How to ask psychiatrist for cannabis prescription

[Chrystal]

I have been seeing a psychiatrist for 11 years this february i'm abit of a head case main problem is schitzophrania,major depression i have been on highest doses of antipsychotic and anti depressants for around 10 of those years

 

Now about 1 year ago my treating dr reduced my medication 1/4th the dose and around 5 6 months later i went off the rails like a absolute lunatic so me dr bumped up the medication again

 

Now looking at research on the medications in long term use they should be stopped after 10 years this is probably why the dr was reducing my medication, the medication has left me feeling motionless, unmotivated, find it hard to show effection and love new people to my life

 

The anti depressants are pretty much a root around they have done nothing for me

 

I have a appointment coming up and i think i am going to ask the dr if i can go onto the legal weed he will likely say no but what are some questions i should ask or tell him

 

Is there anything in particular i should mention?

 

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[oldfark]

You've never offended me merlin I love to read your stuff , more like me being a smarty pants that's all .

It think we pretty much think along the same lines .no need to apoligise to me I was trying to be funny but I guess I have a very dry wit.✌️

[Chrystal]

?

Did you get any high cbd with the latest order to try?

 

Nah the 3 bears is the only one i got for depression they were freebies so its a bonus

[merl1n]

No worries at all Oldfark

It was just that I am VERY aware that some people are extremely sensitive about mental health issues. EXTREMELY. Hence my apology, you weren't offended, then that's fine.

I used to have a tendency to 'call a spade a spade, and a shovel a shovel', but as I found out the hard way, some people would much rather it be called "A digging implement". So now I 'try' to be all more gentle, more politically correct, more inclusive. I still seem to insult and that's without trying, hell can you imagine if I tried... lol Telling people "...Ahhhh, grow up princess..." just adds petrol to the fire (or so they tell me )no matter how much some need to be told to simply grow up. And at times I like playing with fire anyway

 

Auqa,

To say I have a bit of experience on this subject, from both sides of the fence, both as patient and worker, would be an understatement. I have been in and out of D&A rehabs/wards for years in my younger days and as a result ended up in a psych ward too. After I got my shit sorted I used that experience to assist young homeless fellas, then moved on to the disability field working with disabilities of each and every creed, colour and flavour. Since then I've had (an unwanted) personal experience with brain injury and in a weird sort of way the whole lot has given me an insight into a side of life that, luckily, not many people would even know existed, or more to the point, they don't want to acknowledge existed. Their are many people in the community services field who 'want to help' I think of some of them as "The saintly type" ie 'I'll save the world' mentality. Often this is a BAD way to assist people, like a god complex. My knowledge comes from MY experience, that's good, bad and CRAP. Not a classroom, not a textbook and not a bible. I'm not out to save anyone. But if someone can use my experience to NOT take the same godforsaken route I did, then that's a MASSIVE plus for everyone involved IMO.

 

Merl1n

[Auqadoll]

My eyes where opened very suddenly last year when my husband slipped in the wet on a jog near home. Concussion for no more than 3 min we know of resulting in retrograde amnesia. That resulted in me not knowing about him smoking and his PTSD. Big wakeup call when he couldnt even remember how to shave or even what rain was or our son and myself. MH needs to explore everything

 

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[greenqueen2]

Very sorry to hear that about your husband's troubles and health issues auqadoll, i hope he has a full recovery with the outcome possible, its never easy to see a loved one struggling or suffering, and make sure you look after yourself, too often the carer gets over looked so dont forget look after you as well,,,GQ

 

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[Auqadoll]

Thanks GQ. Now i fight for those who the medical profession basically give up on. Nobody should ever be told sorry we can not do anymore. Nature gives us so much and only narrow minded people refuse to look at all possible solutions. Cancer patients and children should be entitled to the best help anyone can give

 

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[freddie]

I also work in the disability field and have had several clients with schizophrenia. As much as I hate the pharmaceutical industry, I would not advise anyone to swap their meds for cannabis. I have seen how unwell people can get when they stop meds, or even just being late to take them. I had one client who used to smoke pot as well as take his medication. One week he decided to stop the meds and just use pot. I couldn't get hold of him for ages and eventually he answered, telling me he was in a psych ward following that experiment. I have also seen people who seem way overmedicated. The problem is that mental health conditions can cause so many problems, not only to the person suffering, but the wider community. How many times do we hear of the cops shooting someone with a mental illness for instance? 

 

I think pot may have it's uses, but we are in the infancy of cannabis being used as medicine. Different strains have such different effects. I have smoked different cannabis strains that make me very active, sleepy, paranoid, euphoric, introspective, happy, melancholy, e.t.c or all the above put together. I hope one day we may be able to source strains that help with specific ailments, including perhaps mental health. Right now we are a long way from that. Not taking away from people that are trying to supply the right strains to the right people, just that we don't know enough now. 

