Aswad
Posts: 9374
Joined: 4/4/2007
Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: slaverosebeauty
Aswad and SweetDommes - I am manic depressive {not bipolar},
Manic-depressive is an outdated term for bipolar. Perhaps you mean bipolar with manic depression, regular bipolar, or cyclothymic?
quote:
I have done the sucide attempt thing, trust me on that.
I never got the part about making attempts. Sometimes, people stop one (unless sufficiently permanent means are used), of course, but when it's the rational choice (what I commented), why stop at that?
Sodium pentothal, or phenobarbital, should be available from a veterinarian. Diamorphine is commonly sold on the streets. Inject as much of the latter IV as you can take without fading from consciousness, then inject as much of the former IM as you have. There may be some aspiration, but the combination also supresses the suffocation response, so it won't be that much of a problem. Consciousness is lost in a matter of minutes, and not regained unless one is found inside 6-12 minutes, and even then the attempt at ressuscitation may well fail. EEG will reveal brain death by the time it's hooked up, and unless they have a reason to suspect the barbs, it might well fool them. Otherwise, it's days to months in a coma, IIRC, no specific antidote.
"Soft" way to go, painless, no fear (unless the diamorphine has been cut with something odd), and the pathologist is able to tell the family this with certainty, from the bloodwork alone. A lot less messy for whoever finds the corpse, as well.
Making a serious attempt without actually having rationally considered it would be a serious sign that meds are required, at least for a while, in my opinion.
I like the way some of the Native American tribes handled it: keep them around for a few days so they get to think about it, then let them do it if they still want to. It's their life, and sometimes, it may be a better choice, even rationally speaking.
quote:
I have had the gauntlet of tests ran. I spoke from MY experiences; I am not one to take ANYTHING unless I have too.
Does that go for food, too? Plenty of stuff in there that affects your neurochemical make-up. 
quote:
I stopped taking migraine meds and birthcontrol because I was so up and down, I was going out of my mind.
Both of those can do that. Birth control pills are particularly infamous for the mood swings they can cause. Different brands work for different people. Some people can't be on any.
quote:
Taking meds is NOT always the answer, behaviour modification, diet, etc are the BEST ways.
I never said meds are the answer in all cases. Quite on the contrary.
Similarly, you should not claim that the other efforts are universally the best.
For instance, a patient in a psychotic depression or depressed to the point of being entirely unresponsive to external stimuli is not generally treatable by diet, and there is no reliable way to do behaviour modification. Indeed, if entirely unresponsive to stimuli, the patient has no behaviour, and no way to elicit any.
quote:
I decided to get better, it is a LOT of mind over matter, positie thinking and prayer.
When you still have a concept of "I", and can still make conscious decisions, it may be that it works to "decide not to be ill". For me, it only worked when stuff was light. At the worst times, I could not have formed a coherent thought train to arrive at that conclusion.
Again, mind over mind, not mind over matter.
quote:
They have proven that prayer works, try it.
First off, who is "they", and what is this "proof"?
According to my reading, prayer has exactly the effect expected: identical to placebo, just like psychotherapy (with the exception of cognitive behavioural therapy, which has higher efficacy).
Second, you may not know this, but I'm a religious and spiritual person, and have been since before my depression started. I considered becoming a monk or an ordained priest. The latter would still be interesting to me, if the church would scratch the celibacy thing, the former would be the case if me and nephandi don't work out, heaven forbid. Obviously, I have tried prayer. A lot of intense prayer.
Third, I will relate an anecdote of a Catholic clergyman who suffered a moderate depression for three years... His comment was that he finally lost faith, and that the depression took a part of his soul away (something I can perfectly relate to). Further, he once (while not depressed) had the misfortune to spill about a gallon of boiling water over his genital area. He stated that he'd rather endure that for a thousand years than return to the depths of his depression for a single day, and that he prayed every single day for G*d to rather let him die than for the depression to return.
Prayer is not always the solution, either.
quote:
I have handled my m/d for over a decade; even through times wher most people would have caved into it.
Congratulations on that.
My depression lasted about the same time, without good periods; I spent about half of that in the lower range of moderate, the other half in the upper range of moderate, with a few months in the severe (as in "stark raving mad") range. Caving is kind of the definition of moderate, in some ways; it's when the mind decides it is already dead and starts waiting for the body to catch up.
I'm not generally one to cave.
I've ridden out drug-induced psychosis with panic. I've dealt with a circulatory collapse bordering on clinical shock for a month. During a hypertensive crisis, which leaves most people in a state where they're completely incapacitated, I checked my BP, fetched the emergency blood pressure meds, took them, and got myself to the ER. I've (legally) had the equivalent of half a gram of morphine IV in me, without prior experience with opioids, and functioned adequately with some nausea.
But I couldn't deal with the depression at its worst.
I'm glad to hear you can.
quote:
I'm stronger than m/d; it does not control my life, we are in this together, so I do things on MY terms, not on its terms.
Again, good for you.
quote:
Don't let it rule you.
I tried that. Didn't work, not until the meds got me better.
quote:
It might take a while, but trust me, your body will thank you. I have added years, if not decades to my life by NOT taking those drugs.
The jury is still out on that.
MAOIs may actually add years to your life, as they decrease the likelyhood of Alzheimers (can't remember how much) and Parkinsons (80% reduction). The meds for bipolar are a bit harsher, though.
The stress of depression, however, has been clearly shown to reduce life-expectancy, and successful treatment has been shown to reverse that reduction. There is little to indicate that a significant number of the current generation of meds have that much of a negative impact.
The likelyhood of suicide should also be factored in. Of course, for bipolar, those numbers are even worse.
quote:
I have a quality life.
Very happy to hear that.
Still, your experiences differ from mine. They also differ from those of most others who have had clinical depression (as opposed to being depressed) or, worse yet, those with bipolar.
_____________________________
"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind.
From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way.
We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
|
RE: Depression revisited - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread