12
votes
For those willing to comment, how has medication affected your mental health?
Specifically I'm curious about how your lives have changed with the introduction of medications to assist with mental illness. I realize there is still some stigma associated with mental illness and health issues, but if we talk about it, then hopefully that stigma can erode away, and more people will seek the help they need.
Thanks for commenting!
Oh man, it literally saved my life.
About 9 or 10 years ago, I was driving on my way to kill myself. Plan made, will on my desk where my chain of command could find it, said my goodbyes. I. Was. Done. My supervisor just happened to call and check up on me while I was en route and I lost my nerve. They rushed me to a doc and got me the help I needed.
All these years later, my depression is not gone, but it's managed. I still get "the call of the void" way more often than most people I'm pretty sure, but I went from being maybe 7 minutes away from death to being happily married, a house, dog, a civilian job with a team I really enjoy. It's all been amazing.
I'll 100% admit I took a LOT of flack from people in my shop when I first started treatment, a lot of "Why would you be depressed" "You just want attention" etc. it was hell for a year until I was out of the military. But man, I don't regret it for a single second, this has given me a new lease on life and a GREAT chance to live, not just exist.
This is a pretty awesome story. I'm glad your life has changed so much for the better!
It's been a hell of a road with a lot of twists/turns/personal discovery, but if it wasn't for the meds I ended up starting that very same day, I'm positive I wouldn't have been here for any of it.
Granted, it's not quite as easy for everyone, and there's a lot of work to find the right pills to make it work, but I'll be damned if I'm not recommending to everyone that if they have problems they can't handle that finding a doc isn't the best solution they probably could find.
A little of column A, a little of column B. I was ~25 at the time, which is about the time these issues really take hold, and the military was a terrible place for me to deal with them. That "world so small but room so big" feeling, paired with people didn't understand when I was starting to lose grasp, and it became a bad thing.
My advice, if you were my troop, is to make sure you're taking care of yourself. The years can go fast, but don't put yourself in shit spots. If you need help, ask for it and get it. You ABSOLUTELY would want that on your record before you get out when it comes to fighting for benefits of the like. If you're just unhappy with it, just find ways to make it more bearable and take advantage. I know in the AF you can get a community college degree, which isn't a lot, but does help when you're trying to get back into college after.
You'll probably get shit on by some of the old guard, and I'm sorry for that in advance. But you're worth more than just your uniform.
I've been medicated on and off for low-grade depression, and between SSRIs and SNRIs I think I've tried everything short of ketamine. None of it has helped. Most of it has either left me limp-dicked or with whiskey dick, neither of which are conducive to maintaining a satisfactory sex life and a healthy marriage.
I've become convinced that I don't actually have depression and that I'm not actually sick. Instead, I suspect that my inability to muster enthusiasm and difficulties in self-motivation are symptoms of demoralization.
I'm not actually sick. I'm just slowly dying of America.
I'd like to believe that demoralization is the whole story for me, and workaholism/burnout are certainly factors.
But I've gone through periods of acute major depressive disorder and it's a difference in kind - the cognitive and physical symptoms are very distinct from the sublimated rage and exhaustion of submitting to late-stage capitalist demands. It's absolutely true that there's a dire relationship between the two; there's nothing like a barrage of bad work days to reinforce evil cognitive feedback loops of despair and helplessness.
A combination of the latest generation of SSRI (Trintellix), and anti-inflammatory medication (hydroxychloroquine), turned the tide most recently. I went from waking up at 3 a.m. every day determined that this would be the day I ended my life, to generally functional. Yes, the sexual side effects, weight gain, and the rest of the modern pharma party favors are a PITA, but there's no question in my mind that I have an underlying medical condition which needs treatment.
This is kind of where I see myself. I got into a CBT program when I found myself driving to work, wishing that a semi would ram my vehicle off the road and just put an end to it. I would argue that my state of mind was a result of the circumstances I found myself in. Hard work rewarded with very little compensation, lack of opportunity for growth and development, etc. And when I took time off work to focus on my mental health, surprise surprise, it improved.
I just wonder what can even happen to change this situation. Part of me thinks of it as an effect of policy decisions. With a greater social safety net, things would be better. Have you listened to the Freakonomics podcast episode on the happiest nations on earth? It's pretty interesting.
I think the reason we see resistance to universal basic income from the powers that be is that they know that most people would refuse to work at all under the current system if they didn't have a knife at their throats.
I don't listen to podcasts, but I've read similar articles.
Just curious why you don't listen to podcasts. Anyway, what did you think about those articles that you read? And, what articles?
