Has anyone recovered from mental illness?

[jp_bl_68]

I've been to the doctors twice about depression and was basically turned away both times by different doctors. The second fobbed me off with a leaflet for a self-help club where fellow losers gather to share stories, I don't give a **** about anybody else, why would I want to listen to their story?

Anyway, it took me years to build up the courage to even ask for help but now I feel it was wasted.

What were you hoping/expecting the doctor would do? I thought therapy was quite common when it came to dealing with mental illness. There must be a reason for that.

No, I just have far bigger things to worry about than other people's problems.

You're not there to solve other peoples problems.

Precisely. Just talking to someone who has some understanding of what you're going through can make a huge difference.

 

[Sone]

been diagnosed with anxiety depression etc. Been suicidal at times, I really do wonder how I am alive sometime; does bring out a spiritual side I never thought I had.

To say i am cured is a bit too far, i just can't concentrate any more. Feel like a fraud going to work everyday as i am not the same man as on my cv. Worst thing I ever did was take meds, now when I feel down all I can think about is getting some more (not had any for about a year)

 

[jp_bl_68]

Worst thing I ever did was take meds, now when I feel down all I can think about is getting some more (not had any for about a year)

I've got a friend who feels the same. He was on meds for a couple of years, managed to get off them for one very good year but then hit a bit of a rough patch and has decided to start taking them again. I get the impression he feels somewhat defeated.

Having only just started taking medication I can't really appreciate what he's going through though.

 

[Shadz]

Im a Mental Health Nurse so I know a lot on this subject.

What I can say is depressions and anxiety are not good things to have.

The way most people cope with Depression is to either seek help from your GP or if that
fails and the GP does not consider you to be depressed and stuff, is to talk to other
people that are depressed (such as self help groups).

Most people expect the GP to give a magic pill and it will solve all there problems in 1 go.
Its not like that at all, you have to be able to help yourself as much as anything else
otherwise the GP will definitely not help you out.

Anxiety can be a different story, as if your anxious about something then you need
to identify what it is that is getting you that way and then see what can be done about
it.

Most of the people that I work with are Psychotic which will cause them to be anxious
solve the Psychotic episodes and the anxiety will go away as well.

 

[davedudes]

Ive just come off my tablets for depression, feel great, was very numb before i packed them in walking around like a damn zombie, I get the odd day were i feel very low but tbh im glad im off them, just the load of other tabs I have to get rid of


EDIT : I was on 250mg of Clomipramine.

 

[Xordium]

The tragedy here is not the attitude of ordinary people who generally know FA about mental health troubles, but the serious lack of resources provided by healthcare professionals who almost always know better, yet still hold up their hands whilst shrugging their shoulders, as if to say 'meh'.

Maybe I can offer some perspective on why that may be. Mental health has always been treated as something distinctly different from other disease. This is mostly a historical thing going back to Descartes body/mind duality and also the rise of the likes of Freud etc establishing a base of treatment away from the medical sphere. The medical reaction here was shaped by the whole nature/nurture debate that ran last century. Medicine took the nature component and aimed to change physical processes through the usage of medicine and say ECT whilst "therapists" took the nurture component and ran with that. And never the twain did meet and all that.

If you look in your local areas you will see that even in recent times mental health services are quite clearly differentiated from other services. As traditional medicine never really had a complete hold over the sphere of mental health and because of the societal stigma associated with mental health full stop it was always the poor relation both in terms of talent and finance. The reaction from the mental health professional community was to push back and claim hold of their turf even more strongly.

The end result being that still things are rarely linked to meet patients - important research is still only just being doing - the mental health lobby retains professional control inappropriately eg mental health nurses looking after children when this is against all guidance.

So the history of the field has led to a lesser pool of talent, fewer resources, professional infighting, given services that always seem to be the first target of cuts and all the while the people who need help are left with very little. Because there is simply very little to offer them and of all the things that there are to give quite a lot of the professionals blanket disregard anything out of their paradigm.

I might be wrong but that's my experience from the opposite side of the fence to most of you even though my speciality is not in this area at all I would hasten to add.

 

[ljt]

I've been told I have anxiety by the GP, it sets all sorts of secondary symptoms off such as IBS and acid reflux which I have to take tablets for to control stomach acid.

However I'm in a real low at the moment, to the point when I go to bed, I'm hoping I don't wake up in the morning, I'm not suicidal, but the only reason I think thats stopping me is what it would do to my family if I did, especially my Mum, it would also leave her in financial difficulty as I pay the mortgage and I doubt they'd pay out for suicide!

It also doesn't help that my biological Dad suffers with really bad Bi-Polar, he's on all sorts of medication, the only one I can remember is lithium. My GP said it could be that i'm pre-dispositioned to end up with mental illness as supposedly it is Herriditary?!

 

[Tummy]

The drugs don't work.

 

[davedudes]

The drugs don't work.

For me in the early days they did.

