Have you found the right medication(s)?

Medications and testing has improved over the years. When I first started going to doctors for being tired and irritable all the time, they said I had “female problems” and suggested Valium. I never took Valium, but I improved my diet and exercise which improved my overall health.

Eventually medical science caught up to my issues, and I started seeing female doctors exclusively. My doctor put me on thyroid pills, which required several months of dose adjustments, and eventually, I went on to need blood pressure medication and cholesterol medication. I am not entirely free of symptoms, as I have let my diet and exercise get bad again, and as a result, my hormones are sometimes out of balance.

I took me several tries with different medications and dosage adjustments, over several different years of attempting to address my anxiety/panic attack/depression problems. Some didn’t seem to work at all, or worked a little, but not enough. Some worked for a while, then quit. One made me crazier than I had been to begin with! For the past 5 or more years, though, I’ve been steady on Effexor XR, thank goodness. I think I had my dosage increased once, but since then, everything’s been good. I still have to take Xanax sometimes, for bad panic situations, but my day to day life is pretty decent, now.

How did I know? I felt normal. Blessedly normal.

I was one of those really really lucky people – the first thing I tried works amazingly for me. So much less anxiety; I can put worries out of my mind and don’t dwell and stew anymore. Celexa, 10mg. Some jitteriness in the first week that went away, no side effects anymore.

For my bipolar, it took three meds. It took at least six months, I’d guess, before the third one was added and another few months before it was clear it was what I needed.

For my blood pressure, they’ve had to mess around with a few meds, too, especially since my main bipolar med has effects on my bp.

Also, I have skin allergies that may or may not be related to all the meds I’m taking.

Yes. It took a decade, though that was really mostly a combo of an misdiagnoses and most of those years being a minor who had no control over her treatment. I tried about 90% of the available drugs before, finally, someone put me on the one type of drug that everyone thought would make it worse.

How did I know it was the right medication? Because I was more interested in snuggling with my cats and taking a walk in the park than killing myself.

I was diagnosed bipolar 1 in 2001. It took 5 or 6 years to find the right mixture of medication to keep me balanced.

How did I know? I am not able to feel joy and sadness without being outlandishly euphoric or numbingly depressed.

@Hawaii_Jake Do you mean “now” in the last sentence?

It took over a year to come up with a treatment plan that manages to keep my chronic pain below 6 on a 10 point scale (1=no pain 10 =worst possible pain a person could ever experience)

I wonder if anyone has any experience using cannabis or derivatives to treat chronic pain. I’ve been waiting 2 years and still have not yet gotten approval from the government for such treatment.

I went through three different drugs: Paxil, Klonopin and Lexapro. A very lose dose of Lexapro works for me.

@janbb : Oops!! Yes! That should read, “I am now able to feel joy…”

Yes, but it’s not legal at the moment.

Years. It is by far the best combination I’ve found yet. I’m still hoping to find something better, but at the same time I am tired of trying different meds.

The only medicine I use for my IBS is weed, and it gets rid of my day to day symptoms really well. I hope it’s the right one because I love the side effects, for the most part. But I’d have to find an open-minded and experienced doctor, detox, do some testing, and try other meds before I can really be sure. It would be nice to find something else I could use that’s legal; my travel options are quite restricted because of marijuana prohibition.

I have not found the right meds to treat my depression and anxiety. I need to work on being calm about taking pharmaceuticals, which is hard when every pill I take tends to cause an IBS flareup.

Are we talking a particular type of drug? It took me three tries to get to the thryoid pill I take now. I was allergic to Synthroid, finally after months of suffering I was switched to Levoxyl, which was very difficult to swallow, and wound up on unithroid which I ma hapy with, but I still don’t have a dose I can stay on more than 4 months without having to change it, and then change it back. I don’t stablize.

I’m on a ton of meds and have not found the right combo. as for anti-depressants, I stopped taking lexapro about 3 months ago. apathy was bad.
Now the world is getting more intense. I have sooooo many issues I’m trying to grow through.
Today my pain was under a 5!!! Til I thought about it and my shoulder starting throbbing.
cannabis helps so much.
I was sent generic metformin instead of the brand name last week. metformin causes me diarrhea and cramps. That is a pharmacy problem. They have it in record I can not take this. they substituted. My doc forget the DNS on it.

My doctors have found the correct combination for the next 6 and ½ months. Because of my body chemistry changing hey have to change my cocktail every few years, but for now they reached a good one. There is one BIG problem, though. My phys med and rehab doctor raised my dosage on my anticonvulsant, and didn’t write Dispense as Written on the script. He thinks that generic drugs are OK on epilepsy drugs, but I’ve had many doctors tell me that that (One of whom I respect greatly!) is not true. I go see his CNP tomorrow, and I’m hoping that I can get her to write DAW on the script.