Just wondering about this, I see many of you are taking more then one
prescription, example: lithium, clonipin, paxil and trazadone at a time. Do ever question your doctors on why so many drugs and have you done any research on the drugs themselves to see if they are harmful to you? There's a lot of drugs that should only be used for a limited time.

How many of you rely on insurance to pay for your prescription?

We have a book "Worst Pills Best Pills" which is now 10 years old, they put newer books out every few years, but because we don't use prescription, we haven't bought any newer books. It was funny 6 or 7 years ago my wife went to the doctor to get a prescription on the recommendation of her therapist.
I made a list of all the pills on the Do not use list and the limited use list, and I told her to refuse any prescription on that list. She said the doctor looked at the list and said, the first 15 prescriptions on the list were the most prescribed. She ended up with prozac, which she only took for 2 months, because of the side effects.

There's a Homeopathy remedy I give my wife when her sadness is at it's worst.
It's called Aurum Metallicum and it's for: sadness and longs to die. I also give her herbs that support her bodies systems example: nervous and circulation.
Were in the process of tring Gaba 750mg 3times a day and Magnesium 200 mg 2 times a day. It will probaly take 3 to 4 weeks before we see if it help her mood swings, thoughts about life. We don't have health insurance, so that's why we rely on alternative treatments. :eek:

Just because something occurs naturally does not make it safe eg hemlock, digitalis.
The reason so many side effects are known about with "conventional" drugs is that the drug companies have taken the time ( and money) to test them properly. They know the optimium dosage, the lethal dose etc.
Just because no side effects are known about with a herbal remedy doesn't mean they don't exist. just means no one looked.

the advantage of prescription drugs is that the side effects are known about recorded, and the doctor can watch out for them. he can test your liver function etc. Mistakes do happen occassonally, but generally i trust in the medics.

there are a lot of people (who often wear brightly coloured clothes) who are cashing in on the "natural" remedies who know nothing of brain chemistry or drug interactons. Some natural remedies are dangerous, (for instance i was sold raspberry leaf tea when 12 weeks pregnant (causes miscarriage)), some of which are ineffective, and some of which actually work. ( but at what dose and with what long term side effects ?????))

many conventional drugs are derived from natural sources: peniciilin, digitalin, aspirin. Given the choice between taking a known dose of aspirin in convenient pill form and ripping some bark off a willow tree to make a foul tasting tea (whilst hoping that the concentration of salicylic acid in this particular tree isn't so high as to cause kidney failure) I'd plump for the "commercial" product every time.

:)

There was a time when I was on 10 different medications. I really resent being on so many. Luckily now I am down to five. It still feels like a lot though. My insurance does cover the drugs luckily. However, it barely covers the psych appointments, if at all. It pays for 50% of 12 appointments per year at what they consider a reasonable charge, 110 dollars. Too bad my psych charges 200 dollars for 45 minutes! Crazy, huh.
Kristina :wave:

I have been on alot of different medications in the past, but for 15 years now I just take lithobid, ativan, and sonata. In the past I didn't trust some doctors because I had some terrible side effects and actually became manic because of zoloft. I read about all the possible side effects and interactions of meds that have been suggested to me, and I haven't tried any new meds for a long time. I am on medical which is the same as medicaid and I can only get precription lithium because I can't afford the organic lithium that is supposed to be safer. The ativan I take is so habit forming that I sometimes wonder why I still use it. I get insomnia without it. Even though I am very depressed I won't take antidepressents because I'm afraid of getting manic. Anyway, alot of precriptions aren't all that safe, but if the person is monitored with blood tests, and is on the right dosage, and the results in helping the person are better than the side effects, some doctors think that is ok.IZE=1][/SIZE]

