I'm TRYING to get help. Somebody LISTEN already!

[Seshat]

Psych hospitals can also be for adjusting medications. In some cases, the uptake or withdrawal symptoms for psychoactive medications can be horrid.

My wife used to have to go into a psych hospital for medication changes, back when her psych was still trying to find the right meds for her. They basically kept her drugged on whatever would mask the uptake/withdrawal symptoms and supervised the changeover, and then took her off the masking drugs, and she and her psych would then see if the new drug was helping.

It sucked, but it seems to be the best they can do.

IMPORTANT NOTE: my wife is a severe case. This is not the normal/usual situation, it's just one of the things that might happen.

[LadyAndreca]

I finally made an appointment with my doctor. What finally kicked me to do it was that I got a refill of my migraine medicne this week (Topamax), and glanced at the info sheet...and about half my complaints INCLUDING severe depression are possible side effects. (One side effect I've been complaining about since day 1, but we stuck to this one because it was so effective and the side effect I was noticing then wasn't interfering with my life.) So now I need to bring that sheet to the doctor and see if I need to change medications or what. I don't think it'll be that easy, but it's somewhere to start.

[Kristev]

I hope that holds an answer for you.

[RootedPhoenix]

I hope everything works out. *offers hugs*

[LadyAndreca]

Just a follow-up: I saw the doctor today. Not my usual doctor, but his partner, who's just as awesome. She listened to my story, asked me a few questions about how severe my depression at the beginning of the month was, and then decided that if I suspected I had chronic depression, and my medication is known for causing mood shifts, she needed to get me off of it. She put me on an anti-depressant that's also effective as a migraine medication.

If I don't get any of the side effects off of THIS one...well, I really hope it's that easy.

[Seshat]

Good luck! I hope it is that easy for you!

[wagegoth]

Yea!

I developed depression after being on high prescribed levels of ibuprofen for several weeks after an injury. Medications are wonderful and dangerous things.


Also, as others have mentioned, you really don't want a commitment to a psych hospital if you can help it. Even here in California, if you are committed, voluntarily or not, and the doctor decides you need shock therapy, you get shock therapy.

If you have good insurance, the private hospitals are quite happy to suck it up and keep you in, and the state hospitals mean you are committed with people who have been living on the street and probably committing crimes. It's a horrible, dangerous, bad situation for those of us with mental illnesses.

[LadyAndreca]

Update again: So far, so good.

It's a very, very strange feeling to have been at a relatively stable mood for a week and a half now. Even weirder when something happens and I wind up sitting there thinking about the fact that I feel like I should be crying, but I'm not. I couldn't. I actually tried, but I just wasn't upset enough to. (I know that sound strange.)

I get migraines sliiightly more often--though, that may be skewed because my main trigger is changing weather patterns and a hurricane dropped by. The new medication really knocks me out, it even says take it before bed. I call them my pumpkin pills because at the stroke of midnight, out I go. So, it's actually helping me sleep better. And I found out that if I REALLY need to wake up or stay awake, energy drinks work fine. (I pulled an all-night shift Friday night because of the hurricane approaching, and was able to keep myself alert despite having to take my dose before I went to work.)

I feel fine. I've felt fine for a week now. I'm kind of cautiously hopeful that this is going to work as a long-term solution, especially now that I've met a stressful situation I know would have left me frustrated and unable to act before.

Thanks to everyone for the support and advice and pushes.

[Der Cute]

LadyAndreca - do keep in mind that if you KNOW it's a cryable spot - like ...what would make you cry...loss of pet..? if you KNOW that's normally what you cry for, and it's a legit cry thing...and you don't? You might be higher than you should be on the mood chart.

