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Poohbah
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#41
I emailed someone this morning to see if they will work with me over the summer. It’s a female and I prefer male but I’m getting desperate. I’m trying to find someone I can afford and who will work with chronic suicidal ideation. Most Ts here won’t.
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LonesomeTonight, Salmon77, SlumberKitty
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downandlonely
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#42
I hope you find someone.
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piggy momma
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Anne2.0
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#43
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I'd also encourage you not to be too certain in your T preferences. I prefer working with women therapists but I've seen the same guy now for almost 10 years. My first therapist was male, too. For me it's more about the person than the gender, but therapy for me is also more about how I'm willing to make changes and stop avoiding my past rather than who the therapist is. The buddhists say something like when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Therapy has worked for me like that. |
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Poohbah
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#44
We have soooo much to work on. My life is always about putting out fires. I’m hoping we eventually get past the surface stuff to do some deeper work.
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#45
I believe you are doing the best you can and sympathise with the difficulties in finding other sources of help.
However, his stance of not talking about any particular topic is not in your best interests. Your best interests and well-being is what he ought to focus, and give priority, to - not his level of discomfort or whatnot. He is not doing that and you are suffering. This is not right. |
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#46
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I used to get them frequently after starting therapy. It was a young part of me experiencing immense suffering, turns out the memories were dissociated but revived in T. But after working through the underlying feelings and how the child felt all the time, I've been able to get past such thoughts and they are rarely part of my life anymore. Maybe if you talked about the feelings instead of the sui thoughts you could continue with him until you are able to see someone else? I'd personally would have a hard time opening up to someone who said what your T said before about not being able to see you. (Having said that, my T has said things that seemed cruel a few times over the years, but I later found they seemed to be interventions to get me unstuck or out of a pattern.) Since you've said you have no other options in terms of a T, I wonder if getting to the root of the feelings is worth a try; a way to move forward and continue with him. |
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LonesomeTonight
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Poohbah
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#47
That’s a good point, octoberful. Maybe if I try that angle instead it will be seen as more productive, and it would be. I never thought of that.
I am also going to go to my doc this week. T says I’m clinically depressed and it might be worth trying some meds, so I’ll see what my doc says. I know she was very against them a year ago, but I’ll ask. I just can’t keep continuing like this. I’m tempted to change docs if she won’t help me, but she’s also been my doc for 16 years so I’m hesitant to move on. |
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Anne2.0
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#48
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You can also ask for a referral to a psychiatrist, who will likely be willing to prescribe medication if your doc won't. Then you can keep this doc and still pursue getting some chemical assistance. |
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LonesomeTonight, SlumberKitty
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#49
I agree with what Anne said. Possibly a note from your T or permission to talk to him about it? Why was your doctor against antidepressants before?
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SlumberKitty
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Anne2.0
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#50
Many times GP's are unwilling to prescribe medication that can be used for self harm, when a person has a history of ideations and/or attempts. However, psychiatrists know more about what can be prescribed (including shots rather than pills) or how to prescribe only a small number of pills per day to prevent attempts. Personally I would not go to a GP for psychiatric medication, because psychiatrists have more training and experience with anti-depressants than GP's, and greater expertise means someone who knows how to prevent side effects (a big concern for me when I took medication) as well as how to prescribe for better symptom relief. GP's may not know the difference between different kinds of symptoms or have a theoretical or practical grasp of how certain meds and certain doses are likely to affect people.
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GeekyOne
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#51
I disagree that a GP is not a good source for an initial trial or two of psychiatric medications. Antidepressants are some of the most commonly prescribed medications and GPs prescribe them every day. Modern ADs are generally safe and have low side effect profiles.
Personally I wouldn’t (and didn’t) go to a psychiatrist until after a couple of failed trials and indication that a less common class of AD or a multiple-med cocktail was worth exploring. Other things that would prompt me to seek specialist help earlier would be concurrent conditions whose treatments might interact with the ADs. I believe the OP is in Canada where GPs are the first line for psych meds and waitlists for pdocs can be long. Given the OP’s history, I find it surprising that she’s met resistance to trying medication. For many people it can help with little to no downside. Trying medication also doesn’t mean you’ll take meds forever or that therapy is no longer necessary. As Anne said, medication can make it easier to make progress in therapy. |
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#52
Some generalists are afraid to do anything close to something handled by another specialty, but I also think many might not realize how much of a guessing game psychiatry really is rather than knowledge-based.