 

[jumpy]

@ mausten
Do you find the attention of 'managers' and accountants involvement with the nhs today has bearing upon other issues of healthcare as well as what is covered here regarding mental health treatment?
Perhaps it's naive, but I always thought healthcare ought to be organised by doctors inline with the best interests of patients, and not bean counters, as it were.
One of the reasons a close relative decided not to go back to nursing (as a previous senior nursing sister, or matron as they used to be known) was the utter lack of standards and dedication and discipline she felt had slowly become absent from the profession.

 

[Xordium]

@ mausten
Do you find the attention of 'managers' and accountants involvement with the nhs today has bearing upon other issues of healthcare as well as what is covered here regarding mental health treatment?
Perhaps it's naive, but I always thought healthcare ought to be organised by doctors inline with the best interests of patients, and not bean counters, as it were.
One of the reasons a close relative decided not to go back to nursing (as a previous senior nursing sister, or matron as they used to be known) was the utter lack of standards and dedication and discipline she felt had slowly become absent from the profession.

The answers are yes and I am afraid you are being naive. But I guess you somehow already knew that!

 

[Cold_And_Miserable]

I'm on the waiting list to see a psychologist so I haven't recovered from mental illness yet.

Until then I shall continue my unhealthy life of rarely leaving the house. I can't remember the last time I talked to someone near my age, I'm guessing thats quite awful.

 

[Energize]

The drugs don't work.

Mine do.

 

[Flibbles]

I suffered from a severe case of social anxiety throughout my youth which made effectively made me a hermit; it's only in the past year that I've got rid of it and been able to go on a year-long course at college that'll get me in to university and allow me to get on with my life.

All this has made me see who I really am, I've made some amazing friends and I wouldn't change anything- even my troubled past, since without it I wouldn't be the same person.

 

[tom91x91]

Really? I know a few people on citalopram (myself included, moving to a slightly different SSRI tomorrow) and they all seem to find that it helps a great deal. And the common side effects aren't that bad.

Would NHS doctors prescribe drugs to benefit private companies?

Im probably overeacting a bit heh, i just HATE the way doctors hand out SSRI's like sweets to anyone, glad to hear they helped you, But they have negative effects on a lot of people and there are far more effective anti dep's out there with much more tolerable side effect profile such as SNRI's and Mirtazapine. SSRI's should be last in line to try, I went through 4 different ones before trying something else and they all put me through hell.

 

[tom91x91]

Really surprised especially in the general discussion that people have been very sincere in posting their stories.

I too have had my fair share of anxiety, depression that first surfaced seriously in the form of muscle tension to the point of chronic pain. I then took an anti depressant called Paroxetine to deal with the resulting depression which in turn removed the pain with its relaxing effects. I have gained nearly 3 stone though

I went through a horrendous breakdown last year which was triggered by me mixing St johns wort with Paroxetine when I decided to go back on medication.

Did not sleep for a week
Psychosis
Chronic panic, anxiety for 2 month, felt like one long panic attack.

It took me 6 months to get back to work and another 6 months for it to settle down 100%. The anxiety was horrendous at first but after 3 month I began to challenge it. Once the fear left it left soon after!

I now lead a normal life with looking to come off medication in future. I did lose my flat, my partner and a lot of money. But the one bonus is that everyday stresses seem a breeze after remembering where I was last year. I have become a stronger person from it.

I could go into so much detail with what happened and what I did but I honestly do feel for every person that has to go through this. Once you experience it, it will always be with you but stop fearing it.

Wow glad your ok, did you get hospital treatment? Serotonin Sydrome can easily cause fatal convulsions and overheating.

 

[koolpc]

The drugs don't work.

Load of rubbish sorry. I am on Cypralex and it does work. Depends which drug you are on and some drugs work with some and not with others.

 

[koolpc]

St johns wort and Antidepressants are not meant to be mixed

 

[Sone]

Load of rubbish sorry. I am on Cypralex and it does work. Depends which drug you are on and some drugs work with some and not with others.

I had cipralex once, i thought it was just the Canadian brand name for lexapro (Escitalopram here i think)

 

[chriscubed]

I suffered with anxiety for a period of about 3 years. I had ongoing confidence and motivation issues, and ended up in a bad situation at uni, where a housemate effectively bullied me to the point I felt trapped in my room, which effectively triggered my condition. I developed social interaction problems where I couldn't look anyone in the eye, and I couldn't concentrate on anything - I couldn't read from a screen for more than 10 minutes, which makes things difficult doing a degree in computer science!

I went to my GP who didn't prescribe me any real meds - she suggested I could try St John's Wart when I felt particularly anxious. What really helped though was she took the time to listen to my trivial sounding problems and empathized with me.

Since then it's been a long road over the last 4 years or so. It's hard to talk about your problems when they run that deep, you can feel like it's your fault and it's embarrassing to admit that. There is no magic fix, but talking about it with someone you trust is a good start.

I, like most people here, wouldn't say I'm fully recovered, but I'm pleased to say I feel I'm most of the way there. I'm in a decent job, with a long term gf and coping fine. Not blowing my trumpet, but hope to answer the OP, it may help someone to know that it is possible to recover.