Post Peak Skills from the Artsy Fartsy side

The_Virginian · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 19, 2004 Posts: 1528

Mindfark,

If you re-read my posts you find I do not say these drugs have no measurable clinical effect to help with depressive symptoms.

What I DO SAY is that the theory behind the whole SSRI is a farce.

They are happy pills, ok, and yes some people need them.

Please read this paragraph:

"Even though alterations in 5-HT system function are observed in many of these clinical conditions, definitive evidence of a "serotonin disease" (aside from carcinoid tumors) that demonstrates clear abnormalities at the genetic, anatomic, and biochemical levels, remains to be demonstrated. Thus, at the present time, even though there is extensive therapeutics directed at increasing or decreasing 5-HT function at selected sites, considerable additional research will be necessary to clarify the causative pathogenic role of the many 5-HT dependent mechanisms involved in the widely different clinical conditions where 5-HT based treatments are used."

http://www.acnp.org/G4/GN401000045/CH.html

That's right folks no "Seritonin Desiese"

That's all I mean to say.

This does not, nor is intended to deny the pain and suffering that mentaly unwell individuals experiance. This does not, nor is intended to offend those who decide to take such medication.

madison · Heavy Crude Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 255

Another Pern fan, here!!!! I could live there, though I have no intentions of being a drudge LOL Smile

Counselors/therapists are going to be big Post Peak, and so will spiritual leaders. There's going to be alot of angry, frightened, depressed people around, not to mention those who are no longer able to get their meds. It will be really hard. One of my best friends is bi-polar and I worry about her Sad

bobaloo · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 14, 2004 Posts: 484

Just to throw out an idea, a couple of years ago my doc and I were "shotgunning" treatments, trying something at low doses for a month or so to see if it did any good, and just for the hell of it I tried taking some lithium. Literally within hours I noticed an effect and have been on it ever since.

I'm not clinically bipolar, but was having a big problem with chronic fatigue and fibro, so we were trying a bunch of different things to see what might help. Can't remember why we tried the lithium, but it's been a godsend. The chronic fatigue has pretty much gone away and the fibro is considerably better. I'm only taking 600 mg per day, about half to a third of the typical dosage for bipolar. There's some concern with it in that high doses can cause kidney issues for some folks, but haven't had any trouble at this dosage level.

I suspect quite a few folks could probably benefit from low doses of it. If you remember in the old days folks used to travel to "soda springs" to drink the tonic water to cure the "blues". One thing we know today is that those springs tend to be very high in dissolved lithium. The nice thing about it is that it is a simple element, not some complex chemical created in a lab, so I feel a bit more comfortable taking it regularly.