Dragon's Tooth
Well-Known Member
asthma and depression are two different things. So completely different I don't think you can compare them. That's like telling a diabetic not to take insulin or what ever. I think we are now so conditioned to the fact that a magical little pill (or drug) will cure us we don't think of any alternative when it comes to mental health. But other health conditions ... we know very well that if you don't use your inhaler when you have an asthma attack you could die.
I was on prozac (I dunno what its called now) for over five years. While I was a teenager too. I lost all ability to function properly and I stopped having joy in life. I saw the world as grey and bland and bleak. I existed. I didn't realize how much I gave up to have this horrible miserable existence until I had to stop taking them to replace them with another anti depressant. Now I realize exactly what I gave up to be normal and frankly I would happily take the huge ups and downs of depression just so I can feel something, so I can have creativity in my life, so I can be a whole instead of a being. I was just a robot in life when I was on this stuff and without it I have passion, I have emotion, I have creativity. I want to live. I want to be a better person.
I have also been on anti anxiety drugs as well. They ****ed with my heart, my head, my balance, my stomach. So I had a small amount of relief from the anxiety but I had so many side effects that I couldn't justify taking it.
So I have been on all the drugs that a doctor can give you. I have been to these dark places. I have self medicated. My fave self medication at present is food but I have done other stuff. I have tried everything. And I have come to the conclusion that you have to reprogram your thinking to escape this. You have to recognise your spiral down into depression and then shut it down. You have to recognise your spiral into anxiety. I battle every single day and I do it without drugs. I choose no drugs of any description because I have no personal experience with them (I'm talking prescription and illicit drugs here) that justifies them.
I have had my psychologist sit me down and tell me the same stuff you guys are talking about ... how depression and anxiety are chemical inbalances in the brain. That may well be. But studies have shown that anti depressants don't do much at all except raise the levels of neuro transmitters in your brain to a dangerously high level so that when you stop taking them you can't actually function normally. As in you can't feel happiness without them. Your body just can't cope.
See this article Anti depressants are merely another addiction - for doctors as well as the patients | Mail Online
The point I really want to make is that illicit drugs are illicit for a reason and that there is an alternative to just popping what ever anti depressant your GP puts you on. The most success I have ever had was when I took fish oil tablets. You have to take 500mg or more of the DHA oil a day (I think that's the right letters) and it repairs the pathways in your brain that have been damaged by depression and anxiety. It works. It takes at least a month but you feel better. And that doesn't need a massive lifestyle change Undiagnosed.
You are right undiagnosed that it takes a massive amount of effort to change your life style but you can either choose to be hopped up on drugs for the rest of your life, taking what ever new pill they produce each year, dealing with the side effects or you can get healthy and get your life back on track through positive thinking and changing your life style for the better. Exercise for instance has shown to be fair better at controlling depression than most anti depressants for instance. And maybe not eating all those ridiculous food additives (which are only tested on their own and never together so who knows what the cocktail of chemicals your eating does). That is all within our power to do even if you do it slowly over time. And so far my experience tells me that solution is far more productive and effect than drugs of any description.
PS: I would never advocate people stopping any medication without talking to a doctor. I'm not a doctor and I only speak from personal experience. It seems that there are a lot of people here though who are happy to just accept that a magic little pill (or a joint) will be the ultimate solution for the mental health issues without at least considering alternatives.
I was on prozac (I dunno what its called now) for over five years. While I was a teenager too. I lost all ability to function properly and I stopped having joy in life. I saw the world as grey and bland and bleak. I existed. I didn't realize how much I gave up to have this horrible miserable existence until I had to stop taking them to replace them with another anti depressant. Now I realize exactly what I gave up to be normal and frankly I would happily take the huge ups and downs of depression just so I can feel something, so I can have creativity in my life, so I can be a whole instead of a being. I was just a robot in life when I was on this stuff and without it I have passion, I have emotion, I have creativity. I want to live. I want to be a better person.
I have also been on anti anxiety drugs as well. They ****ed with my heart, my head, my balance, my stomach. So I had a small amount of relief from the anxiety but I had so many side effects that I couldn't justify taking it.
So I have been on all the drugs that a doctor can give you. I have been to these dark places. I have self medicated. My fave self medication at present is food but I have done other stuff. I have tried everything. And I have come to the conclusion that you have to reprogram your thinking to escape this. You have to recognise your spiral down into depression and then shut it down. You have to recognise your spiral into anxiety. I battle every single day and I do it without drugs. I choose no drugs of any description because I have no personal experience with them (I'm talking prescription and illicit drugs here) that justifies them.
I have had my psychologist sit me down and tell me the same stuff you guys are talking about ... how depression and anxiety are chemical inbalances in the brain. That may well be. But studies have shown that anti depressants don't do much at all except raise the levels of neuro transmitters in your brain to a dangerously high level so that when you stop taking them you can't actually function normally. As in you can't feel happiness without them. Your body just can't cope.
See this article Anti depressants are merely another addiction - for doctors as well as the patients | Mail Online
The point I really want to make is that illicit drugs are illicit for a reason and that there is an alternative to just popping what ever anti depressant your GP puts you on. The most success I have ever had was when I took fish oil tablets. You have to take 500mg or more of the DHA oil a day (I think that's the right letters) and it repairs the pathways in your brain that have been damaged by depression and anxiety. It works. It takes at least a month but you feel better. And that doesn't need a massive lifestyle change Undiagnosed.
You are right undiagnosed that it takes a massive amount of effort to change your life style but you can either choose to be hopped up on drugs for the rest of your life, taking what ever new pill they produce each year, dealing with the side effects or you can get healthy and get your life back on track through positive thinking and changing your life style for the better. Exercise for instance has shown to be fair better at controlling depression than most anti depressants for instance. And maybe not eating all those ridiculous food additives (which are only tested on their own and never together so who knows what the cocktail of chemicals your eating does). That is all within our power to do even if you do it slowly over time. And so far my experience tells me that solution is far more productive and effect than drugs of any description.
PS: I would never advocate people stopping any medication without talking to a doctor. I'm not a doctor and I only speak from personal experience. It seems that there are a lot of people here though who are happy to just accept that a magic little pill (or a joint) will be the ultimate solution for the mental health issues without at least considering alternatives.
what specific behaviors the researcher is targeting? Autism is a complex disorder that manifests itself in many different ways. Some behaviors that some people tend to call "autistic" have underlying causes. Yes, I know there many examples out there when people are given treatment for a condition without full understanding of the condition or the treatment. Like for instance I was diagnosed with complicated migraines, which symptoms are very similar to temporal lobe epilepsy and prescribed Topamax. I don't think there's one doctor out there who fully understands what complicated migraines are or what Topamax does exactly (yeah, I find it weird) but it works so doctors prescribe it. I believe with Autism, there might be other options in many cases... But again, I don't judge. And... There's not enough information even to discuss it.
