This is my fourth post on mental health
I am going to try and explain the diagnosis and meds
used for mental health problems
without it turning into a boring encyclopedia
The length of time a patient can wait for help
is frustrating but there is a reason for it
while I was waiting, I didn’t think I’d make it
but now that I’m stable and on the right meds
I look back and I’m grateful for that wait
why?
I might have been misdiagnosed
and if I had the wrong meds I would be worse
maybe if I talk you through my diagnosis
it will make sense
Ok so I went to my GP in a desperate state
she spent 2 hours with me and made some calls
I was referred to a pyschiatrist
who would see me straight away
it was a 10 minute walk
At this point the GP and Psychiatrist
had established that it was something more
than a depression that could be treated with love
or a mild anti depressant
i.e. something the GP can’t prescribe
I later found out that if my GP had prescribed
an anti depressant I would have become so manic
it would have been dangerous
I might have thought I could fly and jumped
off a tall building
So off I went to the psychiatrist
and he agreed that I should be under his care
However, it took 1 year to be given any meds
this is the hardest part, I was off sick from work
and struggling to get through each day
I did feel like why aren’t they helping me!
Once that year was up the psychiatrist explained
that he needed to see how long symptoms lasted
how quickly I cycled between mania and depression
and how many cycles there were a year and so on
please note that each person will have a different experience
he then gave a recommendation I start on Lithium
based on his findings
the lithum was fantastic and I felt ‘normal’
immediately and the dose was gradually increased
until I hit the maximum level
Lithium is a mood stabiliser that prevents you
from getting too high or too low
but after 18 months I was feeling low again
not as bad as I had been but very low
so I got an antidepressant that works well
with lithium and I was ‘normal’ again
for a short time
Can you see here that I could now have
an antidepressant as I was stable on the lithium?
i.e. I wouldn’t become manic
Then the antipsychotic drugs were introduced
sometimes too strong
sometimes not strong enough
but for over 15 years all of these drugs
were introduced and tweaked
until I was in a stable mind but capable
of functioning i.e. working and living a good life
to where I am now
