnosis methods. Dont believe its just you, cause its not. I bet half the people on this board have been misdiagnosed at one time or another.
>
> Good Luck,
>
> Old SchoolOld School,
That post was genius, and precisely what I guess I needed to hear. I'm cutting and pasting it so I can refer to it when I feel frustrated again and anxious with uncertainty over the true nature of my affliction and how best to treat it pharmacologically. There was nothing in there that anyone but can disagree with except perhaps that lucky person who just by chance got the meds right on the first try.
Thanks,
Scott
poster:Mr.Scott
thread:91632
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020124/msgs/91695.html