I've been Real down lately thinking that it's just a bad day or two day thing, and it's been a while now.
I know I've been sick, first a stomach virus (my daughter too) and now beginnings of strep and ear infection.
I don't know where i'm really going with this... just wanted to stop in and say hi and hope that everyone is getting along in their own lives. I know I have it so good in the scheme of things, but I guess it's just one of those times.
Love
Stac
Stacey,
You are right - you do have it good in the scheme of things and this is just one of those times. But remember Spring is around the corner and soon it will be sunshine and warmth, which alone makes us feel better. Learning how to pass the time until there is "sunshine" in our lives again or until we are out of our blues is so important. NONE of us can get through life happy happy every single day and night. The sooner we accept its a down time for us and the sooner we respond by lifting OURSELVES up, the better. Remember to love yourself first (well after Kaylin). When we have taken care of ourselves we know better how to take care of others. Ive had a renewed interest in church the last few months. I find out when the priests I like are serving the mass and I go by myself. Theres so much to gain from the bible and its so important you find someone who really knows how to deliver the message. I come home renewed every time I go. Just a suggestion. Or else - eat ice cream :)
You are right - you do have it good in the scheme of things and this is just one of those times. But remember Spring is around the corner and soon it will be sunshine and warmth, which alone makes us feel better. Learning how to pass the time until there is "sunshine" in our lives again or until we are out of our blues is so important. NONE of us can get through life happy happy every single day and night. The sooner we accept its a down time for us and the sooner we respond by lifting OURSELVES up, the better. Remember to love yourself first (well after Kaylin). When we have taken care of ourselves we know better how to take care of others. Ive had a renewed interest in church the last few months. I find out when the priests I like are serving the mass and I go by myself. Theres so much to gain from the bible and its so important you find someone who really knows how to deliver the message. I come home renewed every time I go. Just a suggestion. Or else - eat ice cream :)
Stace,youre not alone,ive been feeling exactly the same way.
Some days i find it hard to even shower,really,that bad.I try so hard to figure out the reason why im feeling this way,and come up with nothing.My husbnd isnt very happy either.
But you know what,just when you think its really getting bad,a good day comes along and wipes the slate clean.I wish it werent so up and down,you know.
I so agree with you Donna.The sun and warmth are a huge pick me up.I can not wait.The past three days have been -15 with the chill factor,but....next week its going to be in the mid to high 40's,for us up here in the Adirondacks,thats a heat wave!!!!!!!!!!
I hope youre feeling better soon Stacey.I need to snap out of it too.I think im going to get off the sub,get everything out of my sytem and gage my emotions(drug free) for the first time in years.Hopefully,once i get over the WD's of the sub,there wont be so many rollercoaster rides?!?!?!~KIM
Some days i find it hard to even shower,really,that bad.I try so hard to figure out the reason why im feeling this way,and come up with nothing.My husbnd isnt very happy either.
But you know what,just when you think its really getting bad,a good day comes along and wipes the slate clean.I wish it werent so up and down,you know.
I so agree with you Donna.The sun and warmth are a huge pick me up.I can not wait.The past three days have been -15 with the chill factor,but....next week its going to be in the mid to high 40's,for us up here in the Adirondacks,thats a heat wave!!!!!!!!!!
I hope youre feeling better soon Stacey.I need to snap out of it too.I think im going to get off the sub,get everything out of my sytem and gage my emotions(drug free) for the first time in years.Hopefully,once i get over the WD's of the sub,there wont be so many rollercoaster rides?!?!?!~KIM
Kim,
Do you take an anti-depressant? Perhaps when you eventually do get off the sub you can discuss whether you have the true need for one to balance your system. If thats the case, working with finding the right one for you may make all the difference. You seem like a pretty together person to me and it just seems that like most of us your downs are just life in general related. But if its more than that and especially after the sub, maybe the right anti depressant will be all you will need for the future.
Do you take an anti-depressant? Perhaps when you eventually do get off the sub you can discuss whether you have the true need for one to balance your system. If thats the case, working with finding the right one for you may make all the difference. You seem like a pretty together person to me and it just seems that like most of us your downs are just life in general related. But if its more than that and especially after the sub, maybe the right anti depressant will be all you will need for the future.
