Posted by SLS on June 17, 2008, at 4:55:25
In reply to Re: Need Advice on Med Cocktail. Please help!, posted by BRC on June 16, 2008, at 20:08:11
Hi.
I'm sorry that things have been so frustrating and painful for you. I must disagree, however, with your characterization of medication not producing a "magic pill". For me, there are magic pills. My depression is recalcitrant to psychotherapy because there really isn't that much going on in my mind that is depressogenic. I have been working on my mind along with my errant brain function for the past 25 years. I think my mind has been primed for the return of normal brain function, so really, all that is left to do is to remediate the abnormal brain function.
Even well-adjusted, self-actualized people can contract a biological mental illness. Simply taking one pill a day can return them to their lives of joy and fulfillment, where no amount of psychosocial therapy had.
"The brain determines the mind as the mind sculpts the brain."
There is an advantage to conceptualizing the brain and mind as separate phenomena. Of course, they both operate in tandem, and are inextricably linked. Each affects the other. Unfortunately, mental illness can be triggered by abnormal psychosocial stress if one's brain has been made vulnerable to decompensation because of genetics or congenital acquisition. Mental illness usually affects the way one thinks and feels. If this goes on long enough, one's psychodynamics can become as dysfunctional as their brain is. Psychotherapeutic modalities will be most effective in this regard.
So, yes, there are magic pills that can treat effectively a sick brain. No, these pills do not make a sick or challenged mind well. By themselves, pills do not process issues and deal with the stresses of life in general. Only people do.
- Scott
> Prozac made my anxiety even worse. It was a very stimulating med to me. But I am sure you know (your doc. probably already told you) that each medication effects each one differently. And that is soooo. true.
>
> When I first became ill with my problems I had never really taken any meds (except the usual antibiotic, etc.). But never anything that effected my mind or mood.
>
> So, everytime I would hear that someone was doing so well on a particular med. I immediately wanted to switch and try what they were taking.
>
> It took me a while to learn that you have to give each med its time. There is no magic pill (I thought there was). I assumed I would take this medication and in a few days to a week (like a medication treating a virus or the flu I would be totallly well).
>
> Ten years later I am still struggling with my meds. But don't give up. I am soooooo. much better now than I was before. It may just take you and your doctor a little experimenting and adjusting. But you will eventually find the right cocktail.
>
> Good luck, and forgive my spelling
>
> BRC
poster:SLS
thread:834900
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080617/msgs/835023.html