Monday, December 29, 2014

Latuda-Right for me?

I have started back on Latuda. I was having arthritis in both feet and read about it causing the problem. I called the doctor when that pain was also accompanied by breast pain.
She has written a script that would test my prolactin  levels. That test includes the serum levels. This will tell if it is the Latuda or something else.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Latuda effects

I was put on Latuda about 10 days ago. Now I keep wanting to move. I am up writing this because I want to move around constantly and typing seems to help. First it was my breasts that hurt as if I had eaten way to much caffeine. So the method of breast massage was employed. That seemed to help vastly. Anything to stop the misery and pain. Now the inability to stay still. I am waiting for the side effects to get worse.
I am waiting to go to the doctor for the VNS.  He is a neurologist and usually works with epileptics. I was not there since 2011 so I have to register as a new patient.  This is a pain. I should have taken better care to have it adjusted and watched. It was not bothering me, and I thought it wasn't working as it was supposed to so I let it go. I was neglectful about the matter. If it is not working, I should have it removed. That is cost prohibitive. The thing was put in in 2008 and has been turned on since. The battery was supposed to be working for only six years. So I expect it to stop any day. My level of usage was low grade, only a very small shock was used to stimulate the brain and create serotonin.  Perhaps the low level of stimulation will enable the battery to last longer.

I am back on effexor. I know that that drug was tolerated by me some time ago. As a matter of fact about three years ago. It seemed to work for a short time and then it quit. Same as the other drugs. I  have had about 18 different medications over the past 21 years. They work for a time then they peter out.

There is a strange phenomenon with depression. Unless the drug is working the right way memory is impaired, joy is also. I have very little memories of the day before. And if you were to ask me how the joy that I experienced was remembered there would be nothing there.  Nothing there, just a vague memory there. Not joy, and over time nothing. I can't remember what joy is about. That is pitiful now isn't it?

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Stress: The Common Enemy

From the web:
http://healthylivinghowto.com/1/post/2014/01/new-science-of-stress-reveals-how-you-think-about-stress-matters.html
Blog from Linda:
I highly recommend Dr. Gabor Mate’s book called “When the Body Says No; Exploring the Stress Disease Connection”. This book is truly amazing. At first he goes into the chemistry of stress hormones and how they eat away at the gut. Then he goes much further. This book allowed me to see myself slightly differently. Just a more compassionate view of the child I was and who I am now really opened some doors of perception at just the right time. I recommend anyone suffering from autoimmune disease to read it. And also look him up on youtube.com

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Your Brain and Its health

From the Web:
Your brain is the command and control center of your body. If you want a healthy body, the first place to ALWAYS start is by having a healthy brain.

9 Things that Enhance Our Brain

1. Positive Social Connections — the people you spend time with determine your health and longevity.
2. New Learning — when you stop learning your brain disconnects.
3. Diet — we either consume the nutrients that help us or the toxins that harm us, the SAD is associated with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer’s. Food is medicine or poison.
4. Sleep — essential for blood flow to the brain, without sleep there are very serious consequences.
5. Physical Exercise — acts like a natural wonder drug for the brain
6. Healthy Anxiety — for inspiration to change
7. Meditation/Prayer — calms stress, chronic stress restricts blood flow to the brain which lowers brain function and prematurely ages the brain
8. ANT Killing — don’t believe every stupid thought you have
9. Gratitude — write down 3 things you are grateful for every day and within 3 weeks you’ll notice significant difference in your level of happiness, this is the best anti-depressant

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Depression: The Great Imposter

When I heard that Robin Williams had died I wanted to write right away, wanted to make a statement. But I decided to wait for the comments of others to see if they could understand what he was going through. On a Fox News web page I ran across  the following information. Doctor Keith Ablow got it right when he wrote the following article click here.

The statements that he makes are, frankly, the best and most accurate description of depression that I have ever read.
I believe that I am going through the last of the most recent bout of the disease. I began to break it's hold on me when I inserted a phrase into the constant streaming negative comments running through my mind: these people around me are not thinking the same negative thoughts that I am thinking. I other words I worked on bringing myself back to reality. Over and over again I applied this to my thinking. Gradually reality would set in and I felt better.
As this was going on so was something else was as well and when I realized it and used it again and again reality again set in. The thing that was going on was that I realized that the time that I was enjoying laughing, feeling content, the depression ebbed. One might say, well of course! But it meant that I could control it. Just that realization set me to thinking. I said it over and over. Finally it started to work. I was fighting an Imposter. The negative thoughts (depression) were(are) the Imposter.
This is not all my own work. God had a lot to do with this pattern. I  see God as all powerful and would lay these negative thoughts on His back and realized that I would feel better. I knew the Bible was Holy and True. If the Bible said to do this, and It does, then He will follow through and take the negatives and turn them positive.
I find that one has to accept something as true and unassailable (unshakeable). To me that is God and His Word. Doubts will rise up, that is why the thought that God would help me had to be unshakeable. I realize that this pattern of thought is working. Yes, there are going to be lapses, but Hang on, strap yourself to the idea and use it time and again. It does work to break the depression. But to get to this place it am on a high level of drugs as well. But just the drugs alone were not enough to bring me to the current level of contentment.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Two Sites for Alternate Health

The other day I ran across two very interesting sites that have very promising treatments for depression.
One is on everyday health.com 
This info, or much of it, is covered in other posts on this blog. But some are not. The information on how Botox can be used and also the party drug Lanicemine is new. 
I am trying the water cure and am on my second day of the trial period.(I want to try until my symptoms force me to stop) that I am having muscle aches and pains, and if the headaches don't stop I will have to re-look at the salt factor in the combination. I may have to get the electrolytes through higher levels of my vitamin and mineral supplement.
I offer the information but take no responsibility as to the outcomes. That is up to you.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Other Health Issues

I thought that I had, through a different type of medication( for bipolar, and not just depression) and a new doctor that I had gotten the disease under control. Well, I had always said that if I had to have pain that I would rather have physical pain and not mental.
Well, now the two are combined and that is a blow. But I have also learn in the depressed times in the past that if I get my mind off of the depression through, say, singing along with positive songs on the Christian radio station, the depression will lift. It does work.
I think that singing along with positive music does two things:
  • Makes you come out of the current thought pattern(s) that you are struggling with and
  • focuses your thoughts on the bigger issues in life. Like peace and the light that is in life inherently. It is there, whether you can feel it in your thoughts or not.....
Medication can make you see this more clearly. But there is a stronger presence in believing in something bigger than you.  Depression when viewed bigger than you will win over you. Ask Some One (God) to take away that pain (depression) by giving it every minute to HIM. Every time the problem (depression) comes, look towards the light and just believe that HE has taken the discontent onto HIS shoulders. HE is bigger than you. HE can handle anything. Some times it takes years to realize this. Faith wavers. Depression will come and go because it is the way you have always reacted to the situations that your life is full of. THINK ON THIS. At least it will be a different way of thinking, and depression is a selfish way of thinking. I know I still have the pattern of depressive thoughts haunting me, and it is hard. When the problems wash over me I have to give my thoughts to HIM, let HIM deal with it.
Whether you are religious or not, you have to know that there is a larger thing out in life that can lift you. You did not make nature, God did, you are selfish to turn away from what is true.

Well I know that was a rant on God, it deserves to be looked into. There is something bigger than your problems.