Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Treatment

I want to stop coughing, damnit!

Reverend John — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:16:28 -0800

A few years back I was diagnosed with pneumonia after being sick on and off for about three weeks. When I was finally diagnosed I seem to recall that they gave me antibiotics and a codeine based cough syrup. This combo worked like a wonder. The codeine knocked out my cough and let me sleep, and the antibiotics killed the pneumonia. At least that's how I remember it. Fast forward to today. After being sick all week I visited the local acute care facility (man, if I had only made my regular doctor's sick call yesterday!) and was diagnosed with pneumonia. OK, no big shock, I'm just glad to know what it is and how we're going to attack it, EXCEPT: the doctor refused to prescribe me any codeine (he did prescribe Levaquin, and Albuterol with an inhaler, which I'm somewhat dubious about). He claimed that I had to cough up the stuff in my lungs, and that suppressing my cough would be a bad idea.

I'm shocked at this, given my past experience. Am I remembering this wrong? Or is this guy full of baloney and I should contact my regular doc asap.

Are laser treatments a good way to get rid of facial hair?

shelayna — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:08:29 -0800

I'm looking for information regarding laser treatments to remove facial hair. I'd like to do something about the hair on my face (I'm female). Until now I've been using depilatory creams, but I'd like a permanent solution. Are laser treatments the way to go? I understand that it's easier than electrolysis, and that I'm an ideal candidate for laser treatments since I'm very fair-skinned with dark hair.

How many treatments are generally needed?

Do I need to let my facial hair grow (i.e. not remove it) to a certain length before starting? (I'd feel very awkward going out and about like that)

Are there any after-effects like pain, burning or redness?

Any personal anecdotes for or against would be much appreciated.

How do I prevent or pre-treat various pregnancy issues?

kthxbi — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:51:03 -0800

I'm-going-to-want-a-baby-someday-filter: My mother had a ridiculous number of issues getting pregnant (inside). I'd like to do my best to prevent these issues, but realize most are inevitably genetic. I'm looking for various pieces of advice ... To preface - I'm not planning to try for children for at least 5-7 years.

Here is my mother's story in her own words (for the tl;dr skip past the quote):

"Tried to get pregnant for a year. Sent to University hospital fertility clinic. Spent 4 years of taking my basal temperature every day. My periods were so painful I used to rock back in forth bed trying to get some relief. Endometriosis was burnt out 3 times via laparoscopy - on bladder, ovaries, uterus, and I can’t remember where else. I had 2-Hysterosalpingographies in 3 years. Took Danazol for 6 months (chemical menopause). Finally got pregnant with you 6 months later. Nursed you for a year with the hopes of keeping the endometriosis at bay. We hoped I could get pregnant easier. Ended up at University Hospital again, this time they decided to put me on a Clomid, a fertility drug. After 2 years of that nasty drug I gave up. Dr decided to burn out the endometriosis again. When he got in with the laparoscope he found a 5 week old ectopic pregnancy, almost ready to burst. I had no indications to that fact. He had to open me up, to clean out my fallopian tube, but saved it. Dr kept monitoring the endometriosis, and in 1997 I developed fibroids. In a little over 6 months one of the fibroids was the size of a 6-month pregnancy. Dr said it needed to come out, so I had a complete hysterectomy and ophrectomy. The fertility drug I had taken had been studied and found to cause ovarian cancer if taken longer than a year. Combined with the fact my Aunt died of ovarian cancer sealed the case for an ophrectomy."

My questions:

YANMD, but from personal experience, which of these issues am I going to have a possibility of having problems with? Looking for either scientific or anecdotal evidence here.

YANMD, but is there anything I can do now to make getting pregnant later easier? I was on Depo Provera for about 6 months almost a year ago and it completely screwed up my menstrual cycle (I was spotting daily for months, even after dropping off of all forms of bc). I'm now on Portia and things seem to be finally back to normal. I'm slightly overweight but in shape and active. I eat well.

Why can't I give it a rest, already??

wild like kudzu — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:01:06 -0800

So, as some of you may remember, I have a roommate. Usually we get along great, but we bicker about once every two months and every time we do it triggers all sorts of anxiety for me. I'd like to hear some advice from people who have similar issues. It seems that no matter what I do we inevitably argue over something small and insignificant at least once every couple of months. I don't even bring up the things that bother me most of the time (like 99% of the time) because I've realized that, as an inherently anxious person, our fights trigger all sorts of bad feelings in me. I've realized that peace and harmony in my home is far more important than being right, or even feeling that everything in our relationship is fair.

I try to let the small things go whenever I can, and try to be really receptive to any issues she has with me. Here's the thing, though, she doesn't seem to like to talk to me. So, she ignores me. And I implode emotionally.

I know that this is something I'm going to need to address and deal with, because people will give me the silent treatment from time to time. It sucks worse because she and I live together and we usually get along so famously, but I know this is something that should not be ruining my life.

