[Calypso1980]

Hi guys and gals!

The new meds my doctor has me on for my depression is turning me into a zombie! he's had to turn the dosage up to full to combat the depressive low I was in and even if I turn on an alarm I just can't wake up! So how on earth am I going to get up for classes?!

Stress makes my depression worse i'm finding and the combination of my medical problems worsening and my doing a university degree (Final year) combined meant major clinical depression set in. But the fact that these meds are zombifying me is stressing me even more! I'm seeing a lose/lose situation here. No alarm clock seems to wake me long enough to be able to get out of bed to wake up enough to get active! I just fall right back asleep.

I'm missing appointments and classes all round and don't know what to do! Any advice?

[Rohag]

Let your prescribing doctor know ASAP how the drug and dosage are negatively affecting you. Becoming a zombie is not an effective way of dealing with depression.

Also, on the academic front, your program/school should have some sort of resource person who deals with these kinds of problems. You might start asking for the person in the administration who deals with students with disabilities ("disabled student services coordinator" or similar?).

[RJ78]

Hey Calypso,

I agree with Rohag, call your physician ASAP about the symptoms, they sound quite difficult, beyond what is an acceptable side effect. I'm a professor at a university and I assure you that we get regular requests from the office of student health re: students with mental illnesses and accommodation. I usually just give students extra time to complete assignments or whatever accommodation we can work out to ensure student success.

RJ

[Calypso1980]

Hiyas Rohag and RJ78,

Thanks for the advice, I've an appointment with my doctor on Friday and I've talked with my professor at university. I already have a Personal Learning Support Plan from the disability support services that allows for extensions and caters for my issues, so we've decided that while I'm going through all this to simply extend my deadlines as far as possible for everything still due in and still allow me to graduate with my classmates. So I can work on my assignments and my dissertation at my own pace in so far as the new deadline allows me, without the added stress of having a fixed, near deadline.

Now I just need to work on finding a balance between the meds, my uni work, my depression and my pain! Good lord when I think big, I think big! I should never have started this course when I did. I wasn't ready. But I thought...If you don't do it now you'll never do it! So I found a small university that had a good reputation for caring about its students, and they really do!

Let you know how it goes at the docs on Friday! I just wish if they were going to turn me into a zombie they could at least make the pain go away while they were doing it! But at least while the pills work I don't care about it, it's the in between that hurts so much!

Much Love to everyone
Calypso.

[Calypso1980]

Well I'm still on all the tablets but the side effects have worn off as my body has gotten used to them! So that's good! As I'm eye deep and sinking in my dissertation experiment right now.

I'm kind of wanting that zombie feeling back now though! 40 hours of interminable data collection through experimentation! Kill me now! What nincompoop does a degree when she's as medically unsound as I am!? I must be insane! Got to be! LOL It's the only reasonable answer and solution to the question! LOL.

Okay so maybe these new meds are working quite good as you can see! I'm actually quite chirpy and bright lately even with all the pain! Tired all the time, but it's a price i'm willing to pay for now just to stop that gnawing pain in my heart and head that say's life isn't worth all this agony, and just be able to be my unusual and crazy self every now and then even through the pain of my medical condition! It's fun crutch racing around Uni! not so fun when you fall over because your going to fast! :P

Peace
Out!