I just have to add my 2 cents here...
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Aurum Metallicum Latin for "metallic gold"? (there goes my intelligent BP brain again!) I know gold injections are sometimes given to people with rheumatoid arthritis, but only as a last resort. Can you explain how and why gold would be considered helpful for suicidal people.
I am not trying to start an argument here, but I have a hard time believing in homeopathy. Modern conventional medicine does people a lot of good--our knowledge of and ability to treat disease has come a LONG way. I for one would be dead (if not due to BP, then to my thyroid disease) if this were not so. If I have to take a gamble on something to help me, it'll be something tested and proven. Not that I trust the drug companies implicitly, but I have a great psychiatrist that I do trust to find the right meds for me. To prevent suicidal thoughts rather than try to play catch-up with them.
Just my rambling thoughts.

gold is given (conventionally) for heart trouble too (I think). Maybe some homeopathy salesman thinks it could work on a "broken heart"....just a thought.

Thanks Ben ;) keep up the good work 2 :wave:

2SarniesShort

I think very few people would go and pick some hemlock, digitalis and eat it with doing some major reseach before doing so. And as for you, taking raspberry leaf tea before reading up on the herb, what's that all about? You sounded smarter. I can only think of an herblist that harvest wild plants for their needs, which in the case of ripping some bark off a willow tree to make a foul tasting tea would pretend too. By the way, you would only be using 1 teaspoon of ground up herb to 1 or 2 cups of water. And if the herb is that foul, then you would make capsules with it instead of tea. But because you can buy Willow Bk by the pound so cheap you really don't have to wild harvest most herbs.



wobbly & 2SarniesShort

Do a web search of Aurum Metallicum to learn the facts. It's a very easy search.

The picture of Aurum described by Kent is that of a person who has perverted affections: ‘ The fundamental love, which is the love of living, of self-protection, is perverted and he loathes life,is weary of life, longs to die and seeks methods to commit suicide.’ All the negative emotions such as self-contempt, loathing for life, suicidal thoughts, hopelessness, hatefulness, quarrelsomeness, violence, sadness, etc. are filled in Aurum, rather than positive emotions such as sense of responsibility, positiveness, industriousness, etc.

This incisive study on Aurum throws warning light on how any remedy could be misunderstood and distorted, when not studied in coherence with the drug proving. It also alarms as to how not to form images of homoeopathic remedies based on some vague clinical/empirical symptomatology; not found in the drug-proving.
:eek:

wacky,
I didn't take the raspberry leaf. I actually bought it to see how irresponsible a herbalist could be (having been TOLD) that I was pregnant. I did this experiment because they are trying to change the law here to make it harder to sell herbal remedies.
Personally I agree with the law makers that herbalists and all their ilk should be licensed. I am not against herbal remedies per se. I just think people should be protected. The remedies should be properly tested (like st. johns wort has been).

"you would only be using one teaspoon of herb per cup or two of water"
hey, and how much "active ingredient" does that translate to?

You mentioned that you "told (your)wife to refuse any prescription on (your) list"
Does your wife get a say in this. She is very very sick, and in a lot of pain, would you treat her with herbal remedies if she had bowel cancer or multiple sclerosis?
Or if YOU were the one suffering......

We depend on herbs as a way of life, we both feel the same about conventional medicine. I was telling my wife the other day that we need to find a medical Lab
to have some test done so we know exactly which herbs we need to be taking.
Before I got into herbs, I had a serious problem with bee's, hornet's and scorpions. I had a serious allergy to them, one day I got stung 4 times by hornets, and I knew my time was very short in getting to a doctor. Not long before I had made a homemade Mullein extract. So I put it to the test. That day changed my life for the better and to this day I don't worry about getting stung by anything. I've seen the herbs save animals that were very sick when the Vet's said their was nothing that could be done for them. We've both had medical conditions that the herbs were able to take care of.

We don't believe in radical surgeries of any kind, for any reason.

I have over 50 pounds of herbs and more then 75 Homeopathy remedies on hand
to attack what ever evil comes our way.

As long as one does their research on the herb they want to take and checks their med's with that herb, they should be all right.

:eek: