Depression with PCS
 

Well after all this time ( and it is exactly 6 and half years today) I have lost my self control and am what you might call tearful - like constantly. I seem to be kind of ok until I see somebody I know - managed to get the groceries without crying, even had a pedicure without crying. Groan!!!!!!

The trigger was or maybe the last straw was - a client fired me!! (And it was not beause of my work - it was my employers charge out rate) So I burst into tears (not in front of him as it happenned on the telephone - thank goodness) - ugh - no self control - I have lost that totally - and it is horrible - went home cried more - and more and here it is 4 days later. Never before in my life has this been - compared to what I was like just after Christmas this is 100 times worse.

The doctor is going to change my pills when I go back to see him this afternoon. It is weird as I can still see things that are funny and say funny things.

So now there is discussion about me not working any more - my boss has said that I can have a years holiday if I want - underneath it all I know that it will not fix me.

Is there anybody else that has been like this?

Lynlee

Lucy, I am having a terrible time of crying. Not necessarily daily ,yet still, lots of tears for different reasons. I am in a good bit of pain in my t-spine and chest...can't even drawa big breath, so pain is not helping. The PCS alone causes me to have a bad temper and more and more meltdowns.The worst part is the constant confussion and the dumb things I do. My neuro says there is nothing to change the pcs so I try to just hold on the best I can.
I pray you want have to quit your job. Hope you will be able to hang on. Hugs and blessings, Gaye

Lynlee,
I am sorry you are having such a hard time. Three things might be going on, you might be feeling alot of frustration about all your efforts and not getting the results you would like for your efforts, you might be having some delayed emotions about your injury that you never dealt with before and a third thing might be endocrine. You mentioned you are around 54 I think, and the ups and downs of your endocrine system (hormones) I am sure do not help. The natural thing to do is to allow your grieve and hope that this may make you feel better. It is O.K. to have down times, sometimes they help you climb back up and see things differently. I hope you can feel better soon.
Nancy

Efexor-xr
 

Hi, my GP has prescribed Efexor - said that another head injury patient with depression had found them wonderful. Thinks it would be a good idea that I tried them. In NZ you can only take them under subsidy if you have tried others which have failed and by licence from the Health Department.

So of course I have researched this and read about the side effects and am now too scared to take it.

Has anybody taken this and what effects did it have? I am wondering if in my current state of mind that if I am overly concerned - don't think so - don't think I am depressed to that degree.

I have looked up the nasty drug site etc and it sounds like withdrawal from it is absolutely awful. So of course I don't know what to do now!

Any ideas anybody?

Lynlee

I take it.
 

Hi, Here's my experience....

I have been taking Effexor for about 12 years and it works for me. It has help me with depression and I would not want to be on any other drug. It took many, many meds to get my depression under control with Effexor. Not a fun process.

Effexor does has horrible and dangerous withdrawl symptoms. BUT! Only if you go off the medication too fast. I have gone off the medication 2 times and both times it took me around 2 months. I had to very, very slowly decrease my doses. At one point towards the end of the 2 months, I was actually opening the capsules and dividing the little while pills inside. That might have been a bit much but I felt better doing it that way.

The horror stories are people who just stop the medicine or take a week to get off it. Doesn't work. Make sure your doctor knows this.

I have been happy with Effexor for a long time. I also take Trazadone at night now to sleep. For some reason Effexor keeps me awake at night. I got luck (I guess!) with the Trazadone because it's been the only way I've been able to sleep with my headaches from the PCS.

By the way, when I went off Effexor I didn't need the Trazadone. Falling asleep was no problem at all.

Feel free to ask me anything. Depression is awful. Find a doctor you like and trust. Making decisions when your depressed is really, really hard. Best of luck to you.

