(Thread IKs:
Josherino)
|
I'm psyching myself up to finally ask my suboxone doctor to up my dose back to 8mg next month. I should have done this literally like 2 years ago (I've been on my current dose at least 3 years), since it's been obvious for a long time that I feel way better and more "stable" on that dose. On my current dose of 4mg, I can get by, but I feel noticeably bad when it's been a while since my last dose, and find myself having to plan around when I take my doses. On 8mg I would feel much more normal 24/7, with the dose just split into twice a day. Part of me wonders if something about the composition of the 8mg strips makes them last longer, or if it's just a question of dosage. It's stupid that I haven't done this yet, since my doctor probably won't give a poo poo and I'm basically an ideal suboxone patient who never causes any problems (since it's pretty common for suboxone patients to over-use and start asking for an early prescription, etc), but I still feel a lot of anxiety over it. I know that I'll feel so much better and relieved once I've done it, but it's so easy to just be like "yeah, everything's good!" at my appointments and procrastinate until the next month. Another upside is that 30 8mg strips are significantly cheaper than 60 2mg strips (which runs me like 250 bucks a month - I think 30x8 is more like 150 or something) but that's really a secondary concern - I'm willing to pay more if it means I can feel better.
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2023 10:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 20, 2024 15:24 |
|
|
I'm thinking about getting back on bupe since I now have insurance but gently caress Suboxone. Subutex is a lot cheaper and doesn't require you to dissolve it in your mouth. That part of subs doesn't seem to have helped my dental situation ANY lol. But of course doctors are dumb and think that the naloxone in Suboxone actually does anything. idk. There's also the issue of drug screens.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2023 17:43
|
|
|
Don't let the issue of drug screens stop you from getting the treatment that works for you. if you are job hunting and test positive for buprenorphine, amphetamine (Adderall), methadone, oxycodone, etc what should happen is a non-HR person who views drug screen results will call you and ask for proof of prescription. Then a doctor will look it over and tell the non-HR person to report the screen as negative and ideally HR never even knows you're on medication or tested positive.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2023 18:16
|
|
|
Yeah more concerned with having to deal with a doctor again. They drug screen for refills when I dealt with it previously. Plus its a big red flag on my medical record, although that has already been on it since I was on sub maintenance for about a year in 2018-19. I dunno. The stability of bupe is nice though. Been making do with kratom but that's not ideal and probably more expensive than bupe with insurance
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2023 19:02
|
|
|
Trauts posted:I'm thinking about getting back on bupe since I now have insurance but gently caress Suboxone. Subutex is a lot cheaper and doesn't require you to dissolve it in your mouth. That part of subs doesn't seem to have helped my dental situation ANY lol. But of course doctors are dumb and think that the naloxone in Suboxone actually does anything. idk. There's also the issue of drug screens. Subutex would probably be better, but I like the sublingual strips (the taste doesn't bother me at all) and I've heard a lot of horror stories about generic sublingual strips (and they're actually pretty believable, since it's very easy to imagine poor manufacturing QA leading to inconsistent doses on strips). Something like kratom would basically have a worse version of the main reason I want to up my suboxone dose to 8mg - I don't like the "instability" of lower/shorter-acting doses that leave me constantly aware of when I took my last dose. On the higher dose (though 8mg is really more of a medium dose) I don't need to think about it nearly as much. I had a really great ~1.5 years during the period when I was tapering from 16mg to 8mg, and then things gradually went downhill as my dose decreased further. I think part of it is that I just have really fast drug metabolism - even on higher doses I've always needed to split suboxone into twice a day, and taking my full dose at once would make me straight-up euphoric for a while, but leave me feeling too bad to sleep later that night. I like that my current doctor just doesn't give a poo poo and writes the scripts. My old one (from like <2015) did drug screens constantly + made me go to meetings and keep a journal, and I get that this stuff is helpful for many people, but it just made me super stressed out all the time. It ironically caused me to relapse constantly. I just want to live normally, and the last thing I want to do is constantly think and talk about addiction. Dealing with pharmacists can be a pain, but fortunately I've been going to the same pharmacy for like 6 years now, so most of the people there know me and are aware that I've never caused any problems or tried to get my script early. On rare occasions there's some new tech who gives me a hard time, but the actual pharmacists are all nice. Btw regarding drug screens, back when I was getting screened and using kratom, the kratom sometimes showed up as a PCP false positive on the immediate test (though obviously not the more accurate test that gets sent into the lab; from what I understand that never has false positives). This may have overlapped with when I was using FST or UEI though, so it might have been caused by whatever the gently caress was in that.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2023 23:57
