Posted by BarbaraCat on July 24, 2002, at 0:52:34
In reply to Re: DHEA, et al, posted by McPac on July 22, 2002, at 18:10:35
Hi Mike,
Well, I couldn't agree with you more about the depression/anxiety/bipolar frustration (and OCD was never mentioned but it's a good candidate for ADD as well). I replied to the Fish Oil ADD post which you'll probably see, so I won't repeat myself here. But yes, it's nuts, and we poor sufferers have to go through medication hell in the meantime. I keep hoping that some day in the future I'll look back on all these lost years as being worth it and contributing to some greater good.I hope your Lamictal experiences will be immensely successful. A question I have is how it affects anxiety and I'm going to create a new post asking this. I mean, some depression is slowed and vegetative and could use a little zip, whereas any more zip and I'd fly through the roof. I'm also very sensitive to most meds and have a paradoxical reaction to many of them - I start cleaning the house on benzos. Hmmm, this brings up an ongoing issue, namely the ADD one. The thought of a stimulant makes my teeth chatter, but amphetamines were my drug of choice for many years. I liked it way too much, however, and sometimes I wonder if my poor brain got fried back then (or maybe it was the acid, Bay-beeee!).
There are probably some basic categories that mood disorders fall into based on brain region disfunction. But when you come down to it, it's particular flavor seems based on our earlier experiences. For example, I went to Catholic school taught by a very strict and severe order of nuns. Many of them were wonderful, but a few were sadistic harpies who delighted in describing the terrifying and horrific hell where bad children went. They also used fists and knees to drive home their point. My father was also severely depressed, probably bipolar (whatever that means) and life at home as well as school was frightening. Therefore, my spells always have a gothic hellish quality to them where the universe is at the mercy of a quite insane God and there really and truly is no hope forever and ever, Amen. Even though I know where these nightmare thoughts come from, in my darkness nothing helps except for the neurochemical soup to do something else for a while. And the whole stress/chemical, nature/nuture connection is a chicken or egg thing anyhow. I sure do wish the psychologists, psychiatrists, and physicians would stop bickering and start working together because none of these professions are doing a very good job on their own. - Barbara
> BarbaraCat
>
> Well, I'm back from my General Practitioner's office (I hate shrinks, lol) and I JUST began Lamictal!
> Hopefully, all will go good.
> The plan is: Goodbye Lithium, hello Lamictal!
> I am only going to take a very small dose; I have always been very sensitive to most meds.
> I took such an incredibly puny dose of Lithium. One pill every 2 or 3 DAYS! I still don't know if I've truly got bipolar or just terrible depression w/ agitation,irritability, anxiety. It just seems like so many bipolars go to such extremes, high and low, and I seem more like a low w/agitation issues. There doesn't seem like a very big difference between what I have and a "clinically depressed" person has. They probably have anxiety, agitation and irritability too; so what's the difference? Sounds like a "play on words" to me, in my case.
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:1924
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/113508.html