Shake, rattle, and roll

[days_unfolding]

Mixed reviews on my increased antidepressant dosage. On the one hand, I feel a lot more energetic and was zipping around for 8 hours today running errands. On the other hand, I've been having severe insomnia unless I take a sleeping pill, an occasionally rapid heartbeat, and slight tremors. I think that I've reached the limit of how much of the antidepressant I can tolerate. (And hmm, one list of side effects says to call a physician for rapid heartbeat and tremors. This is not boding well. If the side effects continue, I'll call.)

Yeah, I know this is kind of boring, but it helps me to be able to look back at old entries before I see the doctor and figure out what happened when.

I bought a vibrating alarm clock (no, not like that, although it probably would work quite well-;)) to add to my arsenal of two to three auditory alarm clocks and the lights on the sunrise timer. Getting up will be a total multimedia experience-;) It might not even be overkill, because I've been known to sleep through two alarm clocks and two wake-up calls. Of course, I was a lot more tired then, but the sleeping pills can make it really tough to get up.

My light box and sunrise timer arrived today, so I get to go play with them.

Comments

[sunshine-two.livejournal.com]

Waking up to a vibrating pillow should definitely be interesting...lol

[days-unfolding.livejournal.com]

Interesting is a good word-;) I'm really curious what it's going to be like. I'll provide a report after I first try it.

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

Is all the medication and med interaction fights an improvement over the old days of no meds at all?

[days-unfolding.livejournal.com]

Oh my god yes. Last summer, I had a psychotic episode, and slightly over a year ago, I was in such a severe depression that it caused cognitive problems (and I was suicidal to boot). The really scary part is without the meds (or at least, lithium or another mood stabilizer), the disorder gets progressively worse, and I really don't want to know what worse than what I've already experienced is. The meds do a lot more than just smooth out the rough edges.

Certainly I'd love for the whole mess to just go away, but it doesn't seem too likely. At this point, I'd just be happy to have a drug regimen that works well.

The people I really feel sorry for are schizophrenics because most of the antipsychotic drugs can cause permanent physical damage over the long term and also are unpleasant. They're the ones who really are between a rock and a hard place.

Re:

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

It seems like such a gradual process from my outside viewpoint that I'd lost track of what it was like for you when I first started reading your journal. Thanks for the catch-up perspective ;)

[days-unfolding.livejournal.com]

Well, I never lost the ability to write through all that, so I'm sure that it seems like no big deal through the LJ lens. And around the time that you added me to your friends list, I was focused on the new job, Chaos' illness, my illness....But I've been oscillating wildly over the past few years (with 20/20 hindsight).