Depression and Pills, bought or presc... - Mental Health Sup...

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Depression and Pills, bought or prescribed, can often make matters and Health worse, not better!

SAMBS profile image
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psycheducation.org/ - an excellent source of information for depression and how we can help ourselves!

I'm no medical expert, but I do speak from personal experiences. I have in the past been prescribed for depression and again several years later when I had a Nervous Breakdown. More recently I had a spontaneous aneurysm and brain haemorrhage, fall and car accident all in 2013, which left me with Brain Injury. I'd also just had a 45 t year relationship break up before those - ending up with no real support for any of the events. We can lose family and friends, when the brain goes awry and they like us, won't always understand or don't accept that we can't help the changes in our own moods and personalities!

Enough to make anyone depressed - yes - but I like to think of myself as being more frustrated - I now accept what I can't change - and welcome the opportunity to change what I can.

Needs must, so I decided I must take control of what happens to me and after months of research I 've now learnt a lot about my brain and neural effects - because the neurotransmitters control what happens to us, what we can or can't do and cope with, also how too many prescribed pills affected my physical health, but didn't help the neurological effects, made some worse!

Anti depressants, I also know from personal experience can in some circumstances, be our Angels or our Devils! Also stress!

Both control and affect our moods and behaviour, health as well. You may have seen on BBC1 news this evening the item about the young man who committed suicide when prescribed for acne. Yet the pills he took gave him some bad side effects, and obviously altered his brain function to the extent that he took his own life!

The manufacturers of the drug he was on, ROCHE, said it helps with the medical condition itself! OK it may well do so! Except his got worse and while doing so - so did the effects on his brain. All our systems are interconnected and what ends up left in the liver, which just like alcohol, is carried via the bloodstream to the brain! Another add to the mix is our genetic inheritance, so family health history is also important.

To ROCHE and the DOctors, first say what about the other potential side effects? No two people ARE the same or react/respond exactly the same way, the majority might, but what about the minorities?

Riche and Doctor interviewees this evening took the view that the risks are acceptable! OK?

I take the view that NO they b*******y well are not! Those who have neural effects whether from 'acceptable risks' or not, make unstable decisions, take distressing and unacceptable actions. It is NOT OK and should not be acceptable to the manufacturers and the Doctors.

So if your depression is because of life circumstances, health, a relationship, the weather or whatever and you seek an OTC drug or doctors prescription you think will or may help you - some meds will help some people but not all meds suit all people

Check out DRUGS. COM - for the pill you want to take check it out in relationship to any other meds you may be on.

Also use Wikipedia. I found a good link with an excellent explanation of how our brains work concerning depression at the following link

psycheducation.org/

It might save someone's life one day and give some insight and guidance now.

I remind you you I'm not a medic, a counsellor or a therapist, but I have been and still am occasionally where some of you may be now! I

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SAMBS
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Lizbett profile image
Lizbett

Thank you for your post. I think it's important that people do their research before going with any type of med. It is VITALLY important that people know which drugs can be used together and which can't. Which class of anti-depressant treats what exactly. Double check with a pharmacist.

My GP and Psychiatrist both at one time prescribed an anti-depressant (EEffexor and then Cymbalta) with Tramadol. I have chronic pain. Cymbalta is meant to help with pain, depression, anxiety/panic. I walked around in mindless confusion and chronic fatigue for a very, very long time. My depression and chronic anxiety is the reactive type: a reaction to poorly managed pain, mainly because the GP is ultra-conservative. Currently, I'm looking to psychological help because I feel totally out of control.

Please don't allow yourself to be a lab guinea pig for Dr's Specialists. Do your research. Ask about side-effects including when getting off the meds. Weigh up the pros and cons. And then decide in conjunction with a Dr.

To me, there is no such thing as a magic pill unfortunately. Instead, I would urge taking a holistic approach to health.

Best wishes.

SAMBS profile image
SAMBS in reply to Lizbett

HiLizbett thanks for reply.

Fortunately I learnt and knew from my brain injury, what 'neural effects' I had. Headway Community have some excellent PDF downloads on neurological effects of brain injury. Also diagrams of the brain and what areas the neurotransmitters control. I also knew I had a physical not physchological cause for the damage to my brain, aneurysm and brain haemorrhage, and that It was that which led to the neurological damage ! I knew NOTHING about brain injury till I had one, then two, then 3 - all caused by physical not neuro or emotional damage!

