Posted by Ron Hill on July 28, 2002, at 16:41:29
In reply to Ron Hill and Colin Wallace, posted by johnj on July 25, 2002, at 19:10:20
Hi John,
> Ron: FE study is going slow, test is in October.
October will be here before you know it, so get after it! Are there any study guides and/or short courses available locally or on-line for FE preparation? Do you have any friends studying for the test this October? If so, could you form a study group?
>Not so sure I want to stay an engineer at this point. Maybe cutting lawns would be easier since my boss is an ass. But, he may be getting his in the near future from his higher ups.
Last time I checked lawn mowers are not in the same income bracket as engineers nor are the two career fields equal in intellectual satisfaction. There's nothing wrong with mowing lawns for a living if that is what one is called to do, but we did not send you to college just so you can cut the grass.
You made it through engineering school and you'll be successful as a professional engineer. You just need to figure out the correct med cocktail, vitamin supplements, and life style choices (i.e. exercise, interpersonal relations, etc) required to keep your brain chemistry balanced. You'll figure it out, just do your homework and don't depend solely on your pdoc to come up with all the best answers for your particular condition. No one is capable of that in the very brief fifteen minute appointments once every month or so. You are ultimately the responsible party for maintaining your physical and mental health. Do your researches, print the relevant information and studies, and give them to your pdoc. If he/she won't listen to you, find one that will.
I'm NOT saying to ignore what the pdoc says and attempt to self-diagnosis and self-medicate! I'm simply encouraging you to do your homework. Here's a homework assignment for you: The following link connects to a mental heath diagnosis self-test program. It's only a screen tool, so do not place an undue importance on the results. But I think it’s worthwhile. It costs ten bucks (US) for a ten day subscription. It might be worthwhile to first take it by yourself and then take it again with your wife sitting next to you giving you her input on your answer to each question.
http://www.mentalhealth.com/fr71.html
Also, I recommend that you keep a daily journal of the type and quantity of medication you are taking and a rating of how you feel with regard to depression, anxiety, etc. Also, include in your brief daily journal entries the vitamins and supplements you're taking as well as things like type and amount of exercise, quality and quantity of sleep, and other life style activities that you suspect are affecting your brain chemistry.
Instead of a journal you might prefer to use a spreadsheet (with the quantitative information in data fields and the more qualitative and subjective observations in comment fields). The nice thing about a spreadsheet is that you can graph (and otherwise manipulate) the collected data. I think it's best to devise rating scales for as many of the subjective observational categories as possible because this makes data management and data analysis much more user friendly. Once you have the spreadsheet setup, it will probably only take ten or fifteen minutes to accomplish the daily data entry. Periodic data analysis will take a little more time, but that's the fun part because you begin to see correlations between the stuff you put into your body and the resulting affects on your brain chemistry.
Start out simple and only track a few variables in your spreadsheet. Then modify it as you go making your spreadsheet more sophisticated as you deem appropriate. And one final note; my wife is good at giving me an objective evaluation of my mood, level of depression, etc. Perhaps one or more columns in your spreadsheet could track things like, for example, your wife's evaluation of your depressive state for the day on a scale of one-to-ten.
You are an EE, right? Or did you say environmental? What type of company are you working for and what are your specific job responsibilities? Maybe your boss needs some Prozac, Xanax, or something along those lines, ay? Specifically, what is he doing to make your work life difficult? Have you ever attended any workshops discussing techniques for dealing with difficult people? My former employer sent me to a few workshops of this type and I found the courses to be time well spent. John, I hope your work environment improves soon. If not, there are plenty of jobs available for sharp young engineers like you at companies that value their employees.
> Finally, on lithium: I was told NOT to decrease my salt since it would make my lithium levels increase and I do feel better getting more salt.
Me too.
>Placebo or real I am not sure, but if I sweat I feel worse and it is pretty much the same feeling as when I raise my lithium past 600 mg's.
I'm just the opposite. For example, my brain chemistry is benefited by sitting in a sauna and working up a good sweat (or, for the female readers of this post, when I perspire). Could it be your TCA AD causing this reaction to perspiration?
> I am not much help, but appreciate both your posts since we have some similarities.
I disagree. Your are a message board friend who has helped me. Just knowing that there are others out there with med reactions similar to my own is of great help.
Part of this post is medication related and part is social. Hope I don't get nuked by our benevolent Dr. Bob.
-- Ron
poster:Ron Hill
thread:113419
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020725/msgs/114045.html