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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 18 of 18. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by herpills on September 9, 2009, at 11:47:57
Hi P-Babblers,
I'm always curious how and when people end up seeking help from psych meds. I know many people, including myself, who traveled down other roads of healing before seeking this type of treatment. Unfortunately, I suffered too long because of it.
I knew someone who spent over $30,000 on alternative therapies, supplements, personal trainers, etc. only to realize they still needed some psych med intervention.
For some people, maybe it is just the stigma of having to see one of those doctors "that crazy people go to"
I can't say I tried *everything* ,but... I do wish, like I imagine others here as well, that I hadn't made psychiatry my "last resort"
her_pills
Posted by Phillipa on September 9, 2009, at 12:08:42
In reply to Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by herpills on September 9, 2009, at 11:47:57
Panic early 20's and intolerable as has three kids 40 years ago so had to go from gp to pdoc for benzos. Phillipa no alternative first wasn't out there then.
Posted by maxime on September 9, 2009, at 15:48:18
In reply to Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by herpills on September 9, 2009, at 11:47:57
I had a very kind employer who was worried about me. He could tell I was having problems. He even went to my first pdoc appt. with me. I don't like meds, but I know that they have saved me. I am sure I would have killed myself by now (i've tried at least 6 times). I am happy that I went to see a pdoc. I didn't try any alternative therapy before going to see the pdoc because I was uneducated about mental illness and didn't know that alternative meds were out there. I have since tried to go all alternative, but they didn't help me.
Posted by obsidian on September 9, 2009, at 16:46:28
In reply to Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by herpills on September 9, 2009, at 11:47:57
oh yeah, I had a really hard time dealing with the idea of having a pdoc...it's weird. I mean someone you go to who you tell how you're doing who may or may not give you medication for it, depending on what you say...and then you end up with one med, then another and another, and then you still feel like crap, and you just want to check the whole idea....
yeah.....I'm not completely hopeful. It's taking a lot for me to not just stop taking everything.
Posted by bleauberry on September 9, 2009, at 20:55:48
In reply to Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by herpills on September 9, 2009, at 11:47:57
I think psychiatry is probably the first resort for most people. The first stop is usually their routine family MD. That situation can then graduate to a psychiatrist when things aren't going so well. But for a lot of people, their family doc is their first stop, their first experience with psych meds, and their last stop. Many do well.
My personal feeling is that, except in truly incapacitating or deadly situations, psychiatry should be a last resort.
I think what you did trying alternative treatments was the correct thing to do. It is sad that in all that time, money, and effort, you did not find something helpful. In any field of medical treatment, be it natural or pharmaceutical, that is possible outcome.
Germany is an example for this topic. Over there, St Johns Wort is a prescription. We take it for granted here because you can buy it like a vitamin, and that gives the impression that it doesn't have serious potency. In Germany, it is prescribed 6 times more often than SSRIs. When the various herbal strategies don't work, then they resort to drugs.
I'm sure SJW had to be one of those things you tried? What about Rhodiola Rosea? Magnolia Bark? Tumeric? Any antimicrobial herbs, in case your depression was from Candida or an unsuspected infection such as Lyme?
Posted by Jeroen on September 10, 2009, at 10:24:47
In reply to Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by herpills on September 9, 2009, at 11:47:57
no comment!!!!!!!
;)
Posted by Maxime on September 10, 2009, at 18:00:20
In reply to Re: Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ? » herpills, posted by maxime on September 9, 2009, at 15:48:18
I don't understand why people would feel shameful or embarrassed to seek psychiatric help. If you had trouble with your heart you would see a cardiologist. I guess people feel ashamed because of the stigma of mental illness. But that stigma was created by society and means nothing. You gotta do what you gotta do.
Posted by yxibow on September 10, 2009, at 19:37:51
In reply to Re: Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by Maxime on September 10, 2009, at 18:00:20
> I don't understand why people would feel shameful or embarrassed to seek psychiatric help. If you had trouble with your heart you would see a cardiologist. I guess people feel ashamed because of the stigma of mental illness. But that stigma was created by society and means nothing. You gotta do what you gotta do.
