Posted by SLS on March 4, 2005, at 4:15:39
In reply to Re: Sometimes there's no choice » SLS, posted by Sarah T. on March 3, 2005, at 20:56:24
Hi Sarah.
Like many people here, my disorder does not fit entirely well into the more classical categories of mental illness. I suffer from a chronic severe depression that is unremitting. I have brief responses to a few medications, but only once for longer than a week. I have also had brief, but psychotic manic reactions to medication. The depression "looks" like bipolar depression as it is anergic, anhedonic, and presents reverse vegetative symptoms similar to atypical major depression. The doctors at the NIMH felt this was sufficient to label me as bipolar. The next DSM is supposed to include my presentation as "Bipolar III".
> Right now, I am very discouraged about psychopharmacology and most psychiatrists.
Me too. :-)
> There are so few really good, "complete" doctors around.
This has been my experience as well.
Rant:I am becoming increasingsly frustrated reading the more recent posts on this board. I wonder if people don't review the whole board first before undertaking to discontinue their antidepressants and benzodiazepines "cold turkey" or using a counterproductive plan like skipping days between doses. It would be a shame if this board were to become nothing more than a gathering place for people who are currently suffering from withdrawal syndromes and whom decide to "stay the course" despite the effective alternatives that are staring them right in the face. Sorry. I guess I should realize that most sufferers arrive here only after the fact looking for support. I hope more and more people become willing to intervene on their own behalf by using a strategy to mitigate or prevent all together the withdrawal syndrome.
I wish more people would do the following:
> When I tapered Klonopin, I did so over many weeks, even though I never took that high a dose. I had the orange tablets, which are 0.5mg, I think. I cut the pills in tinier and tinier amounts over a few months. Each time I lowered the dose, I spent at least a week on it, sometimes more. Because I was cutting the pills, and the pills don't cut that well without crumbling, my method was not very precise. I estimated by size as close as I could, and it seemed to work out.
> I do think that Klonopin is a good drug. In years past, I had tried other anxiolytics, such as Librium, Valium and Ativan. And, as I mentioned a few days ago, when I had those panic attacks, I took Xanax. Of all the benzos I've taken, I think Klonopin is the best and the "most benign." Unfortunately, benzos don't work well for me as sleep aids. If I take a tiny chip of Klonopin on an anxiety-ridden day, it helps. If I take Klonopin at night, I sleep very poorly, and I feel horrid the following day. I know that, like alcohol, benzodiazapines interfere with some stages of sleep and can also impair memory, so I figure that they must be interfering with a sleep stage that is particularly important to me.
Hmm. What alternatives have you considered? Remeron might be helpful as a hypnotic with the benefit of improving sleep architecture.
> I was interested to read that you had been at NIMH. Have you ever considered the Mayo Clinic?
I really haven't developed an interest in the Mayo Clinic, primarily because I haven't seen described any success stories, although there may be many.
> I have often wondered about getting treatment there.
Have you come across anything that you find compelling to try it?
> I still have hope that the right medicines will be available some day.
Me too, but I think I was born about 50 years too early. 50 years from now, I doubt someone like me will have to remain severely afflicted for 25 years without remedy.
> If only there were more funding and other types of support for mental health research.
Don't get me started. Until recently, the federal government granted the NIMH less than 700 million dollars annually to study mental illness. They now get 1.3 billion. Unfortunately, a smaller and smaller percentage of the budget is directed towards clinical research instead of general neuroscience. Depression is the single most pervasive disability and the largest drain on the economy. It is cost effective to spend larger amounts of money to find effective treatments. Somehow, I think this idea remains lost in the government bureaucracy.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:463648
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20050228/msgs/466316.html