Anti-depressants

[selfactivated]

Im Bi-Polar. I take Lithium and Seroquil on a daily basis. Without them Id die. Bi-Polar is a chemical disorder your born with. It cause severe depression and severe elation(Mania). Sleep disorders affect it also dehydration. With either of these a lack of sleep or a lack of water will send off a patient into depressions or Manias.

With out the PROPER medication and Psycological team people like me have very short life spans. The proper doc and councilor can make life nearly normal. My psycologist is Hindi and my councilor an Athiest. Both fantast listeners and NONJUDGEMENTAL 2 huge qualities in helping the Mentally ill.

In Texas my Phsycologist had me on 45 pillas a day, including Wellbutrin which I was allergic to and went into phsycotic episode at my sister in laws wedding......to say the least I wasnt very popular. I was put in the hospital over night and flushed with fluids.

Anti-drepressants given in the proper way AND watched under a docs supervition can save lives. If a patient isnt watched the results can be detrimental.

 

[Curiosity]

Anxiety and depression can be caused by physical stressors however they are primarily the result
of a malfunction in one's thought processes - how one is coping (or not) with a particular life event or problem.

Unless the problem is diagnosed as having a physical cause I think it is wiser to attempt remediation of the problem by behavior or habit change rather than firing some pharmaceuticals at the problem.

Some of the SSRIs will after a time become impotent too and then a person has to begin a new course of treatment, hoping to get back to the place where the original prescription had offered relief.

Best spend more time on introspection and stop with the transquilizing booze and drugs until one can dig at the root of the problem (if they have the guts to expose it).... and perhaps make a decision to
take care of the problem which is causing the physical reactions....

I'm not against pharmaceuticals because they save lives or improve wasted lives of people with malfunctioning systems..... but generally speaking we are always looking for a quick fix in which we don't have to change our current patterns.... this is ok if you can get away with it.... but our heads have a funny way of reminding us something is out of balance.

Mixing street drugs/ alcohol and prescribed phrarmaceuticals is a bad road leading to a few hours of relief, only to find the situation even worse, and certainly no better.

 

[Vereya]

My sister-in-law is a practising psychiatrist, and when we get together, we often discuss such topics as this one. And this is the one topic we've discussed time and time again. What she says is that depressions are often accompanied by some chemical disorder in a patient's body. Whether it is the depression that leads to that disorder, or whether the disorder occurs first and causes depression, is not yet clear to the scientists. And the function of antidepressants is to bring a person's chemical make-up back to normal. However, she does say that while a person is on antidepressants, he or she should have therapy to help them with some difficult issues they might have.
So far, I have never had to take any antidepressants or any medicine of the kind, except for some light nerve-soothing remedies, such as the valerian drops around exam time when I was a student. However, I have some experience with psychedelics, and I can say one thing - a right amoung of a psychedelic substance, taken in a right setting, with the right set and sitter, is the most powerful means of solving your problems and changing yourself the way you want. REcently I read a book "DMT - the Spirit Molecule" by doctor Rick Strassman. He gives a very interesting overview of the history of psychedelics use and abuse. For over twenty years, from mid-forties to the beginning of the seventies, human psychedelic research was one of the most effective and most rapidly developing branches of clinical psychiatry. before I read that book, I used to think that the instances of therapists giving their patients psychedelic substances during therapy sessions were quite rare, but actually it happened very often, and it really worked.
My point is that antidepressants, judging by what I ever heard about them, and judging even by your posts here, just make you ignore your problem. Psychedelics, on the other hand, help you solve your problem, until it is no longer a difficult issue for you.

 

[vinod1975]

What all i know is depression is caused by your thoughts which has no meaning and may be you are trying to achive what yo can not or if you get such kind of shock from which you can not come out.

 

[Niflmir]

I wish I had been awake when this thread was being spun...

I was diagnosed with a manic-depression and a drug induced psychosis when I was in high school. I was immediately told that it was a chemical imbalance but that they were going to do a cat scan and some blood work to make sure that it wasn't from cancer or a brain hemorrhage. I was given risparidal in the meantime to deal with the chemical imbalance.

