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Bear with me, readers. I promise this will be the last installment in this series. Let's review the sequence of events:In March this year, "The Infinite Mind," which has aired on NPR, ran an hour-long show, entitled, Prozac Nation: Revisited. Bill Lichtenstein has produced the award-winning series si...
Well written, as always.
Somebody should mention the fact that even the newer antidepressants take a while to kick in and get to the right level. Anyone who has contenplated suicide knows that even with a major change in our dose, it doesn't get better over night. So, those who say that people are more inclined to suicide, after being prescribed an antidepressant, need to educate themselves. Taking meds. for a mood disorder is not the same as taking a tylenol for a headache. We don't get relief in a short time.
Thanks, m.
Ironically, bad psychiatry probably saved my life. I was suicidality depressed and misdiagnosed with clinical depression and given an antidepressant. But the antidepressant worked almost immediately. Soon, I was feeling great. Then, I was bouncing off walls and seeing things.
Dr Goodwin has been a leading voice in cautioning against prescribing antidepressants to bipolars, precisely because there is a high risk of flipping patients into mania. He has also been a leading voice in urging psychiatrists to take more care in getting the diagnosis right before prescribing antidepressants.
But flipping into mania did bring me out of my depression very fast. I stabilized once taking myself off the antidepressant and getting started on a mood stabilizer.
Unfortunately, there is no safe fast acting prescription medication for bringing a person out of a depression. This should be a high priority in psychiatric research, but I am not sure that anyone is treating the problem seriously.
Suicidal depression is the equivalent of a heart attack. We definitely need something that is safe and doesn't take 4 to 6 weeks to kick in.
So we have to be smart about working with what we've got. Thanks, as always, for adding to the conversation.
YUP, you're right. I'm so Thankful I had/have such a good PDoc. My first antidepressant had a major tranqulizer in it....so I went up, but it had a lid on it.
The greatest Anti-Depressant known to man is a good woman
.. and vice versa.
If we are isolated we can very easily get depressed. We can be isolated when we have people around.
A bad controlling woman for a man is a huge depressing factor.
See: Finding Your North Star .. a book about mixing with the right people.