• The Dark Side 💕 Welcome Guest 💕
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Notable Threads Urgent Hotlines
    Bereavement Mindfulness
    Suicide Support Anger Management
  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | paranoid android

Mental Health Main symptom?

JessFR said:
No those are all symptoms of a panic attack too. Presumably not everyone gets every symptom everytime though.
Click to expand...
Panic attack like many other psychiatric disorders is really not a one thing. First I must remind that psychiatry is as not well established science and many of disorders are literally created by voting. Other thing is that disorders are diagnosed via questionnaire like examination and a psychiatrist is more of an artist than a scientist. If he/she/it(lol) is any good.

But back to the point... Most disorders are clusters of symptoms and you "have a disorder" if you meet the criteria of, let's say, 4 out of 9 symptoms. So we have an imagined disorder X. There are 9 possible symptoms that would indicate the person has the X disorder. Person A has symptoms 1-4 and is diagnosed with disorder X. Person B has symptoms 6-9 and is diagnosed with disorder X. Person A and B do not share any symptoms but they are diagnosed with the same disorder. That is how psychiatric diagnosing sometimes turns out.

The symptoms are correlated but are not the same throughout the disorder. Disorders can be thought as a spectrum of behavioural and subjective symptoms put together in a somewhat loose correlated group. Think of a schizophrenia and how many things are put into this category. That is why psychiatry is often called pseudo science. Also it is often a case that in psychiatry first a medication is created and then a hypothesis about disorder based upon the particular medications mode of action. Think about SSRIs and serotonin hypothesis about depression, or antipsychotics (which block dopamine receptors) and stimulants which activate them and the "dopamine hypothesis " about psychosis. Psychiatry is really in it's early stage and one should be careful not to believe it like you would believe a lung specialist. I would recommend books by Thomas Szasz if you are interested about this matter.

I went little outside of the scope of a OPs question but I think it was needed for an answer to make full sense.

OP take care and beware of benzodiazepines. They are great short term solution for panic/anxiety (or any kind of excitatory reactions), but after few months they themselves tend to become a problem.

P.S. I am not a doctor and am not giving medical advice, only my layman's opinion.
 
that was why i asked.............to get prescribed a benzo............and it worked...not the benzo i wanted though. do you reckon if i go back and say it doesnt work he'lll believe me lol
 
As a person dependent on diazepam I wouldn't play benzo roulette if not really necessary.

Specified said:
do you reckon if i go back and say it doesnt work he'lll believe me lol
Click to expand...
I don't know. I presume you want to get alprazolam (Xanax) over clonazepam (Klonopin/Rivotril) or lorazepam (Ativan). I have no advice on this matter but I think the general procedure this days for psychiatrists is not to find suitable benzo but suitable SSRI/SNRI. Benzodiazepines are considered for acute phase of this kind of problem, but are not first choice in the long run. Actually I believe that even pregabalin would be second line pharmacological treatment this days. But it all depends on the situation and the social contract that you and your particular psychiatrist are willing to enter. I am not trying to be smart about it I am only giving opinion based on this few data you have given. Please don't go "doctor shopping" or do some other thing that could get you in the trouble in the long run. Benzos are just not worth it.

Take care.
 
Psycho_Logic said:
As a person dependent on diazepam I wouldn't play benzo roulette if not really necessary.


I don't know. I presume you want to get alprazolam (Xanax) over clonazepam (Klonopin/Rivotril) or lorazepam (Ativan). I have no advice on this matter but I think the general procedure this days for psychiatrists is not to find suitable benzo but suitable SSRI/SNRI. Benzodiazepines are considered for acute phase of this kind of problem, but are not first choice in the long run. Actually I believe that even pregabalin would be second line pharmacological treatment this days. But it all depends on the situation and the social contract that you and your particular psychiatrist are willing to enter. I am not trying to be smart about it I am only giving opinion based on this few data you have given. Please don't go "doctor shopping" or do some other thing that could get you in the trouble in the long run. Benzos are just not worth it.

Take care.
Click to expand...
Yeah I was on Alprazolam for about 6 years.
He did say that in the long run an SSRI/SNRI would be more suitable and that the problem with benzos for panic attacks is the duration is longer than a panic attack so the benzo lingers.
pregabalin only makes me sleepy and I've been on the same dose for about a week now it doesn't make me sleepy and i'm not getting any anxiety relief from it. increase the dose maybe?
 
No medication is without side effects. That said, benzos have a notorious reputation for a few reasons that I won't go into. If you're been on it six years, on the other hand, it may be best to stay on. That's a difficult decision that you should let the MD make, assuming he's appraised of the relevant information.

Benzos are great short-term. If you can avoid that habit, it may be for the best.

SSRIs are good for anxiety. I think paroxetine binds the most close to the SERT transporter. It's good for all kinds of anxiety, and for depression. That's the sort of thing...a good marker of how well a medication works is the number of general complaints that it contributes to fixing. But maybe it doesn't work for you.
 
AlphaMethylPhenyl said:
No medication is without side effects. That said, benzos have a notorious reputation for a few reasons that I won't go into. If you're been on it six years, on the other hand, it may be best to stay on. That's a difficult decision that you should let the MD make, assuming he's appraised of the relevant information.

Benzos are great short-term. If you can avoid that habit, it may be for the best.

SSRIs are good for anxiety. I think paroxetine binds the most close to the SERT transporter. It's good for all kinds of anxiety, and for depression. That's the sort of thing...a good marker of how well a medication works is the number of general complaints that it contributes to fixing. But maybe it doesn't work for you.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think he will write a prescription for it cos he said "we don't want to go into getting licences and calling up ???" dunno what he said exactly but dunno where you live but here the psychiatrist and a psychiatrist is only allowed to write a script for alprazolam not doctors. yeah I didn't take it everyday that's what I can say to him but yeah its up to him i suppose.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top