Stacey,
You sound worn out -- taking care of a sick child while you're sick yourself will do that to you. You've had this stomach bug off and on for weeks now. What does the doctor say?
Kiss to Kaylin for me -- but on the top of the head where she's not contagious. I hope you don't get strep as well. (Is it possible that you do have strep? The pediatrician says it can show up as stomach upsets, too.)
Take it easy. Take care of yourself.
Love,
Gina
You sound worn out -- taking care of a sick child while you're sick yourself will do that to you. You've had this stomach bug off and on for weeks now. What does the doctor say?
Kiss to Kaylin for me -- but on the top of the head where she's not contagious. I hope you don't get strep as well. (Is it possible that you do have strep? The pediatrician says it can show up as stomach upsets, too.)
Take it easy. Take care of yourself.
Love,
Gina
Thanks Donna,ive been on an AD in the past,but i havent been on them in years.(i have battled depression on and off for years...though i wasnt even aware of it to tell you the truth,until i took the med and felt the difference,i had a great Dr convince me to try it,he saw i needed it when i didnt see it for myself)
Wellbutrin is what works/worked best for me.But im not going to get back on until after im off the sub,and see how things are then.Maybe i wont need it,but then again, maybe i will? thanks for the "you seem together" statement,some days i feel as far from together as you can possibly get,lol.Take care,i hope things are going well for you~KIM
Wellbutrin is what works/worked best for me.But im not going to get back on until after im off the sub,and see how things are then.Maybe i wont need it,but then again, maybe i will? thanks for the "you seem together" statement,some days i feel as far from together as you can possibly get,lol.Take care,i hope things are going well for you~KIM
I guess A/D whelp some people But I think they are just pushed like all the other drugs that come to market.
I think after my experience with shrinks my first one in 1976 talked my parents into taking me off the prednisone as the shrink thought I was a baby and it was all in my head., I was looking for attention.
Well they took me off the prednisone gave me a placebo I woke up 4 days later in ICU i was legally dead they said. Needless to say the shrink was wrong.
I was one of the first whack jobs to be put on Prozac. The A/D never did Jack and my last one was cymbalta as someone talked me in to trying it for the pain relief. Maybe some of these pills can help some people but I think most people can beat there depression like I did JMO--Take ACTION--NOT PILLS
KIM you can do it without any A/D--just eat right exercise have a positive attitude surround yourself with positive people and when you have a bad day realize the next will be better. JMO f the A/D You can do this EASY Just be patient cut the Sub .5 every 2-4 weeks and take care of yourself-- Lorts of liquids is very important. You should spend half the day peeing-water water water--I drink all day long. Its the best medicine in the world.
I was depressed all my life until recently. No pill fixed my depression. I DID.
What did people do before there were all these freakin psych meds? This is interesting
There are an interesting series of news articles available lately (the Yahoo Mental Health News page is a good place to view them) that cover the evolving controversial over the proper regulation and labeling of antidepressant medications as prescribed for children. The stories illustrate how the American drug regulation process works and doesn't work to protect end users of medications.
Pharmaceutical companies spend small fortunes on drug development, gambling that their investment in the creation of a new compound and the patents they receive for the molecules and manufacturing processes they develop will enable them to reap big profits. Profits are not an option for these companies until drugs can be marketed, however. In the United States, a new medicine must be shown to be effective and safe before it will be allowed to be marketed. The government agency charged with the task of regulating medications in the United States is the Food and Drug Administration or FDA.
