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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 3 of 3. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Lyrical13 on January 17, 2004, at 7:22:05
Anyone else feel like a guinea pig? I am always so anxious when I try a new med b/c I never know what it is going to do to me. I have had reactions to meds before..have allergies to a couple different kinds... and I am also very senstive to meds. I think my pdoc is very skeptical of this sensitivity...I hate it when docs look at you like you've lost your mind. Just because I'm a psych patient doesn't mean I'm off my rocker...I know my body and have 34 years of experience re: how meds affect me. I often only need pediatric doses of things. I guess this may seem hard to believe because I've maxed out ADs before...but that didn't happen over night. It happened over a 2 year period or more both times. A lower dose worked for a long time and then it eventually quit working, so we pushed it some...worked for a while (several months) and then it quit working again.... so pushed it some more. At that point I was above the max recommended dose so when it pooped out again we switched meds. That doesn't change the fact that a very low dose that for most people wouldn't be therapeutic worked for me for quite a while...
Sorry to get off on my soapbox there but it really ticks me off sometimes. Do these pdocs have any idea how they're messing with our body chemistry? They often seem so nonchalent about the meds and act like we're just crazy to be anxious about meds..I feel like pdocs I've had have brushed me off or minimized my med fears. These are real concerns. I feel like a human guinea pig.....
Posted by sarita0001 on January 17, 2004, at 11:10:13
In reply to new med...feel like a guinea pig, posted by Lyrical13 on January 17, 2004, at 7:22:05
Hi,
Yes I've felt like a guinea pig before! And I remember when I told my pdoc I kept getting gas from lithium he was like "no that doesnt happen from that" and I was like Ok and believed him. I was right because when I lowered the dose it stopped! And then I complained to 3 doctors about lithium side effects and it seems like as long as you're stable they assume the side effects are insignificant compared to the effectiveness. Ughhh. I don't get psychiatry. They base side effects on the majority of side effects people get but they vary so much person to person so when you have one they haven't heard of- they say it's not that or really they don't know what to say.
Sara
Posted by Lyrical13 on January 18, 2004, at 3:28:02
In reply to Re: new med...feel like a guinea pig, posted by sarita0001 on January 17, 2004, at 11:10:13
Yeah..it burns me too. It's bad enough that we already feel bad b/c of our problems and already doubt ourselves...then they are all skeptical and I feel like yelling, "I'm not making this up! I'm not crazy and quit looking at me like that!"
My mom thinks that the majority of pdocs are nutcases themselves (no offense..I don't think of myself as crazy...look at is as a mood disorder caused by messed up chemicals) I have to agree with her. Someone posted something to the effect of "well, well, well, shrink takes own medicine" on psychobabble (pretty sure it was the med one). About a pdoc who went on Effexor I think and how it opened her eyes to the horrific experiences some folks have and made her a much more empathetic doc. I printed it out and am thinking about showing it to my pdoc.
Though I will say, my pdoc agreed with me when I said I felt like a guinea pig. Basically said that I am..it's all trial and error. That he tries to make his best educated guess based on my history and his research of current trends and efficacy but it's always still a gamble. He does seem concerned about negative SEs and tries to inform me of what to expect. But he still looks at me like I'm making things up. Very irritating. I am reading a book right now called "The Antidepressant Survival Guide" It's written by a pdoc who has designed a program to help minimize SEs from ADs and enhance their effectiveness through diet and exercise changes and vitamin and mineral supplementation. It talks about how a lot of folks with depression or similar problems also have other things out of whack with their endocrine system such as thyroid/adrenal/blood sugar issues. I have always thought this but every doc I ask (of all varieties) always says, "There's nothing in the literature about that" Just because no one has published a book (until now) doesn't mean it's not true. I mean think about it...I have endometriosis, this whole brain chemical thing and hypoglycemia. Obviously my whole endocrine system is messed up.
Well..sorry to get off on a tangent there... but thanks for listening to me vent!
This is the end of the thread.
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