Speaking of TV writers who create their own Mary Sues ...

[phoenix64]

WTF House? Piper Perabo? Are you kidding me? And since when did Chase become such a keen observer of human behavior? And - hey! Antidepressants never made made me - or any other depressive I know - happy you assmonkeys. They gave us some goddamn control, the ability to not be constantly pulled down under. Happy pills - give me a freakin' break.

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[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

Erg. Haven't watched House yet, but I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to explain antidepressants to people, both because I take them and because I'm a therapist. People will take Xanax, no problem, but OMG don't suggest that they take antidepressants. I don't have anything against Xanax if a person needs it, but people, please, can you start with something that's not so addictive? (Uhm, sorry -- I'll get down off my soap box now. :))

[phoenix64.livejournal.com]

Whoops! You've reminded me that I've been bad (bad fan! no cookie!) by not putting this behind a cut with a spoiler warning. Thankfully it's not too specific.

For some reason knowing that you are a therapist and fannish makes me more gleeful than it probably should. And soapboxes are just fine, though I might quibble over "addictive" - I recently switched from Paxil to Wellbutrin, and yes, I tapered, but it was still reallllly unpleasant.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

For some reason knowing that you are a therapist and fannish makes me more gleeful than it probably should.

Hee--it seems like a good combination to me. :)

I might quibble over "addictive" - I recently switched from Paxil to Wellbutrin, and yes, I tapered, but it was still reallllly unpleasant.

OK, now these are things I need to know, so thank you. I've heard that about Paxil, actually, but only from a couple of people who seem to react oddly to *any* medication, so I wasn't sure what to make of it.

[phoenix64.livejournal.com]

Oh goodie, I get to ramble on a bit!

When my doc first prescribed Paxil for me about four years ago I did some reading, and there were already quite a few tales about Paxil problems. Though at the time I think recognition in the medical community was still a bit shaky. But fast-forward four years and my doctor actually talked to me beforehand about what could happen, and there's a lot of information available about it. It's called SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome. Paxil is part of a class of SSRIs where the medicine doesn't really linger in your system at all, so there's that much more of a difference when you stop taking it.

I tapered off, but I probably should have tapered off more slowly. It hit me the third day of the first week where I wasn't taking any Paxil at all. Have you ever had heat exhaustion? It was like that, with less sweating. All of a sudden my equilibrium was fried. It hit me pretty suddenly, and it having been a few weeks since I'd talked to my doctor, it really freaked me out at first. I had symptoms for more than three weeks, and it wasn't always a steady climb upward. Thankfully I had understanding coworkers and a steady supply of Dramamine. Now it's mostly just that any little thing (salt, sugar, caffeine, assmonkeys) gives me a mild headache.

Interestingly, one of the ways of treating this is to prescribe Prozac for a short time, since Prozac is an SSRI that does stay in the system for a bit. I chose not to try that because, um, Prozac made my mother hallucinate. It may have been for any number of reasons including a bad reaction to some other medication she was taking, but I still preferred my level of misery to even the possibility of hallucinations. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

Paxil is part of a class of SSRIs where the medicine doesn't really linger in your system at all, so there's that much more of a difference when you stop taking it.

Right, that makes sense.

Have you ever had heat exhaustion? It was like that, with less sweating. All of a sudden my equilibrium was fried. It hit me pretty suddenly, and it having been a few weeks since I'd talked to my doctor, it really freaked me out at first. I had symptoms for more than three weeks, and it wasn't always a steady climb upward.

That sounds *miserable.* I remember what heat exhaustion feels like all too well, and to feel like that for more than three weeks -- yikes. (Heh--if you figure out how to get rid of those assmonkey-related headaches, let me know. :))

I can certainly understand why you didn't go the Prozac route! Thank you for telling me this. I'm going to do some reading and see if our pain management doc knows about it. (We see a lot of his patients who have chronic pain, for pain management, depression, and anxiety.) Mostly he prescribes Cymbalta, because it's approved for nerve pain as well as depression, but sometimes he prescribes Paxil. I'm not sure how fast Cymbalta clears your system; it's an SSRI and also works on norepinephrine. I'll find out, though.

And here I thought antidepressants were benign compared to the stuff our pain management doc prescribes for pain and anxiety.