|
|
|
Does anyone use a neck massager? I feel like a lot of physical anxiety symptoms are manifesting themselves as strain or aches in my neck and back of my head. Hot showers help but I was looking for something more convenient E: taking a hot shower before bed makes me feel so much better that I don't want to go to bed anymore and stay up later than I should. I feel this is representative of broader issues StashAugustine has issued a correction as of 03:54 on Nov 5, 2023 |
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2023 03:47
|
|
|
StashAugustine posted:Does anyone use a neck massager? I feel like a lot of physical anxiety symptoms are manifesting themselves as strain or aches in my neck and back of my head. Hot showers help but I was looking for something more convenient Maybe check your blood pressure, you could be having hypertension and the shower is bringing it down.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2023 06:44
|
|
|
i grew up poor and ive been providing for myself since i was 11 or so, so ive got some anxiety around finances. my ex was, to my detriment, very eager to rack up debt despite my pleas to not do that buying luxuries. anyway, we were married and we split up in 2022 and i left with all the debt on my credit cards - something like $8k - and she kept her debt. not ideal as i didnt leave with any of the stuff that debt bought, but whatever lol. last week, i paid the last of them off. i thought some of that latent anxiety would be lifted with zero balances across the board, but i felt nothing. no relief, happiness, pride - just nothing. that's a real bummer. i guess i was kind of expecting the anxiety load to get a little lighter and it didn't. i guess ill start making small piles of money and stashing them around the apartment like a squirrel and their nuts and see if that helps lol
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2023 15:50
|
|
|
Brain Candy posted:Maybe check your blood pressure, you could be having hypertension and the shower is bringing it down. I've been to the doctor a few times recently and they haven't said anything about high blood pressure. I've been having trouble sleeping recently and that probably isn't helping matters, but I've got an appointment to get that checked out next month.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2023 20:39
|
|
|
I thought things were finally looking up for me, but it seems to be a constant game of 1 foot forward, and then multiple yards back  this one hurts more than usual though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2023 20:46
|
|
|
2DCAT posted:I thought things were finally looking up for me, but it seems to be a constant game of 1 foot forward, and then multiple yards back I appreciate you posting here and sharing what you're carrying - we're here. My inbox is always free if you feel like you need to vent.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2023 05:43
|
|
|
Eat This Glob posted:last week, i paid the last of them off. i thought some of that latent anxiety would be lifted with zero balances across the board, but i felt nothing. no relief, happiness, pride - just nothing. that's a real bummer. i guess i was kind of expecting the anxiety load to get a little lighter and it didn't. i guess ill start making small piles of money and stashing them around the apartment like a squirrel and their nuts and see if that helps lol In my experience it never fully goes away. I'm in pretty good financial shape now (and have been for a little over 5 years now), but I still feel anxious about my debit card being rejected every time I use it, even though I rationally know it's not going to happen.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2023 11:28
|
|
|
StashAugustine posted:Does anyone use a neck massager? I feel like a lot of physical anxiety symptoms are manifesting themselves as strain or aches in my neck and back of my head. Hot showers help but I was looking for something more convenient I swear by my theracane, but I’m sure even the knockoffs would be helpful 
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2023 11:58
|
|
|
I've been having such success with lamotrigine recently, I feel very happy with it overall, but I wish I knew what to do about the insomnia its causing me. I have not been able to consistently keep to any sort of sleep schedule. If I could just fix that, things would be great; I feel so motivated to do right by myself and seek out fulfilling things, but at night I dwell on things that make me feel bad since there's so little to do after it gets so late. There any good over-the-counter drugs I could take that might help? I tried melatonin and it just doesn't do anything to really help.
