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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 11 of 11. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by poser938 on April 24, 2012, at 11:23:25
okay so.. my severe emotional problems are from some long term effects a few meds had on me. well, every one i took has had effects on me that stuck with me, if i took them long enough from them to have an effect on my emotions. this is just how my brain is.
before i took my first set of meds in 2005, i had faith in the FDA and drug companies. i thought there was no way the meds i took could have a long term effect on me, but i was wrong. i dont know WHY my brain is like this, it may be because of the coma i was in 10 years ago from enecphalitis. and because of this, i have realized i need to approach my treatment differently. ever since my 1st round of meds, i have been focused on getting my brain back to normal. i have researched how these meds effect the brain. and now i'm trying to counteract this with other meds.so far i have been successful in small ways, and made my self worse in other ways. but now im starting to have a seriously hard time. the doctors and psychiatrists do not believe my situation. they say it is impossible. my most recent visit with my medical doctor, he first told me that it was "highly unlikely" that the meds have effected me like this. then he flat out said it was impossible. he was right with his 1st answer. i know it is unlikely that someone could be effected by meds like this.. but it is possible. and in my case, it is happening. and it is real. they call me psychotic and delusional for thinking the meds effect me like this. they just want to approach my treatment like they do everyone else. to just throw a random med at me for me to take. i cant just have them treat my situation like this. i cant just try any med. i have to do my best to make sure it will be the right med. this is why im trying to get the right dose of ketamine.
and if this doesnt work for me, i feel like i may be out luck. i am having such a difficult time with doctors, they just make me feel more hopeless.why is it so hard for them to see the possibility of meds effecting someone like this? even after clinical trials and the med is released to the public, they still dont know how the med can effect people. so it is like it is in one huge clinical trial wher they are still discovering new effects of meds after millions have taken it.
...im so wore out from not sleeping last night, but i hope all this makes sense.
Posted by ron1953 on April 24, 2012, at 11:44:28
In reply to long term effects from meds, posted by poser938 on April 24, 2012, at 11:23:25
Like you said, they don't know. Fact is, doctors don't know a helluva lot, and that is really not so shocking when one considers how incredibly complex a human being is. We'd like to think that they're experts, but their knowledge is really quite limited. So, along with not really understanding why their patients are depressed, etc. in the first place, they don't understand what the meds they prescribe really do, long or short term. I'm not criticizing doctors' lack of knowledge; I'm criticizing their lack of humility.
Posted by Christ_empowered on April 24, 2012, at 11:55:18
In reply to Re: long term effects from meds, posted by ron1953 on April 24, 2012, at 11:44:28
I agree w/ ron. I think docs in general tend to be arrogant. Shrinks, for whatever reason, sometimes take it to a whole new level of hubris.
Zhrinks are bad because they'll deny side effects that are in the literature. Tardive dyskinesia with an atypical? Noooooo, not very likely. Never mind the literature that shows a reduction in TD vs old school drugs, but also show that its still a very real risk.
Or they'll blame problems with stimulants and antidepressants on bipolar disorder and medicate accordingly. Blame benzo addiction on "personality disordered" patients with "addictive tendencies," even when the literature--from the days of Librium on--has always consistently shown that benzos can be problematic for some people.
It goes on and on and on. I know this isn't what you were looking to hear, but its really all I've got for you. My personal advice would be to try some kind of alternative route, or at least minimize your dependence on the medical establishment as best you can. At this point, they just don't believe you, and I think you may be wasting time and money.
Posted by Willful on April 24, 2012, at 12:00:07
In reply to long term effects from meds, posted by poser938 on April 24, 2012, at 11:23:25
I wonder though, poser, how you can be so sure what effects the meds have vs what effect other things, like just simply how your life has gone, and what connections you've made mentally among things, and how you remember and perceive things-- completely apart from drugs.
You seem so sure-- but in my experience it's impossible to be sure what's causing what, and what, actually, is happening in one's mind,
Perhaps if you expect your doctor to be open to discovering things he doesn't expect or believe initially, you also should take a more experimental and exploratory approach to your assumptions about what's causing your reactions.
What drugs did you take, and what long-term effects do you believe they've had? And what drugs have you taken to counter-act the effects of the first drugs? This all seems incredibly complex, and much to tangled for anyone to know clearly what's causing your current troubles.
It might help you to be less sure-- and less committed to the inevitability of these reactions. There are often mistakes we make in our thinking about ourselves, and it helps to keep an open mind.
