Posted on 05/19/2007 5:36:59 PM PDT by Scutter
That’s a good read!
“There, but for the Grace of God, go I”
and I’ll tell you why. I am a sleepwalker and for a short moment every night (of my entire life), I live in a reality constructed with images from my deepest fears. It’s terrifying when for a few minutes, I literally don’t know what is real and what is fake. For that reason, I am a tee-totaller. No drink, no drugs. Take a risk with the “other side”? No thanks! Fortunately, for now, I have that kind of control.
For now, I continue to wake up from the night terrors. Sometimes I find myself in another room, sometimes I am embarrassed because I have interacted with someone while in an altered state of my reality. It’s a way of life for me and I am grateful to God every day for waking me up and giving me one more day to live a “normal” life. Every day is a gift.
But to truly have a mental illness that requires drugs to stay in the here-and-now, is terrifying to me. I live a few minutes of sheer madness each night, but I get to wake up, for now.
BTW: sleepwalking is misunderstood. I cope with it and have learned to bite my tongue when others mischaracterize it. Those of you who are true sleepwalkers know what I’m talking about.
But for the grace of God go I. Everyone who lives with or supports someone with a mental illness deserves a prayer.
kdot
Your point is very valid and I completely agree that must be taken into account. On the other hand, I am a licensed Psychiatric Technician and work as a medication nurse for many years.
OOOPS! I posted before I finished my point, which is as a Psych Tech I saw how these medications effected people. I also witnessed the ‘flavor of the month’ syndrone as different drugs burst on the scene; the latest greatest every time. Thing is, once folks had taken them for a while it was quite apparent the cure was worse than the disease.
Well then let me introduce myself I have been on an SSRI for about 15 years. Life before that had very little joy. I also prayed and read my Bible and went to church, I had a loving spouse, great friends and supportive parents. But I couldn’t shake the worry and obsessive thoughts that kept me miserable.These drugs do help many people. Many people in the church community have told me that I just need to trust G-d more.When my mother told me about some of my early problems with depression, in grade school, I realized that faith wasn’t the issue, chemistry was the problem. BTW after all the years, I am still on the lowest dose of my medication, Luvox.
I agree, such stories are based on anecdote, and many details are missing.
In this case, what I notice is that the young man got much better once he was in a controlled environment. This is the case with many mentally ill people - they seem quite ok when institutionalised, detoxed, and relieved of ordinary life pressures.
But what happens when he is back in the community? Do the old problems start coming back. Reading that story, I had some concerns about that.
We need to do more for the mentally ill, and we do need places where they can live protected and sheltered lives.
I just looked at the website for Paxil. They are warning about Serotonin reactions now. I didn't check to see if they warned about the male bladder blockage reaction though. My doctor who wrote prescribed it never heard of it but the ER sure had. LOL.. I bet he didn't the poor man would be scared to go back after that nightmare. That is another potentially fatal reaction and you can be in serious trouble before you realize it. Dysreflexia can kill. Doctor and Patient Education on the medications is the key to good results and lack of it tragic results. Big Pharm was very slow in releasing known or suspect side effects.
The bottom line is, that psych medications can often help and often hurt. The huge problem of inappropriate medication has three components:
1) arrogant doctors who can’t imagine that their diagnosis or prescription could possibly be wrong, or that patients differ from each other in their responses to medication,
2) incompetent doctors who are not aware of all the side effects associated with medicines they prescribe, and
3) corrupt doctors who make their decisions based on what kicks them back the most money rather than what is best for the patient.
My wife and I are MIT grads with lots of knowledge about biology, whose family and friends include lots of doctors, and our family still receives suboptimal medical care sometimes, though we’ve been able to avoid horrors like this article describes by paying very close attention to the effects of medications.
I'm so proud of him.
My mom had these same symptoms along with weight loss. The drs insisted it was depression and tried to give her Paxil. (she argued and wouldn't cooperate)
Turned out she had Grave's Disease.
Yeah, but you are some kind of anti-psychology Scientologist whacko who posts this crap on every thread like this.
“I just had a virus, needed some rest, relaxation and some anti-biotics”
Antibiotics are worthless against a virus.
Maybe doc #2 was also one of the lazy, bribed, drug pushers everyone says they are
Look into Seraquel (sic) in your research.
Helps with hypomania and allows normal sleep and doing tasks in order.
My son has severe Cerebral Palsy and aging health issues unfortunately around his 21st birthday he stopped sleeping.
Seraquel has had no side effect other than drowsiness the first hour after he takes it in the morning and his pm dose gives him a good night sleep.
It IMO depends on each individual and how they react to pharms.
Give my quad son morhpine or demoral and his heart rate soars and he goes into a panic attack because he can’t feel himself breathing.
No antihistamines for either of us.
Some meds are a last resort to pain management or chemical imbalances.
Everyone goes through mental issues do to life and most allow for time and understanding of what is stressing them to resolve things.
But some with severe symtoms due to disabilities may do well on meds it is like keeping do you want comfort to contractions/pain ect to a lifelong disablity or the relentless pain and mental anguish from a broken brain/body.
I have had doc get tempermental because I have refused surgery or medication but if I or my son can be comfortable and tolerate a certain level of pain then we would rather live without meds that have unknown long term effects on liver,pancreas ect.
Son just started taking Reglan after decades of not and I mentioned to the doc oh good oh reglan which he replied yeah it has always worked and the four other meds that came out after it have been taken off the market.
He joked about what he recommends for bowel cleansing that the drug companies can’t TM it.....milk and molasses warmed together given as an enema....works wonders.
Got know if you have a Pharm pushing doc or a conservative healing doc I guess helps too.
Doctors remember?
They “practice” medicine.
Exactly.
Baclofen worked great for one who is the same diagnosis as my quad son but it did nothing for KV.
But the compamy pushing it while he was in the hospital had to be told to back off.
Also the Vest which is used for cystic fibrosis is being pushed for all kinds of lung issues it just is not the answer. We tried it for 30 days free trial and all they focused on was the 15 grand for us to puchase it.
Liqued mucinex works so much better and it cost 5bucks a bottle except it has the sweetner in it that china has been putting the poison version in childrens meds so I have laid off that untill it is proven safe.
I always even though more spendy go with non generic meds.
Mucinex liqued had a recall in April but the claim was due to a mis labling on the measuring cap.
Which I don’t use as I measure out in cc’s for the g tube not teaspoon/tablespoon.
Can’t see the dang markings on those lil cups that come with the meds anyway.
You and I are in the same mode and that means we have to sometimes advocate untill we are exhausted to get care for our disabled loved ones.
I have heard other success with that med for bi/polar or uni polar anti phychotic ect chem imbalances.
Yeah hyprethyrodism sure can make one appear mentally ill.
I take high doses of thyroid since having my thyroid removed and get tested four times a year to rule out to much thyroid before looking at the other chemical imbalance issue.
Yeah and no telephones in the room.
Once I had what was left of a dinner salad bedside and woke up wearing it. LOL
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