Managing medications can be a basic part of mental illness/chronic illness life. But doing it without a system may only work for so long, especially when brain fog gets in the way. At that point, it might be time for a pill dosette, which is a bigger step than just picking up a hunk of …
Managing Psych Medications: Getting a Pill Dosette Read More »
If you take meds, or even if you haven’t, you may have heard of medication half-life. But what does it actually mean? As a former pharmacist, that question is right up my alley. Pharmacokinetics Half-life has to do with pharmacokinetics, which refers to the way a drug moves through the body. There are four aspects …
Medication Half-Life: What it Means and Why it Matters Read More »
Anyone can have nightmares, but up to 80% of people with PTSD experience nightmares as a symptom of their PTSD. The idea for this came from an article that SkinnyHobbit shared about the treatment of nightmares, which is based on recommendations from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine in 2018. What can worsen nightmares Some …
Medications That Can Help with Nightmares in PTSD Read More »
It crossed my mind that we often talk about puberty blockers without actually talking about what they are, so I wanted to do this post to help fill that gap. The hormone party There are three types of hormones and hormone-releasing areas that are relevant here: Hypothalamus: The hypothalamus is the brain’s hormonal air traffic …
Puberty Blockers: What They Are and How They Work Read More »
Weight gain can be a difficult side effect for people taking antipsychotic medications. Not all drugs are equally likely to cause weight gain, and this post looks at the findings from a study published in 2020 in The Lancet Psychiatry that compared the potential for weight gain with different antipsychotics. The link between antipsychotics and …
Antipsychotics and the Likelihood of Weight Gain Read More »
Have you ever wondered why antidepressant side effects seem to be worse at the beginning, or why it takes so long for them to actually start doing what you expect of them? There is actually some rhyme and reason for it, so let’s talk about it. Let’s talk serotonin People with depression don’t have enough …
Antidepressant Side Effects & Delayed Therapeutic Effect Read More »
There’s a lot of stigma around taking psych meds to treat mental illness. Meds certainly aren’t right for every person or every condition, but they’re a good tool to have available as part of the mental illness toolbox. For all the social kerfuffle over meds, they are just a tool. Getting well (or getting by) …
Taking Psych Meds: I’ll Tell You Mine if You Tell Me Yours Read More »
You can find all kinds of stories online of people reporting negative experiences with different forms of psychiatric medication. However, there’s inherent bias in that kind of reporting of side effects, so you really can’t use that information to effectively generalize how safe or effective a treatment is. In this post, we’ll look at where …
Bias in What You Read Online About Psych Med Side Effects Read More »
For anyone who needs to take medications for a chronic condition like mental illness, dealing with side effects may end up being part of the reality of taking meds. The pros should always be outweighing the cons, but the right balance can be hard to find. No side effects is possible All medications have potential …
This post is by Mio of Mentally Ill in America. My Possible Origin Story It most likely began when I was two. I was taken to the ER for a fever that would ultimately rise to 107. But, first there was church to attend to… Once that let out (or whenever it was that my …
Emerging Blogger Series: Mio (Mentally Ill in America) Read More »
