Posted by Enigma on April 22, 2009, at 18:03:59
In reply to Re: Remeron's now put my friend off meds for life., posted by sowhysosad on April 22, 2009, at 16:47:13
> Sorry to hear about your situation Enigma. I'm in a really similar situation to you, albeit in a med-free period at the moment. Been depressed for over 6 months, unable to work, losing the will to go on, and my wife regularly running out of patience. It sucks. Glad to hear you've improved back on the Nardil.
Wow, I hate to hear that. Unfortunately the reality for me is I simply cannot go med-free for any length of time. I turn into a completely different person, a danger to myself and others, as they say. I wouldn't last long "out there" without my meds. I hate the dependence on them, but, what else can I do?
> As for my friend, I've tried reassuring her that there are plenty of other meds out there and that Remeron's side effects are extreme but to no avail. She's one of these virulently anti-meds people that are all too common in the UK, and her bad experience with psychiatry has just confirmed her preconceptions.
Ahh, that's a shame. My mother is kinda hit or miss like that. She'll take meds for certain physical ailments, but if I tell her she's depressed (she lost her husband 2 years ago, my dad) and still cries over it a good deal of the time, she refuses outright to take a mild AD. But, she's got issues with accepting the fact that she might have any form of mental illness, even a temporary situation-based one. ...and, she's actually got her share of them. :)
> It annoys me that so many docs worldwide put their faith in a drug that is, for many of us, a glorified antihistamine with no antidepressant effect.I hear that. I don't know what my doc's attraction to Remeron is. I'll have to ask him next visit. All I know is, he's not going to be pleased when I tell him I took all of 1 dose and jumped back to Nardil. Heh.. shows how much he knows about what my real needs are though.
> With regard to finding another doc, the way mental health works in the UK is that each area has a mental health team assigned to it and they treat ALL cases referred by family doctors in their patch.
>
> For example, my area is designated South Leeds and everyone in that area is treated by a particular pdoc and her "team" at one particular suburban health centre. They're responsible for all referred mental health cases amongst a quarter of the population of a city of around 700,000 people.OMG, that's horrible. It's great here in the states. I've changed docs a dozen times till I landed on the one I'm at now, and I'm generally pretty happy with him. He does rush each appt though and has to do "his thing" each appt first which ends up leaving you 5-10 mins at the end of the appt to really talk. It's really starting to get on my nerves. I miss my last doc, but he changed jobs from private practice to working with *really* sick patients. He was a GREAT doctor.
> If you're not happy with that, tough ****. In fact, I only get to see one of her juniors who seems to know way less about psychopharmacology than I do, and I'm just a layman who reads a lot. I guess the only way you could change docs is to move house or get yourself hospitalised. At least the treatment is free, but few people have private health insurance or can afford a private pdoc, so you don't get to shop around.
Wow, horrible. I have seen my share of docs that I knew about 10x more than about my disorder. I couldn't believe it. I would think to myself, wow, can I get paid $180 per visit each time I come here instead? As for a few docs, I was TELLING THEM what drugs and what dosages to give me, and they were writing the scripts, no lie. Luckily insurance was paying for the visits as there's no way I would pay these jokers that kind of money for signing a piece of paper.
All I know is, Depression, Bipolar Disorder and so on, etc, has destroyed my life. I'm a shadow of my former self. I lost interest in so many things I used to enjoy. Just recently I decided to write a book about my life, my psychotic upbringing, my career and the end of it, and my disorder and how it permanently ruined my life. It really sucked to life 1/2 a life as I do now. I want to be the person I used to be. But, medical tech is just not there yet. I've already tried every drug and drug combo in the book and believe I'm on the best combo I'm ever gonna find. Now I still have to lose the 45 pounds from Seroquel I can't seem to shed to safe my life, deal with not being able to drink anymore (Geodon just won't allow it) - and it was one thing that I still enjoyed about life, stolen from a pill!... bah... And there are still millions walking the street thinking I'm just "weak"...
poster:Enigma
thread:891271
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090416/msgs/892186.html