Posted by Tomatheus on January 7, 2006, at 22:30:57
In reply to Constant drug changes? and Depression, posted by flmm on January 7, 2006, at 11:36:11
> I am getting the feeling a lot of people on this board are always changing drugs to battle depression.
For me, sometimes all it takes to get a "feeling" about something is to read a single message. Is there a specific message that you're referring to?
> These drugs are not intended to make you high, or even happy, just not depressed! Lets keep it in perspective..........
What you seem to be unable to realize is that "these drugs" affect everybody differently. Many of those who fall within the bipolar spectrum (myself included) experience depression on a constant or nearly constant basis when left untreated. Like everybody else suffering from depression, they take antidepressants to relieve their depressive symptoms - so they can experience the same "normal" range of emotions that most people take for granted. Depending on where they fall within the spectrum, individuals with treatment-induced bipolar disorder may become constantly (hypo)manic upon the administration of certain antidepressants, or they may cycle back and forth between (hypo)mania and depression. Some bipolar individuals respond this way to all antidepressants, but others only develop (hypo)manic symptoms in response to certain classes of antidepressants. Individual responses can vary considerably.
Do patients with treatment-induced bipolar disorder hope to respond to antidepressants (or at least certain classes of antidepressants) in the way that they do? Do they hope that they can experience an abnormal reaction to an antidepressant so that they'll end up having to try out various combinations of mood stablizers and antidepressants until they find something that actually relieves at least some of their depressive symptoms without triggering any mania? I think I speak for most, if not all, patients with treatment-induced forms of bipolar disorder when I say hell no! We're not looking for any kind of high, and even though hypomania may be blissfully intoxicating, that's not the effect that any of us are trying to get from an antidepressant. Like other depressives, those of us with treatment-induced forms of bipolar disorder want nothing more than to experience the "normal" ups and downs that we're supposed to feel in response to environmental stimuli. We don't ask to respond to a medication in a way that's different from how most people respond to it (or how it's intended, as you put it), and I think it's insulting to even imply that we do.
Maybe with a little bit more perspective, you'd be able to realize that patients who happen to experience (hypo)manic symptoms in response to certain antidepressants never asked to be the way that they are and certainly never took antidepressants with the goal of getting "high."
Tomatheus
poster:Tomatheus
thread:596211
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051231/msgs/596387.html