PCOS Messages for March, 2002: Re: To Gemma re: Anti-Depressants

Re: To Gemma re: Anti-Depressants

From: anonymous (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Wed, 13 Mar 2002 03:28:05 -0600 (CST)

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At Mon, 11 Mar 2002, stedgar wrote: >
>Hi Gemma :^)
>
>~~ Do they help ? Who knows really - I don't get so low now but I certainly
>don't get happy either - I'm pretty numb really. I think they just
>de-sensitize you which is sometimes good and sometimes not. ~~
>
>Anti-Depressants shouldn't do that Hon. Maybe ask your Dr. for a different
>one?
>
>I've been on Effexor for about a year now and I LOVE it! The high's are my
>own and the lows are there, but they don't last for MONTHS like they did.
>
>Oh, and one of the side effects of Effexor is, ehem, approximately 70% of
>women who take it 'suffer' from spontaneous orgasms. What's not to like?
>LOL
>

What makes me angry and frustrated is that the psychiatrists dispensing these terrible drugs never read these bulletin boards and self-help pages where people talk to each other and commiserate about what they are experiencing. The first time I told my shrink about these types of pages, he bluntly dismissed me as seeking information from very subjective and unreliable sources. Well, the fact is, he and his cronies in his HMO don't do much of anything except collect huge paychecks and stock options. They are not there to help you! That's the very first thing you are going to have to realize. They are there to MAKE MONEY! They are there to put you on a drug that will keep bringing you back, year after year. When Prozac first came out, the makers were offering some shrinks incentive vacation trips for doing a volume business prescribing it. They don't put you, the patient first. If you are in an HMO, you must realize that profits come first, last and always for these people.

But that's off topic. Here's what finally happened to me. After living with no sex life for years on Paxil, I switched to Serzone. The stuff made me so sick, I think it is the equivalent of trying to kick heroin. Also, like someone who wrote in here, most of the time, you can't even get a psychiatrist on the darn telephone on a weekend, or late at night when you may be going through h*ll with this stuff. Well, I finally reached him a few days ago in his office, after insisting that no, I was not going to leave a message, and no, I was not going to speak to his snotty nurse instead. I just flat refused. I said put me on hold and I want the doctor! Finally, I got him. He was so mad that I had been "rude" to his staff. He just said something like, "well, if you've got these symptoms, then just quit taking the medications!" Poof, just like that. "Wait a minute," I thought. Didn't he once tell me that serotonin re-uptake would be a lifetime problem? Didn't he tell me that to get off of the stuff would cause a reoccurrence of depression that would likely be worse each time and may lead to an even deeper and more aggravated case? Now, why all of a sudden is he reversing direction? Here he is, angry because I'M angry because he doesn't really give a darn. Now, there's professionalism for you!

But in any case, I quit. I quit taking the medications. Yes, my depression has returned. But I'm going to take a bold step now and seek a psychiatrist in a private practice -- one who is interested in my health, not my "Health Maintenance Program." I'm going to go back into group therapy for depression and I'm also not going to accept any further medication unless I have a doctor that actually cares enough to talk to me on the phone when I am in desperate need -- one who monitors closely any drug he gives a patient and is concerned as I am when I wake in the middle of the night with a bomber of a headache and my skin is itching and I'm so wired up that all I can do is stare at a TV on the couch all night!

My advice to everyone: Don't be a sheep! Fight back! If you are not getting the care you are paying for and that you deserve as a patient -- LEAVE! And be sure and tell them why. HMOs only listen to people when it looks like they are going to start losing money. >Terrie
>Vancouver, BC
>Board of Directors, PCOSA of Canada
>PCOS@9, Dx@32
>Hysterectomy 02/02/05
>Met, Effexor, Herbs & Anti-Candida

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