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psychiatry

A New Model of Mental Health Recovery

by John Folk-Williams 6 Comments

Mental Health Recovery

My understanding of mental health recovery came from experience with the standard treatments: psychotherapy and medication. Until the 1990s, I worked exclusively with psychiatrists for both. In that setting, I can’t recall anyone talking to me about recovery or what I wanted to get out of treatment. The assumption was that I would be in […]

Filed Under: Recovery, Self-Help Tagged With: psychiatry, treatment

Depression Diagnosis – 1: The Person or the Disorder?

by John Folk-Williams 8 Comments

Depression diagnosis 1

A depression diagnosis usually marks a turning point in your experience of the illness. Up to that point, you may have downplayed the seriousness of mood problems, or you may have been less aware of feelings and focused instead on pain or insomnia or some other physical symptom.

When things get so bad that you can’t lead the life you’re used to, then you know you need help but may still have no idea what the cause is. So you head for the doctor’s office – whether it’s your primary care physician or a psychiatrist – and hope they’ll be able to tell you what’s wrong and do something about it.

Filed Under: Psychiatric Treatment Tagged With: diagnosis, DSM, psychiatry, symptoms

Leaving Lamictal and Antidepressants for Now

by John Folk-Williams 25 Comments

Leaving Lamictal and antidepressants

By phasing out lamotrigine, known more widely by the trade name Lamictal, and other antidepressants, I have recently ended 18 years of uninterrupted medication use to treat depression. It’s been a rough ride with 20 different psychotropic drugs. I had a few good periods with their help, but for the most part the results have […]

Filed Under: Psychiatric Treatment Tagged With: antidepressants, medication, psychiatry, therapy

Ending Antidepressant Treatment

by John Folk-Williams 36 Comments

depression medication pills

After about 18 years of non-stop, mostly ineffective antidepressant treatment, I’ve brought this long experiment to an end. I had been wearing Emsam patches for the past six years, but I’ve been fairly sure for some time that they had stopped working. It seems I was right. Getting off the drug has made no difference […]

Filed Under: Depression Treatments Tagged With: antidepressant, diagnosis, medication, psychiatry, treatment

My Top 10 Depression Information Websites

by John Folk-Williams 3 Comments

Depression Anxiety Newspaper Headlines

Information about depression and mood disorders is fairly easy to come by online, but it’s not always up-to-date, accurate or detailed enough to be helpful. I’ve been reviewing many of the major mental health websites to figure out which are the most helpful for understanding the illness and deciding what to do about it. I’ve […]

Filed Under: Resource Tagged With: psychiatry

3 Questions about Antidepressants

by John Folk-Williams 4 Comments

Multi-Colored Pills and Capsules

If you’re depressed, you will get a prescription for an antidepressant, sooner or later. In fact, medication is likely to be the first treatment you receive, perhaps the only one. Most people are fine with that. They want to feel better fast, and medication seems like the best route. Primary care physicians and psychiatrists prescribe […]

Filed Under: Psychiatric Treatment Tagged With: antidepressants, brain, neurotransmitters, psychiatry

A Brief History of My Meds

by John Folk-Williams 4 Comments

Over at Health Central, I’ve put up a post called My 20 Meds. It’s about the trial and error process I went through to find a medication for depression that gave me more help than harm. The interesting thing is that none of the newer antidepressants worked for very long. The most effective have belonged […]

Filed Under: Depression Treatments Tagged With: antidepressant, psychiatry, treatment

A Blog Has Ended – A Great Resource on Recovery Remains

by John Folk-Williams Leave a Comment

I’d like to offer a tribute and thanks to Gianna Kali for the incredible work she has done at Beyond Meds over the last four years. She has not only created a major resource on recovery but has done so during a difficult and often debilitating withdrawal from prescription medications. Recently she announced the end […]

Filed Under: Recovery Stories, Resource Tagged With: psychiatry, treatment, withdrawal

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Living Depressed

Depression affects emotions, mental abilities, self-concept, behavior, relationships and the entire body. These core posts describe the full range of symptoms affecting daily life. Read More.

Choices in Healing

Hoping for recovery gives you a motive but not a method for getting there. This section has posts about therapies and healing methods you can work with either on your own or with professional guidance. Read more.

Living Well

If you've learned how to manage your depression, you'll want a fulfilling life rather than one dominated by fear that the illness might return. In this section, you'll find posts about how to work toward that goal. Read More

Relationships in Crisis

One of the hardest challenges of living with depression is holding onto your closest relationships. This section features posts on how to help a relationship survive. Read More.

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