Do meds help you?

If they do, which symptoms do they help with? What type of meds?

My therapist has referred me to a psychiatrist, so she seems to think I should be on meds.

My therapist hasn't said what she thinks is wrong with me, though. I guess I am just supposed to tell the psychiatrist my experiences in there.

I am suspecting that my therapist thinks I have paranoid psychosis, which makes me think I will be given an anti-psychotic if I see the psychiatrist.

If I do have BPD, I hope meds will not just make me worse.

What are your experiences with meds?

Different people get on with different meds. My psychiatrist once told me that they know that certain drugs have a similar effect on most people, but they still don't fully understand why and how.

I had an interesting chat with my psychiatrist yesterday and he said he prescribes the same meds for BPD and bipolar. I think meds are useful, but you have to try them out and see what works for you.

I have been on anti-depressants before, but they did not change the way my mind works. I have also been given Xanax before, and it did not help me, just made me feel drunk for a couple of hours, but my mind was still the same.

I get the impression from my therapist that she thinks I am paranoid of my mother due to psychosis. Because she didn't ask me any questions about why I think what I think about my mother, or why I feel what I feel.

Instead she just referred me to the psychiatrist. So that makes me think that she thinks I am having paranoid psychosis.

Is paranoid psychosis the same thing if you have paranoia in BPD?

Taking medication to counter a personality is like taking medication to counter your preference to drive Toyota over Mazda.

Rigning wrote:Taking medication to counter a personality is like taking medication to counter your preference to drive Toyota over Mazda.

That is sort of my thinking, too. I am afraid that if they just try to erase the issues with meds, they will have to give me such a high dosage that I will have no personality at all.

*TW*

As my GP so eloquently explained it, "anti-depressants aren't supposed to make [me] happy. They're just supposed to keep [me] off of the ledge." Unfortunately, I proved her right last week when I was off my meds for a week (due to a history of overdosing I'm on a small script, so I run out often) and found myself pulling the car over to the side of the local Skyway bridge with a pair of suicide letters sitting on the passenger seat. I didn't know why I was suicidal, but I was.

Since resuming my meds, I'm having a surprisingly good week, this week. While I know the medication dulls me a little, if it gives me a chance to fight another day, I'll take it.

Casper wrote:*TW*

As my GP so eloquently explained it, "anti-depressants aren't supposed to make [me] happy. They're just supposed to keep [me] off of the ledge." Unfortunately, I proved her right last week when I was off my meds for a week (due to a history of overdosing I'm on a small script, so I run out often) and found myself pulling the car over to the side of the local Skyway bridge with a pair of suicide letters sitting on the passenger seat. I didn't know why I was suicidal, but I was.

Since resuming my meds, I'm having a surprisingly good week, this week. While I know the medication dulls me a little, if it gives me a chance to fight another day, I'll take it.

It sounds like you do indeed struggle with depression then, but it is good that the medication can help you. You say that you didn't know why you felt suicidal. I know why I fear my mother and why I fear that she is always conspiring against me, but my therapist didn't even ask. And when I tried to explain why, she cut me off like it was not important. So this makes me concerned that she has assumed that I am just psychotic or something.

Two things:

1. After doing an event chain with my therapist (she loves those, and to be fair, I give her LOTS of fodder to work with), there were a lot of smaller things that built up to that day. It wasn't any one 10/10 thing, but a dozen 5/10 things that I guess just overwhelmed me without me even realizing it.

2. If your therapist is invalidating you like that, then I strongly suggest you consider a new therapist. Remember, her entire job is to help how you feel, but if she's not willing to even let you talk about how you feel, then she's not doing her job, let alone doing it effectively.

Casper wrote:Two things:

1. After doing an event chain with my therapist (she loves those, and to be fair, I give her LOTS of fodder to work with), there were a lot of smaller things that built up to that day. It wasn't any one 10/10 thing, but a dozen 5/10 things that I guess just overwhelmed me without me even realizing it.

2. If your therapist is invalidating you like that, then I strongly suggest you consider a new therapist. Remember, her entire job is to help how you feel, but if she's not willing to even let you talk about how you feel, then she's not doing her job, let alone doing it effectively.

Thank you for the advice, and I agree with you. I'm going to give her a few more sessions before making a call. I have only seen her twice, and on the second session, she just referred me to the psychiatrist and acted like what I was saying was not actually that important. The best devil's advocate theory I can come up with for her, is that she thinks therapy is pointless until I am on meds. Like maybe she wants to see if I keep saying the same things, even after taking an anti-psychotic. So I am willing to give it a try (at least that's how I feel right now, always subject to change and probably will 100 times before the appointment). But if I get on a med and then she still has the same attitude, I'll probably ask to switch therapists.

The only thing they have me on now is citalopram which I was prescribed during incarceration, and even then it was only enough to allow me to function without constantly spiraling into a dark hole and wishing for death. It works in that aspect, but the increased anxiety, mood swings, sleep disturbance and insomnia, weight gain and decreased sex drive annoy me....I hear there are better options, but I'm stuck with it for now.

To answer the OP, I would say yes, but I need it to work better.