Posted by SLS on July 6, 2023, at 22:33:44
In reply to Re: Many drugs likely cause changes to dopamine system, posted by Jay2112 on July 6, 2023, at 13:24:59
Hi, Jay.
You reported:
"Dopamine agonists seem to need to be switched around once in awhile."
I had never heard this, but this would be a critical understanding regarding the optimal use of DA receptor agonists. All I can say is, "Wow". Big-time insight. I will keep that in mind.
As for me, just this past week, I discovered that lithium has *destablized* me rather than stabilized me. Somehow, it was acting as an agent to prevent the establishment of a functional homeostasis. I stumbled upon this discovery with information supplied to me by my pharmacist. To make a short story long, I would not have identified lithium as the culprit for episodic mood shifts. Anyway, I discontinued lithium a few days ago. I went through hell with the emergence of severe psychic pain. Interestingly, although what I was experiencing was a return to a severe depressive state, there remained a certain cognitive clarity that is absent when I have a true relapse. Recognizing this subtle difference allowed me do continue to go through hell because I felt very optimistic that this depressive state would resolve once my system accommodated to the new drug environment.
I'm still one incredibly lucky person to have been able to find a treatment that works so well. Logic can be effective, but usually, it also takes a willingness to take risks and paying very close attention to your reaction to every drug you try. But in my estimation, it takes a hell of a lot of luck to hit the one effective combination among myriad permutations. Patience is not so much an inherited virtue as it is an acquired skill. My patience became shorter and shorter with each treatment failure. I would say that this is particularly true when one remembers how great it was to be in a mental state in the absence of depression. This makes the depression that much more torturous. I'll write more about this at some point in the future.
Jay, you display both the logic found in critical thinking and a great deal of patience. That's a winning combination, especially when a little bit of intuition enters the equation.
- Scott
Some see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
poster:SLS
thread:1122130
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20230117/msgs/1122136.html