Posted by galkeepinon on July 5, 2003, at 23:04:35
In reply to Seroquel weight gain and other evils, posted by whiterabbit on July 5, 2003, at 22:07:51
Gracie, great post!!!! This took a lot of smarts and a lot of time on your part. Good for you. All I hear sometimes is that this med is bad or this med is good it gets exhausting a lot of the time-it really does. I had posted above to you this>>>>hi Gracie, I hear your frustration. Seroquel was a great med for my symptom of not being able to sleep(I'm bipolar too) I wouldn't have stayed on it as long as I did if it didn't help with that. But looking back now, I can see what happened and was happening to me, but during treatment it's hard-very hard to see it and it's hard for me to look back at that.
I am VERY glad that it has saved your life and I DO believe you! And I'm certainly glad you're not dead.
Hang in there Everybody is different and you are making your point-that is great!!! I hear you.
Keep it up-you sound really level headed!Gal
I'll be the first to admit that the weight gain from Seroquel is demoralizing. Actually I don't know if I can blame it all on Seroquel because I've always been on other medication at the same time, including birth control methods (Depro/Norplant) that can influence weight. But I'm not discounting the Seroquel at all. It takes quite awhile to adjust to this medication and it slows you down considerably while your body builds up a tolerance for it. So - at the very least - Seroquel is responsible for weight gain caused by inactivity.
>
> But I think it's a lot more involved than that. The weight gain seems too profound to be caused by inactivity alone. I've been doing a little research (actually, "research" is way too grand -
> "poking around" would be more accurate) and as far as I can tell, nobody has figured out for sure precisely how psych meds cause weight gain
> (if they knew for sure, they could probably fix it) - we just have to be patient while they work on that. Probably serotonin is involved, & possibly these medications change the way that your body metabolizes fat.
>
> Now right here a lot of people get fired up for a debate. They make different arguments towards the same general conclusion: the unpleasant side effects of these drugs just PROVE that it is
> DANGEROUS, UNNATURAL & WRONG to alter or interfere with the natural chemical, biological & physiological processes of the human body.
>
> Oh, really? Does that mean if a malignant tumor begins to grow somewhere in your body, or prehaps the body of your child, you would not attempt to interfere with this "natural" growth? You would refuse medical care because the unpleasant side effects of cancer treatment PROVE that we have no right to alter a natural biological process? And what about vaccines that protect us from disfiguring & life-threatening illnesses like diptheria, polio & tuberculosis? The body's "natural" response to deadly viruses are that you may very well sicken & die in an unpleasant manner. And while the vaccine prompts your body to defend itself by way of your own immune system, the process of injecting the dead (harmless) virus to build up resistance could hardly be called "natural".
>
> Now at this point I've been told that I'm comparing apples and oranges because medical treatment for cancer or protection against a virus is "different" than taking psychiatric medication, including the dreaded antipsychotics,
> to alter brain chemistry.
>
> Alright then, WHY is it different? Because cancer & viruses are potentially lethal while a mood disorder is not? Excuse me but, the last time I checked, suicide was still lethal.
>
> Clinical depression, mood disorders, the wish to harm or do away with oneself - these emotions are as much of an aberration as a malignant tumor.
> They are NOT the product of a brain in perfect working order; a desire to self-destruct is exceedingly unnatural in all living things (except a few wierd bugs). It's the result of an illness, a disorder, a condition that we now have the ability to treat due to the continuing advancement of medical science.
>
> No, psychiatric drugs are far from ideal. Generally they're slow-acting & can have side effects that are hard to deal with. Used improperly, they can cause emotional havoc in the mind. It takes a considerable amount of time and continued endurance on the patient's part before all the puzzle pieces finally fit into place.
>
> These pieces consist of a competent doctor, proper diagnosis, the best medication (usually a combination of medications) at the most effective dosage, patient compliance, and all the waiting required before small signs of improvement begin to appear. Recovery doesn't come quickly or dramatically but it does come, something like buds of crocus poking up through the snow crust after a hard winter. That's how I think of it anyway.
>
> And for most, the waiting part is the worst. To borrow a phrase from Anne Sexton, it can be compared to "the terrible rowing towards God."
> We want quick & painless results & we want them now, but it doesn't work like that. Still, eventual recovery sure beats the hell out of no recovery, ever.
>
> From here I'll circle back to the original subject. Weight gain is a scar that many of us pick up along the way. Women especially, we're conditioned to fight poundage at all costs, & sometimes we do terrible things to prevent it. I struggled with this issue myself for a long time,
> but after enduring a lifetime of emotional pain that would roll at me in relentless tidal waves -
> and after tearing a huge path of destruction through my life, hurting myself and the people I loved over and over again - I made a grueling decision. I had to stop worrying about my weight, had to stop beating myself up over every pound gained. I HAD to get well, HAD to make healing my
> tortured mind a priority over weight gain & the other unpleasant side effects.
>
> Because I couldn't suffer anymore, I just couldn't keep taking it again and again with no respite, no quarter, and no hope in sight. I was self-medicating with drugs & alcohol right into the grave, hospitalized twice after overdosing & nearly made it once, came real close, but they got me to the ER in time, pumped my stomach & I woke up in ICU from a coma just in time, once again, to avoid a tracheotomy so they could hook up me up to a ventilator. They were talking about it, though, warned my husband it might be called for.
>
> So medication was my last hope, and I was determined to give it a chance, not much to lose.
> I took my pills, I took them like I was supposed to, and I kept taking them. I endured the weight gain, the sexual dysfunction, the lethargy, the fuzzy thinking. I handled it all the best way I could & often despaired, but I stuck with it, grimly determined to give the medication every opportunity to help me, to make me well.
>
> And it worked. My God, it really did work after all - finally. The side effects began to fade and I started to feel better. My energy came back, my thinking cleared up, and I'm no longer tormented by an unbalanced mind. And it is largely due to an antipsychotic, Seroquel. I don't consider myself to be "depersonalized", although I am, literally, reprogrammed. If I'm a different person now it's only because I no longer consider living a gruesome effort and a pointless, terrible charade. Far from being a zombie, it is now within my ability to grasp at a gold ring that was always out of reach before: appreciation for life, hope for the future, and even an occasional glimpse at joy.
>
> It is your right to decide that you don't wish to use antipsychotics or any other drug. But it is not your right to discourage others from taking a prescribed medication that could improve their quality of life immeasurably. Turning your particular bias into misinformation aimed at all others is harmful, and assuming that a medication is "bad" for everyone because you didn't care for it yourself is an uneducated and mistaken assumption.
>
> -Gracie
>
>
poster:galkeepinon
thread:110164
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030701/msgs/239603.html