Posted by sar on April 30, 2001, at 14:23:18
Politics. Or maybe it all went as it should have.
I went to the free psychiatric clinic downtown as I'm low on funds and have no insurance. Spent nine hours there of mostly waiting around, so when I finally saw the pdoc in the last hour I was very tired and fighting back tears of frustration.
The interviewer I'd seen earlier, before the pdoc, let me know that the clinic could be utilized only by people with urgent cases...which meant we focused on depression rather than sp, though I did tell them of my sp diagnosis.
The pdoc suggested that my depression is a result of alcohol abuse and that she did not really want to diagnose major depression or prescribe meds until I cut the drinking out, though she said I'm w/o a doubt dysthymic. I responded that alcohol's probably agitated my depression quite a bit, yes, but that I know for certain that substance abuse, in my case, is a symptom of depression not the root cause.
Once I convinced her of that, she said she wanted to try me on an SSRI rather than the lamictal, neurontin, and Sulpiride I suggested. "Those are last resorts," she said & pointed out that I haven't really tried any of the frontline options. (I did Paxil for a week & Effexor for a month, hated both). Wouldn't give me Xanax because of its addictive qualities.
Wanting to just get the hell out of there, I agreed to stop drinking if she prescribed me something (lied, essentially), and in the end I got Prozac. As I drove home I wondered if I'd really been jumping ahead of myself having not tried most of the frontlines...I just know that I bottom out pretty hard every few years and wonder if Prozac's enough for that...so the sp goes largely unaddressed, tho I've read in the archives that it sometimes removes inhibition? & in others it increases anxiety?
Maybe I was just a mixed-up confused person wanting to try the more subversive meds...or did I get a lame pdoc? Both? I don't know yet...this is day 3 of prozac for me.
sar
poster:sar
thread:61156
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010424/msgs/61156.html