I think an antidepressant is worth a try, no matter what your diagnosis is. Unless someone is bipolar or psychotic, most people start on Zoloft or Celexa (might be Lexapro now). Why not try it, with how bad off you are at this point, what would you have to lose? |
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Poohbah
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#53
I’m super lucky in that my GP also has a Masters degree in pharmacology, so she’s very knowledgeable about meds. I’ve done a bit of research and I think I’m going to ask to try Celexa for six months and see how it goes. I’ve also emailed a couple more Ts in an effort to try and find someone for the summer. It’s just frustrating when it feels like no matter how hard you work things just aren’t improving. I know I’ll never be cured. I’d just like to feel better.
My appt is Thursday at 4 so we’ll see... |
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#54
Good for you for trying different options.
Antidepressants seem to help with anxiety even if they don't work for other things, so they have a good chance of taking the edge off. |
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GeekyOne, piggy momma
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susannahsays
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#55
Six months probably isn't necessary. In fact, it's definitely not. No antidepressant in existence takes that long to work. If you really want to be careful, you can wait 3 months, but that is plenty long enough. If you make yourself wait for 6 months with every med you might end up trying, it could be years before you feel better.
For example, I was first put on Prozac, then Zoloft, before eventually finding Cymbalta was what worked. That would have been a whole extra year I would have suffered! Now, I am once again having to find something else. So far, I've struck out on 3 antidepressants and am on my fourth. It's only been about a month, so we don't know if it's going to work yet. However, if the second month ends and I don't feel better, I'm going to want to move on. Because I want to feel better and there's no sense in dragging my heels about it. __________________ Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. -David Gerrold |
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LonesomeTonight, SlumberKitty
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susannahsays
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#56
It's also worth considering which meds are the worst to withdraw from when you pick what your preferences will be. SNRIs are worse to come off of than SSRIs, though they both suck. The shorter the half life of a drug, the worse the withdrawals will be. Even if you feel much better on it and think you'll just stay on it for life, you can never know what might happen. It might eventually stop working, and you'll have to go off of it to be able to take something else. That's happened to me and it's not fun. Still, medication is totally worth it imo, so not trying to scare you.
__________________ Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. -David Gerrold |
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LonesomeTonight, SlumberKitty
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LonesomeTonight
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#57
I agree that you don't need to do a full 6 months. You may need to wait up to 6 weeks to feel the full effects and see if any side effects go away. But you should be feeling some sort of improvement by then if it's going to help. It could be you'd need to increase the dose. In terms of which ones are easiest to come off of, I think Prozac has the longest half-life of any of the SSRIs, so it's easiest. Though if you're going from trying one SSRI to another, you can generally just switch to the new one because they act on the same receptors (at least, that's what my p-doc had me do). Effexor (an SNRI) has a really short half-life and is notoriously bad to come off of. That said, you just need to see which one works for you--you may need to try a few to see which one is right for your body/mind (I've had to try quite a few, but my body is also really sensitive to medications--not just psych ones, but cold meds, pain relievers, etc.). Hope you find one that works for you!
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SlumberKitty
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Poohbah
piggy momma
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#58
Sorry I didn't explain properly.
I'm hoping to find something that works right off the bat, and once I do, I'll plan to be on it for six months or so, to give me a chance to get my head above water again. |
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SlumberKitty
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LonesomeTonight
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LonesomeTonight
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#59
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Ah OK, that makes sense! Hope you do find something that works for you quickly. I noticed something from SSRIs within a couple weeks, even though they say can take longer. |
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piggy momma, SlumberKitty
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#60
Some ERs are using ketamine for fast (but temporary) relief of suicidal thoughts. Maybe another option to consider.
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LonesomeTonight, piggy momma, SlumberKitty
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