Posted by SLS on May 24, 2009, at 19:29:02
In reply to Re: A converted SSRI skeptic » SLS, posted by Neal on May 24, 2009, at 18:08:12
> Thanks Scott
>
> And as follow up to my post and to anyone reading, I don't mean to imply that ADs don't work. I am proof that they do.
>
> I was just trying to work out an obscure point of curiosity, which I'm probably belaboring.
No. Not at all. I neglected to address the question of whether or not it makes sense to wait some amount of time before deciding that a biological treatment is necessary. I guess the main criteria is safety. If someone is not likely to harm himself or others, I guess it really doesn't hurt to wait if that were their wish. Of course, it is sometimes surprising to learn how close someone has come to suicide without anyone around them knowing it.I fully appreciate the desire to avoid medical treatment. I would if I thought I had no better choice. However, my medical history and case profile leave me with few alternatives.
I rejected my very first antidepressant treatment when I was 15 years old. My GP gave me Pamelor (nortriptyline) to address my complaints of depression and fatigue. I hated the idea of taking any drug, and stopped taking it within the first week. I thought I was smart. One of the side effects listed for nortriptyline was hypoglycemia. I had already been diagnosed with hypoglycemia, and I didn't think it made sense to take a drug that would exacerbate it. Little did I realize that the depression was the real culprit in producing my feelings of fatigue rather than hypoglycemia. I think everyone was diagnosed with hypoglycemic back then, anyway.
As the years progressed, so did my symptomology. One day, I experienced a paroxysmal switch into severe depression, and that was the beginning of decades of unrelenting bipolar depression. I was 17, and was in the middle of a math class. It happened that quick. It wasn't until I was 22 that I even heard of biological affective disorders. I had been to a few psychotherapists previously without any improvement. All I had to do was to read the book "Mood Swing" by Ronald Fieve, and everything came together for me. Everything made sense. I went to a depression research program at Columbia Presbyterian in New York. They diagnosed me as having atypical unipolar depression. I had never shown any manic episodes up until then, so this seemed quite appropriate to me.
The bottom line is that I had already been chronically and severely depressed for 5 years by the time I was diagnosed. I couldn't live that way, so the decision to accept their antidepressant drug treatment seemed like the best course of action. I didn't want to wait any longer than I already had.
One of the things that angered me once I discovered what illness I had was that it was beyond my control to work my way out of it psychologically. If Columbia had told me that I might get well with some new type of psychotherapy, I would have done so in order to avoid taking drugs. I didn't want to be tethered to some foreign substance in order for me to live a happy and productive life. It was a matter of control. I wanted to be independent of all external agents, which included drugs and psychotherapy. However, I was willing to do as much remediation as was necessary to gain this independence.
I was convinced that I had an affective disorder before being officially diagnosed by Michael Liebowitz. I needed to wait a few months between diagnosis and beginning treatment. During that time, I began to observe my illness as objectively as possible. It was a no-brainer to see that I had a biological illness because I was an ultra-rapid cycler. Switches between euthymia and depression occurred every 11 days like clockwork. The amount of time it took to switch from one pole to the other was an astounging 30-45 minutes. Yes. By the time I was to be treated, I was fully ready to accept drug therapy.
I don't fault anyone for wanting to wait-out a depression. I would just recommend that one does not fix blame upon themselves for feeling depressed. It might perpetuate the depression or make it worse. It doesn't matter whether the cause for the depression is biological or psychological, the depression is the culmination of events that shape the way someone evolves as a human being, much of which occurs beyond the control of the individual.
The decision to treat or not to depression with drugs is a multifactorial one. It depends on so many variables. I would not recommend a single treatment protocol for each person who describes themselves as being depressed.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:896590
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090524/msgs/897482.html