The Problem With Anti Depressants

I have struggled a lot over the years to find the right mixture of anti depressants that will help me get up off the floor. I would take one and think that it was a great improvement, only to realize later that it was only helping me sit up. After a year of thinking that was as good as it was gonna get, I'd get tired of still having symptoms and go back to the doctor. Eventually, I advanced to crawling, and a bit of walking. However, a small stumble would bring me flat down on my face and it took a long time to brush myself off and get back up again.

I'd like to think that right now I'm at the waking stage again, in heels, even, and I'm doing pretty good. There might be a little wobble here and there, but I haven't rolled my ankle yet. Then again, I'm not running any marathons, either.

Health Care Challenges

Many days it takes a forklift of will to get out of bed, let alone run errands. Today I went to the pharmacy to get a refill of one medication and drop off a prescription to increase the dose of another medication. Instead of simply dropping of the prescription, waiting 20 minutes and leaving with both of my meds, it took me an hour and I only got one of them.

My health insurance sucks, and I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem. For some reason, if my doctor wants to increase the dose of one of my medications, it takes an arm, a leg and my unborn first child to get the damn medication. As if my life wasn't hard enough, my insurance has started requiring pre-approvals from the doctor anytime I need to increase medication.

Depression - Can You Change Your Genes?

At a recent appointment with a new psychiatrist, I was introduced to a new kind of drug to deal with depression. It's not any of the usual suspects (SSRI, SNRI, MAOI Inhibitor, etc) and I think it makes a lot of sense.

As anyone with depression probably knows, our brain chemistry is screwed up. We've got neurotransmitters, but we're either not using them efficiently or their levels are imbalanced

According to the scientists behind the drug Deplin, our body breaks folic acid down to a type of compound that helps balance the levels of our neurotransmitters. Furthermore, they claim that many of us with depression have a specific genetic factor that messes up our ability to break down folic acid into the compound that we need to do this.