Guinea pigs have feelings too

One thing psychiatry and neurology have in common is that patients get medicated by trial and error. I was diagnosed with MS three years ago and I’m about to try my third treatment (I’m hardcore like that). And since I stepped into a psychiatrist’s office for the first time four years ago, I have tried many different drugs, some more effective than others.

Doctors look at you, listen to your symptoms, look at your tests, and still have no way to predict if a given treatment is going to work for you or not. That leaves patients sometimes feeling like guinea pigs. And oh well, guinea pigs get tired of trying too. This particular guinea pig suffers from chronic fatigue that is physical, mental and emotional. Every day this guinea pig goes home feeling like it just completed the Olympics. And after all these years exhaustion is getting the better of it.

I called my psychiatrist earlier this week because fluoxetine is making me feel even worse than I was, and she decided to switch me to paroxetine. Reading about it online, it seemed to me more of the same. So is it even worth trying?

I wondered – what would happen if I just stopped?

And do I really want to know? 

I’m currently discontinuing fluoxetine according to my psychiatrist’s treatment plan, but I haven’t picked up paroxetine yet and I’m not sure I will. I’ll see how this goes.