The doctor is in

I went for my first appointment with my new crazy doc yesterday. He had clearly reviewed the notes from his partner who dumped me and moved to Connecticut where Autumn actually exists.

He was one of those people who just exudes smartness. Some people talk smart, and some people just are smart. He had some good ideas about diet, nutrition and yoga which made me very happy. Since I am a nurse, I obviously have faith in western medicine. However, I think we don't know as much as we think we do. He gave me so much information in a short period of time, that I had a hard time processing it, and I was paying attention.

So, I am now taking large amounts of Omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin e, and drinking whey protein shakes. I will have to wait until August to really start with the yoga, because I am going to be out of town twice in July.

He did also add one more traditional medication to my cocktail. I was afraid he would want to take me off the Effexor (which I have heard is a bitch), but that was not at all in his thinking. He added a small dose of Abilify. I feel like I have graduated, because this is a medication in the category of Major Tranquilizers. That is the category of drugs used to treat schizophrenics. However, the newest ones have been used successfully in very small doses as an adjunct for depression and anxiety.

I would love to go to bed at night without taking a sleeping pill with a small amount of confidence that I might actually sleep through the night. I would love to be able to stop taking my anti anxiety meds on a regular basis. I don't mind being on some meds, I am after all the proud owner of 3 psychiatric diagnoses. Major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and now (due to being the insurance holder for the therapy we are doing with Brownie--and insurance companies require a diagnosis) Adjustment disorder.

I'm really hoping this new approach works, because I'm ready to be less crazy then I am....as long as I don't get to be completely normal, because that would just be wrong.