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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
[email protected]Shown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by bookgurl99 on June 7, 2002, at 8:27:53
. . . to keep taking them in order to stay functional?
We _know_ that in 10-30 years, when something new comes along, they'll acknowledge the damage current drugs have done
Is it best to stay on them to have a quality of life NOW? Or to get off and avoid the risks, the unknown damage?
Posted by Denise528 on June 7, 2002, at 10:58:25
In reply to Better to be off these potentially harmful meds or, posted by bookgurl99 on June 7, 2002, at 8:27:53
I'd rather have five years of quality life than 20 years of depression. So if you have tried everything other than drugs and nothing else is helping then I say get on them now. In thirty years time hopefully they will have come up with a new drug to sort out any possible damage caused by these drugs.
Denise
Posted by beardedlady on June 7, 2002, at 15:45:15
In reply to Better to be off these potentially harmful meds or, posted by bookgurl99 on June 7, 2002, at 8:27:53
Do you think people with asthma say this? What about diabetics? Or migraine sufferers?
Any medicine you take--whether it's for physical or emotional health--could potentially do some harm down the road. But most people don't have much of a choice. Diabetics and asthmatics would die without insulin and inhalers. Migraine sufferers would be ill a lot of the time. And so they take their medicine without much thought about those few years down the road. We should too.
We are lucky in that our dis-eases won't kill us (though we could potentially kill ourselves), but without our meds, we would be very, very sick. And that's no way to live.
Emotional health is just as important.
beardy :)>
Posted by oracle on June 7, 2002, at 16:32:36
In reply to Better to be off these potentially harmful meds or, posted by bookgurl99 on June 7, 2002, at 8:27:53
20 years of meds for me. No problems. Why worry ?
Posted by crepuscular on June 7, 2002, at 17:03:09
In reply to Better to be off these potentially harmful meds or, posted by bookgurl99 on June 7, 2002, at 8:27:53
I understand this quandry; coming up on 20 years of psychotropic use for me.
However, if you have recurrent depression or bipolar disporder, ALL the evidence points towards a deteriorating course of illness. It's not even a 50-50 case, your brain & life will become increasingly damaged by the disease process. repeat, DISEASE PROCESS.
It has taken years for me to "get" this message. Having got it, I really feel for my shrinks (and the non-depressed) for whom it is blindingly obvious that i'm suffering from neuro-biological problems.
If, however, your depression is mild, or a one-time reaction to specific life events, then I don't think medication is a good choice.
Posted by johnj on June 7, 2002, at 18:06:32
In reply to Re: Better to be off these potentially harmful meds or, posted by crepuscular on June 7, 2002, at 17:03:09
I don't know if I totally believe this or not. I do believe that it is a brain disease, but I read today that lithium may actually protect the brain. I wish I had a link, but I believe it was from a bipolar site up a few threads from here.
I think it can be managed to the point where a person is close to how they originally felt. But, it may be easy to confuse how I was 20 years ago with how I am now due to the fact that 20 years ago I could have made love 10 times a night, but now that would kill me. As we get older we "lose" some of our youth and how much is the disease and how much is nature I am not sure. I am going through a painful period right now that I haven't seen for ten years. why? I am not sure, but eventually I will get it managed. Peace.
johnj
Posted by rainbowlight on June 7, 2002, at 18:45:47
In reply to Re: Better to be off these potentially harmful meds or » bookgurl99, posted by beardedlady on June 7, 2002, at 15:45:15
Although it is hard to process the fact that we have to be on these meds possibly for life, what would our lives be without them? I personally would rather have a few good years than a long life of torment.
Posted by JohnX2 on June 7, 2002, at 23:45:29
In reply to Better to be off these potentially harmful meds or, posted by bookgurl99 on June 7, 2002, at 8:27:53
> . . . to keep taking them in order to stay functional?
>
> We _know_ that in 10-30 years, when something new comes along, they'll acknowledge the damage current drugs have done
>
> Is it best to stay on them to have a quality of life NOW? Or to get off and avoid the risks, the unknown damage?Yeah, but in 30 yrs they'll have the technology
to reverse brain damage for all we know? :-)John
Posted by JohnX2 on June 7, 2002, at 23:53:23
In reply to Better to be off these potentially harmful meds or, posted by bookgurl99 on June 7, 2002, at 8:27:53
> . . . to keep taking them in order to stay functional?
>
> We _know_ that in 10-30 years, when something new comes along, they'll acknowledge the damage current drugs have done
>
> Is it best to stay on them to have a quality of life NOW? Or to get off and avoid the risks, the unknown damage?
Untreated depression many times has classical makers of higher than
normal circulating levels of cortisol. This is toxic to
the hippocampus in the brain. Not to mention all the other
adverse affects of dysruptions in the HPA (hypothalamus
pituitary-adrenal) that occur during a depression which
can have indirect adverse effects all over the body.Therepeutic antidepressants have been shown to normalize a lot
of these functions.So, yes the ADs may be doing some damaging things we don't know
about, but one could also argue that they preserve health
beyond the depression or whatever they are treating.John
Posted by JonW on June 8, 2002, at 0:02:47
In reply to I have to agree with beardedlady, posted by rainbowlight on June 7, 2002, at 18:45:47
This is the end of the thread.
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