With a professional pyschoanalayst for a father, who was employed by the Home Office in the UK way back when, to talk to some of the countries most dangerous prisoners in both Dartmoor and Barlinnie Prisons, it was obvious he had an ability in his profession. Fortunately because he was an an Academic, not a Medic he was good at what he did! I'm not surprised therefore if I have inherited some of his genes, and DNA I'm Following the same path as him now, with my both physical and neural health awareness and wellbeing.

No medical specialist can pinpoint EXACTLY where the mind is, because it is a collective of the different transmitters and receptors which control our actions, thoughts and physical well being.

So I started my own research into Brain Injuries, looking at good Hon Code and trusted websites, as well as reading about other brain injured people's experiences and realising we were all going through the same thing and having the same neurological symptoms, however caused, spontaneous haemorrhage, falls, car accidents, the last two causing physical knocks to the head, making the brain hit the inside of the skull. It's like a jelly in a jelly mould!

Look at changes that are being made to Rugby Rules, Cassius Clay, has dementia from being knocked about so often! Michael Schumacher the FI racing driver had a fall and hit his head on a rock. His brain bounced around around inside his skull, the helmet protected his skull! It's the severity of damage to the Brain, being in a coma, or unconscious that affects grey and white matter in the brain! Doctors are concerned if a child falls, because of effects of concussion, their skulls are still fragile as are their brains!

Knowing these differences - it didn't take me long to realise there are different external influences on the brain. We all know how alcohol slows the brain, our reflexes, awareness and ability to drive safely and many meds say ' may cause drowsiness.

Medication, especially if prescribed or bought over the counter, affects the brain because it is SUPPOSED to target specific neurotransmitters which take the messages to the different organs and nerves of the body. The wrong med targets the wrong part! However many meds also counteract each other or are not taken correctly, according to EXACT instructions, It's like cutting your hand with a dirty instrument, and putting a plaster on your wrist - it won't stop your hand bleeding or infection if not cleaned and dressed correctly! Think of the brain and it's reactions in the same way!

Fortunately I realised through the physical ill effects if mixing meds and increased neurological effects of the Anti-depressants I was on, that I needed to stop taking the Anti - Depressants. I had not been on them very long only a matter of months, and immediately stopped taking all of them. I do now take only Levothyroxine prescribed for my Hypothyroidism, and have quarterly blood tests to ensure my levels stay stable, if they don't the amount of Levo I take is altered by my doctor if necessary.

I do believe in seeing doctors for changes to our physical health. I do NOT believe in us being stuffed up unwittingly by ourselves, doctors, or pharmacists unless we are totLly aware of everything we take and the potential for side effects of doing that. That is why I recommend the 2 sites

DRUGS.COM and LABTESTSONLINE.

No one knows better than us or has more responsibility for our own health and welfare than ourselves That health and welfare also includes ensuring we have the right amount of minerals and vitamins in our systems to ensure healthy glands and organs, as well as the protein we need.

I have been staggered at so many similiar neuro effects for many different conditions and quantities of meds taken, that is why I decided to write about things I have discovered through my research.

For people struggling with being overweight, don't you ever wonder why diet programs like Weight Watchers, or the Red/Green diets only ever work for us for few a months? If they worked permanently they would soon go out of business!

You see we have so much going on in our lives, we don't stop to think about what we feed our bodies - be it food or drugs, - and it's only the effects they have on us that sends us to the doctor and so the vicious circles continue.

Being overweight isn't always a result of deliberate over eating, we have addictive (smoking,drinking/eating, I.e. The wrong foods) neurotransmitters as well as all the others that send pain messages to the nerves in our bodies.

Please just think about all the above. If YOU think I'm crazy, so be it. I know that as of Tuesday at a health Medical, my BMI was described as perfect! I know also that by not taking a whole host of pills I have stopped being confused, and emotional (except by an excessive act of unexpected kindness shown towards me this week, when I did cry) and some of the neurological effects I still have are down to my Brain Injury.

Fortunately I still have my Mind, enabling me to absorb, process and evaluate all the information I have collected and pass it on to you all, and I hope it explains to everyone and helps them somewhat!

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