Posted by bleauberry on April 19, 2012, at 5:44:11
In reply to off ADs after 12 years, What now?, posted by Rob Smith on April 17, 2012, at 11:08:49
I think you can do several things:
1. Revisit your past and see if there was anything that did help a little bit....whatever it was, at least now you have a clue as to what chemistry to be focusing on. With me, I got subtle clues about norepinephrine. So when I choose a new treatment it has some sort of predominant NE mechanism. Most end up being duds but I have found some life savers too, which I use as parachutes when I fall off a cliff.
2. Lower doses. Whatever you do, keep the doses really low. Like for example starting dose 1/8 to 1/2 the normal starting dose. If a med is going to be in the right direction for you, you should get a hint of that even at a tiny dose, or actually even more so at a tiny dose versus a normal dose. If it goes badly, withdrawal is much easier and faster.
All of the lab tests could be your worst enemies. Sort of like a judge sentencing an innocent prisoner to life behind bars wtih no chance of parole. Many people with apparently normal thyroid....but symptoms similar to thyroid....feel a lot better when they are treated as if they had hypothyroid anyway. The scales used vary from lab to lab and reflect only a general guideline of a large sample but do not reflect the individual variation within the group.
Many tests cannot be trusted. But doctors act as if they are Bible. They are not.
In other words, the clinical picture is more important than the lab picture. If one had to be discarded as the least useful, it would be the lab.
If your adrenals were not checked 4 times throughout a 24 hour period then they are worthless tests. A single spot in time tells us nothing.
3. Beef up your health in every way possible. That basically means learning a ton about foods and herbs. People can and do actually improve their overall situation simply by knowing the right stuff to put in the grocery cart and knowing the right stuff to not.
4. Try an alternative doctor for new ideas and a fresh approach.
5. Don't assume anything. Test, challenge, and confirm.
Your story sounds very similar to mine, except you haven't failed ECT like I did. Anyway, I'm in better shape now than in any of the days on meds, still not well but better than I was, and it has all been without psych meds. I use them only for emergencies and never more than 1 day in a row, never more than twice in a week.
What you want to accomplish, well, there are tens of thousands of people already doing it.....it requires a new twist in life....that is, learning about stuff the doctor will never teach you.
The areas you want to learn and treat:
1. Inflammation (from various hidden causes)
2. Toxicity (lead, mercury, plastics)
3. Occult infection (as in Lyme or similar)
4. Food medicines.
5. Herbal medicines, both western and Traditional Chinese eastern.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1015808
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120411/msgs/1015944.html