Posted by sowhysosad on April 22, 2009, at 16:47:13
In reply to Re: Remeron's now put my friend off meds for life..., posted by Enigma on April 22, 2009, at 9:17:22
Sorry to hear about your situation Enigma. I'm in a really similar situation to you, albeit in a med-free period at the moment. Been depressed for over 6 months, unable to work, losing the will to go on, and my wife regularly running out of patience. It sucks. Glad to hear you've improved back on the Nardil.
As for my friend, I've tried reassuring her that there are plenty of other meds out there and that Remeron's side effects are extreme but to no avail. She's one of these virulently anti-meds people that are all too common in the UK, and her bad experience with psychiatry has just confirmed her preconceptions.
It annoys me that so many docs worldwide put their faith in a drug that is, for many of us, a glorified antihistamine with no antidepressant effect.
With regard to finding another doc, the way mental health works in the UK is that each area has a mental health team assigned to it and they treat ALL cases referred by family doctors in their patch.
For example, my area is designated South Leeds and everyone in that area is treated by a particular pdoc and her "team" at one particular suburban health centre. They're responsible for all referred mental health cases amongst a quarter of the population of a city of around 700,000 people.
If you're not happy with that, tough ****. In fact, I only get to see one of her juniors who seems to know way less about psychopharmacology than I do, and I'm just a layman who reads a lot. I guess the only way you could change docs is to move house or get yourself hospitalised. At least the treatment is free, but few people have private health insurance or can afford a private pdoc, so you don't get to shop around.
> Wow, that's really sad. You can't explain to her that other meds have either very few side effects in comparison, and some may have none (for her). ?
> I myself, suffer from every side-effect a drug has. I'm pretty much cursed that way.
>
> I'm actually extremely upset with my doc for jumping both feet first towards the Remeron approach and SO QUICK to take me off Nardil.
> As soon I was a week off of Nardil I became suicidal. I told my wife to leave me and find another man to take care of her and kids both romantically and financially as I was just a step away from the grave (drama, I know, but true). I think there were 3 days where I didn't speak to anyone, just cried, and thought of ways to fund my family so I could be 'free', legal and not so legal.
> Currently, I'm on social security disability (U.S.). It's not much, but it pays the bills (mostly). My wife can't work because she takes care of EVERYTHING else (she's Superwife!), including our youngest child, which I couldn't do if I wanted to.
> Even when suicidal, I still wouldn't leave my family in poverty, so my rule is to make sure they are covered financially in case I bite the bullet (literally). But, after a couple of days of being in the worst pain of my life, I went right back on the Nardil, slowly, and I'm human again. Nardil never gets me to 10/10 perfection, more like 5/10, but it drives away the suicide and super intense depression. I literally cannot live without it and it's the only drug that's ever really worked for me (Had some success with selegiline too) as an AD.
>
> Now all my sleep problems are back, but they're better than being suicidal, so I'll take door #1. I have insomnia really bad (again), and usually get up many times at night and usually have problems getting back to sleep. Just for laughs, checked my med chest and found this Valarian root bottle ("Promotes restful sleep"), so the last 2 nights I took a pill. Now, I can't say in just 2 nights whether or not it was this pill or not, but once I finally did make it to sleep, I slept through the entire night, both nights, which is extremely rare for me. So, I'm going to be taking this stuff every night from now on, hoping that's what's really keeping me asleep. Now if I could just tackle the insomnia.
>
> Again, sorry about your friend. In the past 15+ years, I've been let down my meds and doctors more times than I can count, but you have to get past it in order to feel better. That's what your friend has to focus on. If I don't like a med, I research a new one. If I don't like a doctor, I research a new one. Simple as that. Sometimes you win, sometimes you fail. I seem to fail a lot more than I win. And finally, whatever doesn't kill you, just weakens your organs and damages your body overall. :(
poster:sowhysosad
thread:891271
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090416/msgs/892179.html