Posted by KaraS on November 27, 2004, at 17:09:34
In reply to Were You Depressed in the 80s?, posted by cubbybear on November 25, 2004, at 2:23:07
Ironically, I had the opposite experience. I have been prone to depression since I was a teenager but around 1979 it became more acute and severe. I was also experiencing panic attacks for the first time which led to agoraphobia. After I had a meltdown at work and knew that I was no longer able to function, I saw a GP who someone at work recommended.
She gave me a handful of samples of different kinds of medications (75 mg. amitriptyline, doxepin (75 mg.?), a sedative, and a beta blocker) and told me to "be my own detective". She didn't know me at all so she couldn't possibly have known whether or not I was suicidal. She had definitely given me enough medication to commit the act were I so inclined. She told me to try the 75 mg. of amitriptyline first along with the sedative and the beta blocker. I only took the 75 mg. of amitriptyline fortunately. I slept for about 2-3 days straight on that. That was way too much of that medication to start out on.
The next doctor I saw was a psychiatrist. He was more like the ones in the rest of this thread. He told me and my mother that I was just a little girl alone in the world. He scolded me like a child and told me that if I didn't stop my crying that he'd have to hospitalize me. Fortunately I still had enough sanity to know what an incompetent moron he was.
At this point I figured out that I would have to educate myself. I got a book that explained some basic things about antidepressants (mostly TCAs at the time) and another book about panic attacks and agoraphobia. The next psychiatrist I went to was an older man. I told him what medication I wanted (Sinequan/ doxepin), in what dosage and on what schedule I wanted to build up. He was more than willing to comply with my request. He preferred to spend the hour talking about his son and trying to fix me up with him!!!! At any rate, the doxepin worked for my panic and agoraphobia (along with the book on the latter). The medication helped a little with depression but I was at least able to leave my mother's house, move back to the city I had been living in and function at my job again.
To this day, I insist on a psychiatrist who listens to me and works with me - probably to a fault. I have a good psychiatrist now but I am still reticent to relinquish too much control.
I shudder to think what life must have been like for people with depression and anxiety problems in all of the prior centuries before any of these medications were discovered.
poster:KaraS
thread:420022
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041123/msgs/421003.html