ALL Anti-Depressants&the like explained for the lamen..

[thegodfather]

I found this site that breaks down every type of anti-depressant, anti-convulsant, and benzodiazepine on the market for the lamen to understand. As of late there have been a ton of posts about depression or anxiety on the board. This is very useful info to have when visiting your physician. It contains SSRI's, SNRI's, MOAI's,TCA's, etc...It also even has a message board for people prescribed to the meds to discuss different issues with the medication.



http://www.crazymeds.org/

[ascendant]

good site for references, and in that aspect, i have to say this is a great post. however, as i have posted numerous times in numerous other boards, meds are not a solution, they only cover up symptoms.

notice also that those meds lists of "side-effects" tend to be much larger than the list of things they treat. so in short, the chemicals do more harm to you than good, which for some reason most people tend to overlook, despite a list of sides longer than santas christmas wish list?

again, if you truly feel meds are a must in your condition, then this is a good way to do your research and find what you believe to be best for you. after all, docs will usually just try to prescribe you a med from whichever company is offering a free trip or plasma tv to docs prescribing "x" amount of their meds that month.

personally, i'd avise you find the underlying cause for your condition and treat it and you'll see the symptoms go away, especially in depression and anxiety/panic disorder situations. understanding and experience, not meds, is what cures conditions. meds have never, nor will ever, cure any condition. after all, if the medical industry ever came up with "cures", they'd be putting themselves out of business. now why would they want to do that?

[stupidhippo]

meds have never, nor will ever, cure any condition. after all, if the medical industry ever came up with "cures", they'd be putting themselves out of business. now why would they want to do that?

dumb thing to say... ofcourse they are looking for cures too... and for example antibiotics can cure patients who might end up dead otherwise etc...I agree with u that ppl tend to look for solutions too easily from medication but saying meds have never cured anybody and they would be putting themselves out of business if they did is such crap..

[thegodfather]

good site for references, and in that aspect, i have to say this is a great post. however, as i have posted numerous times in numerous other boards, meds are not a solution, they only cover up symptoms.

notice also that those meds lists of "side-effects" tend to be much larger than the list of things they treat. so in short, the chemicals do more harm to you than good, which for some reason most people tend to overlook, despite a list of sides longer than santas christmas wish list?

again, if you truly feel meds are a must in your condition, then this is a good way to do your research and find what you believe to be best for you. after all, docs will usually just try to prescribe you a med from whichever company is offering a free trip or plasma tv to docs prescribing "x" amount of their meds that month.

personally, i'd avise you find the underlying cause for your condition and treat it and you'll see the symptoms go away, especially in depression and anxiety/panic disorder situations. understanding and experience, not meds, is what cures conditions. meds have never, nor will ever, cure any condition. after all, if the medical industry ever came up with "cures", they'd be putting themselves out of business. now why would they want to do that?

I tend to disagree with you on this point. A Schizophrenic cannot talk himself out of his condition, he needs to be medicated for the imbalance of chemicals in his brain. A Manic Depressive cannot talk himself out of being manic depressive, nor can a therapist do much to remedy these conditions. People who are Bipolar cannot decide to not be bipolar. You have to understand that mental illness is an injury to the body, just like breaking your leg. And if you take the time to read the first intro paragraphs of the website it will explain this.

[ascendant]

dumb thing to say... ofcourse they are looking for cures too... and for example antibiotics can cure patients who might end up dead otherwise etc...I agree with u that ppl tend to look for solutions too easily from medication but saying meds have never cured anybody and they would be putting themselves out of business if they did is such crap..

in response to your comment "stupidhippo", i don't think i was the one here with a "dumb" comment.

if the cancer society came up with a "cure" for cancer, they'd literally be shut down cause there would be no purpose for them anymore. those kind of societies dedicated to focusing on specific diseases or illnesses are funded for the sole reason of finding a cure. however, as soon as they found a cure, there would be no further need for them, and they would be shut down. so again, why would someone make a cure for something that would put them out of a job? all they want is to come out with more effective "treatments", which will keep them funded and keep you paying them.

as far as antibiotics "curing" anything, where'd you ever get that info? all antibiotics do is help your body fight infections, it does not "cure" anything. if it cured you of infections, you'd never get an infection again. however, as soon as you're off antibiotics, you're just as succeptible as ever to infections. antibiotics get you to come to the doctors knowing they can help you, but the doctors naturally want you coming back, cause if they permanently "cured" you, how would they continue making their money?

