Posted by jerryTRD on December 23, 2010, at 12:53:13
In reply to Re: *Not* Thinking in terms of meds » linkadge, posted by SLS on December 23, 2010, at 4:43:03
> > Does anybody here find themselves continually thinking about all of their problems in terms of medications?
>
> I find myself continually thinking about the way depression pervades my existence - not medications. Every conscious experience is tainted or muted by depression, so it is difficult not to focus all of one's energies on searching for a cure. I don't think focus equates to obsession.
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> Where I think you are correct is in describing a scenario in which someone becomes obsessed with self-medicating and evaluating the results minute-by-minute instead of week by week. It is a nasty ride. However, never-ending pain and desperation can lead people to behave in ways that had not been characteristic of them in the past.
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> For at least some people, all that is needed to facilitate the recovery process from MDD or BD is a single pill. The effects of depression are profound. They can make someone feel dead inside. Equally profound in magnitude are the effects of successful antidepressant treatment. One becomes alive inside. It is an awakening. The resolution of depression leaves available to one their full potential to deal with issues and even live happily ever after.
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> I experienced a complete remission of my depressive disorder for nine months as the consequence of taking a combination of two pills. I might have been well for the last two decades had my doctor not elected to discontinue treatment. It is hard not to notice when a world of black-and-white becomes a magnificent kaleidoscope of color. However, to make sense out of so much color when one knows only black-and-white can take quite a bit of work, but this process is far easier than continually trying to survive and function while living in the altered state of consciousness that is depression.
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> Maybe the most successful treatment for MDD and BD will come from a biological intervention other than administering drugs.
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>
> - Scott
>
>Scott I totally agree with you. When I was first diagnosed with MDD 20 years ago my doc put me on 75mg of Trazadone. Within 2 weeks I was alive again and I just keept thinking - this is the way I SHOULD be feeling and hsould have been feeling my entire life. I fell in love that summer and had the greatest outlook on life. However, I complained one time to my doc that the med was causing too much drowsiness and he said "You're back on track so just stop the trazadone." So I did.
Two weeks later I was deep in depression again. We started the Trazadone again but no effect - upped the dose to 300mg and nothing. From then on nothing worked for me.
So I have no problem hoping a new medication will come out that will get me back the way I was that summer and give me my life back. I admit I was obsessed for a time that just a pill would cure all -but now I don't - but I do believe that it's a great part of helping me to get out of this darkness and pain.
Also, since the dawn of the internet, we're much more informed about our illnesses and their treatments. I can see though, with all the info on the internet and TV commercials - how someone could become hyper-focused on medication as a cure-all. But do I blame them? I can't - because at one point in my life a single medication DID cure my depression. How can I damn someone who has hopes the same will happen for them?
Medications and therapy and a handful of alternative treatments are all we have to hold on to until they figure out the brain. People in mental anguish have every right in my opinion to put there hopes into medication and therapy - it's all we have.
Link said he just walked into a coffeshop and started conversing with people and now regularly continues to visit this spot and it's helping him great deal. I am happy for him - very happy. But I feel his message to "us" is an overgeneralization and when you get right down to it - just because something works for you doesn't mean it'll work for everyone else.
I understand his point, however I believe he could have presented it in a less demeaning manner to the members of this message board.
Depression, chronic & severe, recurrent, treatment-resistant w/GAD.
Meds: Effexor XR 300mg, Adderall IR 20mg 3x daily, Klonopin 5mg, Seroquel 400mg, Ambien 10mg, Synthroid 150mcg, Androgel
poster:jerryTRD
thread:973794
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20101218/msgs/974426.html