Nothing helps me--- nothing.

dear dr.-- i am 28 and have posted before.i am in very bad shape.i have been on many many meds and they don't help me.i have been to therapy and it hasn't helped me.i cry most all day and can no longer drive.i stay in the house all the time because i don't want people to see me.i feel sick and have pain and am told i have somatoform disorder.i still feel like they are missing something.i am trying to go to the mayo clinic-- i have been told they help somatoform disorders.  what do you do, when the meds and the counselors don't work?  i have been getting worse as i get older-- it was bad in college-- worse now. i don't know where to go for help. are some depressions basically untreatable? is this as good as it gets for some people? i am very tired.  i don't know what to do. ssris do nothing... tri-cyclics affet my heart-- so i am on trazodone and lithium-- and guess what-- it isn't working. what do you recommend i try? please...

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

I have a very definite opinion. You need to find the right therapist...counseling may not have worked because it was either not the right time or the right therapeutic relationship. You are a young person and have a long life ahead...dealing with the root causes..knowing how to get your life going and staying on a path that will satisfy you...is what you have to learn, and it can be done.  There is definitely hope...but you have to have an experienced therapist help you get there.

[Doggies4]

I am sorry you are having such a hard time.  I have been where you are.  I tried so many antidepressants and other medications.  I almost gave up!  I am doing great now, but it took so long.  For me, I kept trying different antidepressants which did help, but I didn't think it was working because I still felt desperate and awful because I had a situation in my life that I needed help with. I notice you signed with Haldol as part of your nickname.  It wasn't until I stared taking a medication like Haldol that I was able to get over the situation in my life that made me miserable.  The antidepressants helped, the other medication helped and now I am doing fine.  I hope you continue your meds and do as your doctor says.  Good luck to you.  There is hope.  I had none and almost did not make it, but I did and life is truly worth living!

[sinnequan]

thanks-- but i cannot take anti-psychotics or ssris--- anti-psychotics cause "brain spells" and ssris do not work.

[D ave Replogle]

What about xanax or klonopin they seem too help me when i feel like that and i have tied a bunch of meds and they have me on xanax buspar and klonopin and nortryptylin that seems too help me live a little bit happier life.

[sinnequan]

THE PAIN ISN'T IN MY HEAD!!!! i went to a hospital in a town where they don't know me--- they did some blood work and my amylase level is higher than normal---- they said it was gall bladder--- sigh---- don't know why the sonogram a month ago came back normal----- but at least i can get better.

[Tom W]

Hi, I have had prolems with depression since the 4th grade. I also have Fibromyalgia which started at the same time. It has taken years to finally find something that works for me. I have been on most of the newer common meds, had counseling, have been inpatient in hospital many times, had 7 ECT treatments, {no fun at all}. Nothing helped for very long. Then as a last resort my DR tried Nardil on me,it is a old MAOI that the pharmacy has to special order just for me because it is so old and doctors don't use it much anymore because it can be dangerous. But it has been a wonder drug for me. I have just recently also found a counselor who has been a god send too after seeing so many. My point is don't give up, I have come close to ending it all a few times but couldn't. I am sure glad now that I stuck it out. Don't missunderstand me I still have many other problems from the FMS, It is so bad that I had to go on disability from it and the depression in my early 40s. I was excepted in 2 weeks for disability. My doctor could not believe it. He told me that it is almost impossible to get disaility for depression and at that time especialy for FMS. So they must have felt that I was really in a bad way then.  Tom W

[SHOTSY]

Check out thread on 8/20

[Nebula]

Hi, Did your last comment mean that you were diagnosed w/ Gall Bladder sickness and that is the cause of pain? If so, great, but if you have any mental disease, too, then here's my reply:
  I've been through a lot of hospitals and meds, though I'm not saying I've been through what you're going through exactly.
  Now I'm an Occupational Therapy Student and I'm amazed at the wonders of it.  I believe that you could see an Occupational Therapist Assistant who works in Psychiatrics to learn to live fully with a mental condition.  I did it and I'm so impressed that I'm in school so I can help others, too.  Occupational Therapy Moves Mountains!!!