Medication, What are your experiences? Options

[Mata]

I was talking with my girlfriend tonight about one of the newer members on the board and somehow the conversation got around to issues of medication and peoples' experiences with them. I've never taken any mood-drugs but I have many friends who have and I thought it might be useful if people shared their good and bad experiences of the various ones available. For example I have one friend at the moment who is taking prozac because she finds it works well for her and helps her keep a level head, whereas a family member took prozac and took himself off it after a month because he hated having the sensations of happiness when he knew that he didn't actually feel that way.

So, have you been/are you on medication? What has helped? What hasn't?

[Righteous]

Grrr...

Well, as someone with a severe case of bipolar disorder, medication for me has been Hell and a half. Third through seventh grade, I was on Zoloft and Prozac, two highly powerful antidepressants (the previous meant only for adults). As my symptoms of hypo- and hypermania became more and more apparent, my therepists put me on higher and higher dosages. The effects still haunt me.

In the seventh grade, I was put on lithium and it worked wonderfully until I was in the eleventh grade when it started screwing with my thyroid. I was faced with a choice: Stay on lithium and take a synthetic TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) or switch to Depakote (a powerful and expensive mood stabilizer). Unfortunately, I was switched to Depakote.

Well, the Depakote didn't work worth shit (forgive the language; I'm making a point). I was then put on a combination of Depakote and Lamictil. When that didn't work, my therepist added an antidepressant (whose name escapes me) that caused a gnarly rash, sun sensitivity and delerium. Said antidepressant was replaced by Effexor. Once again, I had to deal with hypo-and hypermania and a few side effects, including the inability to climax during sex. Eventually, I went on a combination of lithium and lamictil with a TSH suppliment.

Between the ages of 17.5 and 19.5, my life went to Hell because of these medications. This is when I got into promiscuity, alcohol, weed, self-mutilation and Aderoll.

If you think that's bad, it's a cakewalk compared to my little cousin. In the course of a year, my cousin (who has OCD and bipolar disorder, which is just groovy) was put on medication, had his dosages upped and upped and upped to treat his OCD and "depression," (to the point where he as taking handfuls of pills thrice a day, and BTW, one of these pills was Depakote) had his family hide all knives and cutting tools and was institutionalized, the whole time dealing with teachers and fellow students who didn't understand him and ridiculed and berrated the poor kid. Now he's on lithium and a few other drugs and he's doing well.

What pisses me the Hell off is that drug companies are pushing these expensive-ass, powerful-ass drugs on therepists, caregivers and patients saying that these super pills will work much better than the less expensive alternatives they have been using (example: Depakote vs. lithium). Drug companies and therepists are basically playing with the lives of the people on these drugs. Aside from me and my cousin, consider my mother's uncle who has severe bipolar disorder. He was on lithium and it worked beautifully. At one point, his therepist suggested Depakote and his life went straight to Hell. He gave my mom a call recently and told her he's back on lithium (thank God) and his life is getting back on track.

I'm a big non-fan of unneccessary medication. I hate the idea of just giving people pills with the idea that they'll fix problems. Albeit, some people need them (like me, my cousin and my mom's uncle), but often times caregivers (usually parents) throw medicine down their kids mouths thinking that, because their kids lie around after school listening to Staind and Cold staring at the ceiling and feeling misunderstood, they need to be medicated (Hell, I'm twenty and medicated and I still do that). It's been my experience that people have normal ups and downs and drugs don't lead to a happy, healthy life. If you're in your teens and you're feeling out of place and your parents are thinking of putting you on pills, let them know that it's just a phase and they probably went through the same thing. If you're no longer under your parents' wing, think twice when someone suggests that you should be put on medication for your problems. Try a healthy diet, good friends and a brisk walk every now and then (I take walks whenever possible, have my boys and eat a lot of fruit). And believe-it-or-not, that crap about positive thinking actually works. Yeah, you really can do it. I assure you this rant originally had a point.