Posted by holymama on January 15, 2004, at 10:12:30
In reply to Re: Therapy, Meds and Babble, oh my!, posted by Racer on January 15, 2004, at 0:05:07
Hi, I can perfectly relate to your thoughts. I was going through the same thought process when I started seeing a therapist for the first time in my life about a year ago. I went in for what I thought were 'anger management' problems or manybe just being a bad mother. I was hating motherhood and my life in general, getting very angry at everyone, overwhelmed by everything,just having a hard time and sick of it. Right away my therapist suggested that I probably had a mood disorder and suggested trying an antidepressant. I resisted for many months, seeing a naturopathic doctor, trying supplements, herbs, diet changes, exercise, contmplating the 'real' reasons for my unhappiness -- maybe I wasn't satisfied with being a 'housewife', maybe I was around my children too much, maybe I needed some spirituality...I took a class, got a babysitter more often, started a bible study. Basically, I tried everything I could think of or anything anyone recommended. It didn't do me any good. I got worse and worse, and as summer started (when I knew I should be feeling better), I started feeling like my life was not worth living...I finally gave in and tried the drugs. WHOA!!! Within 2 days my negative thoughts started to stop spinning around in my head. The tension in my shoulders disappeared. I started to relax and I felt CALM. My kids didn't seem as annoying. I stopped feeling angry at my husband. And after a few weeks I started feeling something called JOY! I had forgotten what it felt like. I felt like hugging and kissing my therapist, who had very patiently and persistently suggested medication every time that I saw her. My advice has been to anyone considering antidepressants since then: TRY IT. You can always go off if you don't like it. But a subtle change in brain chenistry can change your life and let you enjoy it again. Or maybe it won't, but you will never know until you try it. If everyone with depression symptoms could see what it felt like on an antidepressant for just two weeks, they could see what it feels like to seperate their personality from the depression -- to see what is the person underneath the 'illness'. All of your problems won't go away, but it makes it much clearer to see what problems you can work on and what problems went away with a change in brain chenistry.
Good luck to you...
poster:holymama
thread:300968
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040109/msgs/301104.html