Pharmaceutical companies want to make quality medicines that will be genuinely helpful in solving medical problems. They also want to make large profits. These two goals are somewhat at odds with each other. Profit motives tend to push companies towards an action bias; towards getting to market sooner rather than later. Quality motives, on the other hand, push companies towards carefulness and precision; towards spending the time and money necessary to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of their products. Although both goals are real forces within these companies, let's face facts that these motives are not equivalent in strength. In this world, profit pressures invariably will trump quality pressures. As I understand it, what ends up happening is that pharma companies comply with FDA mandated testing (as they must by law in order to sell in the USA), but don't as a rule volunteer further data or study that might risk them their market access. This behavior is understandable in many respects. There is a genuine competition and profit motivation that pushes these companies to develop new medicines. Without the promise of profit, they wouldn't be as motivated to do research and development, and the pace of new drug development would probably slow. Recognizing this market reality, the system is set up so as to work with the FDA in an adversarial role as protector and defender of the people. It is up to the FDA to be the force for quality and safety. This system can only work right if the FDA is incorruptible, however. Given our present business and political climate, who can blindly assume that this is the case? Although we can't know for sure, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume that the good folks at the FDA do their best to protect the public with regard to new medications coming onto the market.
All with the best of intentions, the FDA says to many different manufacturers of new antidepressant drugs, "prove to our satisfaction that your product works and is safe". The different drug manufacturers then go out and do studies to produce this required evidence to the FDA's satisfaction. In most cases, however, the drug companies have only applied to the FDA for permission to market the drugs in question to adults, and in response, the safety data the FDA mandates the pharma companies to produce is only focused on whether the drugs in question are safe for adults. Assuming this bar is passed, the drug can then be marketed - to be used as an adult treatment. No problem so far, right?
Well, maybe there is a problem. So far as I know, however, physicians have traditionally been free to prescribe drugs outside of the narrow confines the FDA approves them for. In this case, as I understand it, physicians are free to use the antidepressant drugs labeled safe for adults, with the very young and the very old. The FDA knows this, of course, but does not mandate that safety testing be done for all persons. There is a problem here, I think. One that would be difficult to fix without on the one hand, reducing physician's freedom to treat according to their best training, or on the other hand placing a far higher and more stringent burden on the drug companies to prove the safety of their products (which might reduce innovation). What to do?
It is simply not a safe assumption to make that if a drug is safe for an adult that it will be similarly safe for children and the elderly. It is well known by physicians that how old a person is, how much they weigh, and other similar factors have a real bearing on how a drug will affect that person. Drug doses that work find on a 30 year old skinny person, might not work the same way on a 30 year old chunky person. Drug doses that work on a 30 year old person of any weight might not work well on a young child, or on an older person. There are differences in how drugs are metabolized by different people and these must be respected if the drugs are to be used safely.
It seems that at least some of the popular antidepressant drugs ruled to be safe for adults lead to an elevated incidence of suicidal behavior in children. This effect is not huge - perhaps 2 or 3 children are at risk out of every 100 treated, and being at risk doesn't mean actually attempting suicide - but the idea of putting any child at risk is abhorrent. Ethics would seem to demand that these drugs be prohibited for use with children. Except that this is not necessarily a great policy either, because if these drugs are pulled from use, some children who might have benefited from them will not get them and they may then be at elevated risk for suicide and unnecessary dysfunction. What is needed is a middle path.
This stuff is in the news right now because the FDA took a very long time (some say unnecessarily and unethically long) in determining that there was a real problem and deciding to do something about it. According to one news report, Dr. Andrew Mosholder, an FDA epidemiologist, determined that there was a real risk but FDA superiors asked him to suppress the findings in a 2003 report to congress. There was a governmental hearing meeting on the subject in February, 2004 and the FDA released this FAQ in March,2004. However, at that time the data were presented as tentative near as I can tell. The findings were not confirmed and made public until a few weeks ago in early Fall, 2004. We're talking months and months between when the government knew there was a serious risk to the health of millions of kids and when they decided to do something about it. You'd think this sort of thing would be fast tracked ...
I think after my experience with shrinks my first one in 1976 talked my parents into taking me off the prednisone as the shrink thought I was a baby and it was all in my head., I was looking for attention.
Well they took me off the prednisone gave me a placebo I woke up 4 days later in ICU i was legally dead they said. Needless to say the shrink was wrong.
