Dear Bizi, i tried to quote parts of your post to make my post shorter but you are very concise in what you say, and say many important things in here, so i think between piece here and piece there, i might have quoted the whole thing!!!
Thank you for sharing your valuable testimonials and perspectives.
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Originally Posted by bizi
I think it is a valid point to take a look at ourselves.
I have for far too long accepted bipoolar as a label...an excuse for bad behavior....and not take accountability.
I have a brain and have to use it.
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Absolutely! It is just too easy to think, oh, i must be feeling this way, or done this thing "because of my bipolar" and dismiss it. Yet, that happens often i believe; it has certainly happened to me.
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I take meds but I also have therapy which has helped me more than the meds....learning how to cope and deal with the past etc.
Now I take much fewer meds than my pdoc wanted half I would say...I was over medicated.
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I *know* that i have deeeeeeep psychological issues from my personal history. Anyone with these issues would have emotional problems, and they need not be bipolar. Many times i have wondered if, at least in part, my "bipolar sx" were, again "coherent - considering my psychological issues - with an event, or whether they were CHEMICAL. Could be some of both! But I have also wondered whether, if i could grow out of my psychological pain to a sufficient degree, i might actually not need meds... might not even be bipolar. (i'm talking ME now, k?)
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I had to learn to recognise and police myself when I am starting to obcess too much....to do something different to stop the cycle. It is normal for us to get upset and angry or even sad about things that happen...that is called a normal response....grief is not something that we need to medicate to make it go away.
WE have to work thru it...which is hard and takes a long time.
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Yes. when i was first medicated/diagnosed, i grew to be
hypervigilant of "symptoms." if i was just a little bit "too happy" geeez, it might be hypomania. If i had some down days, oh no, i might be headed for depression, doc, should we up the Zoloft? Gradually i learned (i kept a log for several years, to note important events in my log and
consider whether my feelings and behaviour were coherent and proportional to these events, OR if indeed "out of sync" with my life and therefore pathological and warranting medical intervention.
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[My friend was] diagnosed bipolar and put on meds [...] having a multitude of side effects then adding on something else to counter balance that side effect.
at one point she was on 8 meds at once.
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so was i and it sickened me
having to take a fistful of pills. Mine came to include thyroid supplements which, while they helped my mood a great deal, my being given them made my GP (an internist) balk, since my thyroid values had been (albeit marginally) normal. I had no clinical sx of hypothyroidism either. Medicating "subclinical hypothyroidism" was a trend in psychiatry at the time but she was concerned that doing so could ultimately cause my thyroid to shut down. indeed, as time and tests revealed, the supplements only had a temporary effect before we had to increase them and finally the labs showed a dangerously low level of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) (the pituitary decided, well, we have enough t4 in the system, so we only need to give the thyroid a tiny nudge, not the normal push and shove). (this story has no real ending because around then i moved cross-atlantic and tapered myself (yes, unsupervised, off my meds.)
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She has since remarried and went off all of her meds to get pregnant.
Since having the child she went back on an anti depressant alone and is doing well.
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Pregnancy and even planning for it is one example where getting off meds is
almost a must... a difficult decision at best, choosing to:
-- stay on meds because you know you will flip out if you don't - despite the strong teratogenic effects of most of our meds
-- stop meds, risking flipping out and ending up putting the pregnancy and yourself at risk
-- decide not to reproduce
(seems harsh, but some do make this choice)
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I think it is safe to say that keeping our bodies in balance is something that we strive to do.
That includes exercise, nutrition, emotional support, and medications as needed....wholistic approach.
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YES. like i know i should be taking magnesium with a B complex ... but i'm not... magnesium is extremely important to the nervous system - too little makes you - nervous! I have had tics on occasion in the past, and found that just drinking lots of milk (i used to drink hardly nil, and barely any cheese or greens at that time either) it resolved in just a few days. (i drank some normal milk... but that gallon of chocomilk i had ... oh yummmm what a treat, lol!
)
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I agree that not everyone Has to take meds to make it work.
IMO Every single person on the face of the earth can fit into the DSM4 category as it is all subjective....the drug companies would want everyone to have a mental illness....$$$$$
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OH YEAAHHHHH. That is a big time problem especially in psychiatry where there are precious little empirical evaluation tools, but only the supposedly "objective" evaluation of a professional... this "objectiveness" is a bit of a stretch and hardly scientific, being in fact a "subjective" evaluation by another human. the extent of the objectivity is having a perspective that is outside that of the patient's own, which, when we are messed up, is in fact useful. But it does not hurt to be mindful of the professional's own subjectivity, and this lack of empirical evaluation tools.
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I will get off my little rant.
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rant? what rant?! you shared your thoughts and learning experience, is all. that's how i see it.
And I want to thank you for bringing up all of these issues, Bizi. There is a lot of controversy and thus emotional "heat" over these things, but they are important, and sharing our views can only be helpful to all of us.
I mean, ultimately, we are each our own boss, and can take what is useful and leave the rest.
Let us all remember this.
((( bizi )))
~ waves ~
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