Willful
Posted by Phillipa on April 24, 2012, at 12:18:54
In reply to Re: long term effects from meds, posted by Willful on April 24, 2012, at 12:00:07
I picked up on the word encepalitis inflammation of brain various causes but could this be the reason what did cause the encephalitis? Phillipa
Posted by poser938 on April 24, 2012, at 12:53:56
In reply to Re: long term effects from meds, posted by Willful on April 24, 2012, at 12:00:07
it took me about a year to be sure about how the meds were effecting me.
i am 100% sure now. it would be harmful to me if i decided on taking any random psychiatric med.i have had too many severe mood changes while taking these meds for it to be a coincidence. i dont have severe changes in my emotions or mood any time when im not taking medication.
the worst meds i took were adderall, effexor and mirapex. and a med called cyproheptadine helped alot with what adderall did to me. and then i ended up trying mirapex and it did the same after about a month of taking it. adderall messed meup after a month, too. and the cyproheptadine once again helped me quite a bit.. but not enough.
effexor actually gave me tardive dyskinesia. when i was taking it and the muscles in my face just started moving, i didnt think it could be tardive dyskinesia. i figured that only antipsychotics could cause that. it also made my moods very sensitive to the foods i eat while at the same time making what emotions i had very numb.
adderall made me feel stimulated for a few weeks until it seemingly turned off my braind own dopamine production. i think cyproheptadines 5ht2c antagonism fixed this.
and more recently, mirapex seems to have done the same thing adderall did. and this time cyproheptadine helped.. but nt nearly enough this time.
Posted by Tomatheus on April 24, 2012, at 12:55:17
In reply to long term effects from meds, posted by poser938 on April 24, 2012, at 11:23:25
poser938,
Some doctors seem to have a belief that if they've never heard of a patient responding to a medication in a particular way that the patient must be wrong in what he or she says about certain medication responses. Never mind the fact that rare reactions to medications can and do happen and that unusual responses to medications are routinely reported in the medical literature. With some doctors, when you tell them something that they haven't heard of happening before, they'll flat out tell you that it can't happen.
Why do some doctors seem to be so dismissive of patients who report responding to medications in ways that aren't consistent with what they've heard of happening before? I don't know for sure. Maybe it has to do with the fact that doctors are trained to be skeptical, and some of them take their skepticism to the next level by dismissing anything that seems to be unlikely. Maybe there are other factors. All I can say is that from my own experiences with doctors and from what I've read about others' experiences with doctors, it seems that doctors are usually at least very hesitant to acknowledge responses to medications that aren't consistent with what they've heard of happening before.
I don't think that I've had as many long-term adverse medication reactions as you've had -- as far as I can tell, I've had two to date -- but I can empathize with what you're going through with both the long-term adverse reactions themselves and your doctor's refusal to acknowledge the reactions. At this point, I've pretty much given up on the idea that I'll ever get my brain back to the way that it was before I took the two medications that seemed to have long-term effects on me (which isn't to say that that would be my goal; my goal would be to get my brain back to the way before it was before the onset of any significant psychiatric symptoms). Sure, I'm trying out different treatments that might ease the symptoms that have emerged since I took the two medications that seemed to have long-term effects on me. However, because I can't say exactly how the medications that I took affected me at the physiological level, I don't think that I can realistically expect to find something that will get to the root of the medication-induced problems that I have.
I do hope that the right dose of ketamine will bring you some relief, but I wouldn't expect it to completely fix the long-term problems that you're having as a result of having taken medications. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to do something about the long-term medication effects that you're suffering from, but I do think that expecting your brain to be completely reset to the way it was before you took medications may not be very realistic. I don't mean to take away your feelings of hope, and I'm certainly not saying that your condition won't ever improve, but I know that I find it more realistic to seek out treatments that might ease some of my symptoms instead of seeking out a complete cure that doesn't seem to exist -- at least not at this point in time. I hope that if ketamine doesn't ultimately work out for you that you keep looking for treatments that might potentially bring your feelings of well being close to what they were when you were feeling better.
Tomatheus
Posted by poser938 on April 24, 2012, at 13:03:10
In reply to Re: long term effects from meds, posted by Tomatheus on April 24, 2012, at 12:55:17
it would be great if ketamine did fix my brain right up. but im not execting it too. i'm mainly hoping it will fix, at least partially, what the mirapex did to my emotions. i'm pretty sure mirapex shut down part of my dopamine system. i tried reversing the effects of mirapex with antipsychotics., but im so messed up that the risperdal, seroquel and latuda did nothing. they were like taking sugar pills.
and my encephalitis was caused by a cat scratch.
i have had long term effects from other meds, too. they werent as severe as the mirapex, effexor and adderall, though.
Posted by Phillipa on April 24, 2012, at 19:25:38
In reply to Re: long term effects from meds, posted by poser938 on April 24, 2012, at 13:03:10
Cat scratches can cause encephalitis? Wow thanks. So horrible. Phillipa
Posted by emmanuel98 on April 24, 2012, at 19:27:08
In reply to Re: long term effects from meds, posted by Willful on April 24, 2012, at 12:00:07
I agree with willful. Having been in a coma with encephalitis could forever change the way your brain works. I had a friend who had encephalitis (viral) and was never right mentally again.
Posted by Phillipa on April 24, 2012, at 21:33:04
In reply to Re: long term effects from meds » poser938, posted by Phillipa on April 24, 2012, at 19:25:38
That is exactly what I feel as nephew had the bacterial one when 2 but he made it and seems okay? Does have thyroid and anxiety though Phillipa
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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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