Posted by Tomatheus on July 24, 2013, at 15:17:00
In reply to Re: Doing a fair bit better, posted by Lamdage22 on July 24, 2013, at 14:19:24
> Thomateus,
>
> i didnt ask them. Once again i was afraid to overwhelm them or hurt their feelings.. Though i think this is more of a pride and having to be right issue.
>
> I will defenitely ask tomorrow if they wanna raise it at all and if not, then WHY THE F*CK not. Then i will ask for 25 mgs.
>
> Then i will tell them to stop the damn "dont be too active" and that i need them to go through the things i want to do with me... so i can go ahead and pick up that piece of sh*t of life and turn it into something worth living.
>
> I have been such a zombie, i guess i was an easier patient in a way when i was staying in bed all day and nodding and agreeing to every word they say. They love that.
>
> Then i want to tell them that i have so many urgent problems, that i dont even want to tell them to not overwhelm them. I will tell them about the other diagnoses i have (signature) and i tell them how much my weight distresses me. (overwheight due to Seroquel)
>
> I have been working out like a maniac in my teenage years and early twenties. And i didnt do that too walk around with embarassing belly fat.
>
> I will leave them alone with the nightmaires, because i think at that point they would just leave the room and declare me crazy.
>
>
> What do you think?Lamdage,
I can relate to what you wrote about the doctors and the staff in your hospital presumably perceiving you to be a easier patient when you feel like a zombie of sorts and end up spending a lot of your time in bed and questioning little of what the hospital staff tells you. I know that during one of my hospitalizations, my Abilify dose had been raised to 10 mg for about a week, and the way I was feeling was so unbearable that I couldn't even stand to wait in line for my medication. I decided to only take half of my Abilify dose at that point (I was being given it twice a day, which allowed me to refuse my morning dose and still take my evening dose), and one of the staff members questioned my decision because to him, I seemed to be doing "so much better" on the higher dose of Abilify. I do think that there can be a tendency among some hospital doctors and staff members to see patients who engage in few activities and spend a lot of time in bed as being the patients who are doing the best, but I of course don't see functioning at such a level to be good from a mental health standpoint. Engaging in few activities and spending a lot of time in bed aren't things that lead to success in the real world, and I don't think that such behavioral outcomes should be seen as successful outcomes in the hospital, either. But for better or for worse, the goal of hospitalization usually seems to be "stabilization," which involves controlling behaviors that are disruptive and potentially dangerous. Depression only seems to be a major concern to hospital personnel if the patients are making suicidal gestures, and even though feeling really fatigued and/or sleeping a lot could be very problematic and be a major source of functional impairment outside the hospital, these problems aren't thought to interfere so much with mental stability from the perspective of a lot of hospital personnel.
Having said what I've said here, my recommendation would still be to strive to strike a balance between being an active patient (both in your treatment and in general) and respecting where the doctors and other staff members of your hospital are coming from in what they tell you. While I think it's important, on one hand, to do what's best for your mental health, you don't want to compromise your relationships with your doctors and the other staff members in your hospital so much that these individuals might make your daily life in the hospital a lot more difficult. Doctors and other hospital staff members have a lot of power, sometimes too much, if you ask me. Straining your relationship with these individuals too much is definitely not in your best interests, and it will probably interfere with getting what you want out of your hospitalization. So, again, I think that achieving a balance between being an active patient and not being too disrespectful or difficult is something that I would encourage.
T.
Conditions:
* chronic fatigue, hypersomnia, and related symptoms
* schizoaffective disordertomatheus.blogspot.com
poster:Tomatheus
thread:1047402
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130706/msgs/1047759.html