Medication | Table for Five

September 22, 2011 By Elizabeth

Back in March I wrote about my ongoing struggle to manage my chronic depression and anxiety and how my doctor prescribed 37.5 mg. a day of Venlafaxine, the generic form of Effexor. 37.5 mg. is the lowest dosage, and for a while, it was enough. Since I was first diagnosed with chronic depression in my 20s, my depression has always been seasonal. I needed medication from around October until around May and skip it in the summer. Well, this past summer showed me that my depression is no longer seasonal. Things were so bad this summer that I couldn't even blog about it, because I was just trying to get from one day to the next. I was a mess. I couldn't sleep more than a few hours a night, which I know didn't help. I was just angry, all the time, about everything. The slightest thing could set me off, I was yelling, and constantly bursting into tears. And it took me WAY too long to ask my doctor for help. It never even occurred to me that the problem was not … [Read more...]

Struggling.

March 27, 2011 By Elizabeth

It used to be that when I saw a character in a TV show having a meltdown and it turned out that it was because they weren't taking the medication they needed, I would think to myself "jeez, how hard is it to take a pill every day?" Hypocrite, thy name is Elizabeth. I certainly don't wake up in the morning and decide that I just won't take my medication. The bottle sits on the kitchen counter in plain sight. But since we went down to one car, the days that I do have the car are spent running around trying to get errands done that can't be done on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I'm house-bound. For newer readers, back in February of 2007 I had three moderately severe anxiety attacks. My doctor changed my antidepressant to the generic form of the antidepressant/antianxiety medication Effexor. If I take it every day, the fog I would walk around in otherwise lifts, and I can participate in and enjoy life. Problem is, I get to a point where I've been feeling good for a while so … [Read more...]