I can't force her to talk to me, but this leaves me completely in the dark as to what I've done (if anything). It seems like these phases never end until I muster up the courage to confront her and openly apologize for being alive (it feels like that, anyway). She's giving me the cold shoulder right now, and though she's exchanging pleasantries with me like hello and goodbye she hasn't asked me a single thing about my life or tried to be at all friendly.

I'm trying very hard also not to repeat my past reactions, which were absolute panic and an overwhelming desire to "make things right" by bringing her peace offerings and begging her to speak with me. It seemed like those things never really worked all that well and just prolonged the suffering. If and when they did bring tensions to an abrupt halt, I felt that the result was that I looked like such a weak person, and she always feels she's in the right.

I want to be strong enough to let her be in her foul mood, and do those things which I find insulting (like locking her door while I'm in the apartment... hello, what is she thinking, that I'm going to break down the door and attack her with a kitchen knife?) and which put me into a state of absolute panic.

My palms sweat when I hear her coming home, my chest feels tight, my instinct is to retreat to my room, lock MY door and blast music until she leaves again.... I know these are bad coping mechanisms and, though I'm young now, I know that being under this much stress is hard on my body. My mother developed a stomach ulcer form stress that very nearly killed her when I was young, and I definitely don't want to go down that path. I want to learn how to deal with it when people are distant and cold to me so that I'm not always fighting this ridiculous anxiety.

This time I can't think of a single thing I could possibly have done wrong, and since the fighting started I've been mostly in my room, keeping the house clean, even offering to make her dinner tonight. I just want things to be normal, even if we're not excessively friendly. I asked her via text if I had done anything to bother her, and her lack of response is driving me NUTSO.

I know this is irrational, and I know there's not much I can do to make sure everything is A-ok, but does anyone have suggestions for curbing my anxiety? So far I've tried journalling, being out of the house, drinking... all to no avail.

It also may be relevant to note that these days she has been smoking quite a bit of pot and has been periodically fighting with both her family and boyfriend. I know she vacillates between the three main people in her life (her boyfriend, her best friend, and myself) and so I should probably just relax because there's a very good chance that there's more going on beneath the surface, and she inevitably comes back around to whomever she's fighting with at the moment.

Sorry if I sound like a broken record, but I just need to give it a rest! Anybody have any suggestions? I'm not asking you to decipher the situation, more to advise me on how to control my anxiety. Also, I know, YANMT, YANMD.

I can't really take my 3 weeks of sick leave at once...can I?

sio42 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:19:28 -0800

The trial-and-error method of ADHD drugs: I am already afraid of screwing up my job and I am concerned about all these side effects I read about people having. I can't spend 3 months spaced out or whatever until I find the right drug cause then I'll REALLY screw up at work. Can you help allay my fears or tell me how you and your psychiatrist and/or therapist worked this out? I can't believe I'm not posting this anonymously, but I wanted to be able to reply more easily than I can with an anon post.

Anyways, after working on my anxiety/depression issues for almost a year, I am SO MUCH better now, without any medication. It was just a lot of things falling into place. My most recent questions had to do with moving and life direction and I see now that it was just more of the same flittiness I've had my entire life and is probably the ADHD. But that's not really what I want to ask here.

I am in a decent job. It is ok, my hatred of the mundane aspects aside. However, I know that my problem with follow-through is a big issue. I never really cared at any other job, because it was either customer service, or I was in college and changed jobs almost every year due to needing to schedule classes. But I need to have A job and we know how the job market is right now.

When I go back and read the posts on here tagged with ADHD, people are often saying "straterra/vyanase/adderall/ritalin made me so spacey/tired/crazy/whatever". I CANNOT go through months of being worse than I am now. My position requires me to be here during the open hours of the office, so working PT or from home is not an option, it's already been discussed in a different circumstance. I'm here or I have no job.

I am meeting with a psychiatrist pretty soon. He and I worked together almost a year ago before we decided to take me off meds entirely but I wanted some personal experiences here. My GP at the time (I no longer see her), over two years ago, had put me on adderrall because she thought I was ADHD, but it made me feel crazy after a little while. I think maybe the dosage was wrong and I was having some severe severe depression at the time. She also had me on Lexapro and maybe that didn't act well with the Adderral. Anyways, I figured I couldn't be ADHD because of the effect Adderrall had on me.

Wow, this is long. I guess I'm trying to answer why this hasn't come up before as a diagnosis until now with my psychiatrist and therapist. Basically, they didn't konw what was wrong with me and were trying to help me manage anxiety/depression, which we did a really good job at. But the other ADHD stuff remains, and I meet all the criteria for it in the DSM according to my therapist.

tl;dr: How can I deal with trial-and-error drug testing that may make me worse at work than I already am? I am afraid to tell my boss. How have you adult-diagnosed ADHD folks dealt with this?

