im not sure if im allowed to post like tis so remove it if not......
i am a rn child, but have been off sick for most the last 18mths. i have been taking antidepressants for 2ish years. have tried a few different ones. effexor lasted the longest and helped keep my moods stable for longer. i was admitted to a psychiatric facility in juky this year. they stopped all my meds (anti migraine and anti allergy meds too) as soon as i got admitted. after 3 days of not recieving them i was with it enuff to demand to know y. basically the nurses were not happy to give the effexor at the dose i was on. i decided since i was feeling so much better it clearly hadnt been helping and the psychiatrist accepted this and agreed i could stop it. i didnt experience ny of the negative withdrawal effects i have heard some people do. in fact i felt better than i had done in years.
i didnt stop talking from the minute i woke up to the minute i went to sleep, unusual for me, i had a very high phone bill lol. i also went shopping, and bought a lot of things i didnt need but hey shopping was fun. sleep, i was having 3 or 4 hours a nite. but i was happy and i didnt care so long as i stayed happy. felt great. i was very organised and got lots of things done. this continued after discharge, just as well really i have moved house twice in the past month.
since then i have sunk right back down into the depths of depression. it is a struggle to get out of bed, let alone get dressed or do anything. but when i do manage to make myself stay up for more than an hour i end up running round like mad. i frequently clean, tidy, dust and vacum (so far i have vacumed twice today). i also have been displaying some ocd behaviours (and was while in hspital).
my diagnosis on discharge "u r well, go back to work" . ok i know that me being a nurse causes probles here in the uk. the fact that i have recieved psychiatric care could well have messed my future career up completly. get a label and i will most likely loose my liscence to practice as a nurse (thanks to bev allitt n the clothier enquiry). therefore they chose to overlook a lot of things while i was there and have not arranged ny psychiatric follow up. they did refer me to the psychologists for assessment and suggested cbt mite be more beneficial than the psychotherapy i tried before.
however atm my career is on hold, i have been fired due to the length of time i have been ill, and will now find it very difficult to get another job. i know that atm i am not ready to return to work as an rn. i think this is probably at least 12 months away.
a work colleague, and some friends have suggested that i am bipolar. they worked with me when i was "normal" and when i was in cant sit still must do everything phases. i didnt go in when i was depressed. friends have seen me in all moods. usually when i get active i last for 3 or 4 days, i only sleep for a couple of hours at a time, my house is always spotless and i will go out and do nything. but i get irritable and snappy and do not know how to be quiet. then i chill a bit, i am quiet, i go out because i have to, i get anxious and have panic attacks again. i function but no more.
the psychiatrist was not interested in hearing nything i had to say. all he was concerned with was i was no longer having a crisis, i was not actively suicidal, and i do not have any formal psychiatric illness that they had seen while i was an inpatient. goodbye thank you very much.
so currently i am not on ny meds, am not having ny therapy or counselling. i see my gp again next week. is there meds that he can prescribe to stop my moods from swinging so rapidly? i can be fine one minute n ready to kill myself the next, then fine and busy and organised the next. i nolonger remember what my normal mood is. surely there is something that can help while i wait for therapy, again. nyone got ny sugestions/advice?
and nyone from the uk with a psychiatric diagnosis in the past?
