I don’t have the patience for antidepressants!

[Nutella06]

As I stated in my last post I’ve been put on Wellbutrin 150 mg a day. Been over 2 weeks and now the doc wants to bump me up to 200mg b/c it’s not helping. I’m not a believer in antidepressants for severe depression and this is backed up by people who aren’t paid off my the pharmaceutical industry like Joe Rogan or the Huffington post. The real science shows that most antidepressants are nothing more than placebo. Also how many side effects are involved with these over prescribed garbage. I believe the real answers are in plant based medicine and luckily those real drugs are starting to make a comeback. I’m not going to suffer through weeks or even months to get the right fit of what I consider to be a con job by a well funded pharmaceutical machine. I will go ahead with getting ECT done in a few months because it’s either that or something more extreme. If anyone knows a case study I can be apart of for any psychedelic meds I will gladly sign up..

[hypercat54]

Well whatever works for you. I find ad's help me though I do agree the pharmaceutical industry is corrupt. I don't agree they are placebos for the majority of people. I have heard that up to 40% of sufferers are treatment resistant.

Would you be able to have ECT if you refuse ad's first? I didn't think that was a usual primary treatment. There is actually no scientific evidence to show ECT works and certainly it is unsuitable for most people's conditions. x

[fauxartist]

hypercat54 as always hits the nail on the head. I know I had to take a number of different SSRI's including Wellbutrin, which was according to my doctor better for quiting smoking. I now take a low dose of an SSRI for well over a year now and it's worked well for me. There is no 'WOW' effect with anything. And here's what concerns me greatly about having a bunch of volts of electricity shot through my head...the potential side effects concern me much more frankly.

(ECT) is used only to achieve rapid and short-term improvement of severe symptoms after an adequate trial of other treatment options has proven ineffective and/or when the condition is considered to be potentially life-threatening. Some people felt that there was no improvement in their symptoms from ECT. Some of the people we spoke to found that ECT didn’t help them at all, or the immediate effect soon wore off, and they needed medication to manage their symptoms. For others, while ECT was effective on some occasions, it was not effective at other times. Tracy suffered from post-natal depression as well as depression at other times of her life. She does not think ECT had any effect on her except to wipe her memory.

Even when ECT did not lead to a positive change in mood or wellbeing, it could still sometimes have distressing side effects (see for more ‘Side effects of having ECT’). Some people described ECT itself as a distressing treatment to have (for more see ‘Experience of having ECT’) and said self-help and medication worked better for them. Where the ECT didn’t work, some carers felt desperate and like they had “let down” their loved one. Carys said ECT had not helped her daughter and “it was almost like another way of hurting her”, “quite cruel”.

[Nutella06 in reply to fauxartist]

Obviously neither of you have read any of my previous posts! I’ve struggled with mental illness since I was a child but, it didn’t impact my day to day function until my dad died in 1993. I’ve been on meds since 1994 and I personally don’t think antidepressants work for me. If they work for you great. Keep taking them but, are you going to stay on them for the rest of your life? I’m not going to and that has led me to explore more options and alternatives. I have done TMS 3 times. Twice with Neurostar and just completed less than 2 months ago Brainsway TMS. I had success with TMS the first time back in 2013 but it hasn’t been as effective in 2016 and I was convinced that the Brainsway would give me the relief I needed to restore my life but, that hasn’t happened. So my choices become more limited which leads someone like me to decide ECT could help. I was even wanting to do Vagus Nerve Stimulation and called Emory Hospital in Atlanta and was told by a rep there that only people with epilepsy are approved to get it. I told this rep then how come I have seen YouTube videos of VNS given to a person with severe depression? She kept saying it’s not approved for that. I told her that it has been FDA approved for years but, she just stuck to the same script. So insurance won’t pick up the bill for that and they will cover me for ECT. So even though I would prefer to get VNS I’m bound by what the insurance will cover. It’s a shit state of affairs but welcome to the capitalist very flawed health service. So I appreciate your concern with thinking I just want a “quick fix” but, I can assure you that is not the case by even a million light years. I talked to my neuropsychiatrist about what time frame I should wait after completing Brainsway TMS to do ECT and he said 3 months. He’s an expert you are not! I think you need to investigate the positive side of ECT. I’m very skeptical too but if the option is load me up with pills and no long term solution except switching pills and upping dosages or a huge breakthrough and possible relief with ECT. I’ll go with the ECT... Here’s some positive info on ECT.

vimeo.com/275898698