The risparidal made me incredibly sleepy and weak willed. It took tremendous effort just to think of what I was going to do today. After a week or two, I quit taking it. People told me that I was acting more normally with the drugs, the fact that the doctor took it so seriously told me there was something wrong. So, I just started "acting normal." I didn't feel normal, I didn't think normally, but I sure could fake it. I stopped doing marijauna, the drug that compounded my problems. I stopped hanging around with my drug using friends. Slowly I became normal again.

For me the pills were not the answer. More of a catalyst. I did not want to be medicated like that, so I figured out how to live normally. The problem I see with the diagnosis of the chemical imbalance is the lack of evidence that they have when they prescribe their pills. I will agree that depression and chemical imbalances are correlated, but how can you know which specific pill will fix a person's specific chemical imbalance without doing extensive blood tests?

You cannot. The pills are prescribed because clinical trials show that they are effective at reducing the occurrence of specific symptoms without high risks of adverse side effects. Sure, doctors will adjust medications for you to find the right pill, but that has more to do with trying to eliminate symptoms without causing side effects that it has to do with monitoring specific chemical concentrations and balancing them.

 

[selfactivated]

I wish I had been awake when this thread was being spun...

I was diagnosed with a manic-depression and a drug induced psychosis when I was in high school. I was immediately told that it was a chemical imbalance but that they were going to do a cat scan and some blood work to make sure that it wasn't from cancer or a brain hemorrhage. I was given risparidal in the meantime to deal with the chemical imbalance.

The risparidal made me incredibly sleepy and weak willed. It took tremendous effort just to think of what I was going to do today. After a week or two, I quit taking it. People told me that I was acting more normally with the drugs, the fact that the doctor took it so seriously told me there was something wrong. So, I just started "acting normal." I didn't feel normal, I didn't think normally, but I sure could fake it. I stopped doing marijauna, the drug that compounded my problems. I stopped hanging around with my drug using friends. Slowly I became normal again.

For me the pills were not the answer. More of a catalyst. I did not want to be medicated like that, so I figured out how to live normally. The problem I see with the diagnosis of the chemical imbalance is the lack of evidence that they have when they prescribe their pills. I will agree that depression and chemical imbalances are correlated, but how can you know which specific pill will fix a person's specific chemical imbalance without doing extensive blood tests?

You cannot. The pills are prescribed because clinical trials show that they are effective at reducing the occurrence of specific symptoms without high risks of adverse side effects. Sure, doctors will adjust medications for you to find the right pill, but that has more to do with trying to eliminate symptoms without causing side effects that it has to do with monitoring specific chemical concentrations and balancing them.

Your totally correct. Theres millions of "cocktails" out there that are all wrong for one and not the other. I was diagnosed at 18 after a suicide attempt at Harvard after a rape. I had mor issues than those docs could deal with. I was 39 when I finally said ENOUGH! The last suicide attempt left me demanding to be taken off 45 pills and lefy on one.....lithium. Its been neary five years.....the clearest years of my life. The seroquil takes care of my sleeping WHEN I take it correctly. I trust no doc completely. I trust MY own feelings and reactions. I cant allow anyone power over my mental health but me. I know my body, they dont.

 

[Sparrow]

Your totally correct. Theres millions of "cocktails" out there that are all wrong for one and not the other. I was diagnosed at 18 after a suicide attempt at Harvard after a rape. I had mor issues than those docs could deal with. I was 39 when I finally said ENOUGH! The last suicide attempt left me demanding to be taken off 45 pills and lefy on one.....lithium. Its been neary five years.....the clearest years of my life. The seroquil takes care of my sleeping WHEN I take it correctly. I trust no doc completely. I trust MY own feelings and reactions. I cant allow anyone power over my mental health but me. I know my body, they dont.

Good for you!! You are right, you are the only one who know how you react to medication. Don't you just love those doctors who give you medication almost on a trial bases, they tell you try this and we will see how well it works. Many doctors are conscientious but the time has past when we can blindly follow what they prescribe. Ask questions, check out the medication on the internet and if you don't like the written effects ask your doctor to give you something else. Never give up, look at what you did and you are feeling a lot better. Keep up the good work!
I send you special thoughts
Sparrow

 

[selfactivated]

Good for you!! You are right, you are the only one who know how you react to medication. Don't you just love those doctors who give you medication almost on a trial bases, they tell you try this and we will see how well it works. Many doctors are conscientious but the time has past when we can blindly follow what they prescribe. Ask questions, check out the medication on the internet and if you don't like the written effects ask your doctor to give you something else. Never give up, look at what you did and you are feeling a lot better. Keep up the good work!
I send you special thoughts
Sparrow

Its not just prescription drugs you have to be cautious of but shelf drugs too. Asperin and tylonol interact with lithium. I cant take either. You almost need to be a minor in pharmacology just to stay alive. I use the internet and my pharmasist a great deal.