Whirling has issued a correction as of 15:31 on Nov 7, 2023 |
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2023 14:00
|
|
|
running into a weird situation where my dad cares about my mental health now but he beat me up a bit when I got sad as a teenager. I don’t like being around him, I can’t ever trust him, all of it seems like him trying to be good now to erase the past
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2023 02:06
|
|
|
I can almost pinpoint it to when a final fantasy 11 expansion was released. he didn’t like how I spoke to him so he grabbed me by the neck and held me against the wall in the living room. later, he would get mad at me for having a flat affect
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2023 02:18
|
|
|
You're well within your rights to draw boundaries there, Consummate Professional. You have no obligation to let anyone be a part of your life if they make you feel uncomfortable.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2023 07:49
|
|
|
Can any therapist goons tell me if my current one is bullshitting me? According to her I had dyslexia growing up but I outgrew it through something she referred to as "Lateral Crossing". She could tell that by making me write three full long form sentences in cursive. Something I havent done in almost two decades. What the gently caress? This is obvious bullshit, right. And its making my head cave in. She is older and has a lot of experience so I suppose she knows what shes talking about, but seriously how could such a thing even be possible?
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2023 15:38
|
|
|
Consummate Professional posted:running into a weird situation where my dad cares about my mental health now but he beat me up a bit when I got sad as a teenager. Is there something that's happened in his life lately that's pushing him in this direction that you're not used to seeing him moving towards?
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2023 16:13
|
|
|
Pajser posted:Can any therapist goons tell me if my current one is bullshitting me? The 'older' part gives me a gut feeling she's the tail end of the "your writing style determines hidden pathologies within you." trend of the mid-late 20th century. I had an ancient teacher in 1st grade that used to tie my left wrist to the school desk to prevent me from writing left hander because it would result in some sort of nondescript intellectual impairment. I mean, I'm riddled with such now so I guess she was right about effect if not about the cause. Jorge Bell posted:My ability to execute on things I need to do is kind of hosed up right now, I bought a condo in July but have just holed up in it and have been putting off doing Necessary poo poo. Have to renew my car registration before I can get work, but that takes 8 individual steps to do and it is so easy to just not do any of them. Money is a non-factor for now so I have just been riding out this lifeline I've been given. I don't want to work and right now I don't feel any pressure to so I just don't do anything. I would say it kind of rules if I didn't also feel like a clock is ticking down. Same.  I'm just kinda existing atm as a purposeless creature outside of feeding a group of strays and handing out cash and food and whatnot to migrants passing through.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2023 08:23
|
|
|
Pajser posted:What the gently caress? This is obvious bullshit, right. And its making my head cave in. The frustrating thing about mental healthcare is that huge numbers of therapists (and mental health professionals in general) basically subscribe to pseudoscience. In my experience, younger psychologists and psychiatrists are often better, specifically because they haven't accrued decades of pseudoscientific ideas. This isn't to discourage seeking out therapy, but it's unfortunately necessary to put in effort as the "consumer." It's sort of like buying supplements at the grocery store - there's a ton of pseudoscience mixed in, so you have to do your own research (which sucks rear end and isn't something anyone should have to do for anything health-related, but is sadly necessary).
