Posted by KrissyP on March 9, 2003, at 23:54:22
In reply to Re: The biggest problem ..., posted by kyp on March 9, 2003, at 11:06:04
Janet, Kay Jamison wrote a huge book exhaustive of manic depression symptoms and treatment?-(The Bipolar Child might help you realize you have grown up with this and been showing signs for a long time) REALLY??? I want to get it-sounds awesome. I know the DSMIV is a great tool, but there is so much info out there-it gets tedious.
DITTO DITTO DITTO to this>>"spend some time reading up on your diagnosis and medications you are using daily. Be informed. Don't trust someone else to give you all the information you need to make an informed decision about med. compliance. I have gone off my meds several times KNOWING what I do about them and still did it because I wanted to, ie. feel more manic or less side effects and always return to the lesser of two evils.-That's just what I do and just what I did:-)
Thanks for a great post-R U a doc?
Kristen
==================================================================================================The internet has a ton of information that explains med. reactions and side effects and reasons to take them.
The point being, if you spend all the money and time seeing doctors and buying meds. spend some time reading up on your diagnosis and medications you are using daily.
Be informed. Don't trust someone else to give you all the information you need to make an informed decision about med. compliance. I have gone off my meds. several times KNOWING what I do about them and still did it because I wanted to, ie. feel more manic or less side effects and always return to the lesser of two evils.
Patient compliance is the number one block in a lot of mental illnesses I have observed. But don't quit out of ignorance or because your doctor did not take the time and energy to tell you.
A doctor hears your number one, maybe number two complaint about how you are feeling, if it is depression, he alters the meds. accordingly, if it is sleep, he alters it accordingly. Those two, I feel, are what they look at first since they are the most critical for staying alive. Then they wait to see if there is improvement. They look at drug interactions sometimes if they are on the ball etc.
You, be your most informed source for your health, be it mental or otherwise. How many times are people treated for cancer a day? Yet the ones who get informed are finding out information that sometimes saves their lives because there are so many factors that fit in with our body's health, only we can be the expert on it even though we don't have an M.D. behind our name, we can educate ourselves on the pertinent information and be able to make wise choices concerning patient compliance.
> That's what I think.
> Janet
poster:KrissyP
thread:202380
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030203/msgs/207646.html