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Quote:

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet (Post 1775068)

I take meds. I have to take them to live from day to day. I can decide not to take them and within 2 weeks or less, I will be spending money like I have some, painting my house a crazy color and every other word a 4 letter one... Then I will drop faster than a roller coaster and want to hurt myself because I cannot understand what happened to me and why I am the worst person the world...

I'm really glad you found a med that works. It's hard sometimes to find one that gives you results, but it sounds like you found one.

It's nice to have the OPTION to be on meds or to not be on meds.

So we allow spam now?

Quote:

Originally Posted by HotDamnImAPhiMu (Post 1773181)

Is anyone else here dealing with Major Depressive Disorder? Are you being treated by your primary care physician or a psychiatrist? How long as your depression lasted? What drugs are you taking for it? Have you ever been hospitalized for depression? What are the side effects? Are you also doing a form of talk therapy?

I've been dealing with depression for a year and nine months. It was a side effect of the Depo Provera (birth control) shot, and it just snowballed out of control.

I started off with my primary care physician, but when it became obvious that I wasn't responding to several drugs the doc suggested I move on to a psychiatrist. I like her a lot; I feel like she really listens and acts on what I have to say. If I tell her a drug isn't working for me or the side effects are too bad to handle, she switches me to something else right away. No patting me on the head and telling me "we'll just wait another three weeks and see how you're doing then, hmm?"

I take Wellbutrin, Prozac, and Lithium. The combo seems to be working pretty well. The worst side effect is fine hand tremor (my hands shake). It drives me nuts. My handwriting is awful and I drop stuff all the time. Putting on mascara in the morning is an adventure. But I keep taking it because the shakes are better than those days when I couldn't get out of bed or eat.

I do go to talk therapy. I didn't want to go - it's pointless, I thought, since I don't have any big time problems in my life that would warrant counseling - but the more research I did the more I saw that patients who were treated with drugs AND talk therapy did much, much better than patients who were treated with one or the other. And boy did I want to get better.

I'm doing much better these days, although I'm still waiting for the go-ahead from the doc and the therapist for me to return to work. Makes for plenty of time to post on GC, though.

Hey

I'm still being treated for manic depression (bipolar affective disorder type I, early onset, well documented, extreme case [the parenthetical is from notes by an old doctor of mine)

I go to therapy and am taking medicine.

I hope you're doing okay.

Thanks! I hope you're hanging in there, too. Although it sounds like you have things pretty well stabilized.

I have a friend whose son started showing symptoms of bipolar type I at seven. At first I didn't believe her and I thought she was probably overmedicating her kid, but then one day I saw him when he hadn't taken his Lithium in awhile.... omg. It was like he was a completely different kid. I couldn't believe one little boy could change so much in such a short period of time.

Sometimes when you see someone without taking their medications, you will see a completely different person.
For years, I have an aunt that is Schizophrenic. When she didn't take her meds, OMG, the voices she'd hear, the things she'd do, wow wee! But when she'd take her meds, she was as normal as she could be for her.
For some the meds seem to work very effectively, for others it doesn't. I think it depends on the person that you are and the person you know you want/can be.
I think it's the mindset that you are willing to put yourself in to help in determining how effective the medication can/will be.