I am uncertain if my inquiry strictly belongs in this specific section; however, please send your answers to my private messages, ideally accompanied by your own personal experiences.
I am currently searching for a doctor specializing in Chinese herbal medicine here in the US.
Harold Anderson3 said:It’s a tough subject to tackle. Unfortunately, there are so many people out there who struggle to function or just can't find their footing in society. Often, those individuals end up stuck in environments that only serve to fuel their struggles rather than helping them heal.
I've been feeling pretty low lately, honestly—just a heavy sense of melancholy hanging over me. Nothing really seems to spark any joy, and I find myself just wanting to stay curled up in bed all day. It doesn't help that I don't have much of a social circle to lean on right now; it feels like this cycle where depression and loneliness just feed into one another.
To offer some defense for his mother, I feel compelled to mention that he has endured this illness and these hallucinations several times a day for twenty-five years now, even though he is forty-five. While he undoubtedly bears the heaviest weight of this struggle, can we truly say it isn't equally difficult for her?
Has anyone here ever attempted to mitigate such symptoms by consuming high doses of B-complex vitamins? I am aware that Linus Pauling and institutions in Saskatchewan conducted combined psychiatric and nutritional studies specifically aimed at easing symptoms, lowering antipsychotic dosages, and reducing the harsh side effects associated with those medications.
There is perhaps a small silver lining; despite his delusions regarding people shouting at him or reading his thoughts, his speech remains coherent, albeit perhaps slightly slowed by the sheer volume of medication he requires. However, from what I can observe—and I realize I am only seeing a fraction of the picture—there is a strange discoloration in his skin tone. Is it possible that the medication is placing a significant strain on his liver?
So... God willed it, and I went to visit him. Our conversation was quite pleasant, staying very low-key and easygoing. However, about five or ten minutes before I was set to leave, an older female relative of his walked in—a woman with a truly gentle temperament, a real phlegmatic soul. She immediately asked how he was doing and remarked that he didn't look particularly well. At one point, he mentioned that she keeps throwing things at him, claiming he has an illegitimate child who is four or five years old, even though he insists this simply isn't true; he doesn't have any children at all.
Then, in her soft, mild voice, she told him that he shouldn't believe everything he hears, suggesting that we aren't angry with him because we understand he is ill, but urging him to trust us rather than his own perceptions.
The issue, on top of everything else, is that his mother is an uneducated woman. She told him he needs to learn how to behave in front of guests, despite the fact that he hasn't done anything to harm us. She suggested he should just go to his room if he intends to "act out," stating plainly that she can no longer tolerate him acting this way.
She also claimed that he is connecting everything incorrectly, mentioning how he recently accused her of calling 911 to have him taken to jail, when in reality, paramedics don't take people to jail, they take them to the hospital.
He takes nine different medications in the evening and seven in the morning. Among that massive list of pills, he also takes one specifically for his heart.
Consequently, I am deeply afraid that he might one day actually lapse into a coma or suffer from dangerously low blood pressure due to the combination of those antipsychotics and his heart medication.
It seems to me that he might actually be willing to talk to me about his illness and his medications; but is it possible that he simply cannot do so because of his mother?
My heart breaks for him, truly, because he is only 45 years old, yet he faces another 20 or 30 years—or however many years he has left—of living with this condition.
If God wills it, I shall be visiting an individual suffering from Schizophrenia tomorrow. Despite being on a heavy regimen of medication, he continues to experience intermittent hallucinations. When my aunt visited him recently—and there was also a rather loquacious neighbor present—he claimed that the news reported they were coming to catch him, or perhaps that they were simply waiting for the moment to apprehend him.
Which symptoms are generally more difficult to endure? The positive ones or the negative ones?
It seems to me that the positive symptoms are tougher, though perhaps I am mistaken.
I mean... when you are calm and "lethargic," you are less conspicuous and cause less harm to those around you.
I believe that hearing voices, thought broadcasting, and paranoia are the hardest things to cope with.
