Posted by kyp on March 9, 2003, at 11:06:04
In reply to Re: The biggest problem with psychology today » Gracie2, posted by KrissyP on March 9, 2003, at 0:31:12
It is difficult to do much of anything when you are depressed or sick feeling from meds. BUT by reading the PDR or having a friend being responsible enough to do it for you and informing you of what it says IS important (find one in the library or read your part at Borders bookstore) to know what it says about your meds. It is up to you to know all you can.
MANY times I have asked a specific med. related question and the doctor did not know off the top of his head and looked it up right there and found out for both of us. One even copied the info. for me to take home. I have had doctors tell me the side effect I was having does not come from the particular med. only to find out by talking to other people in the same situation, that they had the same reaction to it. The doctors do not know all the side effects from every med. esp. when there are new ones coming out all the time.
Also, the DSM IV is a resource that doctors use as their Bible to diagnose patients. Read this too to see why he thinks you should be diagnosed as you are. Kay Jamison wrote a huge book exhaustive of manic depression symptoms and treatment. The Bipolar Child might help you realize you have grown up with this and been showing signs for a long time. Putman among others, is an authority on DID. etc...Every illness has some guru "know it all."
The internet has a ton of information that explains med. reactions and side effects and reasons to take them.
The point being, if you spend all the money and time seeing doctors and buying meds. spend some time reading up on your diagnosis and medications you are using daily.Be informed. Don't trust someone else to give you all the information you need to make an informed decision about med. compliance. I have gone off my meds. several times KNOWING what I do about them and still did it because I wanted to, ie. feel more manic or less side effects and always return to the lesser of two evils.
Patient compliance is the number one block in a lot of mental illnesses I have observed. But don't quit out of ignorance or because your doctor did not take the time and energy to tell you.
A doctor hears your number one, maybe number two complaint about how you are feeling, if it is depression, he alters the meds. accordingly, if it is sleep, he alters it accordingly. Those two, I feel, are what they look at first since they are the most critical for staying alive. Then they wait to see if there is improvement. They look at drug interactions sometimes if they are on the ball etc.
You, be your most informed source for your health, be it mental or otherwise. How many times are people treated for cancer a day? Yet the ones who get informed are finding out information that sometimes saves their lives because there are so many factors that fit in with our body's health, only we can be the expert on it even though we don't have an M.D. behind our name, we can educate ourselves on the pertinent information and be able to make wise choices concerning patient compliance.
That's what I think.
Janet
poster:kyp
thread:202380
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030203/msgs/207394.html