trying to stay on stuff

You'll need to see what works for you. SJW didn't have any side effects for me that were troublesome. It did have a sedative effect, most particularly when combined with other herbs with sedative effects. I also used a tea with a little bit of "calming herbs" such as valerian, chamomile, & passionflower. Before starting SJW, I could take the other tea in the middle of the day. On SJW, it would knock me out whenever I tried it. So I had to be careful about that and my timing, but it was actually handy as I was having a terrible time with insomnia too.

Another caution with SJW is that it can decrease the effectiveness of birth control. If that is a concern, it should be kept in mind.

If you weren't bothered by side effects before though, you would probably be fine with SJW.

i guess birth control may be an issue ... but i am not with anyone exclusively at the moment so always use another method as well.

thanks for the info ... guess i need to think about what to do ... the other calming tea sounds awesome too.

((((((((((( DSF ))))))))))))

What would you tell me if I told you I was diabetic and didn't want to take my insulin? It's the same thing. Hon, if you need your medicine, you need to take it. Please do.

Hugs,

Jan

ty for hugs jan ... it just seems more trouble than its worth :/

Yeah, some meds are necessary to fix what's broken. Not all meds have the same risk of side effects. Some are more likely to have side effects than others. And even if ten other people experience side effects, it doesn't mean you will. Again, you can always go off the meds if they give you problems.

Everything is natural. Most pills are made from plants. Chemicals are made from natural things. Even plastic's base components are natural. You can argue that things like plastic may have started out natural and lost their natural qualities in the steps to the finished product, and I'm not telling you how to feel on if there are or aren't unnatural products; I'm just trying to explain that even medication comes from nature.

If you were me Maven

What would you do?

I respond to ADs. I know this. Funny tho ... well usually they work and I stop cos I think I'm fine.

But this time I am getting very emotional even tho my Celexa is working in terms of concentration etc. I do well at work. But I also get crying and angry (as I think I already said).

My doctor is lovely. but going back? seems like I've failed in his treatment plan. I can't let him know that.

Do I try SJW or do I try another doc (cos i don't want to let current one know i suck) or do i quit altogether.

What would you do????

Most people need meds adjustments. That doesn't mean that you have failed. My vote is to keep the same doc, talk to him about what's working and what's not working and what you're thinking about trying, and see what he has to offer you. He won't think that you have failed. Even if you want to switch to SJW, I would suggest talking to your doc about that. Get his advice about it and how best to transition.

You have two options. You can not take medecation and feel aweful or you can take medication and fight your hardest to feel better. No, it is not easy getting on meds. You have to put up with side effects and other risks. But....you must ask yourself, "aren't the side effects better than suffering". Also ask yourself, are you on the right medication. If you don't like the way you feel taking your medicine, TELL your doctor. SPEAK UP. Remember, your paying your doctor your hard earned cash (or your insurance company is) so if you don't feel right on what your taking, try something else. There are so many options out there! Feel better soon.

~Lia

crazymusiclvr@aol.com

If you want to chat about meds, feel free to IM me. I'm on 3 of them!

crazymusiclvr,
You took the words right out of my mouth.
I agree with you 100%.
It just doesn't make sense for one to deny themselve's of treatment, etc. when one doesn't have to . . . makes me think some rather feel miserable.
I went through that "not wanting meds", I learned to go with it,try them, and get off the merry-go-round.
Choice is simple, one can get help, or one can choose to be miserable and whine on about it.
I have learned to appreciate the benefits of meds and therapy. Funny too, cause originally I didn't want to hear about taking any meds.
Just my 2 cents.

This idea just came to me. What if you were taking antibiotics for an infection, and after finishing the antibiotics the infection still wasn't cleared up? Would you be afraid to go back to the doctor and tell him that the treatment didn't work? Would that mean that you had failed somehow? How about if you didn't like the side-effects, or had a reaction that made you uncomfortable?

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Rapunzel said:
This idea just came to me. What if you were taking antibiotics for an infection, and after finishing the antibiotics the infection still wasn't cleared up? Would you be afraid to go back to the doctor and tell him that the treatment didn't work? Would that mean that you had failed somehow? How about if you didn't like the side-effects, or had a reaction that made you uncomfortable?

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i guess it comes back to the old well body i can handle but mind i can't (in terms of things going wrong).

i do try to take echinacea instead of antibiotics ... i don't think i have had antibiotics since i was about 11 (I am 28 now).

de/musiclvr: it's NOT about wanting to be miserable ... just that old psychological barrier that u should be able to control your mind a lot better than you can control any physical ailments.

and having the background in psyc i do it should be easier ... but it seems to make it harder??

i apologise for dragging this thread on ... i guess im only doing it cos ur advice/views are interesting AND i kinda assume i may not be the only person who has these sort of barriers??

just random thoughts.

Sometimes you have to quit thinking and just do! Quit thinking about whether medications for you is a choice or not, and just take them.

If you wish to continue thinking about it though, think on this: when a medicine works it means that it is correcting your body's improper or nonexistent response. Our bodies have natural medicines to keep in balance, imo. When the body quits making something we need, or the body quits being able to use it... then taking a medicine to counteract that just doesn't fall into the "being dependant" upon it term imo.

