Posted by bob on April 17, 2000, at 20:54:08
In reply to I am a slug, posted by Rebecca on April 16, 2000, at 11:17:44
Hi, my name's bob, and I'm a slug.
It's so hard to tell what's the disease and what's the drug, isn't it? And having side effects that just spiral into the disease really sucks rotten eggs.
Anyway, I'm finding a slow, gradual rise out of slugdom with the meds I've been on for the last 6 months or so. For me, that meant getting SSRIs out of my life. Nortriptyline brought me to the point where I decided I didn't really want to be a slug. Ritalin added in is actually getting me to start thinking about doing some very non-sluglike things -- like calling up friends and going out to see a movie or a ballgame. Doing it, however, is yet another step away from slugdom. I'll be switching to desiprimine tomorrow, and since its supposed to be less sedating than nortrip is ... who knows? Maybe I'll take that next step.
Hmmm ... slugs don't have legs, so I'm not sure that "step" is the right word.
Anyway, meds aside, I think this is one good place for that "Oh, just quit whining and get off yer arse and DO something" advice. I remember when I was just three weeks into taking meds -- on 100 mgs of zoloft -- and hitting the bottom of the rollercoaster it took me on for the first six weeks. I was practically begging my GP to up my dosage to 150mg. He said I should (1) start seeing my therapist twice a week instead of once a week, (2) go out and get some exercise, and (3) if there were things that were making me anxious, then go DO something about them.
And, damn him, he was right.
I did all three of those things and regardless of the drug-induced rebound I had from that lowpoint, doing those other three things did help a lot as well.
Pardon me for saying so, since I'm really saying this because I need to take my own advice very much right now, thank you, but sometimes we just have to forget about where the meds have us and do a little "manual labor".
Now, pardon me while I go make a to-do list of things I keep making excuses for not doing....
cheers,
bob
poster:bob
thread:30209
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/30395.html