I was one of the first whack jobs to be put on Prozac. The A/D never did Jack and my last one was cymbalta as someone talked me in to trying it for the pain relief. Maybe some of these pills can help some people but I think most people can beat there depression like I did JMO--Take ACTION--NOT PILLS
KIM you can do it without any A/D--just eat right exercise have a positive attitude surround yourself with positive people and when you have a bad day realize the next will be better. JMO f the A/D You can do this EASY Just be patient cut the Sub .5 every 2-4 weeks and take care of yourself-- Lorts of liquids is very important. You should spend half the day peeing-water water water--I drink all day long. Its the best medicine in the world.
I was depressed all my life until recently. No pill fixed my depression. I DID.
What did people do before there were all these freakin psych meds? This is interesting
There are an interesting series of news articles available lately (the Yahoo Mental Health News page is a good place to view them) that cover the evolving controversial over the proper regulation and labeling of antidepressant medications as prescribed for children. The stories illustrate how the American drug regulation process works and doesn't work to protect end users of medications.
Pharmaceutical companies spend small fortunes on drug development, gambling that their investment in the creation of a new compound and the patents they receive for the molecules and manufacturing processes they develop will enable them to reap big profits. Profits are not an option for these companies until drugs can be marketed, however. In the United States, a new medicine must be shown to be effective and safe before it will be allowed to be marketed. The government agency charged with the task of regulating medications in the United States is the Food and Drug Administration or FDA.
Pharmaceutical companies want to make quality medicines that will be genuinely helpful in solving medical problems. They also want to make large profits. These two goals are somewhat at odds with each other. Profit motives tend to push companies towards an action bias; towards getting to market sooner rather than later. Quality motives, on the other hand, push companies towards carefulness and precision; towards spending the time and money necessary to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of their products. Although both goals are real forces within these companies, let's face facts that these motives are not equivalent in strength. In this world, profit pressures invariably will trump quality pressures. As I understand it, what ends up happening is that pharma companies comply with FDA mandated testing (as they must by law in order to sell in the USA), but don't as a rule volunteer further data or study that might risk them their market access. This behavior is understandable in many respects. There is a genuine competition and profit motivation that pushes these companies to develop new medicines. Without the promise of profit, they wouldn't be as motivated to do research and development, and the pace of new drug development would probably slow. Recognizing this market reality, the system is set up so as to work with the FDA in an adversarial role as protector and defender of the people. It is up to the FDA to be the force for quality and safety. This system can only work right if the FDA is incorruptible, however. Given our present business and political climate, who can blindly assume that this is the case? Although we can't know for sure, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume that the good folks at the FDA do their best to protect the public with regard to new medications coming onto the market.
All with the best of intentions, the FDA says to many different manufacturers of new antidepressant drugs, "prove to our satisfaction that your product works and is safe". The different drug manufacturers then go out and do studies to produce this required evidence to the FDA's satisfaction. In most cases, however, the drug companies have only applied to the FDA for permission to market the drugs in question to adults, and in response, the safety data the FDA mandates the pharma companies to produce is only focused on whether the drugs in question are safe for adults. Assuming this bar is passed, the drug can then be marketed - to be used as an adult treatment. No problem so far, right?
Well, maybe there is a problem. So far as I know, however, physicians have traditionally been free to prescribe drugs outside of the narrow confines the FDA approves them for. In this case, as I understand it, physicians are free to use the antidepressant drugs labeled safe for adults, with the very young and the very old. The FDA knows this, of course, but does not mandate that safety testing be done for all persons. There is a problem here, I think. One that would be difficult to fix without on the one hand, reducing physician's freedom to treat according to their best training, or on the other hand placing a far higher and more stringent burden on the drug companies to prove the safety of their products (which might reduce innovation). What to do?
It is simply not a safe assumption to make that if a drug is safe for an adult that it will be similarly safe for children and the elderly. It is well known by physicians that how old a person is, how much they weigh, and other similar factors have a real bearing on how a drug will affect that person. Drug doses that work find on a 30 year old skinny person, might not work the same way on a 30 year old chunky person. Drug doses that work on a 30 year old person of any weight might not work well on a young child, or on an older person. There are differences in how drugs are metabolized by different people and these must be respected if the drugs are to be used safely.
