I have also noticed though that I feel distant lately. I just feel kind of airy, like I am watching my life instead of participating in it. I know that some of you ppl know about this kinda shit, so I thought I would ask if this is just a normal effect of the meds, or if I should schedule a more immediate appointment with my Dr.? My next appointment isn't supposed to be for about 3 weeks.
"You know, DRZ, if this was the Revolutionary War, I'd be shooting you in the face with a musket."- TT
It can be an effect of the meds, depending on what you are taking. You can feel apathetic and disconnected from your emotions. If it's a feeling you don't like, by all means, see the doc and talk about adjusting. I have been on an antidepressant before that made me feel disconnected and apathetic. I felt like I was depressed, only I couldn't really tell because the meds masked the worst of it. A caveat is, it can be a bad idea to fuck with what is working. I am thinking of bipolar disorder, in which people start to feel better and go off their meds and all hell breaks loose. The idea of meds should be the minimum necessary for you to be functional. That said, it's a good idea to get therapy and build distress tolerance and emotion regulation skills. If you are wanting to get your feelings back, you want to be able to cope with them.
what mousie said. it would be unethical for several different reasons for us to diagnose or treat you here. that being said, i would call the doc and run it by him/her - and also start working with a competent therapist. you may need to check out a couple before finding one that really clicks with you. you wouldn't necessarily marry the first person you date, and the therapist/client relationship is another pretty intimate one (although for different reasons, one hopes).
I have also noticed though that I feel distant lately. I just feel kind of airy, like I am watching my life instead of participating in it ~
Totally the meds - I suggest giving it time and seeing if it stays that way before getting on the "let's adjust your dosage / ween you off and on to something else" merry go round. Your life is going great. Jesus fucking christ I would pay 60$ for that airy disconnected apathetic feeling you've got going, honestly. Caring about things is fucked.
It takes awhile for the brain stuff to equal out, non? "Life going great" sounds better than "my arms feel like they're being electrocuted" or "I bit my mother to death". If shrinks were real scientists / healers I'd agree with the "unethical" position, but they're insane evil nonhumans that masturbate to the thought of ruining people's lives as an experiment, so, best limiting your exposure to them, namsayin.
Sounds like you need to get laid brah. C'mon you expected at least one pithy asylumesque response right?
The cognizant part of your brain is the last stop on a runaway train line that goes back to whatever you started meds for in the first place.
For example, *meth floods 1200 times more dopamine across the "gateways" than regular ol' amphetamine, and your cerebellum's response is to let a shitload of receptors get "hijacked" and re-tune themselves to only respond to meth.
Dopamine is pretty complex stuff, but the main attribute is as a "happy" chemical. Every time you've ever jacked off, you kick-started a little squirt of dopamine into your brain. Or satisfied your hunger, or thirst.
Consider that those hijacked receptors normally are for things like enjoyment of a slice of pie, a whiff of clean pussy etc. and suddenly they're sorta ripped up by the roots, turned around to face the glare of this new torrent of dopamine stimulus - and they'll never go back.
Immediately, all they crave is more o' that stuff, etc. until they drop you in your hole and stick a chunk of marble with your name and epitaph above you.
With very few exceptions, ALL drugs work that way. They just sorta start a chain reaction that leads to physical effects, but your only awareness of the physical effects is in the cognizant part of your brain - which is primarily affected by dopamine. It's a weird merry-go-round.
Sometimes dopamine receptors can be "reclaimed," depending on what you were doing and how long you did it for, and most importantly: your genetics. (It helps to pick your parents wisely, I'm told.)
Here's another example: nicotine. Nicotine is unique in that it does two things at the same time: if you're tense, it calms you down. If you're tired, it perks you up. But ask a smoker of twenty years or more how it feels about a month into going cold turkey, and they'll tell you that both of those things are going on at the same time. In the absence of nicotine, their dopamine receptors are going haywire. They're tense AND tired...
And it takes about a year or more for those receptors to retune themselves, but they do. Ask a former smoker how their sense of smell was affected. (That's a big one.)
In your case, all this was just a preamble to this advice: give it time. LOTS of time. Endure. Don't start pasting bandaids on your brain just yet (especially antidepressants, which have their own bizarre cycle - just ask anybody who started taking Xanax for nervousness how they feel about a week after quitting, and they'll tell you they're FAR more wired than they ever thought about being before they took Xanax...)
