Posted by g_g_g_unit on November 26, 2009, at 21:53:47
In reply to Re: calling all armchair psychs, posted by mtdewcmu on November 26, 2009, at 17:30:29
maybe treatment resistant doesn't always necessarily mean the person is incapable of 'remission', but that the person struggles to find a med that"s conducive to their lifestyle.
i guess you might say in that case the person is being fussy, or hardheaded, or simply hasn't endured enough suffering to abandon their standards. maybe for me my doctor 'steering in me in the right direction' would've meant pushing CBT as a frontline measure, since i suffered primarily from anxiety, rather than going straight to meds.
you also can't tell me with certainty that SSRI's will bring back my writing panache - for one, there's more than enough collective personal accounts that they cause word-finding difficulties (which i've experienced on meds), induce apathy/anhedonia over time, etc. i don't mean to sound like a blind dissenter, and i'm happy they worked for you; it's just probably best to keep an open mind about both sides of the med argument.
of course you reach a point where you have no other choice, which i guess i'm nearing, but i'm not suffering from the illusion that i'll ever get back to where i was. i really don't think it's a symptom of depression either - meds can probably help bring me back to a kind of healthy baseline, and also foster an indifference about my plight, but i have no doubt that they can mess with certain facets of your personality/cognition.
at that point it becomes a kind of existential/psychotherapy issue of reorientating yourself to deal with your new state; but i know that anxiety has always been a driving force for me, for better and ultimately worse, and i'm happy as heck that i held out on being medicated before i had a chance to really lay down the blueprint of my career and who i am.
poster:g_g_g_unit
thread:924919
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20091104/msgs/927099.html