Posted by Lucia Francisca on November 16, 2005, at 13:10:54
In reply to Re: Lurkers Please Come Out and Regulars too About Med, posted by naughtypuppy on November 16, 2005, at 12:15:31
Hi Phillipa. I think you have bipolar I or II also, like me (I have been diagnosed with Bipolar II)? I do think meds have helped me. I was on Celexa and Lexapro for 5 years. Maybe they did induce rapid cycling, as my pdoc now thinks, but they really did help with the severe depression I had about 5 years ago. My pdoc recently switched me to Seroquel, an atypical antipsychotic that works as a mood stability when given in low doses to those with Bipolar II. Apparently, my pdoc thought I was in a hypomanic state lately cuz I wasn't sleeping for a few nights, had racing, extremely negative thoughts, a lot of anxiety, etc. Well, I'll tell you, whereas the Lexapro and Trazodone combo didn't help me sleep, once I took the Seroquel, it really helped me sleep and feel better, almost instantaneously. I was also exercising like twice a day and seeing my therapist, but I really think the medication helped a lot. I'm optimistic right now about meds--if it can keep me from those icky hypomanic periods where I can't sleep for days and only think negative thoughts--then I'll take it!
> I think that one of the big problems with psychopharmacology is that the medical community assumes that our brains are clean slates, completely unaffected by the last round of medicinal indignities that were perpetrated on them. We know now that antidepressants don’t work by simply increasing the amount of neurotransmitters, but they do cause an actual change to the brain structure/function. My own theory, for what its worth, is that perhaps it is the sequence of drug treatments that we receive that is causing many of us to be classified as treatment resistant. If we are given the wrong medication for our individual physiological disorder initially, then maybe it changes our brain function so that a possibly effective drug won’t work now. In other words, our brains are so screwed up by the previous drugs, than none of them have a chance to work!
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> Just my two cents worth on the subject. Any comments on this grandiose theory?
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poster:Lucia Francisca
thread:579210
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051112/msgs/579350.html