Siggy's Blurbs: Siggy's Edge of Country …

I am one of the lucky ones.  My medication helps.  The medication, though, is an aide.  I take it and then forget about it.  For many medication does not help.  And doctors keep wanting to put others who are diagnosed mentally ill on them.  And the medications just mess up their patients.  There is definitely an over emphasis on medication to treat mental illness.  For many the side effects are intolerable.  Or the medication does not really help.

I remember one doctor telling me he could eliminate all my symptoms with medication but then I would be a zombie.  And too many doctors keep trying to do that.  Often you can’t function.  And the side effects are worse than the symptoms the doctor is treating.  If you are a patient and your doctor puts you on a new med or increases the dose of one, you need to question the doctor about everything–the side effects, how long it takes to work, whether or not it works (the time frame), everything.  After all, you are putting the drug in your body.  You need to question everything.  The doctor relies on your feedback.

Tags: ask questions, doctors, give feedback, medication, mentally ill, patient, psychiatry, question the doctor, side effects, symptoms
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Feeling shame is the worst thing about experiencing mental illness.  It isolates you.  It keeps you in a prison of your own making.  The truth is everyone has problems.  Unfortunately those diagnosed being mentally ill are singled out.  And others around them by a wall of silence tacitly agree something is wrong with that person.  And the stigma becomes internalized.  While all it really is, is another set of problems.

And the truth is the only people who don’t have problems are those “under the ground.”  Society perpetuates the stigma in all kinds of ways:  the media is one big way.  Of course, the pharmaceutical companies want to sell their drugs.  Each version of the DSM has more diagnoses and is driven by the drug companies.  They want to push their drugs.  I find it interesting we are the only country to use the DSM.  And they don’t care about the side effects.  It just means they can then prescribe more drugs to treat them.

I have become very cynical about the drug companies.  Most people want nothing to do with these drugs.  For many people they don’t work and even make things worse when you are prescribed them and you go off of them.  Medication is overused to treat mental illness.  Medication can only help you so much assuming they are even helping you, which is a very big assumption.  In fact nowadays most family doctors prescribe them.  Most people do not want others to know they are seeing a psychiatrist.  There is just too much shame about it.

Tags: diagnoses, drug companies, DSM, everyone has problems, family doctor, medication, medication overused to treat mental illness, mental illness, pharmaceutical, psychiatrist, shame, side effects, stigma
Posted in health, knowledge&learning, life, mental health, time | 2 Comments »

Your feedback is essential to the psychiatrist.  In the beginning patients want to be “fixed.”  They want the medication the doctor prescribes to solve everything.  You have to take an active role in your treatment.

Question everything the physician does, every medication you are put on.  After all, it is your body you are putting the medication in.  Learn what to expect, with every medication adjustment.

Learn what a therapeutic level is.  How long it takes to get there, what changes to expect.  Learn the side effects of each medication you are on, whether you can live with them.

Learn, also, what changes will occur in you body and mind, when to determine whether the medication is, truly, helping you.

You are not a passive participant.  The doctor can not prescribe medications properly without your accurate feedback.

Know the time frame of each medication, how long you have to wait before it works properly, if at all.

The medication is only an aid.  You still have to help yourself.  The medication does not work properly if you do not take care of yourself:  that means eating correctly and sleeping enough regularly.

You have to know if the doctor is listening to you.  Don’t be afraid to change doctors if they are not.  I have fired a few in my time.  This is harder to do if you are going to a mental health center but it can be done.

Learn everything you can about every medication before you take it so you know what to expect.  Your feedback is essential to the doctor.  He can not do his job properly without it.

Tags: eating correctly, help yourself, medication, mental health center, mental illness, patient feedback, patients want to be "fixed", physician, psychiatrist, question your doctor, side effects, sleep, therapeutic level
Posted in balance, health, knowledge&learning, mental health, time | No Comments »

An open letter to an young adult struggling with mental illness:

I am sorry you had to spend New Year’s in an hospital.  I pray you get the help you need in the hospital (and when you get out).  You hardly eating for several days did not help.  Medications can do strange things if you are not eating properly.

Unfortunately when you get diagnosed mentally ill and exhibit aberrant behavior like paranoia and psychosis others simply say you are “mentally ill” when the very drugs you are taking may be causing you those symptoms.  I can’t say for sure.

I still don’t think you are on the right medication.  You did well on one drug but it had an unfortunate side effect.  It is very difficult taking medication because you have to admit you have a problem.  After all these years I still don’t like I take medication.

I urge you not to go back to your parents.  It is not good for you.  Everything centers around a job.  You may not get there immediately.  Your independence.  Your residence.  Your ability to choose your own doctor.  Everything.  It is up to you.  You have to take more responsibility for your life.  It does not happen overnight.

You have to find a regiment of medication that helps you.  It is just an aid–no more.  You still have to help yourself.  When you become stable again please look for work.  Don’t expect others to take care of you.  You still have to take responsibility for your life.  The more you do so, the better you will feel about yourself.

Love

From one who went through it and wants to make the journey for another a little easier.

Tags: doctor, get a job, help yourself, hospital, independence, look for work, medication, mental illness, paranoia, parents, psychiatric drugs, psychosis, residence, take care of you, take responsibility for your life
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I forgot that was normal for me–not to feel good right after I awoke.  I felt awful the first twenty five minutes.  That was a sign my manic episode was over.  I usually drink coffee upon awakening.  For months every morning I had felt fine (during my manic episode) and this morning I had to remind myself that was one sign my episode was over.  I had already started lowering the dosage of one medication (the one that gets raised when I have an episode).  My sleep patterns are beginning to change to one more normal for me.  My episode is winding down.

Tags: episode was over, manic episode, medication, more normal, morning coffee, not feeling good right after I awoke, sleep patterns
Posted in balance, health, knowledge&learning, local, mental health, time, wisdom | No Comments »