[bear30044]

I started seeing this doctor about a year and a half ago. I thought he was a good doctor he got me off the opiates I was addicted to and diagnosed me as bipolar put me on meds (Lamictal) and I was wonderful. Well I had a little setback. I started having a few panic attacks. I told him this and he changed the medication I was on. This new medication (Depakote) which did not help me and I started sliding back down the hill emationally. I told him this and that I wanted to go back on Lamictal. Well he has refused and said i had an illness and needed to go to group counseling and NA meetings every day and night of the week. I do not need all this as I have been through counseling and i know how to deal with things. I just need the right meds but he wont listen. He just tells me I am basically disabled and I am not. I have to work what I do?I forgot. He changed me to Neurontin on Monday which is making me groggyNo I dont have a medical degree but I know how I feel and I know what I have been through and I DONT feel a doctor needs to make me feel I am in jail

[kanorge]

If you dont feel comfortable with what your doctor is telling you, you can always go and get a second oppinion from another doctor that specializes in the field.

[Sane]

I'm sure your medical degree trumps his.

[peacefulwaterwolf]

If you are on insurance and it doesnt make you go to that doctor i would leave it behind and seek another doctor and i would not tell him about the change in medicine and tell him that you have attacks and that you were on Lamictal -( do not give him the other doctors name-and let the new doctor help you- tell him he does not need other information by law-don't sign anything that let him ask that other doctor) Tell him you had a fallout and need a new doctor. now and then see if he also puts you on that other meds then If he does not then you are in good hands.

[Smiley]

If he is suggesting counseling and NA every night, then he has the impression that you are still using Opiates or whatever it may be. If you are, then no anti-depressant, or other med will help with your episodes of depression/anxiety/mania, because the drugs mess up the neurotransmitters in your brain that the Lamictal or other meds are trying to regulate. If you are not still using any type of"mind altering"substance, then you need to make that very clear to your Doc, so he can re-evaluate his decision...if you are using, the only way to help yourself is to be honest with him, get clean, and then see what kind of meds you may need, once your nero's are back on track. By the way, depending on which drug you may or may not have used, it could take up to two years for the brain chemicals to function correctly again! Be open, honest and willing! Good luck!

[words_that_live_on]

In fifteen years you will be on SSI and under the watch of two nurses. If you try to escape and drop the meds the depression pain will be so severe you will run to the hospital and ask for the pills. Your brain will be dissolved by then and you will be trapped.