tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21050713.post5564421281231191754..comments2023-10-31T11:30:53.528-04:00Comments on Master of Irony: That's over. I'm tiredJust Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01085642883987294862noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21050713.post-92569609278453782011-11-07T21:15:36.294-05:002011-11-07T21:15:36.294-05:00I would be unfair though to not say that medicatio...I would be unfair though to not say that medication lets me be able to succeed in therapy and that therapy is how I'm really doing well. Meds alone would not work for me. But therapy alone wouldn't either. I know my doctors are currently working on "how to reduce Jen's anxiety" part II, and that like part I it probably will include some alteration of anxiety meds to keep me extra calm while learning new ways to manage and then backing off them. Right now I'm not asking, I just know that this is a necessary step.<br /><br />People look at my med list and think I'm overmedicated. In fact when I was admitted the intern immediately took a chunk of my seroquel away without telling me, resulting in frantic 9 pm calls from the nurses to the oncall dr. because you don't mess with a dose that I've been on for years and tell me to sleep. She could not understand why my doctor had me on the meds I was on, which were drastic and on paper look like overmedication. But she was responding to years of knowing me and was trying one last extremely unusual, drastic attempt (combo high dose seroquel and higher dose zyprexa with high dose klonopin given all at once along with some dose of vistaril just in case maybe it would help). Most doctors wouldn't have tried what she did. For a long time I thought she made me worse and was angry, but now I see the rationale was good and she was betting on one of 2 equal options and going with the most likely and treating it aggressively because she knows I need that. 10 or 15 years ago those options wouldn't have existed.<br /><br />I've never figured out overmedicated. I can see it in others. I would have said automatically I was overmedicated on neurontin even though I was on a pretty small dose most of the time d/t my strong reaction initially. But it was a med I had to have to stop what my brain had going on. other times I've seemed overmedicated, mainly back when I was on tons of depakote and tons of antipsychotic and anxiety meds, overmedicated sucked but it worked and any less than I took left me miserable with symptoms.<br /><br />I don't think there's a good solution yet, I just think that more options are ideal and that more options in odd combinations have saved my life. I have plenty of side effects now and normally and mostly I don't care. My BP is being crazy right now and that's not acceptable but other things have to be. I guess I see it as a trade-off; freedom and side effects or intolerably mood swings.Just Mehttp://www.masterofirony.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21050713.post-85176150655081029182011-11-07T21:15:12.044-05:002011-11-07T21:15:12.044-05:00Jean I was hoping you'd post here b/c I knew w...Jean I was hoping you'd post here b/c I knew we're opposites on this. I have belief in this because it has taken new, just off the FDA list drugs to make me be here rather than on long term disability which was expected by my age 4 years ago because I had almost nothing left to try and the ones left were unlikely to work. And then Seroquel kind of worked but still needed so much additional medication and so I begged and pleaded to start XR when it was released, actually before it was released. My dr. did not want me to be her first patient on anything, but I pestered until she agreed and after a week my life changed. With Emsam I did wait until it was out for several years and she had some experience with it, but from the day it was released I knew I'd probably be on it someday. She just told me that she would have been very concerned about me on a regular MAOI because I am so incredibly sensitive to meds but Emsam has also drastically altered my life. For the last 2 years I was on less meds than since I was diagnosed, and at one point was on "minimal meds". Right now I am on quite a bit but it's still down from the hospital discharge and it's what I need. The old meds alone simply didn't do anything for me. Lithium controls my rapid cycling but only when combined with much stronger meds. I'll never be without an antipsychotic. I'll probably never be without an MAOI. But both of those drugs, the ones that made the difference between existing and living, are new. And that's been my trend since diagnosis. I never achieved a therapetuic level of depakote while in the clinical trial with the doctor who brought depakote into bipolar kept trying to get a real level. The decided before taking it away to try the brand new ER version and suddenly I had a level. Depakote was not good for my body. I'm glad to not need it. But it also was very valuable for years.<br /><br />(see part II)Just Mehttp://www.masterofirony.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21050713.post-24752711240871858272011-11-07T20:40:19.600-05:002011-11-07T20:40:19.600-05:00I wish that I shared your optimism about bipolar. ...I wish that I shared your optimism about bipolar. I think that the new drugs are not always better, and I am starting to come to the conclusion that many people with bipolar are overmedicated- and that in the long term, it isn't always helpful. Certainly the recent research on the efficacy of antidepressants is nothing to brag about.Jean Greyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13826037279061710386noreply@blogger.com