Posted by Theona on February 8, 2003, at 12:18:56
In reply to Re: New lex user-Theona --Anyone!!!!, posted by Chuck2112 on February 6, 2003, at 9:39:39
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> > From Theona:
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> > I am seeing your note about being self-diagnosed, and I guess I'm concerned about your not having supportive therapy along with the medication, if I am understanding you correctly. The medications can relieve physical symptoms, but it's really hard to be objective about complex behaviors we have developed to cope with the symptoms for so long. Even an amicable divorce is a trauma in life, and traumas can make existing tendencies worse. Getting guidance on the healing process can insure a more steady climb out of the hole. When we are alone, very alone, it is hard to see what we are doing that's odd or different, except what's pronounced.
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> > I've done the medication route without therapy in the past, but recovery was not lasting. I thought if the high anxiety and chronic depression were gone, I'd get on with life. But when symptoms returned when I'd go off and on medications, I didn't have a "plan," so to speak. I want to make steady progress. I know I don't see myself objectively. So I am in my 3rd week, working with a cognitive behavioral therapist, an am surprised, already, to learn how little I have been dealing with feelings because I have been "coping" on my own for so long. Additionally, the therapist works closely with a medicating psychiatrist so that my dosage and effectiveness of Lexapro can be evaluated.
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> > Before, I have worked with my famiily doctor, who is brilliant, funny, concerned, and just the best. But these drugs for depression, anxiety and conditions like OCD are not his daily bread.
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> > I would have diagnosed myself as primarily having high anxiety, too, 4 years ago, but now I know it's OCD. Getting a good, professional diagnosis can mean getting the right help, holistically, and getting better in a lasting way.
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> > I hear all of you say, "I want to feel normal." Me too. Now, on Lexapro for a week, I am not having side effects, but I moved to it from being on Celexa for 4 months. On Lexapro, I no longer have 2 hours of nausea a day. It still remains to be seen if the dose is right for the anxiety and obsessing. The compulsions are reducing. I am working more even-paced throughout the day at work. I suspect I will eventually be moved to 20mg of Lexapro.
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> > How do they know when you are on too high a dose of an SSRI? What happens?
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> > Theona
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> Theona,
> I really appreciate your post and your wisdom/concern. I do plan to seek some counseling, but right now, I have things in my life that need my attention, and I think that without the meds I either wont address them or wont do it with the attention it needs. I am already starting to find myself getting back to my former self, I just am wondering how much more better I can expect to feel.
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> I am pretty aware of myself and my feelings, and am pretty sure that as I became a father I forgot about myself, and just need help getting it back. This anxiety and depression runs in my family, so its not just about counseling either.
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> So my plan is to first get myself to a state where I can deal effectively with things, and slowly see what counseling can do for me.
> So my question is this....
> I have been on the LExapro for 2-1/2 weeks and I am each day feeling a touch better, but feel I need to feel just a little bit better, and than I will feel comfortable just conversing and joking with my coworkers again. So with these drugs, does it generally work like this whereas you slowly start feeling bettter, and how much better....I want a normal flow of thoughts like I am used to.....Hi Chuck,
This is the note I didn't get my respond posted on. I didn't click it right or something.
If you are new to SSRIs, I can't remember, yes it takes a fair amount of time to get them working well. Can be 3 months or so. I am at the 4 months point this time around and have been on Lexapro about 8 days now, so I'm still working to get it right.
Anxiety runs in my family too, but the point is, counseling helps you resolve it so you don't have to give into your genes. I feel that therapy is to help correct all the coping skills we used all our lives to help ourselves when we didn't have something like Lexapro. Even after we are on Lexapro or another SSRI, it's still hard to stop using those coping skills. We kinda need a teacher, you know? A counselor. Kinda like a diet - you lose the weight, but tend to go back to old, comfortable ways of eating and put it back on. Same with how we make our lives work. Years of either depression and/or anxiety can take their toll on self-esteme and all sorts of things. So I hope you do augment your biochemistry work with a little counseling to get a gauge of how you are doing.
I also have found that life never seems to settle down enough to find time for ourselves, helping ourselves. We want quick fixes, but sometimes, helping ourselves can be the foundation of making everything else work. Therapy work is only an hour once every 1 or 2 weeks. And in between, you have all sorts of new things to think about.
I seem to be doing awfully good on the Lexapro here at day 9. I am not nauseated anymore. I can't believe it, after 4 months of it on Celexa, and when I was very nauseated for about 6 hours a day for a couple of days when I first started Lexapro. Now, a week later, I feel fine - so far. And I am having fewer sensations of not wanting to do anything. I was only up to 30mg of the Celexa and as we added more, I got more and more nauseated, so we couldn't get the dose up to help with the depression and anxiety enough. Now at 10mg of Lexapro, I feel pretty good, but suspect we will go on up to 20mg to slow down my obsessional thinking.
Like you, I am feeling better at work. The stimulation there tends to make me feel better, anyway, but I have a reduction in this sensation I have there to getting things done. More and more, I am just working though the day with the most comfort I have known in years.
Today is Saturday, and I feel like showering and going out and having some fun instead of curling up in bed. That's pretty cool. Life is getting a little exciting and I feel a sense of optimism. I feel like I might be able to do some of the things I've missed doing.
Let's hope for both of us, hum?
Theona
poster:Theona
thread:109458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030208/msgs/140152.html