Posted by mmcasey on June 12, 2003, at 10:51:07
In reply to Do you think meds will help, posted by Maxime on June 11, 2003, at 20:15:17
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> When do you say enough is enough? When do you know that meds are never going to help?
>
> Take cancer for instance. There comes a point where treatment isn't going to help anymore and impend on the person's quality of life.I have recently had the EXACT SAME thought of comparing mental illness treatment failure with cancer treatment failure. Honestly, I just don't know. Over this past weekend, I also was just thinking that I'm really sick of it. It gets so annoying to try more and more drugs and have them not work (at least, that's been my story). I've talked to my doctor about quitting, about giving up, and about the comparison with other illnesses. But, like the other poster said and my doctor said, there are always new advances and new drugs being developed. He also mentioned to me something that you don't hear much about, transcranial stimulation, which isn't really used in most places, but there is definite potential.
I don't think I'm in the same position as you really, because I've only actually tried about 7 different medications so far... but NONE of them have worked as of yet, so I'm really holding my breath for the Parnate right now. I've also been on Lamictal for 5 weeks and it doesn't seem to be doing *much*, but maybe it's helping a little and maybe I just need to - what else!! - wait longer!
I asked my doctor if there are people who truly nothing ever works for, and he said that he supposes there are... but that you will never know if something is going to work until you try, and you've basically got nothing to lose.
> What about people with mental illness. If I decided to say enough is enough do you think people would be mad with me? Or do you think they would understand how much I tried?
>I personally don't think people have the right to be mad at you. It's your decision, it's your life. But that isn't to say that they definitely won't be mad. I had a therapist once who basically said that if I didn't go on medication, she would really question if I was doing everything I could to help myself. That really pissed me off, because I feel like it's my decision and she shouldn't be imposing her will on me like that. Also, it's like she thought it would make her job easier.
Well, good luck with whatever you decide. I really hope that you find something.
poster:mmcasey
thread:233294
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030609/msgs/233400.html