I may be living at a mental hospital later this year

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I believe in disability payments. I believe in unemployment compensation. I mean, when there's 10% unemployment (higher if we count people working part-time who want to be working full-time), only seems right.

Phonic, I just want to say, as a baseline, 19 is a very difficult age. I remember when I was 19, my parent were highly critical that I didn't have a job, as if I could merely will a job. That was back in 1982 when there was an economic downturn, but no where near as bad as today's economic downturn.

I think school works better for those of us on the spectrum. I remember being appalled that after learning how to graph parabolas, learning how to write a research paper with references, etc, and none of this translated to a job.

I've spent a lot of time and effort pursuing writing and other artistic pursuits, and political activism. If I had to do it over again, I might have a high probability career track and then a high potential outcome track (like art). I might even pursue something like auto repair, hair design, or tattoo (these latter two, the repeat business or referral business is pretty directly related to how good a job you do). But all of this, or none of this, may or may not be your cup of tea. I compliment SteelMaiden for going into pharmacology, but not all of us have interests (and mine change from time to time) that so easily translate to career paths.

Obviously, those of us on the spectrum can do a whole lot of things. And we could do even more if our institutions, esp education and employment, accepted that different just sometimes means different.

And for your family, maybe even scheduled respites during the good times, or staying on some occasions with other relatives if available?

Good luck during this difficult period.

From what I've read, treating depression is inherently imprecise. Something like Cymbalta or Zoloft might work great for some people, and not do a thing for others. It's just that human biochem is very complex and a little different for every person.

So, the best doctor in Dublin or London or Singapore or Baltimore, Maryland, no way in the world they can predict in advance. Even with a lengthy work-up, cannot be predicted in advance. In a very respectable sense, it is trial and error.

So, the self-defense for the patient is, 'Well, maybe it should be working [humorous or ironic pause] . . . but I'll tell you, it isn't working'

For an antidepressant, it can often take three or four weeks to tell whether it's going to work or not (of course less if it has unacceptable side effects). And so the whole game is to be willing to try a series of five or so, and the sooner a person gets started, the better. It might be the sixth one that really works for a person, and what the heck is wrong with that? ? Nothing as far as I can see.

(I sometimes struggle with depression. I have not yet taken antidepressants but am warming to the idea.)

And a patient can either go to a psychiatrist or a doctor like an internist or family practitioner (in the U.S.).

Some doctors might be sticks-in-the-mud and not want to admit they're wrong.

So again, the self-defense, 'Well, maybe it should be working . . . '

Treating depression can be hit or miss (2009 article)
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt163505.html

And I've got to think it's largely the same for other medications which affect the human mind.

I crashed

Orange:


Pretending everything is OK when everythingi s not OK will do be more harm then good, I need help - I'm not just oging to resume my old life and pretend nothing big has happened to me.

aardvark, I was on anti depressents before this started and the day I brought up my elation and mania to my shrink he took me off the anti depressants: anti depressants like SSR's cause psychotic mania in those who are vulnerable to it, not aalways, but general rule of thumb is neverp ut a depressed person who might be bipolar on SSRI's.

Sounds as if meds may have contributed to you current state??

From what I've read here and feel.... you seem together and smart for a 19 year old.

Getting out of home may be a good thing for now. You havnt shared about how home life affects you, and have spoken well, thinking of your parents welfare with your psychiatric problems.

However, I am extremely wary of psyche drugs and side effects, and am least likely to recommend their use at all, at all, at all.

From my holistic understandings, mania can be treated with herbs, yoga, hot mineral pools, and deep tissue massage. Whatever it is that flips the switch, I'm sure it can be released from you in a gentle and harmonious way.

I had an ex who was really clever, won a scholarship to the best school etc. Went off the rails, kicked out of 2 schools, drugs etc her sister suicide, brother now a felon etc. I've seen how being clever can relate to self harm.

I've rescued and rehomed a few dogs. With dogs its quite easy to see how a new home and new fun activities can change them in a short time. Humans need a little longer to begin the rewire the brain process, but if you google, you can find medicinal plants and therapies that can accelerate the natural process of change of mind.

A change of heart can work wonders

My ex played piano too

thanks for the words.

I would love to get out of this house, I generally don't go outside and I'm often bored silly. Home life right now is difficult as I have an unstable sister, I don't know what she has but she's also very moody like me - but in a different way, she tends to fly off the handle quite easilly and living with her is hard for me and my mother (my dad is dead). I'd really love to live somewhere else more structured.

On monday I'll be seeing my shrink, primarily to inform him that I've totally crashed and entered a moderately bad depression.

That last week, damn ,i don't think I've ever been that happy for that long.

Sympathies.

Your shrink sounds like he's an okay listener, eventually, and it sounds like he's willing to try new things, but all the same, he may have made a mistake with the abrupt discontinuation of an SSRI. Sometimes that drops the bottom out of the bucket, or so I've read.

The good news, your body's normal baseline production of neurotransmitters and healthy biochemicals will come back. May take a little while, but will come back.

