Posted by Peter on July 7, 2002, at 16:42:32
Hi all. I'm confused. After 6 years of seeing the same p-doc, I've gone through numerous medication regimes. Also, my doc has shaped my diagnosis over the years as he's gotten to know me better. His final assessment of my condition is that I have mild hypomania with some social phobia, a little experience in the past of panic attacks, and "probable" ADD. He tells me that none of these are "full blown," but it is the varying degrees of combined elements of each disorder that tends to make my life unmanageable at times. The annoying thing about this is that I'm always taking some sort of complex cocktail in order to target these various areas. Right now I'm taking zoloft 62.5mg for depression/SP/anxiety, adderall 12.5 to 15mg (in three divided doses) for attention, motivation, impulse control, klonopin 1.5mg (in 3 divided doses) for SP/anxiety/panic prevention, depakote 500mg for mood stability, and ambien 10mg for sleep. The sheer variety and number of pills I pop each day tends to make me feel like a robot; it seems like I'm taking a drug for every possible symptom. What really bothers me is that my p-doc has many times supported my trying to stop meds altogether because he said my case is not so 'serious!' Where is the line between having 'mild' symptoms of different 'disorders' and just being a human being with a full emotional spectrum?!
Furthermore, Most people I know with multi-sided diagnoses are stable on 1 or 2 meds. It's wierd because part of me wants to simplify my intake but another part of me feels comfortable and 'in control' taking so many pills. Are such complex 'cocktails' necessary? Are they common? I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.
Peter
poster:Peter
thread:111691
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020628/msgs/111691.html