Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 32

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Help

Posted by Brian on June 20, 1998, at 0:49:23

Hello Dr Bob, and others
My name is Brian, and I am a 19 year old male, who was diagnosed as clinically depressed about 6 months ago. I was placed on Prozac at first, but it made me feel strange, and it made me get very angry, at the slightest things. I am severely overweight and I have a severe addiction to cigarettes. I am now taking 100mg Zoloft and 25 mg of Nortriptyline as prescribed by my psychiatrist who I am no longer seeing. At this time, I get very frightened, depressed, and almost constantly feel like the world around me is not real. I have no psychosis that I am familiar with. I feel like I will never loose weight, quit smoking or feel "normal" again. Please respond if I can tell you more.

 

Re: Help

Posted by Patricia on June 21, 1998, at 5:10:18

In reply to Help , posted by Brian on June 20, 1998, at 0:49:23

I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but it seems
like cigarettes and weight are the least of your problems.
There are plenty of fat smokers out there who are very
connected to the world.

I know that being fat in today's society makes life like
100 times harder because of fat phobias that are taken as
normal now. It's NOT normal to be a "fatphobe". It's just
being a bigot. See, it's great to try to eat right
and exercise, and if you lose weight fine. But burdening
yourself with HAVING to lose a lot of weight plus quitting
smoking while dealing with depression is, IMHO, setting
yourself up for failure.

Doing all that may be goals for the future, but it seems
like right now you need to deal with the depression
first.

Don't overwhelm yourself, okay?

> Hello Dr Bob, and others
> My name is Brian, and I am a 19 year old male, who was diagnosed as clinically depressed about 6 months ago. I was placed on Prozac at first, but it made me feel strange, and it made me get very angry, at the slightest things. I am severely overweight and I have a severe addiction to cigarettes. I am now taking 100mg Zoloft and 25 mg of Nortriptyline as prescribed by my psychiatrist who I am no longer seeing. At this time, I get very frightened, depressed, and almost constantly feel like the world around me is not real. I have no psychosis that I am familiar with. I feel like I will never loose weight, quit smoking or feel "normal" again. Please respond if I can tell you more.

 

Re: Help

Posted by Dana on July 28, 1998, at 15:48:14

In reply to Re: Help , posted by Patricia on June 21, 1998, at 5:10:18

Wellbutrin instead of Prozac. Wellbutrin takes away your appetite, AND you may be bipolar because Prozac will cause a person to be irritable, short tempered, rage and very hyper - like manic if they are in fact bipolar. That is what happened to me on Prozac until I was finally diagnosed with bipolar instead of unipolar. Also, Wellbutrin is supposed to take the craving of cigs away.

 

Re: Help

Posted by Toby on August 6, 1998, at 14:12:43

In reply to Re: Help , posted by Dana on July 28, 1998, at 15:48:14


Why aren't you seeing your psychiatrist anymore? Is your family doctor prescribing the antidepressant now? If not, you need to hook up with the psychiatrist again -- DO NOT go off the Prozac and give up. If your shrink isn't listening, you need to talk about that with him/her, and if you still aren't being heard, get a referral to another doctor. If your relationship is OK with your psychiatrist, you need to stay in treatment, talk about the symptoms you are having, side effects from the Prozac (did the weight gain come with the depression or with the Prozac) and decide if the Prozac was initially helpful and just quit, or if it was never helpful. There are many medications for depression that some people tolerate better than others and some people need more than one medication to get better. If anybody in your family has depression and got better with a particular medication, that medication may also help you (these things run in families). Don't worry about depression being because you are "weak" or anything, because depression is a physical illness based on chemical disorders of seotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine just like diabetes is a chemical disorder of insulin. Also, get into psychotherapy (talk therapy) because many studies show that depression and those chemical disorders actually improve even without medications if a person changes the way he thinks, reacts and behaves (psychotherapy isn't just talking about the Oedipal complex). Keep trying to beat it and you will.

 

Re: Help

Posted by Jay on August 22, 1998, at 11:44:43

In reply to Help , posted by Brian on June 20, 1998, at 0:49:23

> Hello Dr Bob, and others
> My name is Brian, and I am a 19 year old male, who was diagnosed as clinically depressed about 6 months ago. I was placed on Prozac at first, but it made me feel strange, and it made me get very angry, at the slightest things. I am severely overweight and I have a severe addiction to cigarettes. I am now taking 100mg Zoloft and 25 mg of Nortriptyline as prescribed by my psychiatrist who I am no longer seeing. At this time, I get very frightened, depressed, and almost constantly feel like the world around me is not real. I have no psychosis that I am familiar with. I feel like I will never loose weight, quit smoking or feel "normal" again. Please respond if I can tell you more.

Hey Brian,
Wellbutrin did help me with depression and it also kept me away from cigarettes. My appetite was kept in check a bit too.
I am currently taking prozac with depakote. The depakote keeps me from becomming agitated by the prozac (I am diagnosed bipolar). Prozac, I have found, has really helped with the depression/frightened thing that happened to me from time to time.
Hang in there Brian. Keep trying different doctor's and/or medications until something works for you.

Take care,
Jay


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