It's quite common to not wish to rely upon a drug... but all our bodies rely upon drugs... usually we don't notice because the body makes them for us, and we don't need them in pill form. Once the med begins to balance us, then it takes accepting that, and give it time to rebalance the system, and not go off it too soon. Thinking that you will be on a drug forever is black and white thinking... and just not correct.

(((DSF)))))

BTW... sometimes ppl have trouble taking a medicine because it DOES help them... and they think it should make everything workable in life. So they don't take it because they can't handle the pressure of having to straighten out the rest of their life. Just because a medicine works doesn't mean that at all... we often need therapy to help us learn to adjust for the changes in our lives that caused the imbalance in the first place... and it's ok to not have all the answers, just because of the medicine

Medications for me are a really tough subject. I have always had horrible reactions to almost everything I have ever been given. Starting with birth control pills back in 1974, & progressing to horrible reactions to things like benedryl that causes the problems that it is supposed to stop from happening. Then they started me on AD's & couldn't stay on anything more than a few days because of the horrible reactions & side effects. Then I started getting migraines & they ended up being so chronic that they never went away.

From that was where I learned about how to take meds. Initially with my migraines, it was like a roller coaster. Pain, take a med, no pain, pain, take a med, no pain........... Now I am on patches that give a constant dose of the med & I am no longer on the roller coaster. It is costant relief & no breakthrough pain at all. Rather than chasing the pain, it is important to keep it constantly under control. Initially we tried to find psych meds that would do the same thing for me, but could never find anything I could take. Even now, I end up taking the seroquel after an anxiety attack is almost full blown....you would think I would notice it before it gets to that point but no. I am not good at that. I only take that when I need it.

I hate being dependent on meds, but the feeling of not having any migraines is so wonderful that I don't mind staying on that stuff. It's the seroquel that I only want to take when I feel the need. Unfortunately, it takes time for it to kick in, making me have to deal with the anxiety attacks for some time before getting the relief. I think that the Dr's try to prescribe the anti-depressants to act the same way as my migraine meds so that we don't have to go through those horrible roller coaster rides that happen when we aren't consistant with taking our meds. With me, I don't like the way I feel when taking my psych meds, so I don't want to feel that out of it all the time. It's tough to figure out what works best for us based on what our Dr's prescribe. My pdoc gave me the natural meds (DHEA, St John's Wort, etc.....along with light therapy). They did't cause any horrible "out of it" feelings but didn't seem to help either. We are the only ones who can tell if something is working or not. It is great when we have a pdoc/Dr that will listen to what we have to say or how we really feel without trying to force meds on us. My pdoc has even gone to the liquid form of a med in order for me to be able to get a small enough dose so as not to have a horrible side effect but enough to tell if I will have a side effect.

I also think it is easier to stay on stuff when we see it working.....if not, we wonder why we are wasting our time, money, & putting stuff into our bodies that don't work. It is a tough decision to make, but it is our own bodies to decide about.

Debbie

I think it's a good idea to try the meds and give them a real try. If they help you, that's great! Even if you have side effects, you may find they're not as bad as the disease itself. I decided to try dealing with the condition without meds because the side effects were too much for me, but that doesn't mean it's the same for you. It also doesn't mean I won't go back on meds (or on different meds) someday. I am not anti-med; I'm just pro-research. Like I said, you can always go off them (slowly and under a doctor's care!) if the side effects are too much to deal with and the disorder isn't as bad.

The fact that you feel better is because of the meds, so it doesn't make sense to go off of them. That's why doctors make sure to tell their patients to take all of an antibiotic prescription; a lot of people will feel all better and stop, and then they get worse again, because not all of the illness was actually gone.

yea ... all makes sense ... maybe if this time does not work taking nothing i will try them again

meh i dunno

hello again! just read debbie's post and totally agree with it. I crashed terribly (i.e. ended in hosp for ?8 weeks) when I decided the AD I was on was not working and stopped it- of course it must have been doing something up til the 2 weeks prior to hosp when I stopped it. Hope you can sort this one out to your advantage before things become to hard to handle one way or the other.
s

I'm still confused ... logically so many people make sense But it is a small matter of my pride (?) getting in the way and making me think I should be able to cope without taking stuff. I have NEVER been able to shake this mindset.

Being honest here, I don't have a lot of stresses or stressors or anything particularly wrong/bad/sad in my life.

So shouldn't I just be able to cope!!!!

Having a real reason is so much more understandable/palatable ...

That's kind of like having a broken leg and saying to yourself, "I don't need a cast or pain medication. I'll just deal with it." Medication is there to help you.

yes but something happened to cause the injury in the first place

Hi sunflower,

I know what you mean about not wanting to be dependent on the drugs. I have spent almost 20 yrs on antidepressants, anti anxiety and antimania drugs. I repeatedly tried to discontinue them. I always had to go back on them. At other times the antidepressants just quit on me. I have had too much boomeranging now to mess with them without going thru my doctor. He recently added ADD to my diagnosis, gave me Focalin and I am doing great.

Hope this might be helpful

Meta