[circles5]

Hi.
For several years every single psychiatrist ive seen has been clamouring to prescribe me anti-psychotics.
I was actually prescribed olanzapine once... tried it; it helped massivley but i wouldn't take it more than once for fear of side effects.

Now all these psychiatrists wanted to prescribe me anti-psychotics for my anxiety issues.. as theyre on the severe side, especially my bdd.
So now.... as of the last month i have 3 new diagnosis. 3 personaloty disorders. The most prevalent being avoidant personality disorder.

So now.... ive been coming to terms with the knowledge i will never recover (i havent shared this feeling with them) and as a result ive decided id finally take them up on their offer of antipsychotic meds as my life is hanging in the balance while im this unwell... im suicidal.. depressed... housebound. . relapsed with my anxiety disorders majorly - its all gone horribly wrong lately.
But now. Suddenly. Theyve changed their minds. They wont give me an antipsychotic...

I dont have psychosis... never have but that isn't what ive in the past been told i need it for.

Is there something about personality disorders that doctors refuse to prescribe meds for? But what about my comorbid anxiety disorders??

Im stunned after all these years of doctors throwing every pill in the book at me. Now i have a new diagnosis and finally agree to take some meds; they now dont want to give them.
Im in crisis currently and they wont even give me a med review for 2 months!!!
Bizzare. And troubling.

[peacelizard]

Originally Posted by circles5

Hi.
For several years every single psychiatrist ive seen has been clamouring to prescribe me anti-psychotics.
I was actually prescribed olanzapine once... tried it; it helped massivley but i wouldn't take it more than once for fear of side effects.

Now all these psychiatrists wanted to prescribe me anti-psychotics for my anxiety issues.. as theyre on the severe side, especially my bdd.
So now.... as of the last month i have 3 new diagnosis. 3 personaloty disorders. The most prevalent being avoidant personality disorder.

So now.... ive been coming to terms with the knowledge i will never recover (i havent shared this feeling with them) and as a result ive decided id finally take them up on their offer of antipsychotic meds as my life is hanging in the balance while im this unwell... im suicidal.. depressed... housebound. . relapsed with my anxiety disorders majorly - its all gone horribly wrong lately.
But now. Suddenly. Theyve changed their minds. They wont give me an antipsychotic...

I dont have psychosis... never have but that isn't what ive in the past been told i need it for.

Is there something about personality disorders that doctors refuse to prescribe meds for? But what about my comorbid anxiety disorders??

Im stunned after all these years of doctors throwing every pill in the book at me. Now i have a new diagnosis and finally agree to take some meds; they now dont want to give them.
Im in crisis currently and they wont even give me a med review for 2 months!!!
Bizzare. And troubling.

With most personality disorders, the most effective treatment, if any, is therapy, not medication. That being said, most people who struggle with a personality disorder usually don't have that and that alone, much like most other mental illnesses. They can have more than one Axis I disorder, i.e. depression, anxiety, bipolar, ocd, etc. or have waxing and waning symptoms of depression/anxiety related to difficulties with the personality disorder. So, those things can be treated with therapy as well as medication.

As far as why doctors don't want to prescribe you an antipsychotic, my guess would be a combination of it not being a first-line treatment for things like depression/anxiety and the most common side effects being counterproductive to at least one of your diagnoses (significant weight gain/metabolic syndrome and bdd)

[doogie]

I suffer from PTSD and major depression. I have never been psychotic, but my psychiatrist has used several different anti-psychotic drugs in the past in combo with antidepressants to treat my depression and anxiety.

[TicTacGo]

Is there some kind of reason why an antidepressant cannot be prescribed? They are typically the first line treatment for anxiety disorders and depression.

A doctor may go for an antipsychotic if there is a mood component such as high risk of a manic episode. Certain antipsychotics have antidepressant and anxiolytic properties, the notable one being Seroquel and Risperdal or Zyprexa not being too far off.

[SparkySmart]

^^^agree with peacelizard^^^

Originally Posted by circles5

So now.... ive been coming to terms with the knowledge i will never recover..."

There's no need for you to be pessimistic! Over the last 20 years, a great deal of headway has been made with personality disorders, with a high rate of success. Not only has therapy (with someone skilled) proven to be effective, the severity of symptoms in many people seems to decline naturally with age.

But I'm sorry you're suffering, and I hope you get relief soon. Dealing with MI is exhausting.

[Travelinglady]

Antipsychotics don't help personality disorders, plus they have the potential for terrible side effects. Perhaps an anti-anxiety drug could help. But as has been said, therapy is the way to go. Best wishes and I'm glad you really want all the treatment you can get!

[*Laurie*]

I can understand wanting an AP. You want to feel better, of course. But here's the thing...AP's truly do have major side effects. Weight gain, tremor, extreme fatigue, and some even claim that AP's can cause permanent brain damage in certain ways. So if you don't really need an AP, I think that it's great not to be on one. I don't have psychotic symptoms and I wish I could go back to the very first day an AP was prescribed to me, because I'd say no way.

[Deejay14]

Originally Posted by *Laurie*

I can understand wanting an AP. You want to feel better, of course. But here's the thing...AP's truly do have major side effects. Weight gain, tremor, extreme fatigue, and some even claim that AP's can cause permanent brain damage in certain ways. So if you don't really need an AP, I think that it's great not to be on one. I don't have psychotic symptoms and I wish I could go back to the very first day an AP was prescribed to me, because I'd say no way.

