|
Or does medication have long term effects after you stop taking it?
Reason I ask this is because of changes to my work's health plan, I can no longer afford my medications, and when they ran out in mid March, I stopped taking them. I had depressive episodes around the birth of my son in 2003 - he was born with a cogenital birth defect - mentioned this (my depressive episodes) to my family physician who put me on Effexor for first (but couldn't stand the side effects after a week) so put me on Wellbutrin. Wellbutrin seemed to work OK for 6-8 months and then "stopped". I stopped taking it but about a year later I had another depressive episode - suicidal thoughts in mid 2006. Got referred to a pscyhiatrist in a mental health hospital by my family physician who diagnosed me with bipolar disorder and put me on Lamictal. Because this was a short term deal they found me another psychiatrist - upped the dosage of the lamictal and when I had another mini-episode in early 2007 they added Zyprexa to the mix. This combination of medicines seemed to work OK for me and somewhat "spaced" me out at times and left me tired.
But I've been off the medicine for about three months now. I'm not so spaced out and I'm not depressed. I feel rather good actually and not as tired as I once was. So I'm wondering: was I misdiagnosed, or did I just quit my medicines during a "good" part of my mental health cycle? I've had a change in job role that is not so stressful as it was, my son's doing well, my wifes working so there's not really any major money woes (though we could all do with more) ... life's just great! Or do I have to look forward to some crash and burn sometime this year?
Appreciate your thoughts, and thanks in advance.
Mark.
|