Purpose

The purpose of this Blog is to steer people of LGBTQ community in Seattle who are of limited means to resources or away from resources that are available/unavailable or helpful/unhelpful from this blogger's own experience. Your mileage may vary, and these are MY opinions about my experiences with these resources/people. 

A little about me: I am a highly educated individual in my late 40's who has had a history of great challenges personally, and great accomplishments. In order to maintain my privacy, I will say very little more about myself, but I will occasionally share a personal anecdote to make a point or to give an example as to why I have come to the conclusions have come to. I have been a consumer of psychological counselling, medical (primary care) assistance and psychiatric care. I was once hospitalized for depression in  my late 20's and have tried many medications for anxiety, depression and sleep problems. I have found most medications helpful for a season, and then unhelpful. I have suffered from sexual dysfunction as a result of SSRI's (many kinds, starting with the advent of Prozac, which caused me nerve and muscle tremors). I have a history of obesity, remedied, in part, by gastric bypass surgery, but when put on a mood stabilizer (Abilify) I gained 20 pounds in 3 weeks. SSRI's are also known to cause an individual to gain weight, and research has shown that the sexual dysfunction caused by SSRI's can be permanent, even after discontinuing these drugs. I have found this to be so. I am not citing journals here, but do your own research, an you will find these assertions to be true. I also took Cymbalta, along with the Abilify, and had a difficult time urinating. I felt like I was being poisoned. I take Trazadone for sleep, Ambien for sleep, Tizanidine as muscle relaxant and Ativan and Klonopin for panic attacks and anxiety, respectively.

Despite my depression, which I have had since childhood, I have chosen NOT to take anti-depressants due to the issues I have discussed above. I feel as though I am guinea pig, because the medical community has NO idea how these drugs work. Unlike narcotics and benzodiazapines, these other drugs are really an experiment on each individual. I am tired of the shot in the dark approach, but my medical advisers and even some of my friends and family are not happy with my decision not to take these drugs. I know they work for some people, and especially those people who have schizoid disorders and bi-polar disorders need to take some of them as well as anti-psychotics. 

I also have the dual disability of chronic pain, due to fibromyalgia and several severe injuries to my back and joints. So, I  now take a combination of hydrocodone, Neurontin, and Tramadol. I cannot take NSAIDS due to a history of gastric problems. I do not have a history of addiction or misuse of drugs or alcohol. I have been hounded for years to take Lyrica, but I do not find the side effects to be worth the potential benefits, because they are similar to the mood stabilizers that I have also eschewed. So these are my choices, prejudices, opinions and decisions. I welcome your comments on why this or that choice was made by you, or you allowed to be made for you by your medical provider. I am of the opinion that we are not victims, and I really do not want this to be a forum for complaints or whining about meds, because we have agency, and we are capable of deciding what medications we do or do not wish to use, as long as we are not hurting others. I wish this to be a forum of intelligent critique and discussion or modalities, current state of psychological and psychiatric care or lack thereof in our area. I also wish to discuss the policies of medicaid in our system of mental health care, and disparity of how we are treated based on our class status, or whether we are poor or relatively well off. 

Once of the most interesting things I want to discuss is involuntary commitment based on class status, community mental health centers and lack of choice in psychotherapy. I will also "name names" in terms of individuals and agencies which have served me well or have treated me in disrespectful and horrible ways. This is all for now. I will post more later, with specifics on my recommendations or care providers in the Seattle area. Please feel free to tell your stories. Remember, no whining! We are powerful people and we make our own decisions.