RRRRRAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!

[Lembach]

I'm not going to go all Tom Cruise here, but I was on Cymbalta for two of the worst months of my life.  I always recommend against anti-depressants.

Good luck to you.

Thanks. But why was it bad?

[Edward J Grug III]

I'm not going to go all Tom Cruise here, but I was on Cymbalta for two of the worst months of my life.  I always recommend against anti-depressants.

That sounds more like you were on the wrong medication rather than proof that medication doesn't work.

[LucasM]

I'm really sorry that's been going on, Lembach.

I hope that a note from a doctor really is good enough for them to actually switch you back.

I didn't quite understand something you said, did they (Amazon people) recommend the specific doctors to you?  If so, I'd personally be hesitant to go to one of them, as I'd wonder if they had other motives (i.e. that the doctor was a referral-whore who'd see in you, and tell them, what they wanted to hear).  It is possible that would not be the case, though, as I think you've said they are pretty good for most things.  But I personally would still be suspicious.  [That bit of (for-me) justified paranoia brought to you (me) by State Farm: the 'Bad Neighbors' of auto insurance injury coverage.]

[Lembach]

I'm really sorry that's been going on, Lembach.

I hope that a note from a doctor really is good enough for them to actually switch you back.

I didn't quite understand something you said, did they (Amazon people) recommend the specific doctors to you?  If so, I'd personally be hesitant to go to one of them, as I'd wonder if they had other motives (i.e. that the doctor was a referral-whore who'd see in you, and tell them, what they wanted to hear).  It is possible that would not be the case, though, as I think you've said they are pretty good for most things.  But I personally would still be suspicious.  [That bit of (for-me) justified paranoia brought to you (me) by State Farm: the 'Bad Neighbors' of auto insurance injury coverage.]

What they more accurately did was show me where to look on Premara's website (my health insurance) for a list of doctors in my area. I chose the actual doctor. I don't even think the people I called work for Amazon directly. Because they said right off the bat they don't share details with Amazon unless I want them to. I wasn't getting anything but a helpful vibe from them.

Of course...that could be just what they want me to think....

[Pak-Man]

I feel your pain, Lembach. I did the Call Center thing for 7 long years. I'd work my way to a less customer-service centric job, and I'd enjoy it for a while, then something would always happen to that job and I'd end up back on the phones. I know the psychological mind-game that is the call floor. Talking for 8 long hours to people who- by default- hate your guts, then having your every move monitored so you spend as close to 100% of your working hours on that phone with those people as possible. I've never worked another job where they time how long you spend in the bathroom. I escaped 6 years ago and I hope I never have to go back.

My advice to call center workers: Get out of there! I know that's easier said than done, but devote some time to it every day. If you can jump that fence, everything will improve. REALLY basic stuff like, "I found a job where they trust me to use the bathroom!" will just make your whole life feel better. :^)

[anais.butterfly]

Sounds similar to what the employee assistance hotline at the company my wife works for said to her. "I know you feel stressed, but going to work will give you something to focus on and take your mind off it." (Work was her major stressor, and I will just say their advice backfired. Badly.)

We have a line for that too. They just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to off myself and then suggested some local shrinks in my insurance coverage.

Wait, your heathcare covers shrinks? That's possible???

[LucasM]

I'm really sorry that's been going on, Lembach.

I hope that a note from a doctor really is good enough for them to actually switch you back.

I didn't quite understand something you said, did they (Amazon people) recommend the specific doctors to you?  If so, I'd personally be hesitant to go to one of them, as I'd wonder if they had other motives (i.e. that the doctor was a referral-whore who'd see in you, and tell them, what they wanted to hear).  It is possible that would not be the case, though, as I think you've said they are pretty good for most things.  But I personally would still be suspicious.  [That bit of (for-me) justified paranoia brought to you (me) by State Farm: the 'Bad Neighbors' of auto insurance injury coverage.]

What they more accurately did was show me where to look on Premara's website (my health insurance) for a list of doctors in my area. I chose the actual doctor. I don't even think the people I called work for Amazon directly. Because they said right off the bat they don't share details with Amazon unless I want them to. I wasn't getting anything but a helpful vibe from them.

Of course...that could be just what they want me to think....

No, if they just pointed you to where you could get one that would be covered, then it is highly unlikely that it was anything other than innocent on their part.  [I think paranoia is one of the worst (hardest to live with) things coming from my auto accidents.  And that was caused not by the injuries, but by the no-fault auto insurance company's treatment of me from day 1.]

