Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. I am right now part-time in college. One step at a time. One course at a time (if they keep letting me do it that way, I've slipped under the radar so far . . .). Best of luck to you. I appreciate the confidence with regard to a benzo taper. Sorry I didn't respond to your other question asking about elaborating on what part of course materials I found obfuscating. I wrote a long response and then even went back to the textbook I found so confounding to give a quote as an example, and I realized the textbook did make sense—although that was reading a small bit at a time, which is easier than reading a lot at once, esp when the material is dense So, I was a bit flummoxed that my original point didn't stand. I was going to wait till I get past this exam I have on Tuesday to write a longer response, but that was probably the gist of it anyway.
yeah! Science, bitch !
do we know it works? it can all be explained by placebo effects
Idk. I take it and I can function a hell of a lot more like a normal human being than I do without it. I'm sure there are real studies that I could find if I dig but I'm lazy and tired. At the end of the day I'm quite confident I'd be dead without them, placebo or not I'm still gonna keep taking them
I love the central nervous system! So many people seem to think we are a "soft science" when actually the mind/body/social interaction is one of the most complex systems that we could study. Of course, that does play out in all other aspects of medicine, but many of them act as though it doesn't exist. Of course, as we well know, that is just a defense mechanism
on their part. Only the truly brave can embrace the uncertainty of our field IMO. To be fair though, slicing people open and removing organs might be a bit scary, too! I was too clumsy to ever consider that. Oops! in the OR would not be good. When I drop my pen during the middle of a diagnostic interview, it is actually an opportunity to build rapport. I've only recently come to respect how significantly mental stress affects my body. I've had physical manifestations of anxiety that to me could not possibly be explained by stressors but then that turned out to be the explanation once the stressor disappeared (and after extensive medical testing ruling out other factors). Part of the misperception was that my initial introduction to mental health was that anxiety was exactly like any other disease, and that SSRIs were exactly like the insulin a diabetic needed. Now I realize that the disease model for me is in having hypersensitivity to triggers--mental and physical. The mental stressors become physical maladies and, in my case, my body also is dysautonomic so that the way I respond to the simple act of standing is grossly exaggerated. I've gotten quite good at not responding with anxiety to abnormal autonomic responses. I still, though, respond quite physically to mental stressors. And that's a different physical response (shaking, not eating, not sleeping). I was often the last to realize it was anxiety causing such symptoms because they can be so severe it's hard to believe that they can be caused by life situations, but it's happened enough now that I realize it's the case. The other complicator for me is that it's hard to differentiate between withdrawal and anxiety symptoms, but either way stress triggers a body response in ways that seem unbelievable.I love the central nervous system! So many people seem to think we are a "soft science" when actually the mind/body/social interaction is one of the most complex systems that we could study. Of course, that does play out in all other aspects of medicine, but many of them act as though it doesn't exist. Of course, as we well know, that is just a defense mechanism
yes! And in the past 5 years I have only had one case where I have been absolutely convinced that the SRI did something. 200mg sertraline in a patient w/ tetrabenazine-induced depression. The patient did not know he was taking an antidepressant. I started the trial as the patient was extreme distraught, tearful, prone to crying and wailing spells, and having suicidal thoughts. After about 8weeks on the drug and a few weeks at 200mg the patient was for the first time sitting in a chair, reading, and smiling. He told me he still felt depressed but wasn't as bothered by it anymore. He didn't know he was on the drug, and his social and medical situation hadn't change and he was still taking the tetrabenazine.