And for next time, knowing this, maybe make any medication changes in medium steps. (Your shrink may have been balancing a clear and present danger against a danger merely theoretical. Well, now that you know that for your body's biochem it's no longer merely theoretical, the best bet for next time may be different.)

Stopping antidepressants can cause side effects [Los Angeles Times article, 2009]
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/03 ... ing-drugs3
" . . . A 1993 study of the SSRI Luvox found that the average number of symptoms shot up within the first few days after a missed dose, peaked during the fifth day and then gradually dwindled over the next week or so.
"Doctors can't really predict who will have problems. [Emphasis added] . . . "

I am bipolar II and may be doing the same later this year as well; it depends upon how this latest med dosage affects me. I haven't been suicidal since starting the new med, but I can feel the ideations on my periphery.

I hope that your experience is as helpful as mine sounds like it will be.

I've been in many phychiatric hospitals and most of them were alright. You are able to talk to your doctor every day and nurses there to help you. It can be kind of intimidating at first, they often take anything you have with laces or strings until they get to know you, and also search through your things which can be hard if you dont like your things touched as a lot of us don't. They also search your person and sometimes want to see your arms, legs, stomachs for marks. It can get VERY boring there so I would try to bring a gameboy, favorite books and magazines etc.

happydorkgirl, I sometimes have thoughts of suicide, and they scare me, of course they do. I kind of do my own version of the zen approach, which sometimes helps. I try and take a deep breath and tell myself, it’s just a thought. I don’t need to try and push it out, I don’t need to do anything which gives it power. This is also something I learned from my struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder. I don’t want to move from a fear of germs or chemical contamination (my big thing) to a fear of the thought itself or the ritual itself, which I view as a second-order kind of thing.

I also play with the idea that imperfection in myself, other people, and the broader world adds richness and texture, well maybe

And, as I see you are a new member, Welcome to Wrong Planet! We're education, solidarity, a whole lot more. Feel free to ask for help anytime you like and to help others. That's what we're all about. (and myself, sometimes I take a high-energy approach, sometimes not)

On the other hand, people who are bipolar sometimes need that. When someone becomes a threat to themselves because of anti-depressants doctors do need abrupt discontinuation of them, and they can push people into dangerous levels of manic. It's the same thing that happens when someone starts being more suicidal because of anti-depressants being the wrong ones for them, the sudden discontinuation is safer for the person than leaving the person on them.

Phonic, hopefully it works out for you. The one person I know who's ended up in a psych ward hasn't made any negative comments about it when he mentions what happened to him back then.

after 3 weeks of psychiatrist consultations they wanted to show me a mental hospital and when i arrived they started forcing me to stay and told my mom to go pack wile i stood there.. i started crying, got mad and just ran away.
then i became my own psychiatrist and i changed my life, now i'm a beast and nothing can touch me anymore LOL.

Okay, yes, in some cases it's less dangerous to abruptly discontinue the antidepressant. But it's still a case of danger vs. danger, because crashing is not exactly a Sunday picnic either. And, as the above news article says, some people have problems with abrupt discontinuation, and some people do not.

Hopefully, a person will have a doctor he or she can halfway talk with (doctors tend to be poor listeners and halfway talk with might be the best a person can realistically get!). As a patient and as a human being, a person always has the right to a second opinion, although you may need to be steadfast, determined, and decently firm in order to exercise that right, and even then it might not be easy. Health care systems fail in all kinds of ways variously infuriating and comical.

That's an attempted slam dunk. That is not so cool at all on the part of these psychiatrists and I'm sorry this happened to you.

If a psychiatrist really feels a person needs to be hospitalized, is a danger to self or others, he or she needs to be a very straight dealer, to say to the patient something like 'I'm going to recommend that you be hospitalized. I have certain responsibilities as a professional. And this is the right way to . . . '

Trying to trick the patient is the wrong way to do it.

Of course, most patients aren't a danger to self or others, and really just need some support and resources on out patient basis, which may or may not be available, is available on an inconsistent basis. And should be more readily available, and that would be the biggest help.

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Okay, as far as a person being his or her own psychiatrist . . .

Well, I have batted 0 for 3 as far as mental health professionals, 1/2 out of 3 if I want to be charitable about it. The biggest problem I have observed with mental health professionals is that they tend to be egotists and tend to be way invested in "being right," often at the expense of the patient or client. Yeah, really!

Not all are like this. I have also heard reports, including here on WP, of psychologists and psychiatrists being helpful.

Yes, I try and be a coach to myself. I also try and read widely and learn stuff and help myself.

For medication, a person can either go to a psychiatrist or to a regular doctor like an internist or family practitioner. This is in the United States and I think a number of other countries as well.

Actually, one of the most helpful people for me was a speech therapist and we just talked about some other things. So, this opens up a whole other door of job coaches, personal assistants, etc, etc, etc, who can potentially be informal counsellors.
And we here at Wrong Planet can be one community resource among many.