For awhile I was on a medication that was pretty actually helpful (helped me gain 40# bastage) but I couldn't hold onto a mood very long. It was like...normal fine normal...bad thing happens..anger, should be a min or 2 of anger...wait, 30 seconds? Back to normal? Waiiiit.
It's nice to have a mostly pretty good feeling, but, do keep an eye on how long you "hold" an emotion.
Make notes or stars somewhere to note the migraines, and if you suspect the weather is an issue, mark that too along with the migraine notes.
Can you also push yourself for a pretty tight schedule/routine? Like, wake up @ Xam, eat meals every few hours, meds, and sleep @ Xpm? I know that my mood(s) are pretty dependent on light, day, food and routine.

[telecom_goddess]

Oh holy hell I didn't realize you were taking topomax. When I took that it made me a zombie. I could only stand it for a week. That was for migraine prevention. Now I'm on nortriptaline for anti depression and supposedly it helps prevent migraines as well...doing much better on this stuff.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

LadyAndreca! YAYYYYY for feeling better!
I'm so glad this appears to be the solution! I do agree that you should watch out for times that are legitimate cry-times... but yeah. So many problems are not that simple.
And good for you that you pestered people enough!

[Sapphire Silk]

Oh holy hell I didn't realize you were taking topomax. When I took that it made me a zombie. I could only stand it for a week. That was for migraine prevention. Now I'm on nortriptaline for anti depression and supposedly it helps prevent migraines as well...doing much better on this stuff.

That's the thing about medications: everyone reacts to them differently, and the doctor really doesn't know how you'll do until you're on it. It's definitely an issue of trial and error, especially with migraine prevention and depression.

[LadyAndreca]

They weren't situations that really warranted crying.

For the first, I was packing for a move and irritated at my husband because he's only moved once in his life (from his parents' to our apartment, where he could bring things over a little at a time) and I'm an army brat and have moved every 3-5 years all my life. He wasn't listening to my advice to pack ahead of time. So I got frustrated, got a little teary-eyed and sulked for a bit, then told myself I didn't have time to sulk and got back to work. I could not have done that before.

For the second, I discovered that thanks to the apartment deposit and a costly car repair, I can't afford to go to school this semester. I was able to contact my advisor and my voice instructor (I was supposed to have my senior recital in November!) without freaking out. Sure, it sucks, but there's nothing I can do about it but pick up some extra shifts and adjust my curriculum planning forward a semester, right? All summer, I'd gone into a funk whenever I thought about our money situation. Now? I can deal with it rationally.

I'm on amitriptyline now--with the similar names, it's probably related to nortriptyline. It's also an anti-depressant that works as a migraine medication. The doctor warned me that she'd been on it and had to come off because it turned her into a zombie, and I admit that sometimes when things really slow down I can get sleepy. But I perk right up again when something makes my brain engage, plus I can banish the sleepies with caffiene (I stayed up 24 hours after 4 hours of sleep in the time leading up to Irene to work overtime at the Orange Apron), so it's no biggie. I have noticed that while topomax banished the pain but not the other migraine symptoms when a migraine was bad enough to get through the medication (light sensitivity being the big one), amitriptyline is the other way around, banishing the other symptoms but not always all of the migraine. The net result is that I can take aspirin instead of excedrin when I get a headache, not a huge change in the migraine department.

Overall, my mood is up, my energy is up, my creativity is up, my confidence is up. I'm taking time to look around me. Time doesn't drag anymore. I don't mind work anymore. Heck, I don't even really get bored anymore. My husband told me he's noticed a huge change--I've stopped snapping at him so much. Other friends tell me I don't complain as much as I used to. I'm sleeping 8-10 hours a night instead of 4-6, and dreaming more often.

Unless I come across something that shows me otherwise, I'm going to treat this as a good thing.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

Yes! Good! This is a good thing! And you're right about those times-- hell, I would have cried out of disappointment for the school-thing.
yaaaay Andreca!

[Sapphire Silk]

Amitryptilline (Elavil) and nortrytpilline (Pamelor) are trycyclic anti-depressants. Same category, similar effects and side effects. I took Elavil for awhile for migraines; it helped. And yeah, it didn't really make me a zombie, but most medications become ineffective for me after awhile, so I was switched to something else.