Thinking of you,
CathyM

Thank you Cathym
 

You wouldn't believe it - but I went back to my GP and told him my concerns so he said well start on 37.5mg tablets. So I went to the chemist and he said that he didn't have any 37.5 tablets in stock and wondered why such a low dose. Then it turns out that his wife has been taking it and we had a long discussion about it. He totally put my mind at ease, said that his wife found them wonderful etc. So ended up with the 75mg tablets (as initially prescribed by my GP) and started that night.

I found that I instantly got a foggy headache, and couldn't sleep that night and the next day was nauseous. I am now about to have my 5th day tablet and the foggy headache is less but I still feel slightly nauseous. The feeling of being close to tears has stopped. I don't mind the nausea as I understand that the tablets can encourage gaining weight - that I don't need!!

Sleeping is going to be a problem - I find that I have either been going to sleep at about 4 am or going to sleep at midnight and waking at 2 am - either doesn't work for me. At least I am not going to work, the GP has said to take 3 months off - what a relief - even though I was only working a 3 hour day. When I go back in 2 weeks I will ask about sleeping tablets.

So overall I am quite happy to persevere. I agree with coming off them very very slowly - you would have to be nuts to try and give up instantly - after all coffee is even hard to give up instantly!!

Thank you so much
Lynlee

During a most revealing discussion with a psychiatrist on the topic of applying psychotropic meds to head-injured people, I learned that it was her experience to prescribe in tiny doses, sometimes as little as one tenth the smallest dose. She had greater success with her more seriously impaired patients.

I also learned during a painful two years that my body does not take kindly to any of the antidepressants, most especially those that mess with serotonin levels.

It's far too easy to tip the balance of brain chemistry in the head-injured population, especially with powerful meds. It's also far too easy to be prescribed the wrong med (in all innocence) based on psych symptoms. Two years of believing the meds a doctor prescribed would make my depression better landed me in a hospital. A more competent doctor growled when he read the history and set me on a better path.

Eh, we are all different and I don't want to come off as alarmist on this topic, yet I firmly believe we head-injured people are best served by a very conservative approach to meds for depression. Good luck to us all.:)

Good Morning Lucy
 

Hi Lynlee, A friend of mine tuned me on to a supplement called 5-HTP an amine acid that helps produce serotonin in the brain and is used to treat depression and fatigue.

I'M going to try this for 30 days and see if there is any improvement. The information looks promising you may want to Google this in for your own research.

It was good to read you're going to take some time off work, TBI/PCS is a full time job believe it or not.

Take Care Jeffn

Waves to Lynlee
 

Hello, my friend.

Seems that we're running down the same path. I was also a teary mess and in a very dark place a few weeks ago. I've just recently started peeking out of the shadows and am very grateful that I can finally see some light.

I'm not sure if it was the second head injury, or whether it was a true realization of how much my life has been affected by the PCS- but I was seriously contemplating the idea that I didn't want to do 'this' anymore.

My neurologist doubled my anti-depressants (celexa) about 2 weeks ago and I think it's starting to make a difference. She also doubled the seroquel because after hitting my head again, it was as if I was taking nothing at all. I was the most active sleeper you'd ever want to see and I kept waking myself up all night long. It was exhausting.

So, now I'm in a better place and I hope the same for you. Please let us know how you are doing.

Lots of hugs to you Lynlee,
Lori

Lori
 

Hi, I have had 2 complete weeks home from work - goodness only knows what I have been doing aside from forcing myself to go for big long walks every morning.

I have been really really tired - I do know that. And I am worrying that I have nothing to show for my time off work!! Will I ever learn - probably not.

I have thought about writing a list of things that I want to do but know that as soon as I put it on paper it will become a "to do" list and immediately I'll feel pressured to do it all.

Am now wondering if I want to or should change careers in some way as I am feeling so much better away from the office even though I thought that I loved what I was doing but probably not a good time to go making that kind of decision at the moment.

I do know that I never ever want to feel so out of control again - never - ugh!!!

Glad that you are on the mend - be careful and be nice to your self - "A" type personalities are not good at that!!

Lynlee