Posted by Racer on July 11, 2004, at 18:40:21
In reply to Re: For cakins, posted by cakins on July 11, 2004, at 14:22:01
First of all, you're one up on me, buddy, if you've got medical insurance! Step one is to go to your GP, tell him/her that you're experiencing distress that you think might be related to depression, and ask for a referral to a qualified psychopharmacologist. Guess what? Unless you are clearly a danger to yourself or others, you don't get to be locked up against your will. Instead, you get to answer a slew of questions about your symptoms, your history, your feelings (which you answer as well as you can -- it's not a test with a pass-fail grade at the end of it), and the Good Doctor will either suggest counseling -- which is a very good resource and I recommend -- or medications, or both. The best answer, as far as anything I've ever experienced or heard about or read about is getting both medications and counseling.
Medications can be absolute and literal life savers. Sure, there are trade offs, but the amount of good they do is worth most of the problems that they can cause. Most medications require a fair amount of time to work, but once they kick in it's like a miracle. Truly, like a miracle.
Best luck to you, there really is help out there, and it doesn't have to require a nightmare to get it. The best way to avoid the nightmare, by the way, is to take the first step towards getting help yourself. If you make the choice to get yourself to a doctor for a referral, then you reap many benefits, not least of which is the feeling of power it can give you that *you* made an *active* move towards recovery, rather than remaining passive until someone else did something that forced it on you.
I'm appalled, by the way, that you were released without any sort of treatment or follow up. Not surprised, since I was released from an involuntary hold hours before attempting suicide myself. In fact, the closest to treatment I got on that hold was the lethal dose of pills they gave me which I then used for a less therapeutic purpose that night. That is not typical of treatment for depression or related mood disorders, though. That's typical of a bureaucratic system that tries very hard to give out band aids, since they really aren't equipped to treat the bullet wounds presented. Go to your doctor. It won't be like that. I promise.
poster:Racer
thread:364779
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040706/msgs/365118.html