Sweet Emotion,
My post was not directed at just you, even though you were the one who started this thread. This post is also not just directed at you, but is directed at all the other people on this thread who are complaining about other people on this site. I guess part of it is that I agree with what Soul said above, I find this thread puzzling. I come here for support and to vent frustrations that I have that I know a lot of other people on here share. Yes, there is a lot of complaining on this forum, but it's a forum for depressed people who are suicidal, so it's puzzling that someone would be upset about people complaining. What did you think depressed people and people who want to end their lives would be doing? Most people have nothing positive to say because they have nothing positive in their lives. And let's face it, it is a lot easier to be negative than it is to be positive, especially when you feel like your life is complete shit. I can certainly understand being fed up with it, but then why would you come on here if you're fed up with it and don't want to hear people complaining?
Secondly, as I said above, my post wasn't directed entirely at you, it was also directed at other people in this thread who were saying things that I guess were upsetting me because I felt like I was being attacked. The reason I felt like I was being attacked is because they were saying things that people in my real life say to me all the time, such as go on an antidepressant and go seek therapy.
As I've stated in many other threads, I have been doing various kinds of both anti-depressants and therapy since I was 13 in 1983. I've been on just about every antidepressant and a few antipsychotics and not one pill has ever made me feel even the tiniest bit better. They have, however, given me all sorts of horrific side effects, including the most recent one that I was put on and one of the few antidepressants that I had a little bit of hope might actually help me because it was one that I had never been on before, Wellbutrin.
However, just like every other antidepressant, it gave me severe side effects. First, I was severely dizzy, so dizzy that I was bumping into walls, and the entire room would feel like it was tilting sideways like I was on a carnival ride. I spent weeks dealing with that, and then just when it had subsided slightly, a new horrible side effect started. I started becoming so severely nauseous that I couldn't even hardly move without feeling like I was going to throw up. I spent 2 entire weeks doing nothing but lying in bed as still as I possibly could with a bucket next to me. Finally, I had to just quit taking the pill because I had stuff to do and I couldn't afford to be forced to lie around in bed or be perfectly still anymore. And I know for certain it was the Wellbutrin that was causing the side effects because just as soon as I quit taking it the side effects all disappeared. So when I hear people saying things like the following which you wrote in your original post:
They don't want to be on medication or talk to a therapist. So what do you expect people to do for you?
What I expect is for a doctor to offer me something other than the same old tired treatments that they've been offering me for the last 36 years. What I expect is for a doctor to actually listen to me and believe me when I tell him I have a problem and try to help me instead of being a condescending asshole, which is what usually happens when I go to a doctor.
Of course, when I look at it now I realize you were probably just venting, which I think is what we all come here for. In the moment however I felt personally attacked, not just by you but by some other members who were making comments.
The one that upset me the most, was this comment, from Misanthrop:
It is frustrating seeing entire professions denigrated like they are all the same. I was damaged by my doctor, but do not assume all doctors will damage me.
Up until I read this, I had decided I wasn't going to comment on this thread. I don't know why but I felt like this comment was directed at me, even though it probably wasn't. But for whatever reason it set me off. I've had multiple doctors in just about every field you can imagine act so insensitive and condescending toward me, that I do lump all doctors in the same basket. I don't trust doctors of any kind. I am in the shape I'm in today because I have illnesses that doctors have ignored for decades or only offered me the same treatment that didn't work the last time over and over again. And again this is another thing from my real life. Everyone around me keeps telling me if I just go to the doctor everything will be fine, so that's what I did and just like every other time I've ever been there, the doctor assumed he knew things about me that he couldn't possibly know because he had only known me for five minutes. And then he offered me the same treatment every other doctor has offered me: for my depression it's always one more antidepressant and more therapy. Just because it hasn't worked for the last 36 years doesn't mean it won't work this time, right?
For my thyroid, it's either ignoring it all together and telling me that my symptoms aren't real and I don't need a raise in my medicine, or if they do give me a raise it's so minuscule that it doesn't make any difference. I got a tiny raise back in August, so I've been doing my own experiment. I've been taking a double dose of my thyroid medicine ( that's 420 mg) just to see what it would do. It's done absolutely nothing. I've been taking it now for two weeks and I still don't feel any different. I think I've gone without the medicine that I need for so long that my thyroid is just never going to be right again.
I spent years and years going from one doctor to another begging anyone to give me the medicine that I needed and begging someone to believe me when I said my thyroid was not getting better. All I got in return was a lot of snotty condescending insults from doctors. I was called a hypochondriac, a "drug seeker", and a liar.
So I continued to get sicker and sicker and the doctors around me didn't do anything to help me.
So I guess when I hear people saying the same kind of things that people are saying to me in my real life on this board, it's very upsetting to me because I come here to get away from that. I come here to find people who understand what I'm going through and not give me the same old tired advice and comments that I can get from any person around me.
I didn't mean to lash out at you or anyone here because I know we are all in various kinds of pain and we all have bad days.
I think I may try to take a little break from the board for a few days. This will also be my last post in this thread. I did consider not even responding, but I didn't want you to think I was ignoring you. I am sorry for the horrible pain that you're in and I can't imagine how you go on from day to day, particularly considering how long you've been sick.
I would like to say I hope you feel better, but I know your illness is not curable. I hope you at least have some ways to alleviate some of the pain.