It seems that at least some of the popular antidepressant drugs ruled to be safe for adults lead to an elevated incidence of suicidal behavior in children. This effect is not huge - perhaps 2 or 3 children are at risk out of every 100 treated, and being at risk doesn't mean actually attempting suicide - but the idea of putting any child at risk is abhorrent. Ethics would seem to demand that these drugs be prohibited for use with children. Except that this is not necessarily a great policy either, because if these drugs are pulled from use, some children who might have benefited from them will not get them and they may then be at elevated risk for suicide and unnecessary dysfunction. What is needed is a middle path.
This stuff is in the news right now because the FDA took a very long time (some say unnecessarily and unethically long) in determining that there was a real problem and deciding to do something about it. According to one news report, Dr. Andrew Mosholder, an FDA epidemiologist, determined that there was a real risk but FDA superiors asked him to suppress the findings in a 2003 report to congress. There was a governmental hearing meeting on the subject in February, 2004 and the FDA released this FAQ in March,2004. However, at that time the data were presented as tentative near as I can tell. The findings were not confirmed and made public until a few weeks ago in early Fall, 2004. We're talking months and months between when the government knew there was a serious risk to the health of millions of kids and when they decided to do something about it. You'd think this sort of thing would be fast tracked ...
Continued
The FDA says they were being careful to get the facts right before making them public. This seems plausible to me actually. But then again, it's also kinda disturbing that the FDA would be sitting there disbelieving what their own qualified people are saying. How much evidence do you really need actually to recommend an enhanced warning when young lives are at unnecessary risk? It smells bad that they'd sit there waiting for confirmation when they might be able to reduce risk to children by acting quickly.
In this case with the antidepressants, it's fairly easy to jump to conclusions that the FDA was stonewalling and hiding evidence based that might have saved lives. Some Congresspersons and physicians are thinking just this, apparently, and it may be true, for all we know. Then again, there may be no malice. Regular old bureaucratic inefficiency is perfectly capable of accounting for this as well. At this point in time, it simply is not clear.
The good news is that the FDA is apparently going to do something about their recently released findings. They plan to update the labeling on antidepressants (Prozac, Paxil, Wellbutrin, Zoloft, Celexa, Effexor, Luvox, Remeron, and Serzone, and generic forms of these drugs) so that it is crystal clear to prescribing physicians that young children could be at increased suicide risk if they are administered the medicines. This seems to be a reasonable outcome. Remember that these medicines do potentially have a lot to offer to the majority of depressed children. It is a minority of cases that are noted to have a dangerous reaction. When you have a case where a medicine could help AND hurt depending on the circumstance, it should be up to our highly trained physicians to make the judgment as to when the risks outweigh the benefits for any individual case. It seems reasonable that the FDA should at the very least, make it clear to all physicians that they must prescribe with great care, however.
The FDA has even announced that they will begin a study to find out if the same medicines are possibly associated with suicide risk in adults. You would think they would already have been studying data on this possibility, as the antidepressant drugs in question are already approved for use with depressed adults, and because suicide is a well known symptom of depression. Oh well.
All of this just goes to show you what can get done when enough attention gets focused on an issue ... and also how little can get done when the spotlight is not glaring.
Good Night--Jeff
The FDA says they were being careful to get the facts right before making them public. This seems plausible to me actually. But then again, it's also kinda disturbing that the FDA would be sitting there disbelieving what their own qualified people are saying. How much evidence do you really need actually to recommend an enhanced warning when young lives are at unnecessary risk? It smells bad that they'd sit there waiting for confirmation when they might be able to reduce risk to children by acting quickly.
In this case with the antidepressants, it's fairly easy to jump to conclusions that the FDA was stonewalling and hiding evidence based that might have saved lives. Some Congresspersons and physicians are thinking just this, apparently, and it may be true, for all we know. Then again, there may be no malice. Regular old bureaucratic inefficiency is perfectly capable of accounting for this as well. At this point in time, it simply is not clear.
