This past Tuesday, I started a very low dose of amitriptyline for my fibro, with instructions to “ramp up” the dosage as needed and tolerated. I started at 10mg, with instructions to increase dosage in 10mg steps up to 50mg per day. Continue reading
Archive | Mental Health RSS feed for this section
Quick update
16 DecFibromyalgia is still flaring, but the warmer weather seems to have helped. I don’t do well with cold. That’s one of the main reasons I avoided moving to where Barbara would have preferred to live.
Finances are still tight, but I am holding my own. I’m still working my way through bulk foods bought when K and T were still here. Frozen, canned, dried. Might as well use it while I can.
I’m crying less, and when I do, I can name the specific trigger for the tears. So I guess that’s progress. My therapist has made some recommendations on where I should focus my energy that, while I see the purpose, I am not entirely comfortable with. Still thinking that over.
I did the homework he gave me. It wasn’t any easier than I thought it would be when he first gave it to me two weeks ago. Nonetheless, he seemed satisfied with it. I guess that’s good too.
I’m just taking things day by day now. I still can’t see my future, or really my motivation. It takes time, and I refuse to be rushed by people who don’t know what this is like.
Visit to psychiatrist today
7 DecSaw the psychiatrist today, at the urging of my primary care doctor. She didn’t feel at all qualified to handle the issues brought about by my “Fun with Cymbalta“. So off to see a psychiatrist I went. This was the first time I ever saw one as a patient. I’ve been an involved party before, but never a patient. So it was very much a new experience for me. Continue reading
Homework
1 DecWent to see the therapist today, for the first time since Barbara died. (We have history, as he was treating her for complex PTSD before her hospitalization, and I was going with her.) The session helped me a lot. No details here, for obvious reasons. The diagnosis is complicated grief . I go back in two weeks (I can’t afford weekly), and I have homework to do. Painful, difficult, soul wrenching homework.
But he’s right. I need to do it.
Why Do We Deny Ourselves The Right To Grieve?
19 NovI think it is time we stop trying to treat grief as a mental illness, and allow people the right to grieve in this society. There are valid sociological, psychological, and physiological reasons for grief, or we wouldn’t experience it. Continue reading
HMO Incompetence – Why Am I Surprised?
18 NovJust found out when my appointment with the HMO psychiatrist is. My PCP referred me for treatment of the withdrawal from Cymbalta, and evaluation as to need for any other treatment for depression. So how important is treatment for symptoms of physical withdrawal? Continue reading
Latest on my recovery from Cymbalta
18 Nov- Can’t reach the psychiatrist assigned by my HMO. Left message at intake, and got zero response.
- Still having physical symptoms. Intermittent nausea, constant headache, intermittent dizzy spells.
- Brought my dog home. Laura graciously brought her last night. She assumed, rightly, all along that I would want my Taz back once I was able to care for her.
So, 2 negatives, one positive. Not the best report, I guess. But life happens, and there is no use sugar-coating it.
Withdrawal arrives
17 NovWell, the first of my withdrawal symptoms have arrived. I am fighting extreme sleepiness (somnolence) and severe dizziness. I guess the good news is that I am starving. I’m actually hungry for the first time in months. The bad news is that I don’t feel competent to go down to the kitchen.
And a customer is pushing me to deal with a problem while I am in this state.
The Dangers of Cymbalta
15 NovOK, for a while there, it seemed as though Cymbalta was helping me cope. This past weekend, though, the truth raised its ugly head and bit me. I developed severe adverse reactions to it. Not any serious physical ones, but mental and emotional ones. I became combative, depressed, and suicidal. When I wasn’t depressed, I developed mania. I frightened a lot of people, myself included. Continue reading
An Aging Trans Woman 