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2023 20:50
|
|
|
A ton of mental health is still in the "bodily humors and amputation" stage of physical medicine and its incredibly frustrating I will live my life before real treatment is invented/available, like some ancient person being informed their leprosy could be cured if they were born 1000 years later.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2023 02:46
|
|
|
Ronwayne posted:A ton of mental health is still in the "bodily humors and amputation" stage of physical medicine and its incredibly frustrating I will live my life before real treatment is invented/available, like some ancient person being informed their leprosy could be cured if they were born 1000 years later. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2023 02:57
|
|
|
Ronwayne posted:A ton of mental health is still in the "bodily humors and amputation" stage of physical medicine and its incredibly frustrating I will live my life before real treatment is invented/available, like some ancient person being informed their leprosy could be cured if they were born 1000 years later. Hey if it makes you feel better someone's gotta be subjected to the experimental phase while they start getting it sorted out, might as well be us I felt really tense and achy tonight, there's a fair few internal factors it could be but the funny thing is that last week or two I've been dealing with a ton of frustration and social anxiety that I largely resolved earlier this week, and yet i think I feel worse physically now than I did then. Something similar happened like two months ago where my dad had a minor stroke and I didn't start feeling physically awful until after he was in the clear. Maybe it's just a sort of comedown or withdrawal from the anxiety. I'm also still not sleeping great (less than 3 weeks till I see a doctor) and didn't eat super well today; and I'm off work tommorrow so I can try sleeping in, skipping coffee, and if I still really feel like poo poo go to urgent care or something.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2023 04:44
|
|
|
think im gonna be accepted to a two week IOP in Boston. pretty excited honestly it seems like a really good program
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2023 04:45
|
|
|
Hell yeah hope it works out for you!
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2023 04:49
|
|
|
StashAugustine posted:Hey if it makes you feel better someone's gotta be subjected to the experimental phase while they start getting it sorted out, might as well be us I hope so. I heard that vynase got made generic so I'm going to ask my doc to switch form adderal to that because while adderal has been helpful I can do without the resting elevated heart rate.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2023 11:39
|
|
|
Talk to your pharmacy first. I'm on the generic and my CVS can't get any in. They have name brand, though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2023 17:56
|
|
|
The latest Netherlands results are freaking me out. I was thinking of moving back there but now it seems it would be suicide. I can either go back to my home country and die poor. Go to NL and die horribly at the hands of some racist or stay here and die miserable, lonely and who knows, also at the hands of some racist. I have no where to run. Edit: I can't sleep. Edit 2: I also afraid of being fired AceOfFlames has issued a correction as of 12:45 on Nov 23, 2023 |
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2023 00:42
|
|
|
Ronwayne posted:A ton of mental health is still in the "bodily humors and amputation" stage of physical medicine and its incredibly frustrating I will live my life before real treatment is invented/available, like some ancient person being informed their leprosy could be cured if they were born 1000 years later. I dont agree. The way most "good" therapists work is with the exact same intent and design as it's always been for humanity, create a safe space where healing can occur and go down into the depths with someone who's hurting. It's always been the same and it's always been simple, psychopomp is what the Greek's called them iirc but it's been around forever because humanity has always needed healing. In non-western cultures there are medicine men, it's all the same thing. I hate using the term "mental health" because it suggests there's a difference between mental and physical health. That's relatively new, ~200 years or so. People used to walk/run around big religious structures for holidays and if you had grief you'd walk the opposite direction, people would come up to you, talk to you, help you process and heal. The physical activity was not