Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The diet & the doc

So the diet has gone well so far. 2 days on plan, & I'm down to 157.8 this morning. Mark is staying tough, too. Today is a carb up day, which is nice because it's more lenient (but I'm not going nuts & having cookies or anything) but really the past two days haven't been that hard. Once I get that plan & make up my mind that THIS IS IT, it's a lot easier for me to stick to it.

The nighttime food cravings pretty much went away the first day. Weird, huh? Vickie wrote about how the body craves junk food when we are feeding it junk food. When we feed it good stuff, the junk food cravings go away (mostly...I'm under no illusion that I'm far from finished with this food fight).

I haven't exercised though. & I miss running terribly. Work is crazy, which is good & bad. And I've been pretty down for the past five days, which makes overcoming the excuses not to workout that much harder. I'll get in at least 30 minutes today while Sophie's at swim class, so at least there's that.

Yesterday's appointment with the psychiatrist went well. It was tough. I had to drag up a lot of crap from the past 15 years so she could understand why I've been on antidepressants. I talked about my post partum depression after Sophie's birth, and after I described it to her she said I actually had nearly had a post partum psychosis. Nice. That was a pleasant thing to learn.

The bottom line is--I'm on a new antidepressant called pristiq. She's not convinced that I don't have a form of bipolar disorder, because I do have some hypo-mania symptoms & the post partum symptoms are also signs of bipolar disorder. But truly, the hypo-mania symptoms and the extreme up & down moods have only been around since I've been on wellbutrin (I asked Mark to confirm that, & he agreed). She wants to treat the depression first & see if the bipolar symptoms go away or intensify on this medicine (which is an SNRI and not an SSRI like all the other meds I've taken).

Oh, & the first thing I did when I got back from the appointment was google pristiq & weight gain. It's a new drug (been out almost a year) but I don't see any horror stories of weight gain yet. And if you're going to gain weight on an antidepressant, it's gonna happen within the first few months, so I think I'm safe with this one. If anything, I might lose weight from it. Loss of appetite & weight loss are side effects (which is fine by me).

So I'll take the new medication for 3 weeks (I had been tapering off wellbutrin over the past month & my last dose was over a week ago) and go see her again, and we'll see what's next. I'm really glad I'm seeing her about this, & not just letting my GP handle it anymore. Kind of wish I'd been seeing a psychiatrist all along.

But, man, it's so much harder to sit in a psychiatrist's waiting room than in a family practice waiting room. It's like going to the gym-- sometimes the toughest part is just walking through the door. When you're done, though, you're glad you went.

7 comments:

Jill A said...

I'm so glad you went! Honestly there are times when I have thought about booking an appointment just so I could talk about all my sh*t to someone! I think I had PPD after my first one was born, but I never got help for it - I wish I had, it would have made that first year so much easier!

Glad the diet is going well - it's so much better when the spouse is in on it too, huh? You'll get your workout mojo back soon - it feels to good to let it go forever.

Vickie said...

I hope that this posting of yours reaches someone else that is being treated through a GP (or not treated at all) and that they schedule an appointment with a psychiaTRIST because of it. I think there are a good many of us that need to be seen and also need chemical help.

And it gets much easier after that first appointment.

Very glad you wrote it all out - so I knew and like I said - hopefully it reaches someone else (somewhere) that needs the information.

PS - Jill - talk help is usually therapist - seen while seeing psychiaTRIST (for the medication part).

debby said...

I'm glad you went too, Laura. And I'm glad you're doing well on the diet. I second Vickie's opinion that high carb junk (even some of the 'good' junk) will make you crave more junk. I have almost eliminated it from my diet recently, and I am finding life much easier...

Erika said...

Glad things are moving in the right direction for you!

MCM mama

Lori G. said...

I'm glad you went and I know that had to be hard for you. I hope the med works for you and maybe you can get out and run some. I know that will make you feel much better! *hugs*

Helen said...

I wrote a long comment yesterday and Blogger booted me out so I lost it and no time to re-write! Grrrr!

I am truly amazed at how this program virtually ERASES my nighttime snackies. After the first couple of days, they were GONE. This alone makes it a worthwhile program for me! And, of course, there are plenty of other good things... :-)

Sharla said...

9rap, I wrote a comment and lost it somehow....
My daughter is being treated for same dx and we are trying to get meds stable so she can go to college.
I wanted to tell you the same thing I tell her all the time, Never feel bad, guilty, ashamed, etc for having to take meds and to see a psych. If you are missing brain chemicals and have to take a replenishment, it is the same as having high blood pressure and having to take meds for that.
The important thing is that you are now at a better place to get headed in the right direction....NO should've, could've, would'ves!

(Excuse typos-no spell check on blackberry)