Posted by yxibow on March 13, 2008, at 4:55:34
In reply to Re: do meds do anything?? » obsidian, posted by Racer on March 12, 2008, at 12:32:26
Yes, they do -- I can sense the frustration.
One thing that could lead people to believe they don't work is too many changes in a short time -- one never appreciate the effects of a particular medication.
I can say that over my lifetime medications have had more neutral or positive benefits than not. Thats because I know I am from birth hardwired, biologicially susceptible to changes in brain chemistry.
When I was younger and had really bad OCD I fought it on my own and was hospitalized. It actually was only after I was stabilized and went through a program that I took medication, prozac at the time, for it.
Various SSRIs were tried in college for dysthymia, its sort of a blur, though I know Effexor for me was like a box of nodoz, it was intolerable.
I had a rare reaction to rapid discontinuation of Tranxene, a not too normally used benzodiazepine -- to this day, I have muscle contractions and at the time my scalp muscles moved for several weeks before locking. Occasionally when my complex of anxiety conditions change now, it is brought back again. Hence, don't drop benzodiazepines like a brick and don't have a doctor give you half of it back. Its only supposed to be 10% per week at most.
Anyhow, thats a side tangent. I was on Wellbutrin SR some time back and though it might have helped some with depression and definately improve my sex drive, it eventually literally and mentally set my head on fire -- some light redness and a slight loss of hair (coincidence, I dont know), but the OCD ideation at night and inability to sleep led to discontinuation.
Then Nov 17, 2001 rolled along and I have a rare mostly inexplicable somatoform disorder -- though I was very hesitant to try them -- I first went through Luvox, and discovered sleep problems, so I went on Remeron, and strangely enough there was another delta of improvement on my disorder. So I took Remeron way up -- which was good, but the weight gain was incredible. So eventually it was back to Luvox and Seroquel, which had worked to make me feel connected and make the appearance of lights and a constellation of problems better. Unfortunately I dropped it for Zyprexa which well -- I dont want to go there but was a mistake and by then it was Cymbalta, and that was dropped for returning to Luvox possibly. At any rate, there was months of depression, Seroquel starting 3x and dropping like a brick.
Seroquel no longer works for me like it did before although it has improved my "functionality" (I dont really like that technical description), it has not returned me to the person I was a year or several years ago. Still despite very rare unintended effects, I continue to take it and a combination of other medications because I know that I would be back in total confusion and find it extremely difficult to care for myself.
So now its more a Recovery model, and I am in intensive therapy - with the hope that my hopes and dreams can be realized to the extent that is possible. Its hard talking about yourself in the third person, because you want to be the "rest of everyone" outside of you. But for every person that appears "normal", there certainly lies something underneath. A lot of people with serious disorders are able to carry on with their passions, it just takes work.
At the moment I'm discouraged, but I keep trying, with the support I have around me.
So the summary of all this -- not all medications will work. I have been through almost all AEDs and only Neurontin and Lyrica (which had to be discontinued because of vision issues) showed anything. We are still seeing if Lamictal is doing anything for my depression. I don't believe it is doing anything for my other symptoms.
A medication can be considered good if it helps even 30% of the population -- and one has to note that everyone is individual, not just in the brain, but how they metabolize, as we now know there are differences in metabolization among ethnic groups and certain crucial things to watch with the P450 subsystem.
Also, sometimes the placebo effect is just as good -- some people can respond to a medication even if it is no better than Pez. Now, I wouldn't say taking medicated Pez longterm is the best thing to do, but then again, sometimes its hard to tell that something did or didnt work until you remove it. And removing isn't always the best with serious anxiety disorders. So its a sticky wicket.
Anyhow that's my belief in modern medicine. If I could throw the whole bag out the window, I'd gladly do so, but I know the combination therapy, typing here, all aspects of my life would become rather strange because I have had a lot of trauma in the last months. And I am not psychotic at all, I just have a very complicated case (there's the third person again) -- that I wish I could dig out of quicker than it will take.
poster:yxibow
thread:817447
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080303/msgs/817686.html