Blessed Be

 

[Niflmir]

Its not just prescription drugs you have to be cautious of but shelf drugs too. Asperin and tylonol interact with lithium. I cant take either. You almost need to be a minor in pharmacology just to stay alive. I use the internet and my pharmasist a great deal.

Blessed Be

Yeah, I stayed away from aspirin and tylenol for a long time too. I even have to be careful with my caffeine intake, as it can lead to sudden anxiety attacks.

In other news, turns out serotonin uptake inhibitors are bad for bones: http://www.ecanadanow.com/science/health/2007/01/23/antidepressants-linked-to-bone-fracture-risk/

 

[temperance]

I think it weird that every second person is depressed(so some poll told us ) and feel it is major scam ,it lulls people to be calm and not resist .



I have other thoughts as well like ,like it was a money making ploy ,it seemed every time you went to the doc ,he asked if you were sad and if you said oh sometimes ,it was "here, try this pill " I don't believe we are not suppose to feel sad ,or down every once in a while

I see to many people so complacent on them ,no yuck --big farce --psychosomatic

 

[Curiosity]

Many of us are taught "expectation" from an early age

This kind of thought is replayed over and over to us as children from many sources... that we have perfect parents, perfect families, and later, good teachers and friendships, and later, wonderful spouses and so on.

In our expectation that perfection is ours we also learn frustration at an early age that not all things are perfection - and life does not play out according to our expectations we have been taught.

It is good to strive for perfection, however it is contradictory to learning about acceptance and life as it is - that disappointments also ride along our path and learning that not every day will be a happy day.

Once we find that life is a series of challenges, and often the disappointments in life are those events which give us cause to change ritual and defeating behavior - to seek other avenues for our personal success and worth - we find we can learn from the bad far more than we can learn from the good.

Anxiety and depression stem from fighting life events over which we have no control, and these emotions which are huge and often unrecognized because we are also taught not to have anger.... we
cause our chemistry to alter in support of the emotional conflict within.

When we are angry or sad or happy, recognition and acceptance of that state of feeling .... knowing why we are experiencing it....and if we wish to change it.... know how we can make it happen will
keep us on a more level outlook.

I think fear of the pain or the unknown make us rush for immediate relief in the form of alcohol, drugs, prescriptions, which mask and do give relief, but do not prepare us in how to live through
the discomfort knowing it is only going to last as long as we allow it to invade our thoughts.

It isn't an easy choice doing things on your own - and with all the available "help" things out there, I can see why we continue to choose the quick ones instead of working through the tough ones...

But who or what will become the master of our thoughts down the road unless we learn on our own...

 

[Vereya]

When we are angry or sad or happy, recognition and acceptance of that state of feeling .... knowing why we are experiencing it....and if we wish to change it.... know how we can make it happen will
keep us on a more level outlook.

Absolutely!
You can deal with any emotion, once you actually know why you feel it, you can control any of your emotional states when you understand just what lead to them, and just what to do to make everything better. Or to keep things as good as they are.
It is the awareness of yourself, of what is right and what is wrong, that gives you this ability. And no medicine is going to help you, until you reach this state yourself.
However, it is possible to get a glimpse of this condition, and of how to reach it...

 

[Niflmir]

A friend of mine once pointed out that we probably evolved to possess depression. He figured that depression was a sort of survival mechanism for coping with something. He just couldn't figure out what it was supposed to make easier.

Anyone care to comment on that?

 

[Sparrow]

I am also worried that more people will be fighting depression in the future not only adults but our youth.

