We all need to be heard for a little while.

Stoodles

Lovely rainbows!

Waves_and_Smiles

Stoodles, please do not let the labels people give you make you feel down. All they are is just that-names professionals put onto a series of symptoms to lump people into one category or another. They don't take into account the whole individual at all, just isolated aspects that they think fits into a little box. I have a love/hate relationship with my labels. In some ways it's comforting to be able to say that I have 'this' so I have a name for it, on the other hand they can't all possibly be true or I wouldn't be functioning at all.

Feel free to laugh with me, here are my mental health labels-

Catatonic Schizophrenia
Paranoid Schizophrenia
Multiple Personality Disorder
Chronic Depression
Depression Psychosis
Phobic Disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder
General Anxiety Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Now I don't deny I have mental health issues but do you see why I find it funny? How do I even get out of bed in the morning with that lot? A lot are problems I have because of other disorders causing the symptoms, they aren't stand-alone problems as they are described. When my lovely psychiatrist listed these we both giggled. Even he said the same symptoms can be given different individual names depending who diagnoses you, they don't take into account that one can cause another.

Of course I have Anxiety Disorder, look what I'm up against, and of course I have Social Phobia, the Schizophrenia makes me believe everyone hates me! Depression psychosis? I have psychotic episodes for no reason at all so it's bound to happen when I am depressed sometimes! We have agreed that I have some symptoms of Bipolar, too which would in theory change the Schizophrenia label to Schizo-affective but that wouldn't account for the catatonia symptoms so it would have to be added a new separate condition. Why bother? It is just another name, my treatment doesn't change. It reaches a point where it's ludicrous and one could keep adding new labels forever.

Honestly, try not to let it upset you, you are YOU. Not a name that anyone has stuck on you and that hasn't changed one bit despite a new word being introduced. You will NEVER be a label, unless it gives you comfort to have a term to use ignore it and concentrate on dealing with the symptoms, the name they are given truly doesn't matter.

System

Sod labels

WaS you are awesome through and though and that's all that matters

Waves_and_Smiles

Awww, thank you MU!

Here is a weird question-is it just the people I seem to talk to by chance or are more and more people being put on anti-depressants/psychiatric drugs? I was helping WaSp with the server he plays games on earlier and talking to his gaming hero. He has been taking them for a while and two of his friends have just been put on them. My american friend takes them, my teacher friend takes tranquillisers and Milliefleur has also just been put on anti-depressants as a way to control her anxiety. BIL also takes them as does his girlfriend.

When I was put on psychiatric drugs for the first time things were very different. It was quite rare back then and I was only 11 at the time so there wasn't even that type of drug available for my age group. Hence I was put on a small dose of beta-blockers instead until I reached 16. By the time my Schizophrenia was diagnosed it was a little more common but still quite rare to hear of anyone on psychiatric drugs especially anti-psychotics.

I was wondering if people are more open about it now? Or is life that much more pressured that more people need them? Or the worse thought is are they becoming the automatic go-to answer for controlling mental health? Not that I have a problem with psychiatric drugs, I wouldn't be able to function without mine but I am concerned that people might be being given them as a sole alternative to other treatments rather than viewing them as just one possibility that may help.

I do need them because I have a chemical imbalance that no amount of talking will fix as do other people with chemical mental illnesses but I wonder about people with say, reactive depression that can occur after a trauma, for example being put on them for a while (which I totally support if needed) and then being left on them long term and being offered no other help. I would hate to think it had become the easy and cheapest option because talking therapies have been invaluable to me over the years and without that just taking pills alone would not be working even as slightly well as it does.

Pyxis

Some anti-depressants are also prescribed for musculoskeletal-skeletal disorders, as muscle relaxants, for example, so some people may not be taking them specifically for MH reasons.

Waves_and_Smiles

That's very true, Pyxis. Some of the older trycyclic anti-depressants are now used for pain relief. I used to know someone who took Amitriptrylene for migraine which was ironic because I was on and off of those for years and they always gave me a thumping headache! It was the first anti-depressant I was put on at 16 and it was only when we reached the maximum dosage and I was still a mess that we started to try other medications. They always really hurt my head though, it's me having weird reactions to drugs again!

