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Originally Posted by DechanDawa
Wondering how long you were on medication, how long you have been off, and which do you prefer. I was unable to withstand the side effects of AD. I am on no medication. I have anxiety and depression. I seem to go from being more anxious, then to more depression. Right now I am more depressed than anxious, and I think I prefer the anxiety.
I have worked really hard at holistic stuff such as diet, sleep hygiene, exercise, meditation etc. It all helps a little but nothing helps a lot.
I wonder if it is the same with medication.
I was on/off benzodiazepines for decades...for anxiety. I feel the benzodiazepine really helped me. The problem is my pdoc won't prescribe them. I was assessed by a psychiatrist who won't prescribe them.
I have not had benzodiazepines (except sparingly for emergencies) in 3 or 4 years. Frankly, I think I functioned better when I had them because I could manage my anxiety.
I feel like everything is getting worse for me, and I don't know if it is the dark before the dawn. What is your experience?
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I've been on one medication or another for some 16 years.
I think for a lot of people, maybe most, medications aren't a magic bullet. There are still breakthrough depression, hypo/mania, anxiety -even when on meds. For me, mood-wise, I'm a lot better. But I feel like I was a lot better before AP's. Unless I'm just seeing the past with rose-colored glasses, I was more myself when I was just on Lamictal and Klonopin. I feel like as soon as I had a manic episode, I got on the AP-train and there's been no getting off. The main one I take -Seroquel- IS a magic pill when it comes to coming down from hypo/mania, but I have no way of knowing if it's truly preventing more episodes or if I wouldn't be having episodes anyway; it's that not-knowing that makes me want to stop it completely sometimes. But pdocs seem to shake in their boots when it comes to preventing hypo/mania and so will want patients to have to deal with any number of side effects in order to do that -or to APPARENTLY do that...
It would really suck for me not having benzo's --I'm sorry your pdoc won't prescribe them. Though I hear that once you're on them, you're kind of stuck because they're so hard to come off of.