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Re: SEROQUEL...monotherapy for Depression?/Li » linkadge

Posted by Lindenblüte on November 3, 2006, at 16:43:01

In reply to Re: SEROQUEL...monotherapy for Depression?/Li, posted by linkadge on November 3, 2006, at 10:00:44

> Just to play the devils advocate, I think that if you were going to kill yourself you would have already. Antidepressants have not statistically altered the rate of suicide since their introduction.

I am not aware of these statistics. Could you provide a citation? I'm not sure that I feel comfortable arguing this point with you until I've evaluated the research you refer to.

> Being addicted to a drug does is not always directly apparent right away.

yes, of course. good point. i'm biased in favor of pharma and everything else I'm doing at the moment since I am feeling a little better every day. so, I may be the voice of ADDICTION, rather than a sane voice of impartial reason.

> The connotation of *addiction* sounds so harsh. You are right, we are addicted to air. I guess the real acid test is wheather the drugs continue to work for you. I define my experience as one of addiction owing to the fact that the drugs stopped working. In this case, I was faced with a regular pattern of tollerance and dose escalation in order to acheive the same effect. This is why I think of my case as being addicted to antidepressants.

Tom Wolfe "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". An interesting example to throw some color into the mix. I think it's interesting to view "addiction" through a cultural lens. For example, my friend G is terrified of becoming dependent or addicted to any person or substance. She even eschews lip balm, romance, caffeine and other creature comforts. I'm not at all convinced that her choices have made her happier or more satisfied. Some religions consider the use of intoxicants wrong, and discourage devotees to avoid substances that act as intoxicants.

I'm not sure if the drugs work for me. I suppose I have been feeling more hopeful, and I'm able to get more pleasure out of simple things like food and sex and sunshine. These are all very subtle things that unfolded over months. Months that were accompanied by major lifestyle changes, psycho-therapy, nutritional changes, etc. And the meds are one piece of the puzzle. I'm pretty sure that if I went off of them (especially cold-turkey!) I would feel like utter sh*t.

This is not unique to psych meds, though. Yesterday evening I didn't drink enough water. I felt thirsty for 8 hours and for various reasons was unable to obtain any liquids before bed. My pee was a not-happy color in the am, and I had headache and felt like crap. I guess I'm hooked on water. ((((hydration)))). I probably don't need to keep on increasing my amount of water though, to feel satiated. Fortunately, my kidneys and brain have evolved in such a way to provide good feedback about thirst. But-- what if the signals become mixed up in the hypothalamus- and instead of "thirst" we feel "munchies"? We eat more food, our blood becomes even thicker, more saline, and we are left with ... even more munchies! Hopefully one would wise-up at this point and reach for a glass of H2O, but-- what if your psychology never allowed you to make this connection? Would you keep on eating and eating and eating until?

> Again, my disclamer is that I really don't know your case, and I am trying to rant in as general a sense as possable.

That's fine Linkadge, and I respect your candor. Although I must admit that I was kind of shocked by your opening sentence. A sick and twisted depressed Li would view that as a "challenge". Luckily I'm a well-hydrated, exercised, Omega-three-ed and cognitively stimulated Lindenbluete.

And I'm really sorry to hear that the drugs did not give you a long-term improvement. Sometimes having an instability (getting better-getting worse-getting better-getting worse) is more damaging to the psyche that a low-level feeling yucky. I hope you won't give up on other ways to obtain relief- perhaps through lifestyle changes, seeing a therapist or alternative treatments.
>
> Linkadge

-Li


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poster:Lindenblüte thread:699566
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061028/msgs/700103.html