Posted by Racer on April 3, 2007, at 13:38:32
In reply to Are The Only Meds That Work MAOI's That's All I se, posted by Phillipa on April 3, 2007, at 12:02:41
Other medications work for people, and there are threads about them here.
Jan, you're working yourself back into a crisis about medications right now. Truly, that isn't going to help you. Can you work with your new psychologist about ways to keep your anxiety about medications under control? Maybe discuss biofeedback?
Here's the thing: your mileage will vary. You know that, it's clear as can be if you read this board, right? You will have your own reactions to medications, so you'll have to try them to find out if they'll work for you. But if you're so freaked out by them that you only take them for two days, or three days, or a week, then you'll never know if it would have helped. A few times, Jan, you've tried to start a new medication, but your anxiety about it has been so great you haven't been able to keep taking it. It's your anxiety -- the very symptom you're trying to treat -- that's stopped you from taking a drug, and that's not doing you any good.
Way back, at the end of my long nightmare, when I started Cymbalta, I had the same sort of reaction. I'd been through such hell, and I was ready to stop the drug after the second day. I was sure I was dying, I was sure it wasn't working, I was sure I needed to stop it before Something Terrible happened to me. Well, if I had stopped it, I would have been stuck in a cycle of not being able to take anything. ALL drugs have effects that are noticeable in the first days and weeks. Mostly, those effects go away if you can get through them. The trick is figuring out how to get through that adjustment phase.
Remember Chemist? He called me every single day, and he told me to take the pill, and he listened to me telling him that it was going to put me through hell, and he reminded me that I had to keep taking it to find out if it would help me. Without him, and his good sense, I wouldn't have gotten to where I am now. I think you need to find something like that for yourself, Jan. I think you need someone to give you some gentle bullying to get you through the adjustment phase. Maybe that's your new therapist, maybe you've got a friend who'll do it, maybe your husband, maybe Babble -- just, somehow you've got to get yourself ready to take a new pill that will make you feel funny for a while. If you can't do that, no medication will help you.
Good luck.
poster:Racer
thread:746524
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070402/msgs/746552.html