Ooh! Ooh! Me!

Seriously, I was prescribed Zoloft in April, without having been properly screened for bipolar disorder. Then came the suicidal ideation, mixed state, and finally full-on mania. Then and only then did my psychiatrist go, "Hm, I guess we missed something!" Soooo, apparently it's prescribed at university counseling centers on the East Coast.

You bring up an excellent point about psychiatrists not taking patients' blood pressure. At my initial appointment my psychiatrist asked about family hx of illness. My grandparents died of stroke. My dad has hypertension. The doc prescribed Effexor (which can elevate bp). Never once did he take my blood pressure. I've wondered about this for a long time. Is it because they don't know how to take someone's bp? Or is it because it's considered more of a nursing task? Or do they just not think it's important? It seems to me if a patient comes in the door with a known family hx of hypertension/stroke and you're going to put someone on a med that can elevate bp or put them on drugs that cause weight gain (both high risk factors for stroke) that you would at least want to at least get a baseline before you prescribe these drugs. That seems really sloppy to me. Yet, it's happening every day. I would like to hear from the psychiatrists - why aren't you checking patients' bp?

Meredith, Please don't let them tell you you always had bipolar and they just didn't recognize it. Zoloft induced the mania -- it wasn't some latent, undetected mania lying under the service. Get off the Zoloft slowly and carefully and I bet the mania will go away. Don't let them get you on a whole cocktail of bipolar meds. This is such a racket I could die.

This study reminds me of the study that showed that women get pimples during their period. Studies from the land of "duh" is what I call them.

Exercise is the only anti-depressant I can and do use. But, being a worrywart, I would caution folks to check with their G.P.'s or internists before starting on an exercise regime more than walking given how many of us may have undiagnosed medical problems that would indicate restricted exercise options.

My dental hygienist even takes my blood pressure routinely--and I have no known bp issues. They say many people go to their dentist more than their doctor so it's a good chance to check if there's a problem.

Walking is what helped me beat the depression since it started in August. I went purposely to places I liked [scenery]and gave it diversity.[not the neighborhood walk]. Re: Allison's comment and acne and menstrual cycles per women--same thing as "drink a glass of water per candy bar" to keep acne at bay. Just isn't so!

Oh, and Zoloft is the first antidepressant rx to my 11 yr old, and she suffered 18 months of raging suicidal shit before I could finish my research, type it up, and basically handed the inpatient psych an abstract documenting it all.
My daughter learned the hard way re: Zoloft in 2001 long before the FDA ever got their act together to blackbox SSRIs. I've still got my original "abstract" and "I'm not a doctor."

Take a walk and a deep breath, it works.

Isn't the World Health Organization pouring money into trying to understand the relationship between extreme, third world country poverty, and mental health? I'll tell you my hypothosis, starving to death on a desert while also dying of thirst while watching your loved ones starve to death while also dying of thirst drives people crazy. Some are even suggesting that the reason there are so many people labeled as mentally ill in prison is because being in prison drives you crazy. Thank goodness we're not living in the dark ages when it was thought that what a person did and what was done to a person affected how that person felt. I visualize fat psychologists traveling to Africa in expensive African Print Garb, loaded down with trunks of food to keep them well fed while forcing straving Africans to undergo psych evals.

I thought it was significant that people who exercised with a group did better than those who did it solo.

Congratulations, you won a Thinking Blogger Award

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all - blogs that really get you thinking!

This all started at:
http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/02/thinking-blogger-awards_11.html

The post in which I tagged you can be found at:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/09/21/thinking-blogger-award-and-our-top-five-thinking-blogs/

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had poured all the money I spent on psychiatrist appointments and copays for psych meds into paying for a personal trainer, instead.