I'll start by saying that I have GAD with Agoraphobia.

The first few years I was completely opposed to the idea of medication and my life was hell. My doctor told me that in my case it would be nearly impossible to get it under control without some medication. I tried a few but feared the medication even more than the disorder. I saw my own mother struggle with her medication, but she needed it since she had MS, still I really didn't want to end up drooling on myself.

After a while it got so bad that I opted to go for the treatment but unfortunately, nothing worked. I was diagnosed as being hypersensitive to medication. I'm one of the low percentage of people who cannot take Inhibitors and such meds since the period of habituation to these meds never seems to end. I tried a few but was told to stop after severe dizziness and vomiting. Finally I tried Paxil, I stayed on even after they told me to stop and ended up in the ER severely dehydrated.

But hope was not all lost, I could take Benzos but didn't want to grow dependent on them. Now I take a very low dose and quit them for a while when my body finally needs more, which can take a very long while. Mix that with meditation and self-hypnosis, I'm not able to live a decent life. I traveled from coast to coast across Canada with just my girlfriend and an esteem wagon. I came a far way considering I couldn't even walk outside of my home years ago. I still have a hard time dealing with some situations such as malls and such places but I still manage, no matter the situation.

There's a reason why someone needs medication, it should not be used to treat the disorder but rather to calm the symptoms while the person gets therapy. Too many people rely on pills in order to live healthy lives, which is quite unhealthy, the most important thing is for them to understand the problem and to learn how to deal with it.

Argh, double post... how do I delete?
I'm such a noob.

Originally posted by Cocasinpry
Argh, double post... how do I delete?
I'm such a noob.

edit on 14-12-2010 by Cocasinpry because: (no reason given)

don't feel bad... I have been posting my ass off and just found where the stars are clicked today.

oh wait... damn. I just forgot again... nevermind.

Now that i think about it... maybe I imagined the whole "stars" thing.

I'm so confused.

I remember now, it was the post subscription.... a hell i don't know. You should have seen me looking for mesages...OMG!
I don't know what it is about this site... I like the layout a lot, it's got a lot of things other sites don't have, but because of that... I am SO not used to it.

When I was in my 20s I started working in a psychiatric hospital as an aide. My job was interacting and charting on the behavior of patients whether they were eating, sleeping following rules and so on. After 3 years I was supervising a behavior modification ward in a state hospital which was unusual for a person that dropped out of high school and had a general education diploma.... I had gotten married to a girl from a well to do family that appeared to be kind of a hippie type but she was just being fashionable and was more into wealth than what she had claimed so I hustled and got a job making about 8 times what I had been and found out that I had less money at the end of each month than I had before..... The stress started wearing on me and I was out of control, having symptoms of anger, depression, insomnia and anxiety along with flashbacks of my combat experiences in Vietnam.... I had been seeing private doctors and counselors and when they were through with me I had no money and had to own up to having been affected by what I had been involved in while in the Marines which they didn't want to touch being that none of them had served, followed by the less than warm welcome and acceptance that the World War II vets had received.... I ended up seeing VA shrinks and being prescribed pills that caused side effects that they gave me more pills for and when I had negative side effects from them they would up the doses... At one time I was taking 12 different prescriptions and had gained 85 pounds and eventually spent 6 out of 18 months in a V.A. Psychiatric hospital....After a while I said to hell with all of that and self medicated and did much better even though i was drinking quite a bit but alcohol has never caused me any problems except for waking up in bed with some real wrecks and hangovers, still not as bad as when I was on all of the damned pills... I now take morphine and tramadol 3 times a day etodolac twice cyclobenzaprine and atavan as needed for chronic pain from service connected injuries that prevented me from being able to get health insurance.. I have arrhythmia,high cholesterol, and hypertension that I take vitamins and dietary supplements for and control my diet.... My weight is the same as it was when I got out of Boot Camp....Psychotropics are OK I guess if you are a chronic case and not likely to be functional to a normal degree without them because in all likely hood you may well be less functional on them.... I have seen the long term effects they have on people and it is shocking beyond belief... In the late 70s one of the doctors on the unit that I supervised a ward on was blown away by the amount of medication thast some of the patients were on and how it was affecting them physically... He implemented a program to cut them back and it was at first pretty rough but since we used a token economy as a means of reinforcing positive behavior we just upped the amount of candy, cigarettes , coffee and other treats they wanted to keep them happy and their work and behavior increased and improved.... What I find that works well for me as far as helping with PTSD is having a dog as a friend and companion that I take care of interact with and get exercise out doors with... Right now is bad because 18-11-2010 someone stole my dog.and I am out every day doing all I can and online at night doing the same.

Working in psychiatry for 12 years has given me the impression that the medication aspect of treatment has become to readily available. Especially when person to person therapy has not been exhausted first. There is a myth in society that doctors think they can cure mental inllness. This even the average person I'm sure realizes will never happen. Some illnesses are related to chemical imbalances that can be corrected with minimal intervention of medication to supplement or help regulate the chemicals. In other cases I've seen how the medication can suppress a person's personality and behaviours so much so that the closest family members don't even recognise the person. But I've also had patients report how much better they feel with the illness symptoms managed.

