Posted by laima on October 7, 2006, at 17:32:46
In reply to Wow. » laima, posted by pseudoname on October 7, 2006, at 14:53:25
> I mean, WOW. What a history, laima! You seem to have survived your terrible experiences with your spirits intact: that says a lot about you & your continued capacity for recovery. I'm glad you posted about it.
Thanks- I'm actually kind of embarressed I didn't dump her sooner- but I was trying to finish grad school and just resorted to self-medicating. That of course, basically meant I was something like a drug addict- way up, then take something to go way down. I didn't really care any more. Not exactly a recommended course! I was feeling pretty hopeless- this was supposed to be a very good doctor per all the reports. (So much for that method of finding a doctor!) I'm sure the emotional rollercoaster (most notably from overdoing ritalin, interpreting the crash as recurring depression, and numbing it out with klonopin, running out of stuff, and being oblivious to the phenomena of 'withdrawal" didn't exactly enhance my good judgement. Oh well. Time makes painful memories much less so. And the silver lining is I ended up in very good and knowledgeable hands at the med school- they don't even usually take "new patients", I was told. I won't blame or denounce any single medication, but hearing of polypharmacy to that extreme makes me cringe, because of how harmful it was for me, and because the arguments I heard against such practice made so much sense. Yes, I was very surprised to find how much clearer and better I felt as the excess meds were chipped away.
I was impressed and encouraged by how thoughtfully and strategically they did it. Ie- WAY too many stimulants, not even safe for a fairly young and fit person like me. Way too many antidepressents that obviously were not working. So they chopped out all the antidepressents in one go, slashed the excess stimulants in one go- which allowed them to slash the klonopin, and they added wellbutrin- an "activating" antidepressent which also helps with add. They also seemed to think it would be much less likely to mess with sleep than ssris.
They also cut out all zyprexa and antipsychotics, scoffing I wasn't psychotic at all- but rather suffering from side effects. That was a rather ROUGH and sudden switch- I think they were a bit swift, but the end results put me on a better path.No, still not perfect, by any means, but by comparison, lightyears better off now. I hope that if anyone's doctor gives them a twinge of doubt, they are more assertive in questioning or seeking an alternative opinion than I was. Don't simply fall for a "highly recommended expert"!
poster:laima
thread:692628
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061003/msgs/692803.html