Listening to people talk bores me. I'd rather just read a well-written article.
I came to support UBI from a different angle. I view universal basic income in a market system as economic suffrage for people who would otherwise be disenfranchised by poverty.
Is Ketamine legal in the U.S.? How does one go about this type of treatment?
In my childhood I went through just about every depression medication that existed at the time. All of them had what I would describe as intolerable side effects. My parents still forced me to take the medications. While they probably helped with my depression, I believe other factors helped much more. I do not take depression medication anymore (haven't for around 15 years). I'm very much an advocate of therapy over medication whenever possible, but understand that sometimes it's an important stop-gap measure.
Are you considering getting treatment?
Yes. Definitely considering it. I've had treatment in the past; a CBT program which was awesome in teaching me coping mechanisms and cognitive skills to recognize my problems before they fully blossomed. But yeah, considering medication.
I would say if you are considering definitely go for it. I know I went through YEARS of putting it off self treating it with drugs and other bad habits until I finally caved and saw a doctor. Got prescribed immediately and have been on them for almost 2 years now and life hasn't been better. I always thought anti-depressants was a sign of weakness but it's not. It's legit changed my life. Please do yourself a favor and do the same!
I would seriously consider getting a second opinion on the medication. I had to get off a drug (escitalopram) that was causing dire side effects, but couldn't risk going off SSRIs altogether. I sought out a different doctor from the psychiatrist who prescribed the toxic drug because he refused to acknowledge that it was causing some pretty obvious and dangerous problems (uncontrollable eye movements, muscle spasms, bruxism, rapid heart rate, allergic hives, etc.) that wouldn't get better with time.
The new physician put me through a twelve-week cross-taper, gradually decreasing the dosage of the escitalopram and increasing the dosage of the new SSRI, and I didn't have serious discontinuation effects.
What's most dishonest is that most SSRIs and SNRIs have what pharmaceutical manufacturers euphemistically refer to as "discontinuation syndromes" - it's out-and-out drug withdrawal, and it may take months of misery.
For chronic pain problems, there's an app called "Curable" which has been immensely helpful - it leverages a wide range of techniques.
I've been taking generic Ritalin for about 5 years now, and it has significantly improved my life. I am graduating in December with my bachelors degree and a big part of it is because I was actually able to focus.
It's also significantly improved my relationship with my wife. ADHD causes emotional liability, which basically means that big things and little things both cause really really strong emotions. This is difficult to deal with in marriage as I would respond disproportionately to situations.
I used to worry that the medicine would keep me from being "me". But I know see that it allows me to be my true self without the ADHD getting in the way.
I take synthroid to make up for my underactive thyroid, and it has also improved my mental health by a lot. (You probably already know this, but physical health and mental health aren't as disconnected as a lot of people think they are.) I wound up going off my medication for a couple of months due to a move and change in insurance, and my depression immediately set in and turned "a couple of months" into "a couple of years". Never letting that happen again.
My wife also takes synthroid for thyroid issues and whenever she forgets a pill it really shows. She feels like crap and honestly we are more likely to argue and have conflict. It's really crazy how much impact hormones can have on us!
With meds, I feel the bottom line has been improved a lot. The worst things (inability to go out of the house, panic, breakdown, etc.) were much better controlled. They're not all, and most of the hard work is emotional.
Medications did little to help my depression. I was still miserable, just slightly more numb. Worse still, they really screwed up my sexual development. I think SSRIs and MAOIs probably shouldn't be given to teenagers for that reason.
Wellbutrin actually ended up being the most effective for me. But with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that the effectiveness wasn't real; it just coincided with what actually ended up working for me.
Just for some back story, I had a very bad childhood caused by an emotionally abusive father. After I graduated high school I moved in with my grandparents and cut him out of my life. After talking to a therapist for a few months, I was confident enough to go off of the antidepressants and the depression went away.
Just to be clear, I am positive that this kind of approach will not work for everyone; it's just my personal story. Some people seem to really need antidepressants. My sister has bipolar disorder and her medications have saved her from killing herself. If you are suffering from depression (or other mental disorders), please do not stop treatment because of this story.
Post-medication for ADHD, I went from "I...think I'm losing my mind. Fuck." as it slowly worsened, back to "I'M LITERALLY SUPERHUMAN" mentally.
I have to say, I'm enjoying the latter.
it's been quite hit or miss for me. Some have worked well, some have worked for a while and then stop working, and others have been downright hell.
The regiment i am on now was working for quite a while, but in the last few weeks, I have been so unbelievably depressed.