I know an acquaintance who doesn't hear voices at all, yet experiences every other symptom of schizophrenia. Before his last extended stay at a psychiatric facility, he suffered from an intense fear of being recorded. It strikes me that this was actually a fear of thought broadcasting. During his most difficult moments, he would ask his mother for medication and paper so they could communicate via writing, because if he spoke aloud, "they" would record him. I realize that schizophrenia lacks logic, but if someone fears they are being filmed, then "they"—whoever they may be—can film them regardless of whether they write or speak.
I don't believe it was the illness that made him "lethargic," but rather the medication. He functions relatively normally in most areas, except that he is significantly slowed down due to the drugs.
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P.S. You do not have to respond if you do not wish to. I certainly do not want to give any of you the impression that I am following you or stalking you; nor that I am stealing, broadcasting, or altering your thoughts, or anything of the sort.
Ever since February, I have felt as though my jaw was constantly locking up.
Has anyone else here experienced the exhaustion of having to "hop" from one antidepressant to another just to find stability?
Fortunately, I am not currently on a daily prescription, but I have cycled through several different medications before finally settling on unknown for quite some time now.
It served me well initially, but lately, it feels as though the medication is inducing anxiety rather than soothing it. Since I don't require a daily dose at this moment, I honestly can't find the motivation to schedule an appointment with my therapist to discuss a change. Especially now, with all this snow blanketing everything, living out here in rural America makes it such a chore—it feels silly to drive all that way just for a ten-minute consultation.
Angela Stewart6 said:Yeah, I totally get where you're coming from. How long have you been living with the diagnosis? I find myself hesitating about the medication because, on one hand, I feel like I might actually function more normally without them—but then again, there's that undeniable need for them to stay stable.
Perhaps a middle ground could be found by tapering your dosage, or if that isn't feasible, perhaps you could temporarily pause the specific one you suspect is causing the most side effects.
I certainly won't claim to have all the answers here in America, but until you actually try it—how can you truly know?
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Is anyone else here taking an antidepressant alongside an acid reflux medication? Does the antidepressant maintain its effectiveness when taken in conjunction with a reducer for stomach acid?
George Cook said:Exactly. There is. And it makes me hesitant to even take a pill. Though it might be better to just take a sedative once in a while, if only to avoid the fear of becoming dependent on them.
Which specific reaction are you referring to?
Yes, precisely. But I am thinking it would be wise to consult several psychiatrists and therapists. Just to see their individual perspectives. After all, one doctor might offer one diagnosis, while another offers something entirely different.
Is it not true that truly diverse perspectives and broader insights can only be obtained if a patient recalls every single word spoken to both doctors, all while ensuring that neither practitioner realizes they have seen another?
Yet, in this modern era of insurance maneuvering and the omnipresence of the Internet, does such a thing not become practically impossible?
That second psychiatrist or therapist could simply glance at a digital medical record and instantly discover the previous specialist's opinion.
Carol Barrett2 said:Drank way too much Starbucks. They found morphine in my urine results, but I haven't touched any. Does anyone know where one would even get that stuff, or who's out there actually using it?
I have no clue what else they were looking for. They didn't even bother returning my lab results.
Let me correct myself.
Most people are likely supplementing with B-complex vitamins.
One theory regarding schizophrenia suggests it may stem from autointoxication caused by drugs like LSD.
Joseph Fowler33 said:There’s research out there suggesting that kids born during the late winter or early spring months—think February, March, or April—seem to have a higher risk of developing schizophrenia and similar conditions. It likely comes down to the lack of sunlight exposure during pregnancy, which is something you can't really control. Once we're all born, we're pretty much all getting exposed to the same amount of sunshine, right? Plus, we know vitamin D deficiency is super closely tied to depression and those heavy, low moods. Just as a personal note, I was diagnosed with F20, and since I was born in March, it fits the pattern. My godfather and a close buddy of mine both have MS, and they were born in February and April respectively.http://www.livescience.com/20237-bir...disorders.html
On the other hand, taking excessive amounts of Vitamin A and D during pregnancy is generally discouraged by medical professionals.
I don't suffer from schizophrenia, though I do require Vitamin D supplements to manage certain endocrine issues. I was born in January.
