Posted by fallsfall on June 6, 2003, at 19:10:58
In reply to Re: Is it ok to mix meds?, posted by glaciergirl on June 6, 2003, at 14:47:33
Wow! That's a lot of drugs to try in 5 months. I can see why you are frustrated.
Anti-depressants take up to 8 weeks to start working, so I wonder if you gave up on some before they would be active. GPs are not as knowledgable as psychiatrists on what med is needed when and how to get the most out of it. I hear friends even talk about their psychiatrists and it is clear that mine knows more than theirs does. My GP is really nice and started me on anti-depressants, but I switched to my psychiatrist when my depression got worse and it was obvious that I needed some more knowlegable med attention.
So I see a psychiatrist. I've had appointments as close as one week (which I was shocked at - usually 2 weeks is the closest you get), and I know he sees other people every 3 or 6 months. It all depends on how you are doing with the meds. I remember rejoicing because my new appointment was 3 weeks out instead of 2, and that meant that my meds were working better. If I wanted to push the appointments out a little (but not a lot) it would be OK with him. I don't know how other psychiatrists do it. But if you push them out too far then you might be making things take longer or be worse longer. He sets my appointment by when I'll be able to see the effect of the changes, balanced with how much pain I'm in.
I wish I could say that a psychiatrist wouldn't drug you by trial and error, but well, mine calls it "art". Since everybody reacts differently to the meds they really have to do something different for each patient.
It also sounds like you could use a solid diagnosis. It is hard to treat something if you don't know what it is. I don't know if a psychiatrist would do that, or if you should see a psychologist. I would think you could start with the psychiatrist.
Brooke, venting is a really good thing to do. And this is a good place to do it. It sounds like you are frustrated, and that you feel like there is no structure to what is being done. The word that comes to my mind is "thrashing" (it is used in software engineering to mean when you switch things out so often that you spend all of your time switching and none of your time doing any real work). It doesn't have to be that way. But you have to be patient (it took me 16 months this time to find a helpful combination of meds - your milage may vary, I tend to be pretty difficult). And you have to give the meds a chance to work.
Just a side note: If you took Paxil before and it worked well maybe you should try Paxil (not PaxilCR) again.
Finding the right meds and getting the side effects settled down (lots go away in a couple of weeks) is NO fun. But, for me at least, it is more fun than depression.
Good luck. Let me know how it goes.
poster:fallsfall
thread:231876
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030604/msgs/232002.html