Category: Bipolar blog

No Evidence of the Effectiveness of Psychotherapy? – 3 New Things

Posted by | Sep 15, 2011

This week I learned three new things about psychotherapy and depression.

I’m a fan of psychotherapy for everyone. In fact, if we could get the mid-East folks to sit down for some good counselling, I think it would be more effective in bringing peace than anything you can do with a gun.

With that said, there are limitations to therapy and sometimes therapy is not all it’s cracked up to be. So this week, a look at three perspectives on psychotherapy:

  • Psychotherapy is no better than placebo in treating depression?
  • Which type of psychotherapy is better for depression?
  • How does psychotherapy change the brain?

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Cutting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Hurts Mentally Ill Children – Guest Author

Posted by | Sep 13, 2011

The Bipolar Burble welcomes today’s guest writer, Allison Gamble. She provides resources about psychology degrees.

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Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, is a federal program that supplements income in order to help the elderly and disabled, including those with a mental illness, pay for food, clothing, health care and shelter. Many who receive SSI money are children with diagnosed mental illnesses without any access to health insurance. SSI covers adults with similar conditions.

SSI At Risk

Unfortunately, recent economic proposals force many of these individuals to face reduced SSI funds or a complete cessation of aid. This would mean adequate medical and therapeutic treatment would disappear, income support for their families would be gone, and, all in all, this would represent a huge step backwards for those affected by mental illness.

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How to Get Off Antidepressants Effexor/Pristiq (Venlafaxine/Desvenlafaxine)

How to Get Off Antidepressants Effexor/Pristiq (Venlafaxine/Desvenlafaxine)

Posted by | Sep 12, 2011

Or other bothersome antidepressants.

Generally, following the rules I wrote about last week on how to stop antidepressants while minimizing withdrawal work, and most people can successfully withdraw from antidepressants with few side effects.

Some Antidepressants Are Hard to Get Off Of

Unfortunately, some antidepressants are not so easy to get off of no matter what you do. Some antidepressants:

  • Resist a taper strategy
  • Have intolerable withdrawal effects anyway *

People Have Trouble Withdrawing from these Antidepressants

Any antidepressant can feel impossible to withdraw from, but the antidepressants people have most trouble withdrawing from are:

But by far, venlafaxine and desvenlafaxine (Effexor and Pristiq) are the ones I hear about. In my opinion, these two drugs are a nightmare to come off of for most people. ^ (I’m not saying everyone has trouble with these antidepressants, just that many do.)

Here are tips on how to get off of horrible~ drugs like venlafaxine (Effexor) and desvenlafaxine (Pristiq).

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How to Stop Antidepressants While Minimizing Withdrawal

How to Stop Antidepressants While Minimizing Withdrawal

Posted by | Sep 6, 2011

While antidepressants can absolutely be life-saving medications, sometimes antidepressants aren’t the right medication at the right time for you. Or sometimes, it’s just time to try to get off of antidepressants. (For simple depression, this is often done if you have been stable for 6-12 months.)

Can't Get Off Antidepressants

But the key to getting off antidepressants successfully is to minimize withdrawal symptoms because otherwise you may feel like you’re trapped on the antidepressants. Additionally, the withdrawal symptoms may get mistaken for returning illness symptoms, which you do have to watch for, but if possible, it’s best not to get withdrawal and returning symptoms confused.

So, here are some tips on the best way to get off antidepressants while minimizing withdrawal.

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Bipolar Disorder – When to Get Off Antidepressants

Posted by | Aug 31, 2011

I try not to give medical advice here because I am not a doctor. But so many people ask me about this I felt I had to address getting off antidepressants without withdrawal. So many people with bipolar disorder (depression and others) need information about getting off psych meds and they are not getting it from their doctors.

This is the first in a three-part series:

  1. When to Stop Antidepressants in Bipolar Disorder
  2. How to Stop Antidepressants in Bipolar Disorder While Minimizing Withdrawal
  3. How to Stop Taking venlafaxine (Effexor) and Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) – as they are particularly nasty to get off

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Selling True Hope to People with a Mental Illness

Posted by | Aug 29, 2011

The Bipolar Burble doesn’t sell anything, not to people with a mental illness, or anyone else.

It will one day. One day soon it will be selling my book. And then another book after that. We writers do stuff like that.

And maybe one day there will be ads here trying to sell you other things too – therapeutic lights or omega-3 supplements for mood.

But one thing I do not now, nor will I ever sell:

Hope.

I will never, ever try to sell you hope, true or otherwise. Hope is free and selling it is a lie.

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Additional Writings

Check out my Amazon Author Page.

I write a three-time Web Health Award winning column for HealthyPlace called Breaking Bipolar.

Also, find my writings on The Huffington Post and my work for BPHope (BP Magazine).

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