It's just cycles your brain has to go through, and your cognizant brain is the last stop in a long line of changes, most of which you can't even "feel."
Thanks, but I was just expounding on what Mister Freign said. He deserves any credit, because he had it right.
They are called murder/suicide pills for a reason. Read the warning labels inside the box for proof.
Read the insert included in the packaging. FFS. By law they have to provide the list of symptoms that can come about from taking the pills. Goddamn it, this sort of shit is real and documented. Have you ever even bothered to read it even once?
Your the one taking the damned "crazy pills" and I'm the nut for telling you to read the warning labels so as to educate yourself? Really?
Tefl, you are wasting your time. You are talking at a boy with a history of taking questionable drugs because he accepts someone's word that they'll make him "feel better". Meth, crack, prescribed pharmaceuticals - what do they all have in common? He chooses to surrender rationality in favor of uninformed acceptance of their "benefits", simply because someone tells him how good they are.
I was joking, because there is a thread about you and conspiracy theories and I first heard about the dangers of psychotropic drugs on "coast to coast" .
I am well aware that some meds can do that, but I am not on any SSRI's, I have read the inserts on my drug, and it has very limited side effects.
I was mostly just wondering if I should ask a doctor about it, but it seems to have subsided on its own a bit, like friegn and Genie said it might.
Also, Simon, I spent 18 years "Just dealing with it" via, therapy, and such. It didn't work, at every turn I ended up getting worse, I have a very real mental illness, and there is nothing childish about taking meds to keep that in check. Also, I never took Meth, because someone "told" me it would make me feel better, I took it the first time because I was smoking refer, drinking PBR and someone offered it. I took it every other time, because it DID make me feel better.
Also also, Simon just because you are as old and crazy as gary busey's ball sack, doesn't mean you know everything.
That's HERESY!! Of course SS knows everything - he has demonstrated that hundreds of times! Nobody would know anything at all if it wasn't for SimpleSimonismⓇ!
"Republicans: the party that brought us 'Just Say No.' First as a drug policy, then as their entire platform." -Stephen Colbert -
I've often freely stated that I know a little bit about a whole lot of subjects, a great deal about a very few, and the thing I know best is that there is always more to learn.
That said, my previous assessment above is based upon your own statements regarding your history of drug abuse, and your apparent continuing pattern of the same. Yes, alcohol is a drug.
...I never took Meth, because someone "told" me it would make me feel better, I took it the first time because I was smoking refer, drinking PBR and someone offered it.
I have also noticed though that I feel distant lately. I just feel kind of airy, like I am watching my life instead of participating in it. I know that some of you ppl know about this kinda shit, so I thought I would ask if this is just a normal effect of the meds, or if I should schedule a more immediate appointment with my Dr.? My next appointment isn't supposed to be for about 3 weeks. ...
There is no better example of "that was then, this is now" than when someone truly makes the effort to get clean. The longer "now" becomes, the less "then" has anything to do with it. And that saves your ass.
I've been there, and I did it with "Cognitive Behavior Therapy" (CBT), acupuncture and nothing else. No meds, no 12-step, no meetings, counseling etc. Fortunately, I didn't need it.
Acupuncture is absolutely amazing for helping heal your brain. If you've never had it, go through the phone book and find one from China. Don't fuck around. I tried three non-chink acupuncturists before finding my soulmate.
I look down and see about a hundred needles sticking out from various parts of my body, and it blows me away that I can't feel one of them. I didn't feel 'em going in and I don't feel 'em coming out. And every single time I walk out of there feeling like somebody dipped my soul in Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap and gave it a good rinse.
It's hard to describe, but it works. It's got about umpteen thousand years of experience behind it, too. That doesn't hurt. Nobody has said it actually harms anybody, if that helps. It makes it a lot easier to handle the heebie-jeebies, that's for sure.
i freaking LOVE dr, bronner's peppermint soap. the label alone can occupy you if you forget to bring the newspaper in with you to have some "quality time".
One of the synonyms for sober is clearheaded. You did say you are feeling "distant, kind of airy, & like I am watching my life instead of participating in it." Do you think you are "clearheaded" with those symptoms?
'Concerned Women for America (CWA) is grateful to God that the Swedish Supreme Court has decided to protect religious freedom and freedom of speech by acquitting a Pentecostal pastor charged with a "hate crime" for criticizing homosexuality from the pulpit.'