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Ganesh--
quote:If someone is "comfortable" with the fluctuation of their moods and "handling it well", it's slightly difficult to see why they're presenting themselves to a doctor in the first place.
Agreed. I am speaking from my personal experience. I don't mean to say that physicians are bad in prescribing drugs. I mean that my physician, kind-hearted, well-intentioned as he was, lept to prescribe me medication, and offered no other options than drugs. This is very worrisome to me, and how others are likely receive similar treatment.
quote:Yes, I expect the vast majority of people experience mood swings that aren't directly and obviously attributable to their life situations: personality type, genetic loading and hormonal variations are probably at least as important in determining one's overall approach to the world. It's a mistake to rule out all pharmacological approaches on the basis of your experience alone, though, isn't it?
I did not represent myself well in stating that I hoped that Dread Pirate Crunchy was not prescribed drugs. I hoped that the good Pirate had been offered other potential solutions, and not just prescribed drugs without those offerings.
I do not rule out the possible benefits of drugs. I don't doubt they have helped countless people; they just have also, unfortunately, been sold as the best (or even only) means to health; this is not so in many cases.
quote:If you're gonna decide that 'dysthymia' (which, basically, means unhappiness which doesn't amount, symptomatically to actual depression) is worthy of medicalisation, why not 'cyclothymia'? Surely the key factor is the extent to which the low spells are 'unwavering', and one's ability to cope with them when they arise?
In my response to the good Pirate, I noted that my understanding of dysthymia comes only from my mother, and she described it as a depression of the senses but not of the mood--a condition where one goes through life with everything being just okay. It was this understanding that brought me to write that I would rather have the highs and lows of cyclothymia than the blahness of dysthymia.
I tried to look up dysthymia, but all I could find were it's parts--dys- being abnormal or impaired and -thymia being a condition of mind or will. Vague to me.
quote:In the UK, it's not usually doctors who rush to medicalise 'normal' life experiences; more often than not, they're reacting to individuals demanding that 'something be done' about their problem, whether conceptualised as illness or not. Medication (carbamazepine, sodium valproate, etc.) can sometimes be helpful in alleviating unpleasant mood swings; if they're proving distressing enough to the cyclothymic individual, why not try it?
I can't speak for people living in the UK or across the board for US citizens--just from my experience; and that is: almost every time a family member of mine (or myself) has gone to the doctor, we have been diagnosed with a chronic illness. And it's not just been one doctor, which leads me to believe that our problem wasn't a mad-physician. For these illnesses, we were prescribed drugs and not lifestyle changes or anything at all other than drugs.
One could argue, I suppose that my family is just horribly sickly. Could be.
But I took myself off all drugs without the guidance of a physician when I was in a deep depression that hadn't seen relief in six months. I was much happier without the drugs.
Not that everyone will be.
I've now made this post into the Apple-hates-drugs-except-for-wine-wine-is-pretty-good post.
I hope that I've cleared up more of my points in this post than unclear ones introduced.
Today? Mm. Well, I did say life is for loving; since I'm doing a lot of loving I can't help but be living. I am doing this all, however, in my hideous blue flannel polar bear footed pajamas. Soon I hope to love more chicly. |
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