Jeremy James3 said:Well, just like you mentioned, seeing those lights and figures in black... I guess you can only really experience that when you're right on the edge of life itself. I don't think it's about hallucinations at all; it's more like your brain becomes way more sensitive due to some kind of underlying damage, which lets you perceive much more subtle things. Honestly, if you went to a psychiatric ward, they might just try to steal your soul while you're there. That's what happens to people in that state. It's like the connection between your subtle body and your physical body gets interrupted, so you could just exhale and lose your soul entirely, or whatever—because once that subtle body detaches from you, you'll never be able to heal that soul again. Just, please, don't go to any psychiatrists, because they are practically just waiting for someone in your exact position. I really hope you haven't gone already.
Most psychiatrists don't act this way out of malice, but simply because of their own ignorance.
I would love to elaborate further regarding the subtle body from a Vedic perspective.
We are essentially spiritual beings. Or, to put it in the terms used by Hare Krishna practitioners, we are spiritual souls. Because our true nature is spiritual, the soul is far too subtle to reside within a coarse physical body without various intermediary layers or sheaths. Therefore, in addition to the gross physical body, there exists a subtle material body composed of the Ego (ahamkara), Intelligence (budhi), and the Mind (manas). I find the Sanskrit term for the Ego particularly fascinating. Ahamkara is derived from two words: Adam = I and kara = do. The Ego seeks out titles, status, and designations, maintaining a defensive posture necessary for self-preservation; however, it serves to make us, as spiritual souls, identify ourselves with this coarse material body. The Mind governs the senses and gathers information, while Intelligence processes it. This subtle material body remains inseparable from the soul until the soul is finally liberated from material bondage.
Carl Rivera43 said:Man, I totally get that. I have those moments too. Usually, I try to be a good listener, but I find myself chiming in with my own experiences and takes just to keep things moving.
It really depends on who you're hanging out with, though. Some people have such a great, easygoing vibe that you don't even notice three hours have flown by.
Basically, keeping groups small—maybe four or five people max—is the sweet spot. It keeps everyone focused so the concentration doesn't just vanish.
I couldn't agree more. If I'm ever forced to hold a conversation with more than, say, four people at once, it already starts feeling like a chaotic crowd to me.
Carl Rivera43 said:I can't help but feel like so much of life is just... predictable. It feels like everything is stuck in this repetitive, cliché loop.
Take the NFL season, for example. You already know exactly how the games are going to play out, you know exactly what the commentators are going to drone on about, and it’s the same with almost every other news cycle. Honestly, even those rare moments of "spontaneous" humor feel totally forced—like they were scripted just to make us laugh.{It all feels so staged, doesn't it?}
Beyond the media influence, what else feels way too predictable to you guys? And why do you think it's so hard to break out of these patterns sometimes?
Does being predictable just kill creativity entirely?
A certain degree of predictability isn't an obstacle to creativity; quite the contrary, it is often its foundation.
Imagine you are working a creative role that doesn't pay the bills, which means you end up working from home. You have young children who haven't even started school yet—little ones who are incredibly lively, talkative, and high-energy. Or perhaps just one of them is like that, constantly demanding attention and seemingly incapable of "switching off."
When you attempt to retreat to your home office or find some quiet corner of the house to focus on crafting a truly brilliant advertisement that could actually become profitable, will the chaos, the shouting, the lack of structure, the childishness, the constant "mental nagging," and the sheer unpredictability of when you can actually get any meaningful work done serve as fertile ground for your creative process???
Nicholas Wells74 said:I eventually remembered the same thing and found that exact same text.
I am just wondering if it might be wiser to email more than just a single medical history report. My most recent summary is from a specialist consultation, whereas prior to that, I have about ten pages detailing my actual hospital stays.
There is also this annoying technical glitch: when you send things via email, if you use Adobe Acrobat Reader to scan documents for the 11th or 12th time, it won't preserve the visible official stamps if you save them as a searchable PDF. You have to use an image format instead, but that makes the emails massive since every single page you scan ends up being 3 or 4 megabytes.
