Psychiatry saved my life

There are a few anti-psychiatry and anti-meds threads here now. I imagine it is quite frightening to folks who are newer (either here or to the diagnosis). I wanted to present the flip side of the coin by sharing my own experience. I invite others to do the same.

I respectfully ask that people who have strong negative feelings about their interactions with psychiatry post about them in other threads. I want the tone here to be positive. I don't deny your experiences and I'm not suggesting that your strategies aren't working for you. I'm simply asking that this thread remain a safe place for people to share how psychiatry has helped them.

I have no doubt that without the proper meds I would not have the good things in my life that I have now. I was almost kicked out of my doctoral program (nearly at the end) due to a severe depressive episode that lasted about 3 years. Depression was preventing me from being functional. I could not concentrate or make progress on anything. I could not enjoy anything. I was in therapy twice a week and had an amazing support system. It wasn't enough. I tried so many different meds and became very frustrated. Finally my pdoc suggested Abilify. I was reluctant because of the antipsychotic label (I was not psychotic). I eventually tried it because I was desperate. I came back to life! I was myself again. I was able to complete my program and get my degree. I found a decent job.

I last December I attempted to stop meds. It was a disaster. It reminded me how bad things were before. Do I love taking meds? No. But it is a worthwhile trade-off for me. I am thankful that I found a treatment that works and I appreciate all the helpful and compassionate pdoc's who helped me find my way back to health.

Best,
EJ

PC gave me life and became the real turning point in my recovery. I wasn't aggressive about my mental well being until I found this website.

If you cold turkey medication, you will get a withdrawal. I used to do this every few months and would always become semi-delusional and also experienced drug psychosis from it. I experienced full-fledged delusions (believing I was pregnant), believing I was in the presence of God and would experience negative thoughts/violent hallucinations. All of these have gone away since I've become adherent to my medication plan. I haven't missed a dose in 6-8 months and haven't experienced any of the above symptoms since.

I take medication because I have emotional-regulation issues. I need something to damper my emotions so that I can function. I don't experience hereditary depression or much of hypomania. Mine is more of an everyday-regulation. I get overstimulated so the lithium dampers it. I also have some behavioral problems.

When I was diagnosed, I believe I was mismanaged. I took depakote for a year and experienced brain-fog. My doctor didn't know anything about bipolar disorder and it wasn't until my next doctor that I was taken off.

I am happy now. I know that psychiatry had its place in my recovery. I had an amazing therapist for 6ish months and a super supportive boyfriend/parents. I think their love and belief for me helped me more than psychiatry. I think that psychiatry gave me the ability to use the tools they were giving me.

It took me 6(!) years to arrive at the ideal medication cocktail, but I have arrived, at last. Completely stable, asymptomatic and without bad side effects. Almost everything I take I asked for myself (Geodon, Lithium, Amitriptyline, and soon to arrive in the mail, Topomax). My former p-doc brilliantly prescribed Prozac which saved the day very quickly and continues to kick ***. She is an Indian lady and I will send her a Diwali card tomorrow thanking her for Prozac because it works amazingly well without side effects (I take only 10mg which is probably why I do not experience side effects). So Prozac is the single medication that was prescribed to me without my first asking for it - in fact, I did not believe in Prozac at all when it was prescribed.

I do believe that there is kindling effect and have an untestable theory that had I been diagnosed in my 20s, Lithium alone would have sufficed against mania - I would not have needed an AP. But since Geodon causes no side effects now, I am OK taking it.

It could have taken me less that 6 years to arrive at where I am now. Had I done my homework thoroughly in 2006, I would have asked for Lithium in 2006, right after the dx. That step would have saved me $$$ and prevented weight gain! I only asked for Lithium in 2009. So the road could have been shorter with more due diligence on my end.

P-docs in my initial years of treatment were terrible, but the ones I have had in the past year have all been good.

I have never had any success with therapy. All the money spent on therapists was wasted money. But psychiatry really works well for me.

I have had good experiences with a pdoc. He was a pretty great person, in the office and outside of the office. I was and am greatful that I got him as a dr.

He had a similar background to mine, we were both street youths. He helped me with stuff beyond Bipolar too. He treated me with dignity and respect. He worked with me not above me. He paid for my childcare so I could do outpatient. He sent me to his wife's naturopath when my dr's could not after years find the cause of physical illness. He helped me secure a volunteer job with his friend. And the thing is, I was a very proud person, accepting his help was very hard for me. He introduced me to mindfulness. He talked to me about life stuff all the time, my appointments were not timed. He made time for you any time. He made a point to get to know you personally.

Someone helped him once..to get his education, and all they asked him in return was to help others when he was able to. He retired, but I am sure he helped many many people. He was caring, empathetic, and he could also relate to his patients, he had his own struggles.

And although I do not want the meds any longer, and I have some bad experiences, this Pdoc was not one of them. He was a pivotal person for me. I feel lucky that he was my first pdoc, and that I got to see him for many years. My story might be a bit different than others, the meds did not help me, and that is me. Someone in psychiatry did help save my life. He made sure I got lots of tools, therapy, he helped shape my perspective, these things have changed my life.

Ad Infinitum

This living, this living, this living..was always a project of mine

I'm not stable but I wanted to write it.

With out my current pdoc I'd be:

• hospitalized (more then once) - He trust me and my husband to know when I need help
• homeless - Before our current doctors we stayed in one residence for more than 3 months. We're currently have lived in the same residence for 3 yrs.
• divorced - My husband couldn't handle me much longer, and I think about divorce when to low or to angry. Also our relationship became very unbalanced.
• Broke- He has helped us find many services that we needed