separated from the "mental" activity. Those differentiations are VERY recent, probably just since industrialization, and it's why spirituality has been divorced from every day life, but that's a longer conversation. In fact, the early days of psychotherapy, after it sprouted out of europe, were in my opinion some of the best. Satir, whitaker, minuchin, etc. It's only now that neoliberalism has of course infected everything that we have new fads, and falsely complicated "mental health" that it's gotten worse. Every few years there's some new bullshit, some new thing you need to read, some new podcast, same old poo poo. It's been worked in hustle and grind culture. My rule of thumb when looking for a therapist, going against Ytala, is to look for some with the most experience who you still connect with. edit: oh but for psychiatrists, yes, ABSOLUTELY, my rule of thumb is younger is better. NP's are loving amazing, and the vast majority of people don't need a ton of involvement or interaction. thehandtruck has issued a correction as of 22:08 on Nov 26, 2023 |
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2023 21:55
|
|
|
Pajser posted:Can any therapist goons tell me if my current one is bullshitting me? i mean i googled it? and theres stuff? confused by your post i guess
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2023 22:02
|
|
|
I'm very happy and relieved that my suboxone doctor agreed to increase my dose to 8mg today (though I won't be getting the new prescription for another week or so). I finally got around to asking about this, after putting it off for literally like 2 years. Going to be such a relief to not constantly feel like I'm on such limited "feeling decent" rations - for some reason I never seemed to fully "adapt" to <8mg doses, despite having been on my current dose at least 2 years. I could get by on them, but they seemed to last a shorter time so I constantly had to schedule around when I was taking my doses. It will also save me a significant amount of money each month (after checking, I think around $60-80), since a smaller number of 8mg strips costs less than the larger number of 2mg ones I'm currently getting.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2023 19:04
|
|
|
wow, my last post in here was 11/9 and so much has changed, some good some bad. I pretty much have continued to be “breaking down” until the last week or so. my job “recommended” I resign for health reasons but made it clear they weren’t asking. so not ideal but could have also gone worse. I was just missing too much work and not being good when I was there. then on thanksgiving, my dad, who I have a pretty troubled relationship with caught on fire. he’s pretty hosed up on the front of his body. he’s almost certainly going to need skin grafts which is scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday. I was also a few states away and drunk so I couldn’t do anything but worry he’s 56 now, which is the same age HIS dad died of cancer so I think we are all just kinda thinking about the past and I am personally wanting to try and talk about my feelings, I might chicken out but also Im trying to assert myself more im visiting home for about a week to give my mom and brother a bit of a break. I’ve secured a new job which is cool with the delay of a week or so. not working my previous job has let me take my meds more consistently which helps all around. and seeing my dad all hosed up is getting some vulnerability growing so I can talk to him. when my brother first called me my mind immediately went to seeing people hit by IEDs when I was deployed and from what he’s willing to show me (his face) he looks like he has a very very bad sunburn. thankfully this hasn’t gotten me to flashback or anything like that I’ve been in constant communication with my therapist (she’s incredible) and im scheduled to do an intake appointment with the VA substance abuse program on the 20th. im also trying to sort out an IOP for January. if anyone read this, thanks.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2023 09:30
|
|
|
Consummate Professional posted:wow, my last post in here was 11/9 and so much has changed, some good some bad. I'm glad you got a new job, but I'm sorry the old job didn't work out. I'm also very glad you're finding the silver lining in your dad's situation; hopefully he makes a quick recovery and the new openness between him and you remains and grows. It's good to assert yourself, but please don't feel bad if you have difficulty with it; it's hard to push yourself out there, and you're not always going to hit the mark. Just remember that there are people there who care about you, and will offer whatever support they can.
