Mental Health

[Domo]

I’m glad you are getting good care. We had to move my husband to the Priory because the outpatient mental health care in our health authority was/is so sporadic. Finding a good team is key.

That sounds like an excellent way to get a good night’s sleep - how relaxing for you!

I felt like a right twit - I rolled over in bed and POP, a tube came out. I never found out wether that was a crucial lead of not.

It's good to hear you found the Priory - they have quite a reputation and I hope they give your hubby the care and treatment he deserves.

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

I felt like a right twit - I rolled over in bed and POP, a tube came out. I never found out wether that was a crucial lead of not.

It's good to hear you found the Priory - they have quite a reputation and I hope they give your hubby the care and treatment he deserves.

That must have been rather disconcerting! As long as it didn’t cause an alarm to sound, you were probably ok...

The Priory has been great - he has been there 11 years now, and while it’s far from cheap, it’s not horrific and he gets continuity of care, which he just wasn’t getting in the NHS. We live in a health authority that includes Scotland’s largest city, so mental health resources are stretched very thin and staff attrition rates are high.

I’m going to go to sleep now, but I really hope that things start to stabilise for you soon. Look after yourself.

 

[jevs]

The stats Domo gave are consistent with the ones that are generally used in the U.K., and also Australia - I don’t know about the US though I can’t imagine it is much different. They are the ones used by the NHS, and major British charities like Mind. They are also the same as we have been told by 5 different psychiatrists in the U.K. and Australia, including at the Priory hospital that Domo mentioned.

@Domo I had a quick look at your website and it looks like a great resource, with a ton of info on it!

Incorrect. Prevalence is 1 in 5.

Edit. I can’t maths today, lower, not higher.

 

[Domo]

That must have been rather disconcerting! As long as it didn’t cause an alarm to sound, you were probably ok...

The Priory has been great - he has been there 11 years now, and while it’s far from cheap, it’s not horrific and he gets continuity of care, which he just wasn’t getting in the NHS. We live in a health authority that includes Scotland’s largest city, so mental health resources are stretched very thin and staff attrition rates are high.

I’m going to go to sleep now, but I really hope that things start to stabilise for you soon. Look after yourself.

Take care! It's been great chatting with you

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

Incorrect. Prevalence is 1 in 5.

Edit. I can’t maths today, lower, not higher.

We were told 1 in 4 by my husband’s psychiatrist when we lived in Australia 4 years ago. Either way, it’s prevalent enough that it needs to be addressed, treated and discussed in the same manner as physical ill health.

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

Take care! It's been great chatting with you

You too!

 

[cobright]

The drug du jour to get high is Xanax, one of Mothers Little Helpers. Essentially a tranquiliser with muscles, this will mess with you at very high doses and is addictive. It DOES have a role in modern day psychiatry - short term anxiety alleviation - but can easily be abused.

Let's not pile it on too high here. Xanax is the most abused prescription drug, that's true. But mostly because it's very available, meaning prescribed a lot. It's very available because it's very safe and works very well. Even our DEA, which is not know for being soft on drugs, puts up on their website, "Given the millions of prescriptions written for benzodiazepines (about 100 million in 1999), relatively few individuals increase their dose on their own initiative or engage in drug-seeking behavior. "

The lethal dose (ld50) of xanax is somewhere between 300 and 2000 mg/kg body weight. That makes it less toxic than aspirin. The most common therepeutic doses written for xanax are .25mg and .5mg. I could literally eat all 90 of the .25mg xanax I have without any real fear of dying.

I get a 90 pill supply with 4 refills a year. The refills go unused and I actually use the medicine about 10 to 20 times a year (turning the rest in for disposal as they expire). The, so called, modern medicines I had been on before did not alleviate my symptoms nearly as well and put me through a hellscape of side effects that nearly ruined me.

I'm not saying benzos should be considered lightly but I would rate it a less dangerous drug than most SNRIs, and far safer than tricyclic antidepressants that kill hundreds every year but are still prescribed. Building an unreasonable reputation up around this medicine can scare people away from a treatment option that works for them.

 

[Domo]

Our biggest problem with Xanax comes from the Dark Web. Most psychiatrists will only prescribe a week's worth of this drug to limit it's usage - GPs shouldn't really be messing with this stuff. But if you really want to, you can log on to various drugs networks and just readily order it from overseas. cobright is right though in that if controlled, it has it's uses.