Mr Gaddess
So Organic With The Thoughts...
I've been diagnosed with childhood Bipolar disorder (NOS), Insomnia, general anxiety and Borderline Personality Disorder.
I mostly use Cannabis to cope with all of them.
I use to be on pharma medication for everything but because of the kinds of medication I was taking it have severe side effects. My hair fell out, I have an infection under my skin causing severe acne (though its finally starting to clear up after being off those meds for 2 years), I OD on the sleep medication they gave me even though I took it EXACTLY how the prescribed it. That was terrifying. And the combination of the drugs started destroying my organs.
Now I just stick to cannabis. Its $160/month versus $900/month.
And that was just the medication. The 2 different doctors I had to see to get the prescriptions and the hospital visits to get my blood drawn and tested monthly (because they had to make sure they weren't poisoning me with the drugs) is another outrageous amount of money.
I would eventually like to start seeing just a Therapist again because its nice to talk to someone but I'd rather never be on pharma drugs (for my mental health issues) again if I can manage.
I'd like to add a disclaimer that there is noting wrong with pharma drugs.
Just the particular set of medications on was on did not work well for me.
...Let Us Rise With The Sun
It's been a long time since I read psych news (actually, it was a friend of mine who'd read the newsletters; she'd tell me the interesting bits), but I had no idea that they were recognizing childhood bipolar as a distinct diagnosis... interesting. Just offhand, would you happen to know whether that's across the board -- I mean, like whether things like "childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder" or "childhood schizophrenia" are recognized? I'm just curious. sweatdrop
The second half of my "first impression" reaction is "yeah, I think if I had all these intimidating sorts of diagnoses being piled onto me, I'd probably get all twitchy and have trouble sleeping, too! Hm. Bet you could file malpractice about that sleeping med OD... wait, I think statute of limitations is just a year for that... bah, and I hear it's really expensive to do that, anyway.
Bipolar, BPD... I know I distinctly remember reading that bipolar can be tricky, because it can be a disorder in and of itself, or it can be a symptom of other things (one of which, I think, was BPD and others in that family, now that I think of it). Again, though, my information's at least a decade old on that point.
What I really wanted to say, though, is to say definitely, do try to seek out a head-pshrinker to talk to, if you can -- as I understand it, the way most (no, definitely not all) psych disorders work is that medication is prescribed as a part of the treatment, but shouldn't by any means be considered to BE the treatment. They help keep the symptoms under control so that the cause can be addressed (hoping that makes sense). Meanwhile, at least, you've certainly got things well enough in hand to keep yourself functional and social (to some degree -- and yes, the internet counts, because there are times when even THAT much interaction is just way too much for me!). If not a therapist, maybe there's a support group of some kind near you (or hell, there's got to be web-based ones, however well those work)? If for no other reason than that seems like somewhere a person could ask others for therapist recommendations and a) not have to worry about getting "that look" and b) knowing you probably would get a few names to check out (... apologies if you've been there, done that, and got the t-shirt, though!).
And the final point- no, of course there's nothing wrong with pharma drugs. The "wrong", I think, is when the pharma companies encourage (read: bribe) physicians to prescribe them. Whaddya call the guy who graduated med school at the bottom of his class? Doctor. Plus, it's the nurses who basically do everything; the doctor just takes a look at the chart they've made and makes his mental calculations. And "that nice set of golf clubs I've been jonesing for" really doesn't belong in the equation. Between the practically omnipotent corporate power of the pharmaceutical and insurance companies, practically the only surprising thing is when anyone actually does get better! o_O
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