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2023 01:35
|
|
|
Consummate Professional posted:if anyone read this, thanks. Glad poo poo is moving for you, I am mad about your old job insisting you resign but hopefully you're in a professional enough situation where that didn't have ramifications for any UI payments. Sounds like you have a new thing anyway. Glad this didn't put you out
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2023 02:16
|
|
|
thehandtruck posted:I dont agree. The way most "good" therapists work is with the exact same intent and design as it's always been for humanity, create a safe space where healing can occur and go down into the depths with someone who's hurting. It's always been the same and it's always been simple, psychopomp is what the Greek's called them iirc but it's been around forever because humanity has always needed healing. In non-western cultures there are medicine men, it's all the same thing. I hate using the term "mental health" because it suggests there's a difference between mental and physical health. That's relatively new, ~200 years or so. People used to walk/run around big religious structures for holidays and if you had grief you'd walk the opposite direction, people would come up to you, talk to you, help you process and heal. The physical activity was not separated from the "mental" activity. Those differentiations are VERY recent, probably just since industrialization, and it's why spirituality has been divorced from every day life, but that's a longer conversation. I'm speaking as to a more advanced method than that. I.e. the ability modify the brain as an injured organ to cure things in situ. I realize this could likely be used to emulate any number of horrific sci-fi dystopias, but so can modern medicine (which as you said has only been around for an eyeblink in human history). Something similarly transformative, that takes it merely beyond "coping skills" and actual "we can permanently remove the problem instead of treating it" would be the goal, probably using methods and technology not even invented yet or barely in a prototype stage at the moment. I dunno, I feel that older methods of coping as you describe were people trying to make the best with what they had, and as tech advanced, people were able to do better. Back in the day, 30%-50% of under age 5 child mortality was horrifically common, but its not anymore. Hopefully in the future, my conditions will be as divorced and alien to the common human experience as leprosy, small pox, etc. People with the same or similar symptoms to me might see them as a mixed blessing/curse, and unironically good for them, I'm glad they found good in who they are. However, for me its 100% a malus and just makes even sitting down and existing absolutely miserable. --- Moving beyond that, had another fight with my aging parents to move some hoarder stuff around and after a screaming argument stuff improved, its absolutely miserable I have to deal with this to both A) not be homeless and B) not sleep and live with boxes of filth and national geographics and encyclopedias from the 70s my parents insist are still valuable. (And that's the other half of my mental problems is that I have several currently intractable material conditions that would go away if I could just get a grand a month to live on but social security told me to gently caress off and die in a gutter.) Ronwayne has issued a correction as of 11:48 on Dec 5, 2023 |
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2023 11:05
|
|
|
thehandtruck posted:I dont agree. The way most "good" therapists work is with the exact same intent and design as it's always been for humanity, create a safe space where healing can occur and go down into the depths with someone who's hurting. It's always been the same and it's always been simple, psychopomp is what the Greek's called them iirc but it's been around forever because humanity has always needed healing. I don't disagree with anything you wrote, but I have my own take on therapy and this seems like as good a place as any to put it out in the world. Please be gentle? I'm a biologist so I'm a bit myopic when it comes to approaching human behavior, but I believe anxiety and depression have to be pro-survival traits because evolution is a harsh mistress. There could have been humans in the past who always felt super happy all the time regardless of their life circumstances, but if there was they didn't have offspring as successfully as the ones who experienced anxiety/depression. I mean, hungry people today aren't depressed because their brains don't make as much serotonin as our ancestors' 300,000 years ago.. it's because it's depressing suffering from hunger in a country where we throw away almost half of the food we produce, yet food is a privilege for those who can afford it. So when people talk about needing to have their anxiety/depression cured/healed it's confusing, because for me anxiety wasn't a problem, it was the symptom of a problem. What I needed to do to make the pain in my stomach go away was to put my needs before that of the people I loved because that is who I am. Not saying this is what anyone else should do, of course. My therapist didn't make a safe space for me and didn't empathize with me, he just tried to find which page of the DSM-5 defined my condition and repeatedly pushed anti-anxiety meds. Not trying to minimize or trivialize other people's struggles, if anything that's the opposite of what I'm trying to do, but I haven't taken an SSRI or talked to a therapist in four years and also haven't had another panic attack. That's success, right? I've been editing this for like two hours now so I think I'll just hit submit and hope some of this nonsense means anything to anyone else.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2023 19:14
|
|
|
