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Update, answers to questions, medication cocktail
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<blockquote data-quote="mindinggaps" data-source="post: 763993" data-attributes="member: 29823"><p>[USER=3305]@lovemysons[/USER] - I appreciate your contributions! Your input is very valuable and I am sure your experiences will provide help and insight to others.</p><p></p><p>[USER=22840]@Deni D[/USER] - Thank you for your post. You sound like an incredible support for your son. He is lucky to have you. Before directly answering your question, I wanted to add a few comments on some of the other points you raised, because I think you touched upon a number of very important things.</p><p></p><p>Firstly, having a diverse set of supports which includes social workers and therapists alongside psychiatrists is the best recipe for success. Building this out can be very challenging but as your post outlined, each component plays a role. Ideally, with a collaborative approach hospitalizations can be avoided because as you correctly point out, they usually involve rapid and dramatic changes to medications in an attempt to achieve stability. In practice this is hard and can result in problems. What is implemented in a hospital setting likely won't work more broadly and can actually result in longer term setbacks. Medication management is more successful when done gradually and under close monitoring. For compliance, the use of injections is controversial and typically reserved for certain classes of disorders. However, when it is necessary, they can make the difference between life and death. I think it can very often be the right thing to do.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I was very interested to read about the positive impact Abilify has for you son. I take Abilify for different reasons but find it has a very similar positive impact. In my case, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) causes serious intrusive thoughts and obsessions and Abilify when paired with Prozac really helps keep these symptoms away. It also lowers my reactivity, aggression and desire to argue or fight. While some do have paradoxical reactions, I find it to be a very useful medication and nowadays it is used a lot for depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and anxiety as an add-on because it is so effective. It is absolutely crucial for my treatment and one of the medications I simply cannot live without.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>To directly answer your question, the best situation is when you can realize within yourself that stopping medication is causing serious issues. There have been times when I have stopped and felt my life spiraling out of control and then sought psychiatric care. However, to have the self-awareness and experience required to achieve this is rather challenging. More realistic is additional support systems like you've mentioned. Therapists can be extremely powerful in this regard. They will know what medications you are taking and be able to judge whether or not you are complying properly. The issue here is that therapy can be hard to access and many patients will not want to do it. Friends or partners can also be valuable here - any support system where there is trust and the person is willing to listen. Ideally, the more the better. </p><p></p><p>For me, perhaps the most important thing was <em>recognizing</em> that compliance was an issue. With that, therapy played a part. We work to identify why there is a desire to stop medications and what can be done to control this. Additionally, as I've mentioned, a good psychiatrist will recognize this as a symptom and build something into the treatment which helps control impulsive behavior. In my case, while I do well on a combination of Prozac and Abilify, I sometimes would have urges to stop. We introduced medications specifically targetted to control this impulse, which combined with therapy and the various other supports has been successful.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mindinggaps, post: 763993, member: 29823"] [USER=3305]@lovemysons[/USER] - I appreciate your contributions! Your input is very valuable and I am sure your experiences will provide help and insight to others. [USER=22840]@Deni D[/USER] - Thank you for your post. You sound like an incredible support for your son. He is lucky to have you. Before directly answering your question, I wanted to add a few comments on some of the other points you raised, because I think you touched upon a number of very important things. Firstly, having a diverse set of supports which includes social workers and therapists alongside psychiatrists is the best recipe for success. Building this out can be very challenging but as your post outlined, each component plays a role. Ideally, with a collaborative approach hospitalizations can be avoided because as you correctly point out, they usually involve rapid and dramatic changes to medications in an attempt to achieve stability. In practice this is hard and can result in problems. What is implemented in a hospital setting likely won't work more broadly and can actually result in longer term setbacks. Medication management is more successful when done gradually and under close monitoring. For compliance, the use of injections is controversial and typically reserved for certain classes of disorders. However, when it is necessary, they can make the difference between life and death. I think it can very often be the right thing to do. I was very interested to read about the positive impact Abilify has for you son. I take Abilify for different reasons but find it has a very similar positive impact. In my case, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) causes serious intrusive thoughts and obsessions and Abilify when paired with Prozac really helps keep these symptoms away. It also lowers my reactivity, aggression and desire to argue or fight. While some do have paradoxical reactions, I find it to be a very useful medication and nowadays it is used a lot for depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and anxiety as an add-on because it is so effective. It is absolutely crucial for my treatment and one of the medications I simply cannot live without. To directly answer your question, the best situation is when you can realize within yourself that stopping medication is causing serious issues. There have been times when I have stopped and felt my life spiraling out of control and then sought psychiatric care. However, to have the self-awareness and experience required to achieve this is rather challenging. More realistic is additional support systems like you've mentioned. Therapists can be extremely powerful in this regard. They will know what medications you are taking and be able to judge whether or not you are complying properly. The issue here is that therapy can be hard to access and many patients will not want to do it. Friends or partners can also be valuable here - any support system where there is trust and the person is willing to listen. Ideally, the more the better. For me, perhaps the most important thing was [I]recognizing[/I] that compliance was an issue. With that, therapy played a part. We work to identify why there is a desire to stop medications and what can be done to control this. Additionally, as I've mentioned, a good psychiatrist will recognize this as a symptom and build something into the treatment which helps control impulsive behavior. In my case, while I do well on a combination of Prozac and Abilify, I sometimes would have urges to stop. We introduced medications specifically targetted to control this impulse, which combined with therapy and the various other supports has been successful. [/QUOTE]
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