Posted by TamaraJ on March 3, 2005, at 11:53:38
In reply to Re: Kara, my turn. How you are doing? » TamaraJ, posted by KaraS on March 2, 2005, at 22:09:33
> Hi,
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> Yeah, I had the agitation, general anxiety, panic, morning trauma (upon awakening) and the impatience. It defies logic. We know there's no good reason to be that impatient but it's out of our control. I have to say that the doxepin has taken care of most of that. I'm still quite worried about the future but at least I can stand in line at the market and not freak out. I don't wake up in a panic anymore either. Once you get on the right medication, those problems will go away.
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-- The morning panic/trauma is the worst. It's like - Oh crap, not again! It would be nice to wake up and at least have a couple of hours of peace of mind. I have found that taking magnesium (500mg) before bed has helped those feelings a bit. I'm glad for you that doxepin has helped you some. Even a small amount of relief is welcome, especially if the mornings have become a bit more tolerable. It's the impatience that I find the worst at times. I even have a hard time going shopping with anyone because I am so hyper and can get so impatient. I have to be able to zip into a store, take a quick scan, and leave when I realize there is nothing in there I am interested in. So many of my friends make shopping almost a sport! Puttering through the stores, purusing each and every rack, while I stand there thinking "there is nothing in here, let's go, go, go!" My friends and I go shopping in the States sometimes, and I try to make sure there are at least 3 of us so I can take off and shop at my hyper pace.
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> YAY!!!!! GOOD FOR YOU!!!! I hope that you prove him wrong and the nort. works out really well. I bet you'll be able to tolerate it better than the Anafranil. Just remember to get your blood tested to make sure that you are within the therapeutic window for that drug.
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-- Thanks. I hope I can prove him wrong too. I am happy and a little nervous - so many failed trials. But, I will remain optimistic and hope for the best. I have been taking 25mg of the Anafranil for the past few days (I still had a small amount left) until I pick up the Nort prescription. Oh God, I hope it works. Have you ever considered trying Anafranil. I remember reading other people's experiences, and some were really positive. Banga, if I remember correctly, had said when she used it the first time, it was like going from black and white to color (or something like that). Given your sensitivity, maybe you wouldn't need a very high dose. I think for some people weight gain is a problem, but if you were able to keep the dose low (50mg - 75mg), it might not be a problem. I gained a bit, but I think that was mostly because I was finally able to eat again, so it was almost a given I would gain some. I just hope you can find something soon to help you. You deserve some relief.
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> > You can't blame him for not remembering all of your details. He must treat many people and would be impossible to remember all of their histories. I'm glad he was nice about it and that he relented on the nort. Glad the nasty secretary is gone too. That profession needs a good, kind admin person more than any other I can think of!
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-- Ya, he has a lot of patients. And, he is quite old - 76 years old. Not that that is any indication of a failing memory though. But, after probably 40 years in practice, he has a lot of patients' histories rolling around in his head. He's a pretty good guy. My mom met him the first time I went to see him (she had given me a lift, and his office is at the hospital, so she came up and waited with me). All she kept saying after she met him was how handsome he is. Good God! That's all I need is my crazy mother making a pass at my pdoc! Yipes!
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> Exactly why that rEEG sounds so good to me. Plus supposedly it can tell you if you need a mood stabilizer and, if so, which one would be best. It can recommend if augmenting with cytomel would be a good idea. It has the potential to save so much time for people if it's really as good as they're claiming.
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-- Wouldn't that be great to have the guess work taken out of psychopharmocology! What a concept. It would almost be like taking it from an art to an actual science. You'd think the psychiatric community would want to pursue something like that with a vengeance. I hope more research (if that is what is needed) is put into it. The lives it could save.> I still won't have enough money to get health insurance. I need a job for that. It's very hard to buy insurance on your own here especially when you have a pre-existing condition. Depression is one of the major things that they try not to cover. Apparently they can't make a lot of money off of us so why bother giving us healthcare? It's just disgusting.
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-- I'm sorry about that. I think that health care should be a basic human right. Everybody should have access to at least some form of health care regardless of income. It's true that universal, public health care systems have problems and inadequacies, but at least all citizens have access to the basics. Politicians need to get their priorities straight sometimes. Ok, I'll shut up now. Sorry for the rant.> I went to see the house today. It wasn't quite as nice as I imagined it would be. It needs some work (some of the other houses my friend looked at were in tip top shape with brand new everything) so I was a bit disappointed by comparison. My friend isn't going to have the money to fix it up either. However it was still nice and it's in a quiet, beautiful gated community. There's a small gym just a short distance from the house. I hope I'm making the right move here. I think it's better than staying where I am but I'm concerned about so many things. It won't be easy to not have my own place anymore. Also, I really wish her taste weren't so awful and I'm so not up for a move right now. I can't help but feel sorry for myself that I'm going to be in a situation like this at my age rather than owning my own home and having it decorated nicely. OK, whining is over. It felt good to get that out though.