Ronwayne posted:Context: I underwent a varient of TMS https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7609207/ that unfortunately did not work. I can't tell if it works on others, just did not work on me, or was just quackery, but I had a lot of hope it could reduce my symptoms, but it didn't unfortunately. For what it's worth, I mostly agree with your take on a lot of mental health stuff. I wouldn't quite put it at the "bodily humours" level, since we at least have some accurate understanding of "what we don't know," but people also frequently overstate our knowledge of and ability to treat psychiatric conditions like depression, anxiety, etc (and pharmaceutical companies are heavily involved in overstating the efficacy of psychiatric treatments in particular). The worst example of this is when people are like "just like you take an antibiotic when you have an infection, you take an antidepressant if you have depression!" On one hand that's complete bullshit, but on the other I understand the impulse to say stuff like that to encourage people to attempt treatment. I think I err on the side of "it's not good to lie to people," though (and a lot of that sort of messaging is pushed by the pharma companies for obvious reasons). I think at least part of the issue is that, due to a combination of our lack of understanding of the human brain + how hard/impossible it is to directly examine patients' brains, we're forced to make purely symptomatic diagnoses, and some of those symptoms are very vague things that can manifest in a huge variety of ways (like "depression" or "anxiety"). The analogy I like to use is that diagnosing someone with "depression" is like diagnosing them with "a fever." "Depression" obviously isn't a single discrete condition with a single cause. So it's possible that, when we prescribe people something like SSRIs, it's like taking everyone who has "a fever" and giving them all the medication for "one of the countless diseases that happens to cause a fever as a symptom." This isn't a perfect analogy, since antidepressants aren't exactly "curing" anything so much as just messing around with neurotransmitters in ways that we just kinda hope will have a net positive effect. But I think it's a good way to explain why treating those conditions is such a roll of the dice. And with mental health there's also the extremely complex interaction between environment and biology. We aren't even close to being able to untangle that stuff. In genetics, papers are still mostly just trying to find specific genes that have some statistically-significant impact, but in reality you're looking at huge networks of genetic and environmental factors (with "environment" including both a person's experiences as well as "their diet," etc), and those studies still need to rely on either self-reported symptoms or some sort of metric that is used as a proxy for depression/anxiety/etc. IMO, we probably won't see any fundamental change in our lifetimes. "Being able to directly look at someone's brain and find the cause of most mental health issues and address their physiological causes" is basically still in the realm of science fiction. The only exceptions are likely to be the few conditions that actually *do* have very direct causes, like conditions caused by specific genes or something. It's kind of a bummer. I'll likely never know exactly what's wrong with my brain that (in my case) lead to me becoming addicted to opiates in my early 20s. I have some vague ideas - my brain has always had some weird issue where it seems to poo poo out all its dopamine at the beginning of the day and leaves me feeling bad later in the day, even before I ever touched opiates. But even if my understanding is correct, I'll never know why that's the case, much less how to address it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2023 00:55
|
|
|
MMania posted:I don't disagree with anything you wrote, but I have my own take on therapy and this seems like as good a place as any to put it out in the world. Please be gentle? I think you're partially right, but the problem is that the anxiety or depression response can cause problems itself, like an allergic reaction. Lacan joked that paranoia can be pathological even if your spouse is actually cheating on you. I'm sort of in this position where I've been doing a lot better over the past few years but only recently and with a lot of effort have I been at all feeling better about it. It does suck to get a lovely therapist though, unfortunately that's the way financial incentives often push things.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2023 01:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 20, 2024 15:24 |
|
|
Ronwayne posted:I'm speaking as to a more advanced method than that. Ronwayne, love your posts and I'm always hoping you're doing better. Maybe using terms like "neuroscience" would help differentiate what you're talking about from "mental health" which is what thehandtruck's response described (and what we're generally talking about here). MMania posted:...I have my own take on therapy and this seems like as good a place as any to put it out in the world. Good therapy is different from what you got. I had a really bad experience with therapists as a child and young adult but good talk therapy is specific to you as a person and gives you the space you need to process stuff like "put[ting] my needs before that of the people I loved". I'm glad you were able to get to a better place with no meds and agree that a lot of issues could be resolved that way but sometimes peoples' brains just don't give them the correct amount of chemicals, or a person's fight/flight response is way too strong in mundane situations. Meds can address those things. The reason I wanted to reply to both of you in the same post is that you both seem to be mixing psychology/therapy with brain poo poo and I want to reinforce that those things are related but separate.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2023 01:16
|
|