People can feel very ashamed by the stigma of mental illness. I know I can feel it. Its what organizations like NAMI are trying to fight against and educate.But I rarely hear about them on here and advocacy is to the community and not often to the public at large to change people's views.
I completely agree with your comparison between say a heart disease and mental illness.
We can argue from here to tomorrow how much things are nurture and nature, but I for one believe these are largely biochemical in nature, and the more that argument is made, the more one can try to get across that there is no difference.
Mental health or otherwise, one of the best arguments today for narrowing the health care gap in the "debate" on giving affordable health care in the US, is that illnesses cost businesses billions of dollars a year in sick time and loss of employers to treatable conditions if they would just chip in.The costs of providing more health insurance and care from businesses would be far less than the loss of dollars of productivity.
-- Jay
Posted by Maxime on September 10, 2009, at 20:29:03
In reply to Re: Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ? » Maxime, posted by yxibow on September 10, 2009, at 19:37:51
Your are right Jay.
I guess I am lucky in that I never really cared about what society thinks of me. I just march to the beat of my own drum. :)
Posted by 49er on September 12, 2009, at 8:25:06
In reply to Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by herpills on September 9, 2009, at 11:47:57
> Hi P-Babblers,
>
> I'm always curious how and when people end up seeking help from psych meds. I know many people, including myself, who traveled down other roads of healing before seeking this type of treatment. Unfortunately, I suffered too long because of it.
>
> I knew someone who spent over $30,000 on alternative therapies, supplements, personal trainers, etc. only to realize they still needed some psych med intervention.
>
> For some people, maybe it is just the stigma of having to see one of those doctors "that crazy people go to"
>
> I can't say I tried *everything* ,but... I do wish, like I imagine others here as well, that I hadn't made psychiatry my "last resort"
>
> her_pillsIt was my first resort and I wish to god, I had made it my last resort. Actually, I wish I had never set forth in the psychiatric arena but that is another post.
As someone with a learning disability, I feel if someone had taught me how to deal with that, I would have been alot better off.
It is common sense that when you make mistakes that you know most people aren't making and you have no explanation, that you're going to get depressed.
Anyway, I am sorry you feel you wasted all that money. That must be a horrible feeling.
49er
Posted by Tomatheus on September 13, 2009, at 2:42:06
In reply to Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by herpills on September 9, 2009, at 11:47:57
herpills,
Psychiatry wasn't my last resort, but I did seek help with a therapist before I started seeing a psychiatrist for my depressive symptoms. If the therapy would have reduced the severity of my symptoms, then I probably wouldn't have sought psychiatric help. Unfortunately, the therapy didn't leave me feeling any less depressed. One of the psychiatric drugs that I took (enteric-coated Nardil) put me into full remission at one point, but two medications (lithium and aminoguanidine) left me with adverse effects that appear to be permanent. My current diagnosis is schizoaffective disorder, and I take medications for my condition.
Tomatheus
Posted by Jeroen on September 13, 2009, at 4:00:06
In reply to Re: Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by Tomatheus on September 13, 2009, at 2:42:06
the f**king b****ds, they dont heal you at all emotionally, they just f**ck you up and in 30 years youll propably still be sick
Posted by Garnet71 on September 13, 2009, at 12:27:55
In reply to Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by herpills on September 9, 2009, at 11:47:57
No, I'd see a specialist for any mental health problem as opposed to a generalist. My PCP first identified my depression years ago; I didn't even know what depression was...real ignorant about the subject. She prescribed me Zoloft and Xanax and referred me to a PDoc. I was so scared to take "brain" meds at first-she had to talk me into it.
I would recommend this to anyone with chronic mental health issues (as opposed to an acute episdode): go to an older (experienced) PDoc who also practices psychotherapy. I wish I had done that years ago, but again, I was ignorant - I didn't know they existed.
Another benefit I recently discovered is that these types of Pdocs aren't all weird about prescribing drugs outside of the xxRI class, such as d-amp, or whatever else might help with specific symptoms. On the other hand, the younger PDocs I've seen-and there were several-would only prescribe me xxRIs, despite the fact those drugs were making me worse off than before (although they initially worked fine).
