Posted by catmint on March 29, 2003, at 2:26:46
In reply to Adding, substracting, wishing and hoping, posted by Ponder on March 28, 2003, at 23:44:10
> Hello BarbaraCat, Krissy and others on this thread!
>
> I'd like to address the frustrating topic of meds being added, results being equivocal, other things being added, and nothing ever being substracted. Anyone else have this problem? Pretty soon I find myself on a bunch of things and wondering if any of them are actually helping. I do better for a while then get bad again and wonder why I'm taking 4 different meds and 6 different supplements and light therapy and psychotherapy and here I am depressed again. Can't help but wonder if the illness just cycles (it IS Bipolar II) and I would have felt exactly the same without all this stuff. But I become afraid to stop taking it because I think, gosh, maybe it could be way worse than this and this, lord knows, is bad enough. So, there you go. And are p-docs much help? Well, not in my experience. They seem to sit there poised with pen and Rx pad waiting for me to tell them what to prescribe.
>
> Like many people on the board, I am sometimes tempted to wean off of all pharamceuticals and try massive doses of exercise, yoga, meditation, whatever. How do we go about answering the question..are these pills really doing any good?
>
>Ponder,
My sentiments exactly! I am on Lamictal for BPII, and still continue to cycle, and I ask myself the same thing, am I really better on meds? I also do massive amounts of yoga and exercise, some meditation, which are truly life savers and I would have to say I am doing much better, but my gosh, it is so hard feeling so intensely all the time!!
My pdoc is the same way, ready to prescribe what I tell him I think I need (this last time it was Trileptal added to the Lam, but now I am reconsidering). Of course benzos are out of the question!
I am frustrated as heck having this illness, but we must remember that not only is there two things going on here, depression and mania, but also our distinct personalities like how stubborn we are, or how stuck we are in the past, what disgust us, and what angers us.
For all that there is psychotherapy, but ya know, you have to find a good one, and who can afford it nowadays?
My pdoc says that most bipolars do better on meds because the older we get, the worse the cycles become, but do I believe him?
I have been known to be non-compliant and last summer I thought I was cured! LOL. This fall, I decided to go back on meds, and now it is back to dealing with side effects, worrying that Lamictal might not be that great as monotherapy, and wondering if I can keep my relationships healthy.
I'm trying to meditate more regularly, which keeps me IN THE MOMENT (which is all there really is).
Ponder, thanks for your post, take care and hope to hear from you again,
and now.. I ponder... do we really exist??
::Amy
poster:catmint
thread:208531
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030325/msgs/213994.html