I may be completely out of step on this one but here goes. Has anyone noticed that more and more children are being taught to expect immediate satisfaction on all fronts? For the last several generations parents have spoiled their children to the point that they cannot accept the word "NO", critizism or rejection in anything. Part of growing up is learning to cope when things don't go exactly as you want but if as a child we were not taught how to face this it ends up be devastating.

This of course does not cover children and adults who have a sickness, this cannot be prevented. However I do feel that medical care is inadequate and sometimes on a trial and error bases. Seems to me that in comparaison to the number in this situation we hear very little about research in this area. We hear a lot about other diseases but not much about mental health, our governments even seem to be working against them.

 

[Curiosity]

A friend of mine once pointed out that we probably evolved to possess depression. He figured that depression was a sort of survival mechanism for coping with something. He just couldn't figure out what it was supposed to make easier.

Anyone care to comment on that?

Niflmir

I'll try one answer - my opinion only.

Depression is anger at ourselves, unspent, unresolved and turned against our very beings for what seems to be an unknown reason. Depression occurs because there is no tangible reason for our feelings of disappointment or hurt - often unrecognized as plain old down and dirty anger. It is a survival skill or coping mechanism as your friend says...being righteously angry saves us from going farther down into the "why we are hurt by a stranger" kind of feeling....nothing rational in there...

But why choose depression when we can recognize that someone actually hurt us and we were unprepared how to handle it.... in our society these days we just can't go up and punch a person for a few silly words..... (well most of us)....

I think our society with all of its advances and gifts have created a make-believe world in which we are going to live the "dry diaper" life forever with nothing to change along the way. Everyone is going to like us..... we are going to be physically handsome or beautiful and have talents to share with people all of our lives. NOT.

When life starts delivering its challenges to us, we are fully unprepared to expect them, have no skills in learning to understand our anger (depression), and think the worse of ourselves because we feel "bad" over some unimportant remark perhaps a person said or feeling we are not up to speed with
our peer group ... any number of reasons can happen because for the first 20 years of our lives we are being tested as to our resilience when we are actually at our most vulnerable....

We need to start learning skills to combat this fantasy trip we are forced to think belongs to us... and
regard life as it really is.... what we choose to make of it on our own....good and bad.

If your day "sings" out to you because someone gave you a compliment or did a kind deed for you....
don't you wish we could have those feelings all the time? It's a matter of having the right kinds of expectations.... some days are always better than others.... and along the way we can work at making the days of others' more fulfilled....be surprised how it catches on.

My thing is to let cars at a 4-way stop always have the right of way and wave them on with a smile...
the surprised looks I get is fun to me...because I know I have offered a bit of "brightness" to a complete stranger.

Serious depression which continues for a prolonged time needs some excavation with a professional and still I would challenge the helping professions to stop firing the pills until the excavation yields little because the defenses are far too strong and become physically life altering for the sufferer.
We humans are tricky at burying some of the earliest bruises we take as little kids...and carry them for the rest of our lives...wondering why our world doesn't shine the way everyone's seems to.

 

[selfactivated]

Absolutely!
You can deal with any emotion, once you actually know why you feel it, you can control any of your emotional states when you understand just what lead to them, and just what to do to make everything better. Or to keep things as good as they are.
It is the awareness of yourself, of what is right and what is wrong, that gives you this ability. And no medicine is going to help you, until you reach this state yourself.
However, it is possible to get a glimpse of this condition, and of how to reach it...

This kind of thinking would kill me. Without lithium Im simply dead. You may be speaking of situationak depression and even that can warrent 3 months on Paxil and your fine. (in my sis' case) Some people are predisposed to depression, its genetic. In my family on my mothers side we have a strong Indian genetics and all the girls are depressive except one aunt. All the uncles are alchoholics and Grandma and I are Bipolar. The research shows there is strong ties in families to depression and Bipolarism.

 

[selfactivated]

I am also worried that more people will be fighting depression in the future not only adults but our youth.

I may be completely out of step on this one but here goes. Has anyone noticed that more and more children are being taught to expect immediate satisfaction on all fronts? For the last several generations parents have spoiled their children to the point that they cannot accept the word "NO", critizism or rejection in anything. Part of growing up is learning to cope when things don't go exactly as you want but if as a child we were not taught how to face this it ends up be devastating.

