HI
I have a question to progressive u bloggers. Have any of you taken anti depressants?
If you have did you feel it caused dependency? My mother asked the question because she says she feels more productive on it. When she forgets to take it she can't get anything done and she wonders if she's dependent on it.
I'm not sure I stopped taking anti depressants 5 to 10 years ago. I was on it for about 10 years in 2000. It improved my moods and irritability but once I understood what depression was i wanted to be off them. I think I have suffered from depression most of my life and it is genetic. I think I had this when I was a child and not much was known about it. I went on it in 2000 and started the long road of therapy which helped me understand my issues and why I was doing what I was doing. Very difficult road to change your behavior.
Its been a tough battle but I feel like I"m doing ok. When my father was ill is when I didn't want to be on them either but I had been off of them for some time.
So do you think they cause dependency?
she's known me for about 6 years now and knows my mood swings and things I have been through.
Also that I have been trying to break a cycle and habit, like you mentioned, that has been keeping me from getting my bachelor's....
Her therapist prescribed it to her this september because she was extremely depressed and she says it helps a lot but I am trying to avoid medication at all costs so I am still contemplating all this but still I think this type of medication is to help you until you yourself think you don't need it anymore but I am not an expert.
"A person doesn't die when he should but when he can."
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
"close your eyes, clear your heart..." Allama Iqbal...An Ode to the Cup Bearer<
But it might not be prozac. I took Remeron for a couple of years after my brother died. It took a while to find a med that worked. Prozac made me euphoric in the couple of weeks I was taking it, which was dangerous because it wasn't treating the depression, but I felt like I could do anything....a motivated depressive is dangerous.
If you do decide to start an anti-depressant, check in with your doctor regularly and report all side effects.
"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
actually my problem has been that I also come from a family where they will probably consider me even more crazier than I actually am
(I already heard that my aunt told my mom that I should be taken to a shrink :-| )
It is also doubly hard since my dad's brother is a psychiatrist and I can not imagine ever having him find out that his niece is on these medications but by the looks of things, I might just say fuck it all and see a therapist
"A person doesn't die when he should but when he can."
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
"close your eyes, clear your heart..." Allama Iqbal...An Ode to the Cup Bearer<
no matter how tripe, cheesy or unsolicited it is:
Forget everyone. Look inward. What are you feeling? What do you need? What do you want? What do you hope for? What do you live for?
It is when you shed all sense of obligation, responsibility, pride, guilt and fear that you are able to relax, breathe, and seek.
What do you feel? What do you need? What is holding you back?
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
my friend told me to let go too
to cut the cord or whatever is holding me back
i want to really just live on my own, go away to school
"A person doesn't die when he should but when he can."
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
"close your eyes, clear your heart..." Allama Iqbal...An Ode to the Cup Bearer<
Good morning...
Just checked in after writing this.
I agree with turtlesuds about not caring what others think. Some people frown on mental health and its appearance but you know what, they are just shallow uninformed people.
good luck to you
If you need help just email me
Susan
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A life not examined is a life not worth living.....plato
I took welbutron for a while, but when I went off it, I was fine. Antidepressants are like most drugs; if you take them for a long period of time, you should phase off them, rather than stop suddenly, so if you forget to take it, that's a more sudden stop.
"Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos."
Homer Simpson
If you have concerns about your (or hers) medication you need to talk to your nurse or doctor. I was going to say a bunch of other stuff but I just erased it because I am highly unqualified. Talk with the doctor and that will solve and settle it for good.
Love is like a box of chocolates; if you chose wisely you won’t be disappointed and have to spit it out. ~T
I have had multiple run ins with this, several recent, which made me recall more personally devastating incidents.
Doctors are suffering financially, more than most. Their retirement funds have been depleted, they are overbooked, overworked, overtired, and overextended. The interest level in medicine in the up and coming generation is declining.
Competition is decreasing, standards are dropping. Reimbursement for medical services is skewed, and inappropriately dispersed.
My advice, find a friend in medicine and do your own research. Online, research symptoms you feel, such as "tingling feeling in my fingertips." If prescribed a drug, research it.
I am a nurse. I love medicine, I also resent negligent practitioners who don't thoroughly assess patients and don't adequately educate. I see this happening daily, and I am here to warn you, the patient; Do not rely on your doctor to do what is best for you. Study yourself, research, and tell your doctor how to treat you. He/she may be pissed, but fuck them. They will have to cross their T's and dot their I's because you threatened their license.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
Hi...
Not sure I agree with you but I am not in the medical field So I don't know.
When my dad was ill yes there were some horrible doctors who allowed him to go home!
Susan
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A life not examined is a life not worth living.....plato
Could've fooled me, since there were a record number of applicants to medical schools last year. Which is pretty significant, since before that, everyone was saying that the 90's were the worst time to apply to medical school, because the competition was so fierce.
Also, while the number of seats in medical schools across the country is increasing, the number of residency slots is not, which means more and more competition leading out of medical school than before. And psychiatry, like pathology and dermatology, is considered a 'cushy' field.
~C
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but every doctor I know, from internists, orthopoedic surgeons and anesthesiologists tell me they are discouraging their kids to be doctors. This may be unique to CA, I am not sure.
