Posted by fachad on July 22, 2002, at 14:48:22
In reply to Re: Can't take any meds, what now? » fachad, posted by rjk on July 22, 2002, at 13:04:03
Your problem is definitely very challenging. It is what I call "somatic depression". You won't find that in DSM, I made it up to explain to my pdoc what was wrong. I use that term to mean suffering that feels similar to depression, but in is experienced as bodily malaise rather than emotional sadness.
There are several ways you could choose to pursue relief from your symptoms.
The most conservative approach would be to continue to live a healthy lifestyle and hope that with time, your body will reestablish equilibrium.
You could supplement that approach by trying various things like vitamins, minerals, fish oil etc. You could try to find an "alternative" medical practitioner to treat your condition. There is risk of being taken by quacks, but there is also a possible reward of being really helped in a way you would never have found on your own.
A much more aggressive approach would be to try to find a competent psychopharmacologist to help you. You say that you cannot tolerate ANY medications. I don't mean to be pedantic, but I'd bet there are some you have not tried.
Maybe your nervous systems needs to be numbed to help it recover. Pain can establish a feedback loop that makes it worse and prevents recovery. Has your doctor tried benzodiazepines like Valium or Ativan? They may "cool" your nerves and allow them to return to normal. You might even be helped by narcotic analgesics like oxycodine (Percocet) or hydrocodone (Vicodin), although that would be a difficult sell to a physician. Or maybe you just require very small doses of conventional ADs. The point is that there may still be some way for you to be helped by medication. I understand that you've had severe adverse reactions to several medications, but that does not mean you will have bad reactions to all medications.
It really sounds like your situation is similar to people who have environmental allergies - severe reactions to minute quantities of toxic chemicals that most people can just ignore. Your best bet might be to try to find a physician, conventional or alternative, that specializes in treating environmental allergies and see if they could help you.
If nothing else, this gives you a few options to try. There are always options.
> Thanks for the advice. I agree with all that you have said, however there is nothing that is particularly troubling me and I do already lead a fairly healthy lifestyle. My problem relates to the fact that A/Ds have left my brain so sensitive that if I so much as eat spicy food I will spend the next day crying my eyes out. Excercise makes me feel worse, rather than better and taking a paracetamol makes me feel extremely depressed. I obviously avoid all the things that do make me feel worse, but I still feel absolutely awful most of the time.
poster:fachad
thread:113254
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/113283.html