Posted by poser938 on January 30, 2014, at 15:37:17
In reply to Re: Corelation does not imply causation » poser938, posted by SLS on January 28, 2014, at 6:39:23
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> I found myself saying the same things to myself in 1983, when it was proven by Columbia University that drug therapy produced robust antidepressant responses that, unfortunately, never lasted for more than a week. I got angry at the doctors most of all when I discovered that they did not have all of the tools and all of the answers. I was less angry with medical science, and only occasionally angry with God.
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> Sure... these drugs suck. I could wait another 100 years for psychiatry gets it right for me. Oops... I don't have another 100 years. I want to end the pain today. I want to build a life today. So, I came to the decision that I would invest myself in searching for a successful treatment. I knew that the journey would include even greater pain at times because it was observed that some drugs made me feel worse. Side effects would prove barely tolerable. AND I WASN'T GETTING BETTER! Looking around I realized that I had no better choice but to methodically try doctors' treatments and even design some of my own. I even saw doctors who took me through some alternative treatments, including megadoses of vitamins, supplements, and rotation diets.
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> It is my conclusion that many psychiatric drugs produce persistent changes in the brain that can remain long after treatment is discontinued. That's part of the gamble. The nature and magnitude of these effects has not been fully recognized by mainstream clinical psychiatry. There is quite a bit to consider when making a decision to consent to, or decline, a proposed treatment.
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> For some people, it comes down to which is worse - the illness or the cure. Without treatment, I remain immobilized physically, and with no energy and no intelligent thought. I remain vegetative and mute. I lose most of my abilities to read, learn, and remember. I become a shut-in and interact only with computers and family. I lose jobs, marriages, and friends. Yet... I feel very fortunate. Things for me could be worse. I am not homeless or hungry. I am able to take care of myself - barely - but independence is more important to me than having to live by other people's rules. My goals continue to be responding robustly to my medical treatment and rejoin society. Probably the quickest way for me to do that is to go back to work.
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> What better choice do I have?
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> I want to live. I am not so much afraid of death as I am of never having lived.
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> hi Scott, I would have replied sooner, but my internet was down.I just wish I would have had some idea of what kind of gamble taking psych meds could be before I made the decision to take them.
I had read a bit from doctors who spoke out against Psychiatric Meds back then. But the mainstream idea is that they are "Quacks", and that they had no credibility. I figured "This is America!", and that such a corrupt system couldn't exist in Mental Health Care in America.But you and I, and perhaps too many of us on Babble feel the same about not getting a chance to have lived. And not being afraid of death.
poster:poser938
thread:1059520
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140123/msgs/1059972.html