Antidepressants: Good Or Bad? Any Impact On Hair?

[Afro_Vacancy]

Just be aware that valdox is quite expensive because it’s such a new drug.
I’m the same with most of the drugs I’ve taken but because I have such a cluster-f*** of problems, it’s hard to treat. My psych thinks I need EMDR to address trauma/ptsd, amongst intensive psychotherapy to actually change my thinking and behaviour towards myself. He genetic part is only one piece of the puzzle. My upbringing has a lot to do with my problems.

Nothing helped with the appetite because with anorexia, you basically trick yourself into not ever being hungry because food is your biggest fear. It’s all mind over matter. I do hear that seroquel in particular causes appetite increase and weight gain.

I think that you are an excellent candidate for psychotherapy. Based on what you've written here, you have a lot of experiences that would benefit from unpacking, and you'd benefit from somebody who will listen. I've been taking pretty intensive psychotherapy for a year now and am willing to discuss it with you in greater detail via PM if you're interested. Prior to that I've done less intensive psychotherapy.

It's also very dependent on the therapist. In my own experience, I've never done well with male mental health workers of any sort. I'm sure that there are exceptions out there, but overall I've done better with women therapists. It might be easier to open up to them, which is essential. If things are not working for you then you have all the freedom in the world to stop seeing your psych or to go see somebody else. I've done this a few times. I had one psychiatrist in Ohio who was totally useless, he just listened to me, took notes, and prescribed medicines, he never said anything and was unresponsive, so I stopped going. I had another a year ago who seemed convinced that one of my minor issues was a sign of mania (it's not, it's irrelevant), so I did not continue to see him. It is perfectly ok to stop seeing a mental health worker and to see somebody else.

In a way, you posting here is an example of your needing therapy. You need somebody who is willing to listen to you and to explore issues with you, since you sometimes post about personal issues as well. That's great, though there's a risk in that a few of the people here that are utterly confused on all subjects pertaining to activities of life.

 

[JeanLucBB]

I think that you are an excellent candidate for psychotherapy. Based on what you've written here, you have a lot of experiences that would benefit from unpacking, and you'd benefit from somebody who will listen. I've been taking pretty intensive psychotherapy for a year now and am willing to discuss it with you in greater detail via PM if you're interested. Prior to that I've done less intensive psychotherapy.

It's also very dependent on the therapist. In my own experience, I've never done well with male mental health workers of any sort. I'm sure that there are exceptions out there, but overall I've done better with women therapists. It might be easier to open up to them, which is essential. If things are not working for you then you have all the freedom in the world to stop seeing your psych or to go see somebody else. I've done this a few times. I had one psychiatrist in Ohio who was totally useless, he just listened to me, took notes, and prescribed medicines, he never said anything and was unresponsive, so I stopped going. I had another a year ago who seemed convinced that one of my minor issues was a sign of mania (it's not, it's irrelevant), so I did not continue to see him. It is perfectly ok to stop seeing a mental health worker and to see somebody else.

In a way, you posting here is an example of your needing therapy. You need somebody who is willing to listen to you and to explore issues with you, since you sometimes post about personal issues as well. That's great, though there's a risk in that a few of the people here that are utterly confused on all subjects pertaining to activities of life.

Interesting your experience with male therapists, I've known quite a few women who have gone to therapists and all have told me the converse that they've only had good experiences with men, all of them being straight.

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

Interesting your experience with male therapists, I've known quite a few women who have gone to therapists and all have told me the converse that they've only had good experiences with men, all of them being straight.

I can't claim that my experiences are universal. They might be a fluke, or they might say more about me than about the therapists.

Separately, it's also a good option for Australian residents in need as the first ten visits are heavily subsidized by medicare. It's great backup plan for when pavlova therapy doesn't work out.

 

[Calchas]

I am leaning towards EMDR but it’s a hassle because you need to be an inpatient to do it due to the high incidence of post-treatment suicide (from digging up traumatic memories and forcing you to relive them).
I’ll get there one day.