Maybe this is predominate where I live, or w/the type of insurance I used to have, but this is my experience after going to now, let me count...8 PDocs total, over the period of about 9 years...
Posted by Meltingpot on September 20, 2009, at 11:19:55
In reply to Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' ?, posted by herpills on September 9, 2009, at 11:47:57
Hi,
When I was 17 I suddenly felt very different somehow to how I had before, I felt lethargic, sick, anxious, weak etc etc, none of these feelings had I felt before. I stopped wanting to go out, suddenly started feeling totally disconnected from the world and from my best friend.
At that age being naieve and always believing that only people in a cotamose state were depressed, I was terrified that I was dying and so began days of pouring through medical books searching for my diagnosis. My first thoughts were that I was suffering from leukemia and that I was slowly dying (I also felt very morbid), then when leukemia had been ruled out it became a brain tumour and then it became lung disease and so on and so on until finally the Doctor pretty much told me to stop going to see him as there was nothing wrong with me.
A year or so later, as I was still alive I concluded that I couldn't be dying because I was still alive and I just plodded on with life, figuring that I had some mysterious illness that they had yet to diagnose. I managed to keep going by keeping myself distracted with work.
Then when I was 24 I started feeling worse, waking up in the early hours of the morning dreading the day ahead, dreading holidays, the usual things so I went back to the doctors again this time convinced I had lung problems and sometimes even fantasising about having a lung transplant to cure me. On one of my visits to the doctor I burst into tears and he looked at me thoughtfully and told me he was going to prescribe "antidepressants". To be honest I didn't know that there was such a thing as antidepressants and I certainly didn't think they would work for me as I wasn't depressed I was ill!
However, I filled the prescription and then one night feeling desperate again I started taking them. From then on (and this might sound corny) my life was transformed, I suddenly had all of this energy and motivation and the world suddenly seemed like a beautiful bright place instead of the bleak grey place I had become used to. I really couldn't believe my luck. I carried on taking antidepressants for another 10 years or so and I often thanked God that I had got worse otherwise I would just have carried on plodding along, never really feeling any good and not really feeling like other girls of my age.
Unfortunately the antidepresants no longer work like they used to but I still don't regret from one minute taking them because If I hadn't I wouldn't have made the friends I made, I wouldn't have had the really good and happy times I had.
Denise
Posted by Meltingpot on September 20, 2009, at 11:28:21
In reply to Re: Was Psychiatry your 'last resort' Herpils, posted by Meltingpot on September 20, 2009, at 11:19:55
Hi,
Sorry, my point was that I think many people especially when they are young, don't even realise they are suffering with depression or anxiety, I think many young people become hypochondriacs or end up just accepting that that is the way it is or end up killing themselves.
The awful thing(as far as I am concerned)is that there currenly seems to be a backlash against using antidepressants for people like me whose depression/anxiety doesn't render them confined to bed, at least there is in the UK. My last psychiatrist told me that he wasn't going to prescribe anything for me and that I should try "mindfulness" instead. I am now filing a complaint against him but I doubt very much I will be taken seriously.
Denise
Posted by Phillipa on September 20, 2009, at 19:46:31
In reply to sorry my point was, posted by Meltingpot on September 20, 2009, at 11:28:21
Denise what a great two posts!!!! Thanks. And now only the young also as I do it also. Phillipa
Posted by Meltingpot on September 22, 2009, at 14:51:13
In reply to Re: sorry my point was » Meltingpot, posted by Phillipa on September 20, 2009, at 19:46:31
Thanks Phillipa. I guess if I hadn't suffered from depression before and if I had never had antidepressants work for me then I would be thinking that I had some kind of slow but fatal illness.
How are you doing lately?
Denise
Posted by Phillipa on September 22, 2009, at 20:36:29
In reply to Re: sorry my point was - To Phillipa, posted by Meltingpot on September 22, 2009, at 14:51:13
Same still no pdoc. same old meds. Giving up the hormones don't work. Love Phillipa
This is the end of the thread.
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