Posted by AndrewB on October 28, 2000, at 2:33:58
In reply to Re: Dr. Jensen, posted by Cecilia on October 27, 2000, at 23:45:17
John,
You have helped this board in your ability to encourage people to keep working towards their treatment and providing people with easily understandable suggestions on how to do so. Don't however, in your efforts to make things understandable and to give people hope, neglect to give people the essential details and cautions that should come with your advice.
Specifically, be clear with people that you are not a trained medical expert. More importantly, tell people that it is in their best interest, even when making your own medication choices, to be working with an experienced psychopharmocologist. Such a person can go over one's medical history in detail and monitor for side effects or drug interactions of possibly serious consequences.
BTW, please stop touting this two week rule! You and I know that there are just too many exceptions to this rule of thumb for it to be useful. For example, trials with stimulants can be much shorter. On the other hand, someone just wrote me that they had received the desired effect from low dose selegiline, but only after taking it for the 6 weeks. It isn't out of the norm for selegiline take this long (or longer) to kick in. An adequate trial period varies from med. to med.
John, I appreciate that you have given some much of time to help others on the board. A lot of people respect you on this board. Some, I suspect, take your advice verbatim. I suggest that you continually envision the potential consequences of your advice and, with this in mind, temper your postings with reminders for people to act with prudence and caution.
Maybe we don’t have guardian angels looking over our shoulders to save us from the trouble we get into. All the more reason to remind people to care for themselves with great care. Many people often want to hear of miracle cures and quick solutions. What we need to be told though is that there are no guaranteed easy solutions. Finding our way towards recovery can be a journey that can be both time consuming and filled with dead-end runs with treatments that don’t work out.
John thanks so much for encouraging us to never lose our hope or persistence in finding effective treatment. When we as posters are able to make some contribution towards somebody’s recovery, doesn’t it feel like we have shared in a miracle. I know how it feels to find recovery, I didn’t merely gain my health with my recovery, I feel I was given my very life. A future filled with dread fell away and I now know what it feels like to be truly human. On the other hand, I truly fear that my advice will someday precipitate a tragedy in someone’s life. We must never forget the potential consequences of our words.
AndrewB
poster:AndrewB
thread:46914
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001022/msgs/47584.html