Advance Directive
Compared to other shrinks working with severe and chronic mental illness, I am probably less prone than average to rely on medications. But there are a few treatments that have, at times, produced such miraculous, positve change that I cannot help but consider them almost magical under the right circumstances. So herewith I would just like to mention that if I ever become incapacitated due to one of the illnesses below, I request the treatment noted be administered to me as rapidly as possible.
Psychosis: Clozapine
Mania: Lithium
Severe depression: ECT
Agoraphobia, social anxiety, panic: SSRI (your choice)
Rage attacks, "losing it", throwing flower pots: Clonidine
All the rest are dubious.
Psychosis: Clozapine
Mania: Lithium
Severe depression: ECT
Agoraphobia, social anxiety, panic: SSRI (your choice)
Rage attacks, "losing it", throwing flower pots: Clonidine
All the rest are dubious.
posted by Turbo at 9:28 PM
3 Comments:
Ditto all of above, but add chocolate. No evidence for chocolate efficacy but a heck of a placebo effect.
Actually my prisoners with temper problems do pretty well with lithium, if you can get them to tolerate the side effects.
Wow! ECT?!? That says a lot about your confidence in a procedure with a bad reputation!
I take that you are confident you would not lose important memories such as the learning you've acquired?
Yes, confidence, relative to the other options, anyway. And I also feel the bad reputation is, relatively, quite undeserved. The hysteria surrounding it is far out of proportion to the reality. We don't do ECT at GA, but this is much more a matter of politics than a matter of best treatment practices.
In any case, I was referring here to severe and incapacitating depression-- the sort where I might not be able to choose to take Celexa as a first try, or might kill myself in the next two days. You lose important memories when you're dead, too...
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