yes, antibiotics i'm sure has saved lives at times, but of course they want you to stay alive so you can keep coming back to them!!! additionally, antibiotics not only kills foreign bacteria that is causing infections, but it also kills good bacteria which is found in the stomach, among numerous other parts of the body where it's beneficial. in the long run, this causes far more harm than good, as killing that good bacteria leaves your body succeptible to things it can't fight off itself saying as it's expecting that good bacteria to be there to do so.

another reason doctors love antibiotics is because it helps them keep you coming back to them more often. it's a known fact that antibiotics not only causes new strains of colds/flus, but that those strains get stronger in adaptation to the antibiotics. that is why doctors used to be very hesitant to hand out antibiotics, saving them for extreme cases. nowadays though, that info is pretty well covered up by the medical industry and they hand out antibiotics like they're m&m's. there are colds nowadays where you're sick for weeks at a time. you never saw that as a kid. you'd be sick for a week at most, then back on your feet. antibiotics are what's making these stronger strains come out.

i went to a doctor the other day for a completely unrelated issue, but as soon as he found out i was just getting over a head-cold, he tried to prescribe me antibiotics. well, antibiotics don't even help with colds!!! he as a doctor should surely know that, so what do you think his intentions were here?

i can hardly believe the ignorance in your statement of "saying meds have never cured anybody and they would be putting themselves out of business if they did is such crap". you name one medication out there that actually cures you of a disease? also, name one disease research group that if they found a cure for something, there'd still be a purpose for them being funded? you obviously failed to look into this beforehand and make very unecessary remarks on issues you know nothing about.

[ascendant]

I tend to disagree with you on this point. A Schizophrenic cannot talk himself out of his condition, he needs to be medicated for the imbalance of chemicals in his brain. A Manic Depressive cannot talk himself out of being manic depressive, nor can a therapist do much to remedy these conditions. People who are Bipolar cannot decide to not be bipolar. You have to understand that mental illness is an injury to the body, just like breaking your leg. And if you take the time to read the first intro paragraphs of the website it will explain this.

as far as things such as schizophrenia, that is an example of one of the situations where meds may be considered by some to be a necessity. however, there are some people who deal with schizophrenia and have coped very well. there was even a movie made about one such person in "a beautiful mind". you do not NEED meds, but sometimes they can help.

you have good examples of where the majority of the people do feel they need meds, but those examples you state are the ones i was talking about in my post when i stated that "if you feel meds are a must in your condition, then this is a good way to do your research...". however, i find nowadays people are far too quick to self-diagnose, tell doctors they have a problem, and look for a med to help them. of course the doctors won't complain cause hell, you're paying them.

i agree that mental illness is similar to breaking your leg. with proper care, the leg will heal, but your body is what heals the leg, the cast only helps the healing process. with mental illness, your mind is the only thing that can heal it, but sometimes meds can help along the way. however, all too often people become dependent on the meds and don't make the effort to ever cope with their problem.

i dealt with anxiety attacks for almost an entire year before i learned to get over them. but, i did so without any meds, giving a perfect example of how meds are unecessary. in some extreme circumstances, maybe some people can't handle coping with their underlying issues causing the mental illness, but i think far more people can "self-treat" that simply avoid doing so by falsely thinking meds are a solution.

look at it this way... there are monks who have learned how to consciously control their heart rate, metabolism, even digestive systems. now, most people here in the US would say that those things aren't possible, yet those monks not only do it, but it's a part of their training to have to do so.

the primary ways of getting over mental illness is a combination of conscious understanding and directing of conscious willpower towards a specific goal. the answer isn't "i don't want to be bipolar anymore". the answer is finding out the underlying cause of what's causing your "illness" and fixing the underlying problem solves the issue. i didn't find a way to get over my anxiety attacks. i found a way to keep the "trigger mechanisms" of my anxiety attacks to stop triggering them. once done, the anxiety went away itself cause you took away it's fuel for the fire. it's much more complicated than this, but as you can see even this brief of an explanation has been way drawn out and i'm trying to keep it simple yet get my point across without misleading cause of brevity.

some people don't have the willpower, which is when meds come into play. however, i will say again, meds are never a necessity and will never "cure" the illness, but it may help greatly alleviate the symptoms of an illness. i just prefer the natural way cause not only do you learn a great deal more about yourself in the process, but once you do overcome it naturally, you don't need any meds and there's no concern of coming off something and having to deal with it again. it's a form of self-empowerment that meds will never give you.