I know Sexorat which I took for a long time can be used to counteract blushing and my anti-psychotic can be used to stop hiccups! Perhaps the medications are just being used for other things now?

Obviously, I don't question the validity of anyone taking psychiatric medication, I am on a barrel load myself. But for some psychiatric conditions I don't believe they should be the automatic, longterm answer. It's far easier to give someone a pill than give them time to talk through how they feel, especially when resources are being cut so much but I do think there should be an offer of various treatments offered so that people have a choice wherever possible.

I was very lucky to be offered many different therapies and a lot of support, attending a therapeutic community centre daily for 18 months was what got me through my first psychotic break far more than the medication did and I learnt so much. We were all all different ages and from all different backgrounds, the one thing we had in common was we were either just released in-patients or were on the verge of being admitted. Many of us, myself included had to turn up 5 days or a week or we would be sectioned. I know that the centre has been closed now and it's heartbreaking. Everyone there benefited so much from talking to each other, attending groups if they chose to and having someone professional to speak to daily. I really hope that things like that are still available to people, they are completely invaluable.

codemonkey

WaS, I think due to the lack of funding for other options, medication is the go-to for doctors when encountering any possible kind of mood disorder. Case in point, a few years ago I went to see my GP. I was on birth control medication (rather ironic in hindsight) and it messed with my hormones to the point where I was crying uncontrollably everyday. She was very nice and comforting but I had to be very firm that I was reacting to the hormones and not depressed. Had I been in neee of treatment for depression, the waiting list for counselling is so long that there's no choice not to prescribe meds just to do something.

What's interesting to me is that I've been put on anti-seizure medication which is also used to treat bipolar. My previous one was also used to treat anxiety.

Eta: Also I was on a tricyclic to treat nerve pain. (Amitriptylene). It made me spacey.

Waves_and_Smiles

I'm so sorry, code. That is the sort of thing that really upsets me on people's behalf. I wasn't hospitalised when Schizophrenia was first diagnosed which would be very rare these days. Instead I was told I must attend the day centre every day until further notice and within a week I was there. They also paid for taxi's for me for the first 2 months because I couldn't use public transport which no doubt would be unheard of now. It makes me realise how incredibly lucky I have been with my treatment because it was available very quickly and there were many options. I have had 5 different types of therapy and it makes me so sad that isn't available nowadays and that there are horrendous waiting lists just for one type. There is a place for medication but for a lot of people there is far more benefit in that being one part of treatment, not the only one.

I honestly believe the other treatments are what made me a high functioning Schizophrenic rather than one stuck in the revolving door syndrome of many hospital admissions with little progress. We are supposed to be advancing, why is there less available for people now than when I was first diagnosed? It really makes me sad.

tea_lover

Morning Team

WaS, I work in Occ Health for a large engineering company. In theory, our safety critical engineers (ie. those that work on train tracks) are supposed to declare all medication they take to us. At least 50% of them are on some form on anti-depressants. That's before you even consider those that haven't declared their meds for one reason or another.

Like code, I've also previously been on amitriptylene for pain. My grandad was tried on various different a/ds for his neck pain (before they finally realised he'd broken his neck! But that's a different story...)

elsien

I think with older people, depression used to get missed, or put down to physical health problems so there's more awareness nowadays of the possibility.
I am not anti meds, I think they have their place, but there do seem to be people who once on an antidepressant seem to stay on it for years because there's nothing to treat the root causes.
One person I worked with who had severe communication difficulties lost his mum, then due to cuts lost the familiar services and friends he'd been seeing for years, with nothing to replace it. I'd say his depression was a very understandable reaction to the changes in his life. The anti d's were meant to be short term while he was supported through it. But there were no services to help him deal with his various losses so they stayed.
I think there may be a fair few people who could cope better with circumstances if they understood their reaction and had the tools to deal with it, and there is a degree of over medicalisation in the absence of anything else.
Going onto the hospital wards, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of therapy or psychological support for a lot of patients either.