I don't have heath insurance. I got my anti-depressants refilled. Three months worth. $912.96, or $304.13/month. Now I see why seniors, when faced with food or meds, don't go with meds. It's insane, it's stupid, and I now totally loathe the bloodsucking parasites that run the drug companies. I'm also now very much in favor of a national heathcare plan, because I can't afford thist crap. I can't afford a trip to the doc's, so let's hope I don't get sick. And the hospital? *snorts* Yeah, right. Ironically, my income is too high for me to qualify for Medicaid (as it's above $436/month), so that's out. The saving grace in this is that for the cost of a quarter tank of gas, I can go to Canada and fill my script, which I'm going to do from now on. I would have done it this time, but it was a refill, so I didn't have the prescription form to give to a Canadian pharmacist.

Yes, the use of medications for problems over here is on the rise. People medicate for *everything*. Which makes those of us who *do* need medications for legitimate problems look like whiners, like we're taking the easy way out. Peeves me off. If you don't legitly have a condition that requires the kind of med you're taking, then it's going to throw off the perfectly stable balance in your brain, and you'll start having problems because of that (a total 'no, duh!' thing).

A lot of the dependencies created are more psychological than anything, but it has been documented that if you take an anti-depressant, and then go off it, you're likely to face 'rebound depression', and if you go back on the meds, it'll take a higher dosage the next time to get the same kind of effect you had before. So they are definitely *not* something to play around with. Drugs aren't a solution to a bad day or a crisis. I'm talking about people who don't have a clinical depression/anxiety condition. As in they can 'snap out' of a blue period or they can will themselves to stop worrying. Clinical depression and clinical anxeity disorders are something *entirely* different.

Stalker, the concerns you express about taking meds have been expressed by many, many people who aren't familiar with them *when they are used properly*.

First and foremost, when you have a *clinical* condition, the chemicals in your brain aren't working right. There are problems there that can only be corrected through intervening in the way your brain releases certain chemicals, how it absorbs them, how much it releases, how much it reabsorbs and how quickly, and things like that. There are a variety of chemicals involved, as well as a variety of things that go wrong in the biochemical pathways in the brain, which is why there are so many meds to treat problems.

So, when you have a clinical condition and you're taking a med that works right for your condition, your brain chemestry is evened out, making it easier for you to cope with everything that comes in a given day. For me, it's being able to calmly and rationally face the problems that confront me and not start freaking out. The meds make me *more* able to cope, not less. The same with depression. Instead of being down all the time, with your brain working more the way it should, you want to get out and do more and you're in a better frame of mind. If a med is dulling your ability to cope, it's not the right med. Period. If it's your crutch for dealing with life, you're taking a drug for the wrong reason(s). Period.

If you're taking a pill to avoid having to deal with a problem, you're taking a pill for the wrong reasons, and the issues won't go away. You'll become more handicapped by what's going on, not less. All the people I know that take meds for various conditions are on meds so they are able to better handle what comes. They aren't trying to hide from their problems; they want to be able to face their problems. Which is the right reason. And those of us taking meds for that reason are less controlled by the problems in our life.

Before I started on meds, I did wonder how they would affect my personality and who I was. I can say with total confidence they *do not* change who you are. My friend have told me that I'm far less nervous and worried and anxious now, but I'm the same sarcastic, witty, dry-tongued person I was before. I do smile more, and I'm more adventure seeking, but nothing intrinsic about me has changed. If your personality changes, you're not on the right med. Period I tried Ritalin for a bit for my ADHD. I became much, much more worried and argumentative and nasty. Come to find out, talking Ritalin when you have anxiety is strongly contraindicated (advised against). When I stopped taking Ritalin, I calmed right down. So there's a 'case in point' example of what the wrong med does to you. Another example: some people with ADHD will drink very strong coffee because caffeine settles them down (there's a totally logical reason for this; contact me if you want to know why). For me, that doesn't work. Stimulants aren't the right drugs to help me control my ADHD.

Finding the right drug for your problem is very much a 'trial and error' thing, because there are often several reasons you could be manifesting a condition, so you need to find the drug that targets what's causing your problem, and then there's the question of how much you need in your system to see positive effects, and that varies for everyone (though it can be ballparked that a certain condition will, as a rule, need more of a certain drug than another, similar, condition. The one I'm on is an example). If the psychiatrist you're seeing is a good one that's doing their job right, they'll start you low and slowly increase your dose and keep close watch on how you're reacting, and they'll know enough about the drugs out there that they can hone in on a certain class of drugs to use. And if negative effects are seen, they'll get you off the drug and try you on another one. Ritalin, for me, was an example of that. Thankfully, it's something you can stop cold turkey, instead of having to slowly wean off, like you do with Prozac and Effexor (what I'm on right now).

I plan, in the future, to go to a psychiatrist and look for a drug to help me with my ADHD (remembering to call is the biggest problem). It's about bringing my lack of concentration and focus under control so I can better handle school and life. I want to get control over my problems. They are not going to control me.

I am, as alwasy, more than willing to answer questions anyone has. The area I know the most about when it comes to psychological drugs is ADHD, with a bit in the area of depression and anxiety. So ask away. If I don't know the answer, I'll try to refer you to somewhere that has the info for what you want to know.

Stalker, I agree. She's using pills as a crutch, and she's going to suffer the concequences of that down the road. She has to slow down. Tell her that a friend of yours who's taken classes about drugs and the effects they have on the body (info taken from various classes) told you to tell her that if she keeps up the way she's going, she's going to do serious, irreversable damage to her liver and kidneys. She'll cook her liver just as surely as someone who drinks too much. If she's taking sedatives to calm her down (and that's my guess), she's going to become addicted. If she's taking stimulants, tell her that she's setting herself up for very high blood pressure and a heart attack down the road, not to mention the stress is going to seriously compromise her immune system, making her more prone to sickness, but she's also going to impact her reproductive abilities, and if it goes on long enough, she'll have problems with her digestive tract. Basically, she's trashing her body. And for what? Momentary glory? If she says "If I don't, no one else will", tell her "No one else *can*. You don't give them a chance."

Opiates are very good friends after you have all four wisdom teeth and an incisor pulled in prep for getting braces (the incisor b/c the crowding on my lower jaw is so bad I had to get rid of it so there was room for the other teeth to go somewhere). Right now, it's just my lower jaw that aches. It would be worse if I didn't have opiates to help me out with this. So I'm happy. Other than the ache, and having to change gauze every half hour, I'm fine. The surgery went smoothly. At the beginning, when the doc was injecting Novocaine into my gums, the needle hurt so bad I was crying a bit. I'm glad I did it all at once, because I'd never want to go through that needle thing again. But that's why I did everything at once. So I'd only have to deal with needles once.

True, but I will not be doing with you on the phone either!

I won't answer the phone. Caller ID, Baby!

Bunnie - *freaks out* See? That's why I am going to ADOPT my kids.

Zook - Feeling better yet? I'll have one tooth pulled in the middle of January, and even though it should be a minor surgery, I'm not looking forward to it.