Posted by Larry Hoover on April 25, 2005, at 9:26:29
In reply to What do you take Larry, posted by linkadge on April 24, 2005, at 12:18:18
> I know you are extensivly educated about the alternatives, but have taken some traditional treatments as well. What is your final say?
I use prescription antidepressants as needed. I do not stay on them. I use them for crisis management. My crises are shorter and more environmental (i.e. due to identifiable stressors) than ever before. So, my strategy includes stress management, to the extent that is possible.
> Do you think that all aspects of depression can be treated with alternatives, or are some things best left to the pharmacuicals.
I leave crisis management (e.g. active suicidal ideation) to the pharmaceuticals. I do not believe that I even can be free of the tendency to become depressed. What I do, via the alternatives, is increase my depth, my resiliency and endurance, and maximize the duration of time within which I am most stable.
> I am really in a bind here. I don't know where to go. When the drugs poop out, it really makes you think.You are what you eat. Many of the alternatives are nothing more than food concentrates. It should be a part of every depressives toolkit, to determine which food concentrates are most important to maximize stability, and minimize the tendency to destabilize under stress.
The core elements to my food concentrate intake are B-vitamins, minerals (zinc, selenium, chromium, magnesium are the core minerals), phospholipids and precursors (lecithin, phosphatidyl serine, and fish oil (the fish oil supplies the DHA required for proper neuronal phospholipid synthesis)), fish oil (I mention it again, as it does other things than become a neuronal membrand constituent), antioxidants (vitamins C and E).
And then I get into the esoteric stuff.....Siberian ginseng, and various other herbals.....all that stuff is a "gut feeling" thing. I start to think, "Hey, I could use some of that ginseng today." You shouldn't use herbs every day, all the time, without breaks from them. I also get "gut feelings" for e.g. tryptophan, or N-acetyl carnitine, or inositol, or selegiline, or DLPA....
Those gut feelings come with experience. There is not other way to get them. You have to "do the experiment(s)".
> What were your main problems in the beginning, and what are keeping them under controll.
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> LinkadgeI've always been dysthymic. Life has always been an effort. It took some years of therapy for that awareness to trickle in, as my life was normal for me. In objective terms, though, my normal was dysthymia.
I experienced a significant number of concurrent stressors nearly ten years ago, which culminated in the loss of my home (I had been mortgage-free), my life savings, my marriage, my ability to continue in academia, my health (I needed a fairly major surgery, with an 18 month rehab), my dad's health (touch and go, heart problems), and my elder son's health (possible brain tumour, ended up being migraines (at 2 years of age!)), and eventually, bankruptcy. I have not been the same (the earlier Lar), since. I pulled a Humpty-Dumpty.
There isn't one single thing I do to manage. I have been blessed with an excellent therapist, who has been instrumental in my cognitive development (I came from a severely dysfunctional family, so my cognitive development was stalled), and cognitive reintegration (making sense of my present reality). What I was is of little current relevance. What I am, is.
I use nutrient management to increase my adaptability and resiliency, and I take measure of those aspects every day, all the time, without conscious effort. I have trained myself to do so, as I am on an energy budget. If I dip into my reserves (my savings), I pay the price in the ability to expend energy in the future. So, it is attitude management, as well.
Over time, my baseline functionality has improved. Day to day wobbles certainly occur, and there have been potholes I've fallen into, but overall, the trend is up, and has been for years now. But for the effects of some acute stressors, my mood has been stable since 2000. That was not a response to pharmaceuticals, IMHO. It was the combination of nutrient and cognitive management.
Upon achieving mood stabilization, it became clear that I had persistent symptoms, nonetheless. Those fit the paradigm known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I also exhibit full-blown chronic PTSD (childhood stuff). These, I manage differently than I do the mood thing. CFS demands that energy budget concept remains in the forefront of my cognition, automatic as it may seem to be. I have to notice when I've had enough, and I have to stop whatever it is that I've had enough of, to the extent that I am able to do so. That's one reason my posts to this board are sporadic. I have spread myself thinly, of late.
I am on the cusp of entering full-time employment, for the first time since my crash. I am also deeply involved in a volunteer advocacy agency, helping people deal with the bureacracy that envelops one when "the wheels come off". I know you're in the Toronto area; I am a volunteer for an offshoot of OCAP. I help people deal with the vagaries of the Tenant Protection Act, and the oppressive Social Services regime.
Also, I am occasionally deeply involved on this board, but I do try to monitor it for "emergency" requests for information or guidance. It's all in that energy budget thing.
I hope that explains what I'm doing to manage my mood disorder, and the comorbidities.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:488772
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20050414/msgs/489176.html