The good news is that the FDA is apparently going to do something about their recently released findings. They plan to update the labeling on antidepressants (Prozac, Paxil, Wellbutrin, Zoloft, Celexa, Effexor, Luvox, Remeron, and Serzone, and generic forms of these drugs) so that it is crystal clear to prescribing physicians that young children could be at increased suicide risk if they are administered the medicines. This seems to be a reasonable outcome. Remember that these medicines do potentially have a lot to offer to the majority of depressed children. It is a minority of cases that are noted to have a dangerous reaction. When you have a case where a medicine could help AND hurt depending on the circumstance, it should be up to our highly trained physicians to make the judgment as to when the risks outweigh the benefits for any individual case. It seems reasonable that the FDA should at the very least, make it clear to all physicians that they must prescribe with great care, however.
The FDA has even announced that they will begin a study to find out if the same medicines are possibly associated with suicide risk in adults. You would think they would already have been studying data on this possibility, as the antidepressant drugs in question are already approved for use with depressed adults, and because suicide is a well known symptom of depression. Oh well.
All of this just goes to show you what can get done when enough attention gets focused on an issue ... and also how little can get done when the spotlight is not glaring.
Good Night--Jeff
Hey Stac, sorry to hear you're feeling down.Hang in there, it will pass.
Being sick with a sick baby takes it's toll on a person. Take good care of yourself. You'll feel better soon.
xxxxoooooo
Being sick with a sick baby takes it's toll on a person. Take good care of yourself. You'll feel better soon.
xxxxoooooo
Stacey,
Are you and Kaylin feeling any better this morning?
Love,
Gina
Are you and Kaylin feeling any better this morning?
Love,
Gina
Stac
I'm thinking about you and Kaylin this morning, and hope you guys are getting better.
I get in funks too, and I have found that the weather is generally the reason. I love being outside, and being cooped up all winter long with the kids is enough to wear anyone out. I saw six robin birds this week, so Spring is here!
Hope you feel better soon!
Michelle
I'm thinking about you and Kaylin this morning, and hope you guys are getting better.
I get in funks too, and I have found that the weather is generally the reason. I love being outside, and being cooped up all winter long with the kids is enough to wear anyone out. I saw six robin birds this week, so Spring is here!
Hope you feel better soon!
Michelle
well it can't be the weather cause it's like 70 and sunny and plain ol' hot to me.
Kaylin is fine and back in daycare,
i started back at work today. but still have a sore throat, i'm on my antibiotics though and it is working.
still in a huge huge funk. My boss tried to talk to me about something today and i just started crying... he's probably thinking.. "NUT JOB!!!" lol.
then hubby called and of course i started crying on the phone with him when we started talking about a little tiff we had this morning before going to work. I mean, hey why not? I already cried all morning, why not all afternoon too right?
I'm on effexor and lamictal. Supposedly am "Cyclothymic" with "generalized anxiety disorder" and i can SOOOO see that i'm Cyclothymic because my moods will shift faster than you can say 'is'. lol.
I can be giddy and funny and the next second will just be negative and mean. I don't know what is up with me.
I do have an appt. with my psych next week, so maybe that'll help.
Thanks for thinkin' bout me.
Love ya'll so much.
Stac
Kaylin is fine and back in daycare,
i started back at work today. but still have a sore throat, i'm on my antibiotics though and it is working.
still in a huge huge funk. My boss tried to talk to me about something today and i just started crying... he's probably thinking.. "NUT JOB!!!" lol.
then hubby called and of course i started crying on the phone with him when we started talking about a little tiff we had this morning before going to work. I mean, hey why not? I already cried all morning, why not all afternoon too right?
I'm on effexor and lamictal. Supposedly am "Cyclothymic" with "generalized anxiety disorder" and i can SOOOO see that i'm Cyclothymic because my moods will shift faster than you can say 'is'. lol.
I can be giddy and funny and the next second will just be negative and mean. I don't know what is up with me.
I do have an appt. with my psych next week, so maybe that'll help.
Thanks for thinkin' bout me.
Love ya'll so much.
Stac
