This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone
#2Sounds like an edge case. Very high rate of obesity, massive sugar consumption, and lack of outdoor exposure are probably doing a number on people.
Re: This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone
#3More concerningly, seven at one time. For depression.
Re: This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone
#4Sounds like an edge case. Very high rate of obesity, massive sugar consumption, and lack of outdoor exposure are probably doing a number on people.
I’d bet social media is doing even more damage than all those combined.
Re: This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone
#5I don't know how common this is among psychiatrists, but I started seeing a psych for major depression, ADHD, and OCD-type symptoms. I was badly depressed, getting no social interaction, or exercise, eating myself crazy, sleeping 12-20 hours at a time, no sunlight or time outside, and doing a lot of drugs (mainly opiates, which was probably the undiagnosed core of a lot of my issues). I was on 15 or so different anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, anti-epileptics from age 18-24. Much of the time I was on 3-5 at once, mostly different antidepressants and an antipsychotic or two, trying to "find a combination that worked." To treat a condition that's not treatable by psychiatric drugs. I was always 100% open and honest about all aspects and answered all questions. I wanted to get better. My psych appointments typically lasted 5-15 minutes and he was always in a rush.
As far as I can remember, there was never mention of things I should be doing differently - exercise, sleep hygeine, proper diet, sunlight exposure, socializing.
Worse yet, I found out from HN that one of the drugs I was taking permanently disables one of the serotonin pathways (of which there are 7 main types and each has subtypes) in rats, and apparently it's known that at least a couple different types of antipsychotics show reduced brain volume, with "not enough data" (not enough dead brains to study) to see their effects on humans.
> Macaque monkeys administered with the antipsychotics haloperidol and olanzapine over a 17–27 month period showed reduced brain volume. These results have not been observed in humans who also take the drug, due to the lack of available data.[24]
Anecdotally, I absolutely feel like a different person now. My wit, my creativity, my ability for great joy, my kindness, my problem solving and thinking abilities in general - all seem to be quite muted now, even though I'm now taking care of myself and arguably at a place in life where everything is finally good and stable. One drug had side effects, like being unable to talk without studdering and having any sense of urgency (if I had an important appointment, I couldn't force myself to get ready, so I just watched time go by) were reported to my doctor who said that I just needed to give it time and my body would adjust. That's the drug, called Fanapt, that I feel did the most damage.
Re: This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone
#6Sounds like an edge case. Very high rate of obesity, massive sugar consumption, and lack of outdoor exposure are probably doing a number on people.
I’d bet social media is doing even more damage than all those combined.
While social media is clearly doing a number on many aspects of individual life, the effects of massive sugar and lack of sun exposure on the body and brain have horrendous consequences, and are drivers of mental instability and physical disease.
Re: This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone
#7Counterpoint, N=1: I've been off and on many of the drugs listed in the article, I found a permutation that works for me, and my life is amazing.
Re: This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone
#8Counterpoint, N=1: I've been off and on many of the drugs listed in the article, I found a permutation that works for me, and my life is amazing.
What if someone’s permutation is cocaine? Would you consider that a valid treatment?
Re: This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She’s Not Alone
#9One of the easiest research papers I did in uni was for my Psychology 101 about using St Johns Wort for depression. It was describable in Germany ATT with decent success rate for mild-moderate depression.
I wonder why it doesn't get prescribed / officially recommended here in USA?