 

Having said that, a while ago I sustained an injury that has put me in pain for over a decade. Initially I was quite depressed as well. I sourced some good cannabis and was able to control the pain and also the depression. However if your mental illness is acute, such as bipolar or schizophrenia i would probably stick to big pharma, sadly.

[merl1n]

As an adult whose suffers from a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) I could not agree more with you GQ and Auqa.

When I started using all my negative experience in a positive way I started by volunteering for a youth group. The odd thing was it wasn't just a youth group, technically youth is under 25yr old in SA (other states it's under 20 or 21) and for many youth organisations under 25 is a concrete set age. But for people with intellectual disabilities they maybe 25 in years but 15 in mind. Why should they be excluded?? Others maybe socially excluded because their family members have disabilities. Why should they be excluded??

Again technically speaking, to qualify as having an intellectual disability you must have an I.Q. of less than 80. The average I.Q. is 100. So what happens to those in between? Why should they be excluded??

Well, we didn't exclude ANYONE and this introduced me to LOTS of people from EVERY demographic.

One man in particular, Isaac, had alcoholic dementia and was losing his bodily abilities. With normal dementia you lose your mind then you lose your bodily abilities and because you lose your mind first you basically have no idea what else is occurring. With alcoholic dementia it works the other way around. You lose you body, then your mind and you know what is happening. He lost the ability to walk unassisted so started using crutches, then he lost his ability to balance and ended up in a wheelchair. His mind was still there but his body was broken. And he knew it. I became his personal carer. He was forever saying 'Sorry' and yet none of it was within any of his control.

I volunteered fulltime for 8yrs doing this, and some people would ask "WHY??" and my answer was "Because tomorrow this could be anyone of us... ...and if it was me in their situation I hope that someone would give me a helping hand..." Some people thought I was crazy stupid.

And then my brain injury reared it's UGLY head. NEVER EVER believing I would EVER be in this situation, but by Christ I am so pleased I had that role because yea sure things are BAD, but fuck me, things could be MUCH, MUCH worse.

It was only through that experience that my own present situation didn't make me pack up and say goodbye to this awful world. Things maybe bad but there are people out there going through shit that's is 10 times, 100 times, hell, a thousand times worse than anything you and I ever will know of.

 

It's not until such things touch you/effect you personally that you can truly conceive just how difficult life can be. Dr's and the general public have very little to no idea whatsoever of these realities not until they actually bite them in the arse will they EVER know. Looking from the outside is easy, you can disconnect, walk away. But living it day in, day out... ... now there's a reality none wants... ...Not even me.

 

P.S. This is not written as a dose of self pity (been there, done that. Self pity gets real old, real quick). Some people like to stand back, stare and make judgements. This is a bit of information so that people who want to judge can have a bit of insight. I mean, judge if you wish, judgement is easy, but as the old saying goes "...go walk a mile in their shoes, then judge..." You go walk in their shoes and you'd be second guessing your judgements, that I WILL GUARUNTEE YOU!!! I sure as hell did, that's for sure.

 

Merl1n

Edited January 25, 2018 by merl1n

[greenqueen2]

I have to say merlin i really like the way you write and put words together, some people have that gift and your one of them, as you said sometimes it takes tragedy to be able to see the bigger picture, once apon a time i use to listen to people tell me there story and i would get so mad because some peoples idea of a major loss or tragedy can really vary, like one person could be grieving over a lost pet and the next may have lost there entire family, you cant compare the two but i use to do that i would i would say to the person that i considered to be living the lesser of two evils you have nothin to worry about ,what are you complaining about,dont you know how much worse things could be, gee what i wouldnt give to have your problems and so on saying things of this nature and i remember how infuriated i would get that some people thought they were getting the rough end of the stick, i lived my life with this type of mind set for many years , then one day tragedy struck me, it was worse than any pain i could of ever imagined and at the time i didnt realised the agony and pain would be with me everyday for the rest of my life but living through the experience changed every aspect of my life especially the way i think and treat people, i come to realise that i couldn't compare mine or anyones situation to the likes of someone else,s experiences because at the end of the day no matter what the level of pain or tragedy or loss each person is going through IT IS THE WORST THAT THEY HAVE EXPERIENCED, IT AFFECTS THEM THE SAME BECAUSE IT IS THERE WORST, im no longer a small minded person that thinks that way and realising that has helped me to communicate with people 100% better, were all just humans we all have needs and feelings and we should all be more compassionate to those that are going through something that we may not fully understand because you NEVER know when you might be the next person whos life is turned completely upside and it can happen in seconds,,, be nice, smile, live and play to the fullest and remember theres more to life than just you,,GQ

 

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[Indycar]

Geez... some deep and meaningful's.

 

I guess it comes down to the road that each other travels. Too many battle scars here to lower the defenses yet, tried a few times, but end up a little more disenchanted each time. So the journey continues as is..

Edited January 25, 2018 by Indycar