That being said when therapy is exhausted and medication is introduced to the therapy program, it is the responsibility of the person and the therapist/physician that he or she is working with to discuss the benfits vs negatives of the use of medication. If you have longstanding depression subjectively for years on end, worse in the holiday seasons. Dealing with POTENTIAL side effects, if any of the medication can be much more favourable for some.

Not everyone realizes that they are becoming ill when it comes to mental illness, especially in the early onset of the illenss. for example, if you were to live in a big city and were schizophrenic and wandering the streets displaying some of the beehaviours related to the illness, someone will call the police or an ambulance and get you to a health care facility that will hopefully get you some help. Yet if you live in a small town, people don't intervene as much because "It's Johnnie's brother leave him be, he's not hurting anyone" In this case a person can remain in an ill state for years. Forming behaviours and beliefs around the symptoms that are not being treated like hallucinations, deluisions, outrageous beliefs, paranoia and isolation from others. This is when the medication comes in to play in forced treatment. The medication helps to restabalize that person whle therapy is being initiated and then titrated down words over time as the illness and persons quality of life improve. Leaving the person with minimal medication, if any and a therapy plan.

Sadly enough, everywhere you look there is an ad in the news paper or on TV discussing various medications to fix this, sleep better, feel happy. Almost as though the drug companies are encouraging you that you are ill and need thjis to feel better. B.S. Pure B.S. All I can say is don't trust blindly, asdk a million questions and be active in the treatment. Don't let people make decisions for you, it's your life.

On a side note. I worked with a person in foresics abot 6 years ago that challenged in the Canadian Supreme court the right not to take medication. Stating that he would rather deal with the symptoms of the disease process then the side effects of the medication. He was a chronic 20 year schizophrenic, in and out of this state for months at a time never really getting stable, in and out of the hospital. He won! Negative side of the story was because he refuse to take the meds he ended, court ordered to stay in the facility due to the severity of the symptoms and delusions. About 2 years later he started to take the medication, was discharged from forensics and lives a subjectively more pleasant life.

There are pros and cons to everything...just be involved and don't take anyones word as gold!

This was my field before I retired to teach. I have to say that I had totally bought into it but my view has changed 180 degrees in the last 10 years. Over 90% of the people on these meds should be slowly weaned off under supervision. Like most of Big Pharma, they are total crap. Medicating kids should be a criminal offense. Most "psychiatric disorders" can be successfully treated via diet, exercise and cognitive and/or behavioral interventions.

Psychiatric meds? You have to be crazy to take those.

Drugs aren't always good to do but a lot of the drugs I've done, I'm glad I had them there to do when I did them because I had stuff to "deal with"...srsly.

I do NOT advocate alcohol or drugs like coke and heroine. I'm not one to mess around with so much as x but have had plenty of great experiences with mushrooms, acid and weed that i could never ever ever regret.. It's important to not make a habit out of weed though I believe. Sometimes it can be just the ticket but times when you can do without and feel good, you should... you should explore where sobriety takes you. Not to mention when you do it again you will have more fun with it. I like to ration weed though and have a steady supply. That's not good. I have to break away from that or do without. If you have pain I'm all for it if it helps so long as you're not just making excuses. It simply makes some people feel a hell of a lot better.

i only read through the first page of replies but i think in some cases they are necessary. i definitely think they are over prescribed! i have suffered from depression and have tried several things. i've been in therapy and finding a good therapist can be a real pain in the ass. the few meds i have tried didn't seem to do much at all however the one i am currently on saved my ass. i don't like that i have a sort of "dull" feeling now but it's a hell of a lot better than crying every day. do i worry about it's side effects? yes. i definitely worry about what it might be doing to me that i don't know or understand but on the flip side it has saved my life. therapy alone wasn't going to work fast enough. i don't want to be on it forever but i'm going to continue on it for at least a year.

i do not ever recommend taking any rx for mental health issues without combining therapy.

Okay I go both ways for Antipsychotic drugs I am for them and I am aganist them here are my reasons why:

Why I am for Antipsychotic drugs the pros:

1. It helps make a person with any type of mental illness more stable.


Why I am aganist Antipsychotic drugs the cons:

1. Easier to control a person.
For example: When you have a mentally ill person doped on so much meds they hardly do anything sleep more, zombielike, or you tell them what to do and they will listen since they are so doped up, etc.

2. Doctors prescribing more meds to anyone else other then mentally ill just to make more money. $$$

3. Adverse affects by overdrugging someone with many illness.
For example you are treating someone with Paranoid Schizophrenia and Depression and Anixtey and you put them on all sorts of drugs say one drug knocks out the depression so that person still feels depressed. Also adverse affects of drugs I'm taking about when you take Antipsychotics they usually include weight gain, and much more etc. That is probably why people with mental illness chose not to take their drugs since many things go on when they are on them.

My opinon on this topic of Pyschotic Meds