Hospitals are closing left and right, I know doctors collecting unemployment. If it isn't this way all over the nation I am glad.
Medi-cal and workman's comp has a lot to do with all of this. Previous gross abuse of these financial systems has caused a sudden tightening of the state's purse strings which is causing patients to suffer and not get treatment, and doctor's are having to altar their lifestyle to make ends meet. I feel less sorry for the doctors than the patients.
So yes, I do see competition in getting employment as a physician, but I see a decline in the benefits of being a doctor. The liability outweighs the benefits. Also, medical school seats might be overfilled, but a lot of those seats are taken by immigrants. India specifically is noted for sending people to medical schools in America, and returning to practice medicine in India, because the working conditions are better for a doctor in India than America.
As for psychiatrists, try to look for one with a lot of inpatient hospital experience.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
When she forgets to take it she can't get anything done
I haven't been in psych in a while, but I'm pretty sure this is part of the symptoms of depression--loss of energy, concentration problems, lack of interest in things, easy tasks becoming difficult,
Medications for depression help people function. They shouldn't be the only thing you are using though. Counseling and therapy should be used at the same time and, in time, some people are able to ease off of, and eventually stop, the medication part of therapy.
It sounds like maybe your mother isn't ready to stop taking her medications.
Her well-being is, indeed, "dependent" on them. For the time being, they seem to be relieving the symptoms and, until she is able to make the changes in her life necessary to managing her depression without medication, I wouldn't recommend stopping them, especially without talking to a doctor first. I'm sure, though, if she talks with her doctor, they can probably work out something that doesn't involve medications if that is really what she wants to do.
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I am glad I opte out of saying all that, you always do such a clarifying job and much much much....much better then I.
Love is like a box of chocolates; if you chose wisely you won’t be disappointed and have to spit it out. ~T
Thanks for the observations!
yes she is in therapy too
Susan
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A life not examined is a life not worth living.....plato
and two very simple solutions.
1st case scenario: Your mother was depressed. She got help. She was prescribed medicine. The medicine helped her. She felt better. She was better.
There have been times she has gone without it. She suffers, is ineffective, and notices this.
Your job: What are the side effects you are supposed to be looking for? What class of medication are you dealing with? Is it an SSRI or a tricyclic antidepressant? What are the signs of effectiveness vs. exacerbation of illness?
Monitor her behavior. If the medicine is helping, meaning it is increasing her interest in life, and energy level, why mess with it?
If it is altering her behavior in a negative way, meaning a decrease in her interest in life, and energy level, than you have a responsibility to confront her treating physician with your concern.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
She is on welbutrin
Susan
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A life not examined is a life not worth living.....plato
I’m not sure if they cause dependency, I only took them for a short period, something like 3 or 4 months I don’t recall very well.
The reason why I quite was because of the side effects, my skin especially my hands became highly sensitive while sometimes turned red of rash.
Other than that I simply hated the idea of taking them.
My depression got solved because of a friend who triggered my brain to act normal again.
I now believe any kind of medication to fight depression is a bad way to proceed, we have in our own brain a pharmacy which doesn’t like to be tampered with while we should avoid to use medication which does exactly that, therefore I believe or could understand why your mother has become dependent on this medication.
http://www.wowzone.com/monkey.htm
As I said earlier, I took the medicine that she said her mother was taking and I had no negative mental side-effects, like dependency or whatever. (I was really hyper when I first started taking it, but that didn't last long). Mental meds seem to get constantly slammed all the time, but they are definitely not without merit.
"Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos."
Homer Simpson
It might help to know that dependency is "being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming (especially alcohol or narcotic drugs) [syn: addiction] " according to dictionary.com.
YOu can go on a look up addiction and substance abuse on your own.
Dependent on its own is not enough to be a problem, your life may depend on it to get better but not actually be a problem. Sometimes knowing the terms might help you understand.
I think until you start miss using medicine for other maladaptive behaviors other then the reason for the script then you might be all right...might
Love is like a box of chocolates; if you chose wisely you won’t be disappointed and have to spit it out. ~T
antidepressants may actually be dangerous especially for young people.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/13/AR200612...
"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."
- George Bernard Shaw
addresses the devastating increase in suicides as people have become more collectively paranoid about using antidepressants.
What is scarier, that before the black box warnings there were 7 suicides per 1000 users instead of 3 per one thousand that was the norm before use became as widespread as it is, or the increase from actual suicides from 34 to 51?
"The new finding created a dilemma for the regulators. Even as it vindicated some of what critics of drugs such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft have said for years, the earlier official warnings about the drugs appear to have led to a drop in their use -- and *there are troubling signs that this can lead to an increase in suicides.*
After concerns were raised in the Netherlands about the suicide risk, there was a 22 percent drop from 2003 to 2005 in antidepressant prescriptions for patients under 18 and a *50 percent increase* in suicides, said Robert Gibbons, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois in Chicago. The number of suicides went from *34 to 51.*
People should be very careful about encouraging people to not take prescribed psychotropic drugs. Yes there are problems, risks and side effects. Most of the time the benefits outweigh the risks.
Most people end up on antidepressants because they felt depressed and had suicidal thoughts, and sought help. The suicidality is usually present before the drug. If you put more people on the drug, you will likely see more suicides if you are tracking those people.
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