I am very glad that the psychologist you decide on will be there to actually help you.  [At some point in the far-back reaches of this thread I wrote something on 'how to find a therapist who is a good fit for you' for someone.  I wish I was functional enough right now to look for it. Sorry.  Hopefully, if it sounds of interest to you, you can find it.]

I'm also glad that you've got leave time (paid, hopefully) so you can have mental room to process what has happened once you start with the therapist, and at least a reprieve from the stresses in the meantime.

[Lembach]

No, if they just pointed you to where you could get one that would be covered, then it is highly unlikely that it was anything other than innocent on their part.  [I think paranoia is one of the worst (hardest to live with) things coming from my auto accidents.  And that was caused not by the injuries, but by the no-fault auto insurance company's treatment of me from day 1.]

My health insurance is Premara. They pointed me doctors covered by Premara. That's all they did. After the employee services person, I called Premara directly and discussed it with them to make sure it was a good choice in my network. I called the psychologist myself and from what I can tell so far, I like her. I'm usually the first to jump on a conspiracy but I just don't see it here.

[Edward J Grug III]

I'm not going to go all Tom Cruise here, but I was on Cymbalta for two of the worst months of my life.  I always recommend against anti-depressants.

Good luck to you.

Thanks. But why was it bad?

It turned out that I had almost all of the worst side effects that they warn about.

I did some research and tried some non pharmaceutical methods for battling depression (including therapy) that worked better for me.  Obviously, everyone is different, that's why I didn't go into a big anti-antidepressant diatribe about it.

No, but you do actively recommend against them, apparently. I just hope you don't ever convince  someone to not get the treatment that could correct thier problem, and they do something drastic.

I imagine that would be pretty tough to live with.

My wife's been on anti depressants since she was a teenager, and it has made the world of difference to her.

[Mrs. Dick Courier]

Just to add...

I was on Paxil for over ten years before it started to lose its effect.  Then Effexor, which the doc took me off after a couple of months because of side effects.  There was another one I tried for a while too.

Cymbalta does work for me when I take it daily but I cannot afford it without insurance.  Took it faithfully for  years.  Been depending on samples from the doc for almost 3 years now, and they are often out.  So I was taking it every two days.  With some longer stretches sometimes.  Decided to try to quit it, so cut it down to a half every two days for a while.  Then none.  Its been a week and man, the aches, the palpitations, the headaches.  I don't wanna start back up.  For a legal drug withdrawl to be this bad, it makes me hesitant to start up again.  What is this drug doing to my body?

Of course I may not make it.  Gonna give it another week.  Been reading that it can take a couple weeks, maybe longer for the side effects to go away.  If it doesn't get any better gonna ask my doc for a generic nerve pill.  But I hope I don't need one.

[LucasM]

I'm not going to go all Tom Cruise here, but I was on Cymbalta for two of the worst months of my life.  I always recommend against anti-depressants.

Good luck to you.

Thanks. But why was it bad?

It turned out that I had almost all of the worst side effects that they warn about.

I did some research and tried some non pharmaceutical methods for battling depression (including therapy) that worked better for me.  Obviously, everyone is different, that's why I didn't go into a big anti-antidepressant diatribe about it.

No, but you do actively recommend against them, apparently. I just hope you don't ever convince  someone to not get the treatment that could correct thier problem, and they do something drastic.

I imagine that would be pretty tough to live with.

My wife's been on anti depressants since she was a teenager, and it has made the world of difference to her.

Grug, I never stated that I oppose treatment for depression.  In fact, I did get treatment and recommend it.  I just wish my doctor had gotten me to a shrink first instead of just filling out a prescription, because Cymbalta took me from just being upset about my life to
sitting in the bathtub with a gun, seriously considering putting it in my mouth.
That's why I tell people that therapy might be a better first thing to try than pills, but hey if the pill works for you, good.

I regret giving my opinion on the matter and will give serious thought before doing so in the future.

I am sorry you had such a rough experience with the drug.  Bad experiences with meds (particularly psychoactive ones prescribed by clueless doctors) are, unfortunately, all too common.  I have had my own experiences with doctors where I ultimately figured out I knew more than they did about the effects of certain drugs which had caused massive difficulties for me.