A real life traumatizing experience needs a real life healing experience to cure.
You can't fool your subconscious with the conventions of a forced raking up of past memories just with the intention to fix them.
Unless your subconscious is too fool that it can be fooled by that.
But for most of us,our subconscious is obsessed and neurotic with the truth.

 

[Georgie]

I can't claim that my experiences are universal. They might be a fluke, or they might say more about me than about the therapists.

Separately, it's also a good option for Australian residents in need as the first ten visits are heavily subsidized by medicare. It's great backup plan for when pavlova therapy doesn't work out.

I have only worked with psychologists as an inpatient, otherwise my therapy has always been with a psychiatrist, which I have been fairly disillusioned with to date given that I’ve been charged up to $280 per half an hour session with zero positive outcome. What’s even more disappointing is that my own father is a psychiatrist and a colleague of most of the ones I’ve seen, and it’s well known practice to bulk bill family members of colleagues, but they have in fact charged well above AMA rates. Now I just take my pills and tell everyone bar my father to get fucked with their therapy.

 

[Georgie]

I've only had negative experiences with psychiatrists. That may be a fluke, or may be due to unfortunate sociological developments within the field. They make more money, they prescribe more poorly understood pharmaceuticals (basically doing "guess and check" medicine like an ancient witch doctor), and in the case of the American ones, they can go on luxury cruises sponsored by pharmaceutical companies who hawk their products. The field also has an unfortunate history, running a lot of mental hospitals and helping the CIA with its 1950s-era (and beyond) torture experiments.

I suspect that there might be general problems with the field. I also, separately, met a psychiatrist on one of my online dates last year, she just seemed to hate her patients, she complained about her patients complaining, that they should tolerate pain more, and she carried a firearm because she feared one of her patients. Back in 2015, I met (on an online date, lol) a therapist who specialized in sex abuse victims, she, in contrast, cared about her patients, she said that she was able to deal with the pain because she believed that she was helping people.

[I'm not actively selecting for mental health workers, but in ~25 online dates in the period 2015-2017 I met two therapists, a speech pathologist, and a psychiatrist.]

I recommend seeing a therapist. Take your time and explore things over time. They certainly won't charge you $560/hour ... the one that I saw in Canberra charged $150-200/hour (so ~70% less) and was genuinely concerned with helping her patients and staying educated on developments. She had recently completed a thesis, but she wasn't sure if she wanted it published, as that would take a lot of work and she wanted to invest her time into her clinical practice. I had also seen another therapist in Canberra -- she has since retired. On our last session together I brought her chocolates and a card. When she put the card away, I noticed other cards too, I asked her about them and it turned out that she had kept every card that she had ever been given by one of her patients.

Yeah honestly I haven’t really given psychologists a fair go because I suppose I have always been under the care of a psychiatrist and seemed pointless to me to be seeing a psychologist when I could do it all with a psychiatrist. It certainly hasn’t been the case however. Mostly it’s where I’ve gone to get drugs and be f*****g ITO’d into hospital for months and months at a time. I guess too, I’ve had so much faith I the integrity of psychiatrists because I see my dad as one of the most caring, genuine and good people I know. I’ve assumed that most would be like him but I’ve found he is actually just a freak case in many ways. Money is almost always the priority to psychiatrists. I was thinking about doing my 10 free sessions this year and perhaps see about doing some intensive psychotherapy to address my extrme feelings of self-hatred, body image issues and traumatic memories. Sadly it’s gotten so bad in adulthood that I don’t go swimming anymore. I haven’t been underwater for years.
I’m sceptical that anyone can take that pain away from me, but I suppose it’s worth a try.

 

[Beatle Gregor]

Just wanted to say I have very bad experiences with psychiatrists as well. Don't want to seem bigoted, but they seem obsessed with medication. I don't believe psychiatric drugs do any good based on the available research, except to calm otherwise uncontrollable individuals in institutions.