Regardless, I sent over the scanned latest medical summary, the referral, and my contact info to every single email address listed in that document.
Well, I suppose I will wait five days to see what happens. Hopefully, they will schedule me an appointment.
Just wanted to give a quick update: I sent the referral along with just the specialist summary—not the full hospitalization records—and I actually already got an appointment! That was it. I sent the email to all the addresses mentioned in that text, and I didn't even have to wait five days; it only took three or four.
I would have posted this sooner, but I completely lost track of time. Besides, this forum doesn't even send email notifications for subscribed threads anymore, and the option to browse through posts—even my own—hardly works. It is absolutely terrible!
After reflecting on our previous discussion, I found myself arriving at the exact same conclusion.
Is it possible that submitting multiple medical histories via email might be more effective? My most recent summary comes from a specialist consultation, yet prior to that, I have nearly a dozen pages detailing my previous hospitalizations.
There is also a technical complication to consider: when you attempt to scan documents using an ABBYY Fin Reader program, if you select the searchable PDF format, the official stamps often become invisible. To preserve them, one must use an image-based format, which unfortunately makes the files quite cumbersome, as each individual page can weigh 3 or 4 megabytes.
In any case, I have sent over the scanned latest medical history, the referral, and my contact information to every single email address listed in the documentation.
Now, I shall wait five days to see what happens. One can only hope that I will be granted an appointment.
I need to schedule my annual checkup with Dr. Milan Vrkljan, an endocrinology associate professor over at the Mayo Clinic.
Today, I headed down to the local post office to fax over my referral, my most recent medical history, and a contact sheet so they can call me back the moment an appointment opens up.
I ended up wasting two or even two and a half hours just sitting there at the post office. I tried calling the fax line and the central scheduling office repeatedly, but it was all for nothing.
The reason I went in person to use the fax machine is that when I showed up earlier without the paperwork, they told me they don't accept anything via email—it has to be faxed. It actually feels like I tried to book a previous appointment with this same doctor via email once before, and that failed too.
How is it even possible that in an era of such massive digital advancement, they still refuse to accept emails containing scanned referrals, medical histories, and contact details typed right in the body of the message?
I live in a small town where the only places that even own a fax machine are the municipal office, the post office, and maybe three local business owners. I suspect the best time to send a fax would be in the late afternoon or early evening, since the medical staff seems to be in a total rush hour frenzy until about 1:00 PM. Unfortunately, the post office closes its service window at 2:30 PM. I really don't want to go bothering those few local business owners to ask them to run a fax for me in the evenings.
A woman at the post office mentioned that her appointment for Nuclear Medicine—which is located near the endocrinology department—went perfectly smoothly just by sending an email. Her daughter simply took photos of the referral and medical history with a smartphone, emailed them over, and that was that.
But then again, perhaps she wasn't supposed to send it to central scheduling, but directly to the Nuclear Medicine department instead?
I honestly don't know; it's maddening. I desperately need this exam, yet the wait time is six months! Even getting thyroid lab work done involves scheduling at certain hospitals, though you can't do it at the Mayo Clinic. I can't get those labs done at the Mayo Clinic either because they won't approve my travel reimbursement since I have a closer hospital nearby, but even there, you have to schedule an appointment just to get the blood drawn.
While searching for alternative or complementary ways to manage my thyroid issues, I stumbled upon an incredibly intriguing, albeit somewhat lengthy article regarding methylation. It suggests that for a vast majority of people, the methylation process occurs far too slowly. To avoid getting too boggedly in the weeds, methylation is essentially a biochemical process where a CH3 group of atoms is added to a massive array of substances, which fundamentally alters both the composition and the behavior of the molecule being modified. Interestingly, it mentions that individuals living with schizophrenia also experience sluggish methylation processes and carry high levels of histamine.
Which leads me to wonder... if you don't mind my asking... has anyone here actually had their histamine levels tested? Is there even a standard practice of measuring specific blood chemistry markers during a psychotic episode? After all, one could easily slip into psychosis simply as a reaction to consuming certain drugs.