Posted by RealTim on March 8, 2003, at 10:40:32
In reply to Re: Anyone had success on Effexor XR? YES!, posted by lovemybabies on March 8, 2003, at 6:41:43
Cognitive behavior therapy is in fact a great tool, and underutilized by a world that wants a pill to fix our problems. The Psych is narrowing everything down to some sort of physical problem, I assume she/he has adequately ruled out a behavioral issue? The MDs are famous for trying to fix everything with medicine. Mike, you seem young for someone to have developed panic attacks so I suppose a contributing physical issue is a likely suspect. But keep an open mind.
My wife is in school for counseling, and the PHd teaching a class about ADs keeps saying things like "we now know that chemical inbalances account for most depression and anxiety today". When she objected to what was being said, she was shut down with a comment like "yes, therapy is important but it cannot change someone's brain chemistry." My wife says if she hears the professor say "we now know" one more time she will vomit.
I think this is a load of crap. Your brain chemistry can clearly be changed by experiences. That's how many of us became depressed in the first place. For me it was a series of setbacks in my career, for others it's a trauma like rape or a car accident. Still for others it's years of living with obesity, problems with family, physical sickness, or just not fitting in, etc.
If we can get ourselves into this through environmental/behavioral means, why can't we accept that that is the best way out? Probably because of 2 things: (1) we WANT to believe it is a physical problem because then there it is not our "fault" and/or; (2) we live in a fast-paced world of convenience and have become inpatient as a society--we want the quick fix even if it "might" harm our livers and give us a series of unpleasant side effects.
I don't mean to sound one-sided. Effexor helped me get through a tough period, and all ADs have their place. But in my opinion people who resign themselves to long term treatment with drugs are making a mistake (excepting your bi-polar or shizophrenic or similar extremes perhaps).
poster:RealTim
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030306/msgs/207112.html