depression

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Thought Bubbles: Holley's blog

I take inspiration from where ever I can get it. Here is a blog that I read almost every morning: It Is by Holley Gerth

I don't know exactly where you are at this moment.

But I know this...

You are loved.

You are surrounded by grace.

I'm not sure what's ahead of you in the days to come.

But I'm sure of this...

You will not face it alone.

You already have victory in the ways that matter most.

I may not see every detail of your circumstances.

But I see this...

You have a God who watches over you with tender care.

And wherever you are, He is already there.

As you begin your week, my friend, know that you're in my thoughts and prayers!

Who in your life needs to hear this today too?

--Holley

She says things so lovingly and graciously that I am hesitant to write anything afterwards. But I am reminded that the world does go on around me as I struggle with the battle within. To pull myself up out of the stifling, overbearing river of depression and breathe again the breath of life, that is my goal! How can one do so without the guidance of a God, of friends, of family.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Allergy Shots and depression

The allergy shots and the depressions are coming on the same days. I have told the nurse this, and she pooh-pawed this notion. But the other effects of allergies are inquired about. Wheezing, coughing, sneezing are asked about. But not depression. We will discuss this today. I will tell her, the nurse practitioner, of the statement that the psychiatrist made that environmental toxins do produce depression. So that the conclusion could be made that the allergy shots are having an effect. And that the body will be built up to handle this source of depression.

These are Janet’s other sites:

Brother John

I have suffered from my brother not caring to admit that I exist.It is his attitude. I believe he is stressed out and suffers allergies and things as I do, but he keeps it inside and becomes cold towards all people,especially family. To those who could help him. So I have to survive and I turn away from the relationship and move on. I can not get emotional support from him, nor financial either, so it will remain a purely surface relationship for now. I admired him growing up. Admired his degrees, learning, ability to make money, security and self-confidence. But not coldness, lack of emotion, empathy, and soul. I care for him deeply. but in this latest bout with the disease of depression, I have learned that a disease that is not seen, is not understood by the unempathic and logical people of this family. But to survive, one must not hold on to the things of childhood, but cast them aside if they are in the way of moving on,

These are Janet’s other sites:

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Abilify SuckS!

New doctors orders to reduce and come off Abilify: ending up in insomnia, terror in thoughts, jerking awake, horrible. As you notice, not spelling well goes with not sleeping well as well. Going back on cymbalta at 30 mg for one week, then 60 for three weeks,
What I hate most is the drugs ability to make one like a drug addict. Craving it, have to have it for sanity. Hating that control it has over you.

Then there is the panic that you can not get it because of the insurance for some reason. Just horrible. So that is why I went to the VNS but it does not do it all.
I have to survive to tell people about this hideousness.

These are Janet’s other sites:

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Antidepressants and the Heart

This if from the Bottomline book people:

CAN AN ANTIDEPRESSANT AFFECT THE WAY YOUR HEART WORKS?

Depression makes it difficult to think about anything else but feeling better. But thousands of patients with major depression who take the popular antidepressant citalopram (Celexa), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), now have to consider their hearts as well as their minds -- because research shows that high doses of this drug may trigger fatal changes in the heart’s electrical signals. There are more than a dozen drugs that carry this dangerous side effect (see our story on the antinausea drug Zofran in Daily Health News, November 14, 2011), but Celexa has been added to that list.

This latest chapter in the spotty history of antidepressants has come about because claims of "adverse events" from patients who were taking high doses of Celexa were reported to the FDA. Additionally, a study was done to examine the drug’s effects on cardiac conduction (the rate at which the heart transmits electrical impulses). After reviewing the results of the study, the FDA approved labeling revisions, dropping the maximum dosage of Celexa from 60 mg daily to 40 mg daily. Now the question that many patients and their doctors will have to face is, will the lower maximum dose of Celexa have the same ability to stem depression’s symptoms?

The answer will be yes for some patients and no for others. For the details, I called Lisa Kubaska, PharmD, an FDA spokesperson... Kerry S. Russell, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine in the section of cardiovascular medicine at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut... and R. Scott Hamilton, MD, a psychiatrist in Bloomington, Illinois, and a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Kubaska told me that all three of Celexa’s available sizes -- 10 mg, 20 mg and 40 mg -- have been shown to reduce depressive symptoms. But even the 40-mg dose may stop short of producing adequate relief for some patients who have been using more than 40 mg per day. And when that’s the case, those patients will have to talk to their doctors about whether to switch to another antidepressant entirely... add an "augmentation agent" such as Seroquel or Abilify on top of their Celexa... or lower their dose of Celexa and make lifestyle changes and/or use natural medicine in addition, Dr. Hamilton told me.

WATCHING OUT FOR HEARTS AND MINDS

It’s important to stress that no deaths have been reported (at least not yet) from the higher dose of Celexa. But when analyzing people who took the 60-mg-daily dose, researchers found that their QT interval (the period of time between contractions of certain parts of the heart) was dangerously lengthened.

People who took the 40-mg dose had, on average, a modest increase in prolongation of 12.6 milliseconds, while the people who took the 60-mg dose had, on average, a more dangerous increase in prolongation of 18.5 milliseconds. According to Dr. Russell, excessive QT prolongation is a type of electrical irregularity that can lead to an abnormal heartbeat (called "torsades de pointes"), which can be fatal. Those at highest risk for this irregularity include people with low blood levels of potassium, magnesium and calcium and people with underlying heart conditions. And since the elderly constitute a large number of patients taking antidepressants, concerns about heart conditions in Celexa patients are well-placed.

Dr. Hamilton said that he did not see the situation as an emergency and that he would be discussing the study’s findings with each patient as he/she visited his office for follow-up appointments. At high levels, some other SSRIs had also been noted to have cardiac effects, so the news didn’t shock him.

Still, since about 7% of the US population copes with major depression in any 12-month span, Dr. Hamilton understands that many of those people might be concerned that a medication they’ve taken to help them find relief also has the potential to endanger their lives. In this case, he said, by all means make an appointment right away to discuss your options with your doctor. But do not suddenly reduce your dose of any antidepressant -- that itself can be very dangerous and could cause unwanted side effects, such as flulike symptoms, depression and anxiety. And, of course, if you are taking an antidepressant and experience an irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, dizziness or fainting, seek immediate care.

Source(s):

Lisa Kubaska, PharmD, spokesperson, FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Silver Spring, Maryland.

R. Scott Hamilton, MD, psychiatrist, Bloomington, Illinois, and fellow, American Psychiatric Association.

Kerry S. Russell, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine in the section of cardiovascular medicine at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

These are Janet’s other sites:

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Vindicated!!!!!!!

If you want a great psychiatrist in the Orlando area, Dr. Lillian Saavedra is the one to go to. She said that allergies are the cause of depression! That when one is undergoing a bad about of allergies to use the anti depressants, then get off of them! That one does not have to be a slave to the drugs! She will be where I will stay in this current about of allergy flare up. Why go anywhere else? She said that the current administration of allergy shots and the VNS should be fine for me. She switched up the medications and the timing of them. We will try this new way of doing things.

Singular in the morning, Xyzal in the noon time, no more antihistamines after about 2pm. She took me off the Abilify and Lexapro, and put me on Cymbalta. Gave me a schedule of how to get off Abilify. We mentioned me going to Steven Spieser for treatment, however Lillian is about only two miles away from me. I had Spieser twenty years ago. He may have changed in all that time, but I like her more than him because she the drugs are not to make you a slave to them, he was different on that tack. But more information has come out in twenty years.