This of course does not cover children and adults who have a sickness, this cannot be prevented. However I do feel that medical care is inadequate and sometimes on a trial and error bases. Seems to me that in comparaison to the number in this situation we hear very little about research in this area. We hear a lot about other diseases but not much about mental health, our governments even seem to be working against them.

Child psychology has a long way to go in my oppinion. They do not get it at all. And in my opinion our children are nothing by human experiments for the pharmacuticle companies.

 

[Curiosity]

SelfActivated

Your problem is a disorder - not merely a depression if I read you correctly and if you have been diagnosed as bi-polar then you have a differing set of circumstances that what I have been writing about here.

There are many variations on a theme with your disorder but from what science tells us - it is one of
those genetically transmitted disorders which seems to run in families in differing degrees of severity. It also leads its victims to alcohol abuse, drug abuse, self-mutilation, and some terrible
situations regarding close personal relationships. Without good control, it is a beast of a disorder.

Some have more manic than depression; some have more depression than manic activity... and in these the highs and lows take various forms and even react to the time of year or weather....

Manic activity can include irritability, lack of focus, constant activity, unfinished tasks, etc.

Depression can also include the milder forms right to the point of self-detriment and over medication.

No doubt you are aware of all of these and as you write you know what is the best treatment for you and how you react to certain events and situations.... it is not an easy balance and no doubt you have
to be totally aware as much as you can to stay in control, which exerts a huge pressure on you to function in what we the public call "within the norm"... if there is such a thing as "norm".

On the bright side, bi-polar sufferers are often extremely bright, emotional, loving, caring and beautiful people.... and to see the other side of the swing when they are down.... is heartbreaking.

I hope you enjoy your chats here with people and I for one appreciate the information you are sharing - we can all benefit from understanding - especially from one who can talk about it from first hand experience.

 

[selfactivated]

SelfActivated

Your problem is a disorder - not merely a depression if I read you correctly and if you have been diagnosed as bi-polar then you have a differing set of circumstances that what I have been writing about here.

There are many variations on a theme with your disorder but from what science tells us - it is one of
those genetically transmitted disorders which seems to run in families in differing degrees of severity. It also leads its victims to alcohol abuse, drug abuse, self-mutilation, and some terrible
situations regarding close personal relationships. Without good control, it is a beast of a disorder.

Some have more manic than depression; some have more depression than manic activity... and in these the highs and lows take various forms and even react to the time of year or weather....

Manic activity can include irritability, lack of focus, constant activity, unfinished tasks, etc.

Depression can also include the milder forms right to the point of self-detriment and over medication.

No doubt you are aware of all of these and as you write you know what is the best treatment for you and how you react to certain events and situations.... it is not an easy balance and no doubt you have
to be totally aware as much as you can to stay in control, which exerts a huge pressure on you to function in what we the public call "within the norm"... if there is such a thing as "norm".

On the bright side, bi-polar sufferers are often extremely bright, emotional, loving, caring and beautiful people.... and to see the other side of the swing when they are down.... is heartbreaking.

I hope you enjoy your chats here with people and I for one appreciate the information you are sharing - we can all benefit from understanding - especially from one who can talk about it from first hand experience.

As you said I do know first hand but I think my point was missed or maybe I missunderstood it myself. Some depression IS created by situations.....a death, a loss of job, a divorce, and some of that type of depression I agree does not need medication it can be taken care of in counciling. Also health issues I agree will cause depression like on going pain. BUT to say it all can be taken care of by counciling or curing the underlying problem I cant say is correct.

To be quite honest making blanket statements on my part is incorrect period. Every single person is different and thats why its important to have a good rapore with your primary doctor.

 

[Curiosity]

SelfActivated

As you wrote before - depression as experienced by some is situational - even the beginning of a physical illness which has not actually been acknowledged - but causes the person who is
suffering from poor health to be depressed but unaware there are physical underlying causes.

Depression for major life changes is also common and if medication alleviates the problem, all the
more reason to feel better so a person is able to get back on track more quickly.

The self-treatment some people do however only masks their problems and even causes more for them... it's like playing with fire.

As you say everyone is different, reacts differently to stressors, and medications...

Self care is something many people are not aware they can practice - yet they would do the same caring for a stranger and not for themselves. Again in our culture it is "sissy" to be sad.