I hope you are saying NO now, Laurie. I have to say my doc has never prescribed a med I did not feel good about taking. I truly have a collaborative relationship with my doc.

[*Laurie*]

Originally Posted by Deejay14

I hope you are saying NO now, Laurie. I have to say my doc has never prescribed a med I did not feel good about taking. I truly have a collaborative relationship with my doc.

Actually, I am saying no to AP's now. It's outrageous to take Ap's as sleep medication. I was not always so assertive, and I trusted pdocs much more in the past than I do now. I've seen at least 30 pdocs in my life, so there's a lot of history there.

[still_crazy]

i dunno. i was diagnosed with a -severe- personality disorder at age 20 and didn't want to take psych drugs...

now, my for realsies diagnosis is bipolar i. oh, and my iq estimate is higher now, somehow. so...

a) psychiatry is -not- scientific b) people can change, even w/o therapy c) avoid tranquilizers/neuroleptic/"antipsychotics" -if- you can. the brain changes, sometimes straight up brain damage, is real. the 'atypicals' aren't usually as terrible as the old school, massive doses of old tranquilizers, but...they're harsh drugs, old and new, at any dose.

[Blueberrybook]

A good pdoc prescribes meds that will help in your situation. You shouldn't want to be given an anti-psychotic because whatever you're on right now isn't working. An AP isn't going to help either if it isn't effective for what it's prescribed. Lots of people (I'd say the majority, in fact) tend to experience weight gain on APs, sometimes quite a lot of weight gain. I am lucky in that I have not gained weight on Seroquel, but I my experience is not at all typical. The exact opposite in fact. I'm happy with the Seroquel; for me, if I were gaining weight because of a med, I wouldn't take it because of my past with eating disorders and I tell every pdoc that. I am lucky with the Seroquel; it does help me quite a lot with sleep, but a lot of people experience all-day fatigue on it. I had to stop taking Seroquel XR because literally, I would sleep as much as I could all day, every day. I was exhausted on it.

I, too, have noticed issues with my memory. Whether it's the Seroquel or the cocktail, I can't say. Sometimes I have to say or write a sentence in a roundabout way because the word I want won't come to me. When I'm typing, sometimes I have to use a homonym for a word because I can't think how to spell the word I really want to use, and it's a big pain to go to an online thesaurus on a cell phone. Earlier today, I struggled for awhile typing an email because I couldn't remember how to spell the word "such".

Now, I graduated valedictorian of my high school class, university
summa cum laude with only one "B" with a B.S. in Microbiology. My university grades were higher than a lot of students applying to med school. Eventually, I got an M.S. in Cell & Molecular Biology, publishing several scientific articles, one of them a first author article in a major journal in the field of microbiology (did my grad school work on protein transport in gram-negative bacteria like E. coli). I was always a voracious reader, and I think that resulted in my becoming an excellent speller, and here I am, and it probably took me 3 minutes today to figure out how to spell "such". These little memory blips always come & go; you can't predict them, and rarely is it ever the same thing twice.

[Jazz1971]

Medications are not prescribed to specifically treat Personality disorders but rather symptoms. Its possible a doctor might prescribe it for severe irritability and/or aggression if those are some of your symptoms and an SSRI is not enough. They aren't usually prescribed for depression since SSRIs or any of the other AD's out there are usually more effective. Antipsychotics have serious side effects like weight gain, elevated triglycerides and blood sugar so more doctors are trying to avoid prescribing them if psychosis is not present.

[Fuzzybear]

Omg..... unbelievable. UK. I’m sorry.

I haven’t had that issue of being refused meds. (I’m allergic to most of them though )

Their changing their minds when you think meds would help....

I have no answers

I hope things improve for you ... grrrrrrr at that refractory shrink

[still_crazy]

I read that things are changing in the UK mental health system. Actually, the UK is producing a lot of good research on mental health, drug use, psychological and social approaches to mental illness, etc.

I don't know. On the plus side, you don't have to deal with the downsides of a tranquilizer. here where i live, they have these things..."court orders..." where people have to show up at a community mental health clinic to receive a long acting injection (depot) antipsychotic, or something happens. I don't know if its jail or they get put back in the hospital, but bad stuff can happen.

to me...that's a huge power trip. im not on one, because I have my "good family" behind me. That's the other thing...they say its about "effective treatment," but if you have money or, like me, the people behind you have money...they don't bother putting you on one. Can't complain, personally, but...it really saddens me, and it doesn't seem like its "treatment" so much as intense social control.

[metamorphosis12]

Didn't read any of the posts but my pdoc would always give me samples of the newest antipsychotic. I have severe Anxiety coupled with bouts of depression. So why? I think the reps come around and sell the newest AAP to the docs, via samples. It is pharma trying to make money and the pdocs often follow the gravy train. Everytime I tried a sample I knew this was not going to help what I was daignosed with and I would see him agian and he wouldn't even bring that sample pack he just gave me. I have a box ful of Abilify and others that I only used 1-3 time. I swear I think I could sue him but I am not into going down that rabbit hole. Literally they kept sending me Abilify until I stopped it and there are so many other samples he would basically throw at me. Sorry for not reading the whole thread I am a bit impatient right now. So, I apologize if I was of track Peace! Let me also add if you think s/he may not be the right fit for you .Please look around. There are some pdocs that actually have free consultations. Remember your the patient and you are paying the doctor to help you get better, basically. They are paid to listen to you and help you feel/relieve whatever issues you have.