- Messages
- 9
- Location
- Lufkin, TX
I'd like to share my story because it reflects almost exactly what so many people w/CFSME have also shared.
In appx. 1986, at age 20 I noticed i was starting to feel fatigued and sickly more often than before, and certainly more than my peers. I was working full time and going to school, and on wknds, I would happily collapse into 12 hr rounds of sleep to prepare for the week to come. To my utter shock, one Sat afternoon, several of my friends came over, woke me out of bed to confront me about "isolating" myself so much! They were worried that I was depressed or hiding some deep secret that was causing me to be "anti-social". I was completely dumbfounded! I tried to explain that I was just tired, but they insisted that my "tired" was not normal.
So fast-forward a couple of yrs, and of course, my symptoms increased, and by that time I had met a very sympathetic dr. who was not a cookie-cutter MD. He believed in alt therapies, and he was the best listener I'd ever found. So I went in to see him & I told him every symptom I'd been living with for yrs. He listened intently & went to consult his medical books--this was before the Internet was commonly used--and while he was in the other room, he handed me a Depression screening questionnaire. I remember many of the questions asked about physical symptoms: body aches, fatigue, being disoriented, headaches, etc. along with emotional ones like feeling sad, lonely, ashamed, guilty, etc.
When I gave him my answer sheet, he got a funny look on his face. "well, here's your problem: you're depressed!" he said. And he further explained that new SSRIs were proven to help all these symptoms.
MY REPLY WAS THAT MY CONDITION WAS NOT MENTAL/EMOTIONAL, BUT PHYSICAL!
I SAID THAT IF MY PHYSICAL PROBLEMS COULD BE FIXED, MY MENTAL ONES WOULD CLEAR RIGHT UP!
His reply: Depression IS A PHYSICAL DISEASE! Once the depression was treated, my physical symptoms would clear up too--
By that point I was too tired to argue, so I accepted the 6-week Prozac starter kit. I began Prozac that day, and lo-and-behold, IT WORKED!
By the 3rd week I felt better than I had in my whole life! BUT (and I'm sure many of you can fill in the rest)--at some point down the line, it QUIT WORKING.
So, next came Zoloft, Celexa, etc., etc., etc. And none of them ever worked like that first experience w/Prozac...
Oh, and BTW, the entire time I was being fooled by anti-deps, my CFSME was progressing...now I'm lucky to have 2-3 good days a week. And by good, I mean out of bed, puttering around for a totL of 5-6 hrs. If I have to go grocery shopping, that is the only thing I can accomplish that day. Right now I've been dx with CFSME due to my symptoms & my very high EBV count.
In appx. 1986, at age 20 I noticed i was starting to feel fatigued and sickly more often than before, and certainly more than my peers. I was working full time and going to school, and on wknds, I would happily collapse into 12 hr rounds of sleep to prepare for the week to come. To my utter shock, one Sat afternoon, several of my friends came over, woke me out of bed to confront me about "isolating" myself so much! They were worried that I was depressed or hiding some deep secret that was causing me to be "anti-social". I was completely dumbfounded! I tried to explain that I was just tired, but they insisted that my "tired" was not normal.
So fast-forward a couple of yrs, and of course, my symptoms increased, and by that time I had met a very sympathetic dr. who was not a cookie-cutter MD. He believed in alt therapies, and he was the best listener I'd ever found. So I went in to see him & I told him every symptom I'd been living with for yrs. He listened intently & went to consult his medical books--this was before the Internet was commonly used--and while he was in the other room, he handed me a Depression screening questionnaire. I remember many of the questions asked about physical symptoms: body aches, fatigue, being disoriented, headaches, etc. along with emotional ones like feeling sad, lonely, ashamed, guilty, etc.
When I gave him my answer sheet, he got a funny look on his face. "well, here's your problem: you're depressed!" he said. And he further explained that new SSRIs were proven to help all these symptoms.
MY REPLY WAS THAT MY CONDITION WAS NOT MENTAL/EMOTIONAL, BUT PHYSICAL!
I SAID THAT IF MY PHYSICAL PROBLEMS COULD BE FIXED, MY MENTAL ONES WOULD CLEAR RIGHT UP!
His reply: Depression IS A PHYSICAL DISEASE! Once the depression was treated, my physical symptoms would clear up too--
By that point I was too tired to argue, so I accepted the 6-week Prozac starter kit. I began Prozac that day, and lo-and-behold, IT WORKED!
By the 3rd week I felt better than I had in my whole life! BUT (and I'm sure many of you can fill in the rest)--at some point down the line, it QUIT WORKING.
So, next came Zoloft, Celexa, etc., etc., etc. And none of them ever worked like that first experience w/Prozac...
Oh, and BTW, the entire time I was being fooled by anti-deps, my CFSME was progressing...now I'm lucky to have 2-3 good days a week. And by good, I mean out of bed, puttering around for a totL of 5-6 hrs. If I have to go grocery shopping, that is the only thing I can accomplish that day. Right now I've been dx with CFSME due to my symptoms & my very high EBV count.