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-- That's a shame. But, rant away :-) It helps to get these things out. If we held it all in, we would explode. Years ago, my best friend asked me to move into a house that he and friend owned and were using as an income property (rooming house). I loved the neighborhood (it was within walking distance of the river, and all the amenities were there), but when we moved in, I realized what bad shape the house was in. Like you, I was disappointed and discouraged. But, once we got the furniture in there and did a little bit of painting, it wasn't that bad. And, slowly, over a couple of years, other things got done. That's nice about the gym being close by. Once you feel up to it, you can take advantage of that. So, that's a plus. And, it being in a nice neighborhood and a gated community will be reassuring as well. I don't think you are making the wrong move. I remember once talking to my gp about living arrangements in this day in age. I don't even remember why we started talking about it. Anyway, she said that these days people are making all kinds of arrangements, like sharing a house with a friend, living with a sibling, etc. There is no right or wrong these days. I never thought I would own a house or even that I wanted that responsibility. It just turned out that the landlords of the apartment I was living in were becoming unbearable and negligent and the place I bought was reasonably priced and came out to about the same as I would have been paying had I found a new apartment. But, I would not have hesitated to share a place with a good friend if that would have been the financially sound thing to do. And, I like the idea sometimes of having someone else there. I sure hope that your friend will be receptive to some of your decorating ideas. She has to realize that it will be your home too, and it needs to be inviting to you as well. Good luck with that. I will send telepathic messages to your friend - "You are open to suggestion. Accept some decorating tips and help" :-)
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> I'm interested in that as well as a last hope kind of a measure since it involves invasive surgery. Jerrympl went through a trail of that. He didn't respond to it but he knew of others in the study who had great responses.
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-- It's nice to know it is there if and when the time comes to pursue a more aggressive treatment. I remember reading of Jerry's experience. I think he was the first to admit that his failure to respond was not necessarily indicative of the potential success of the treatment for others. I think he had some problems with frequency level or something. So, who knows, he may have eventually responded if they had kept tweaking the frequency.
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> Same here. I make all kinds of lists and plans all of the time. Realistically I won't be able to do all of it but I'll try to do what I can and try not to get discouraged because I'm not able to do it all.
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-- That's all we can do - is do our best to do what we can. We have to feel good about our successes. And, success is not always measured by how much a person does, but rather by the effort a person puts into doing something and the person's good intentions. There! That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! :-)
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> I've tried 5-htp before. I think I only took 50mg. to help me sleep. It did that but created some stomach problems. I haven't tried the enteric coated version yet though. I tried a bit of tryptophan many years ago for sleep and don't remember much about it. I may try it again sometime soon. Also, I've tried l-tyrosine. I got up to about 3,200 mg. a day on an empty stomach but didn't notice a thing - not even jitteryness. I used a couple of different quality brands too. Something just wasn't happening with that. I may try DLPA again. I've only used it in small dosages and not for a long enough period to really judge it. It would be so great if I could get aminos to work for me. So much easier and no doctors need to be involved.
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-- You have nothing to lose by trying the aminos again. And, I agree, it would be nice to use something natural and achieve relief rather than having to rely on doctors. You could actually even consider a low dose AD with aminos to augment. I remember reading FredPotter's post about his success with L-Tyrosine as an augmenter. I like to hear success stories like that. I wish more family doctors and pdocs would become better informed of the treatment potential of amino acids and vitamin/mineral therapy. Maybe in the future, there will be a more integrated approach to dealing with depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. Who knows.
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> I am crossing my fingers that the nort. will work wonders for you. You deserve it!
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-- Thanks Kara. Your support means a lot to me. I hope things start to look up for you too. You certainly deserve it.> Have you started cutting back on cigarettes or have you stopped cold turkey yet?
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-- Well, I have realized that going cold turkey will be hard. So, I am cutting down day by day and will quit, hopefully, in the next couple of weeks. Yikes!> Uggh! It's raining again. I can't stand it!!!
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-- Oh crap! That stinks! Rain, rain, go away - and stay away!. I'm going out to my backyard right now to do a sun dance for you :-)
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> Take care, and I'll talk to you later.
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Tamara
poster:TamaraJ
thread:456548
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050224/msgs/465942.html