Posted by West on June 9, 2008, at 16:18:50
In reply to Re: Any doctors in UK prescribe dexedrine??, posted by Amigan on June 8, 2008, at 17:26:16
Saw GP and said i would like some diazepam for my dysphoria (playing devil's advocate by asking me to explain the meaning of dysphoria) for short as-and-when relief before i am put on an antidepressant by the psychiatrist (if i manage to actually get put on one.) He e-mailed ahead to the Pdoc
just to say he had given me the 7 diazepam. He asked why i didn't get out there and do stuff instead of reading about and asking for drugs. That was pretty hurtful.He didn't like my using psychiatric terms to describe my symptoms either. What they really want is someone who comes in complaining of back ache and poor sleep - 'it's okay you've got depression, it's a disease' - they love to explain in their most professionally calm middle-class tones before sending patients off with a bag of fluoxetine and a CBT leaflet.
In particular he couldn't understand why i make my depression worse by reading about it and sharing anecdotal information with fellow sufferers when i should be out there trying to make things better- 'there are things you can do.'He also said i should read about cbt instead and that there's an online service- which i would have taken as fair advice if cbt hadn't been shown to be predominantly ineffective in biological depression.
I ended up telling him that i didn't expect him to get it if he didn't have depression himself and that researching an illness hardly makes it worse but is in fact a form of positive action.
Also extra suspicious since i mentioned to another GP in leeds that i'd ordered tianeptine from the internet which, along with the ssri's didn't help a great deal i.e he didn't respond to antidepressants = not depressed. Add to that being 23 + candidly admitting past substance use- nothing out of the ordinary for university students however- just regular grass/periodic pills/coke for a time).As for amilsulpride- 'why do you want to take an antipsychotic?' he visibly winced. Somewhere between pit and contempt. Not a pleasant experience. For a doctor he was surprisingly anti-medication: his encompassing argument being that we don't know how they they work (he certainly didn't demonstrate any knowledge of their mechanisms but reassured me he was 'interested' in mental health)
Anything to smooth the passage if you ask me. Why not actually TRY and HELP make people's live's worth living ?
Actually i don't know if i am really depressed and now i'm starting to think maybe he's right. Hold on though, difficulty in decision-making, classic depressive symptom. Damn this knowledge.
poster:West
thread:833341
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080606/msgs/833828.html