There's nothing wrong with you giving your opinion.  But explaining the reasons for a rather dramatic statement (which your comment "I'm not going to go all Tom Cruise here" showed you understood your statement to be) is incredibly important when making such a blanket statement regarding types of treatment which affects others' mental or physical health or well-being.  For anyone making a comment that has the room for different opinions (which is, actually, all opinions) there shouldn't be anything but an expectation that someone may ask the simple question "why?"  That's what happened here.  No one was attacking you for an opinion, they just wanted to know more about how you came to that conclusion, and how you could make such a blanket recommendation to everyone else (from your words, accent mine: "I always recommend against anti-depressants").

The statements "I always recommend against anti-depressants" [your first comment] and "therapy might be a better first thing to try than pills" [your last comment] are just phenomenally different statements when read in isolation.  If you'd made the latter comment first, I doubt anyone would have questioned it... in fact, I dare say quite a few would agree with you (myself included, though I'd also recommend a complete physical to rule out any systemic/disease-based origins for whatever symptoms there may be).

For every difficulty that has a mental component (i.e. 'affects thoughts or emotions'), I would always recommend therapy first after a physical exam.  For those whose symptoms are too intense for them to benefit from therapy (i.e. they are overwhelmed by the symptoms so can't focus), then medication often becomes an essential adjunct.  There are some instances where the problem is actually from a dysfunctioning brain (neurotransmitter problem, bloodflow abnormality, blood-brain barrier problem, etc.), with no social or historic components.  In those instances medication may be helpful by itself.  But in my 12 years of seeing psychiatric patients in a variety of settings (inpatient, outpatient, medical hospital, psychiatric hospital), those appeared to be quite rare.

[Been a rough week, thinking is impaired.  Hopefully this came out as intended.  (As usual when I am in this state it is certainly longer than intended.)]

[Edward J Grug III]

Lucas summed up my feelings very well.

I too am sorry for your low times, but I can only go by what you posted. I also think therapy is a great way for people to deal with depression etc, but sometimes people just need the chemical their brain lacks, and though you have some experience obviously, I take issue with the blanket statement you made, sorry.

[Compound]

Dear lord. This week just isn't getting better.

Dozens possibly dead in massive fertilizer plant explosion in West

(West is a town just outside of Waco, TX)

Dozens injured, and some are confirmed dead, many of the dead and injured might be first responders.

A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant rocked the town of West, north of Waco, causing multiple casualties and leaving people trapped and buildings on fire.

Emergency personnel were bracing for the possibility of dozens of dead and many more injured in the blast, which occurred before 8 p.m. and could be heard 45 miles away in Waxahachie.

Although authorities confirmed that people had been killed, after midnight they were still saying they did not have an official toll. However, Department of Public Safety spokesman D.L. Wilson did estimate that more than 100 people had been injured.

Firefighters were reportedly among those who could not be accounted for after the explosion, which occurred at West Fertilizer Inc., just off Interstate 35, about 80 miles south of Dallas.

A blaze had broken out earlier at the plant, and the explosion occurred while firefighters were trying to put it out.

"It was a small fire and then water got sprayed on the ammonium nitrate, and it exploded just like the Oklahoma City bomb," said Jason Shelton, a clerk at the Czech Best Western Hotel in West. "I live about a thousand feet from it and it blew my screen door off and my back windows. There's houses leveled that were right next to it."

Authorities were evacuating residents of the town of 2,600, including more than 130 occupants of a nearby nursing home that was badly damaged in the blast that had spread debris across a wide area.

Local news is also reporting that a dozen buildings were set ablaze by the blast.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Yeah, this is the thing I posted the video of. Absolutely crazy.

[Thrifty]

Lucas summed up my feelings very well.

I too am sorry for your low times, but I can only go by what you posted. I also think therapy is a great way for people to deal with depression etc, but sometimes people just need the chemical their brain lacks, and though you have some experience obviously, I take issue with the blanket statement you made, sorry.

I think the conventional wisdom is that a good treatment for depression includes both medication and therapy.

My uncle goes on these crazy diatribes against ALL medication, for mental or physical ailments.  He's pretty much convinced that doctors are all quacks, that all medicine can be found in simple herbs.  I once had painful blisters on my feet from walking too much, and he shoved some plant he found on the side of the road in my face and tried to get me to rub it on my feet.  He's fond of saying that we already have a cure for cancer (in plants and creek water), but that pharmaceutical companies and doctors are suppressing it for profit.  He also thinks bottled water is bad for you, drinking water straight out of creeks is good for you.  Oh and he's a 9/11 Truther too.

The man is, needless to say, a relentless pain in the ass.  Right now he's writing some book on physics.  He thinks he's some sort of genius on the level of Fermi or Hawking or Einstein, but he's really just a doddering old fool.