Your Most Stunning Photographs of Disease, Please.

foxy_hedgehog — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:28:59 -0800

I'm compiling a set of 30-40 photographs related to any and all aspects of disease for a high school visual literacy project. The students are high school juniors who are struggling with literacy and writing. I'd love your suggestions for compelling, diverse, and striking images and sites that have collections of same. The theme is deliberately open-ended, and can include images from medical and scientific history as well as depictions of illnesses, medical epidemics, and attempts to treat and cope with disease. This could include everything from Sebastiao Salgado's photographs of the distribution of the polio vaccine in India and Africa to the (in)famous Benneton "Pieta" photograph. The goal is to find images that provoke thought, convey information, and tell stories.

I need to include background information on the photos (such as context, description, photographer, title, date, and any copyright information) so any suggestions that have this would be very helpful.

Many thanks for your thoughts and suggestions!

Collapsed lung prognosis without treatment?

Tchad — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:34:18 -0800

Can one live with a collapsed lung? So two times in the past decade my lungs have collapsed. Spontaneous Pneumothorax. The first time I thought I was developing an allergy and just having a severe reaction, the second time I recognized the sensation and went straight to the ER after only a little hoping it was just stress.

The first time I had chest tubes for weeks on a vacuum until it healed, the second time I had to have a surgical pleurodesis and no problems since.

I often wonder, though...

What would have happened if I had not done anything either time? The pain is unbelievable, and the sensation of not being able to inhale fully is the stuff of nightmares, so I couldn't imagine it, but would I have died? Just been incapacitated? What would have happened to someone in 1850 who had one? Would I have just been an invalid?

In my case, it was only one lung, so I had partial function in the other.

I have been curious about it for years now, but all of the medical information is about how to treat it and get it taken care of, not what happens if you don't.

How does one go about receiving an ADD diagnosis and medical treatment these days?

Rendus — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:12:48 -0800

I'm a 28 year old male in Las Vegas, Nevada. When I was in my late pre-teens, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, and went through various treatments (Ritalin, Adderall, then eventually easing off medications entirely). Now, due to a promising promotion and other life changes, I need to be able to focus beyond what my self-regulation allows me. What can an adult expect to go through to convince a doctor that they have ADD, and to convince them to treat it medically? Initially, I was diagnosed and treated by a Neurologist, through a referral from our family doctor. Later, I was treated by a Psychiatrist (for ADD as well as manic depression and obsessive/compulsive disorder). I haven't been treated medically for ADD since my mid-teens, so I don't know quite where to start.

As an added bonus, I'm currently uninsured and do not have a regular doctor. If I were insured, I'd just start at a general practice doctor and work my way up the chain from there. I'm hoping there are people here with experience regarding if a general practitioner will be willing to diagnose and medically treat ADD, or if it's still mostly in the realm of (more expensive) specialists.

What can one expect, going to a doctor with this sort of treatment request? At least when I was a kid, there was a great deal of concern regarding abuse of these medications, and they are controlled substances. I don't have medical records for my treatment as a child, and I'm not sure they'd satisfy any concerns a doctor may have anyway.

Any hints as to what uninsured pricing for these medications might be would be appreciated, but of less concern to me than going to the right person the first time, and getting things rolling.

(Please note: I am aware of, and respect the idea of non-prescription treatments for ADD. Unfortunately, they rarely work for me, and not to the degree I've experienced lately through other means. I'm at the point where I'm seeking professional medical treatment for the disorder.)

Help redirect delusions of my schizophrenic uncle.

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:37:53 -0800

Help me figure out ways to minimize the effect my schizophrenic uncle's delusions have on government and law enforcement. I have an uncle who was a heavy drinker since his teenage years. For a while, he was an alcoholic and schizophrenic. One day about 7 years ago, he just stopped drinking and smoking while on his schizophrenia medication - cold turkey.
Now, he's never been to the point where he has no delusions but his stable long term (5+yrs) recurrent delusion is that any day now, he will be offered a highly coveted job at the UN which will help him bring peace to the world. Due to this delusion, he is always keeping his apartment spotless and he is always well dressed. From what my mother tells me, the psychiatric meds he's currently on have given him the best results so far according to the psychiatrist. The benign delusion actually motivates him to be very functional.

So here's the problem. He regularly obsesses about calling the UN and emailing the UN. He's called police authorities, FBI, Interpol, CIA, etc.. with his advice on how to fix current events such as suffering in Africa, N.Korea diplomacy, etc.

My mother is taking him to the psychiatrist to see if any new research or drugs have come out in the past year to help him out.
We're tried taking his laptop away but he'll just take a random job, earn several hundred, and buy a new laptop.
However, our other thought is just to allow him to keep emailing the UN but with some filter or hidden software on his laptop that makes it appear that he has emailed someone but in reality, nobody will receive his emails.

I'm open to all ideas. The more suggestions, the better. I think my mother is just afraid of having to explain again to the local police why his brother keeps calling the local dispatcher with advice on what is the solution to the Somali pirate dilemma. I've contemplated making some fake email address too where his emails could be sent to and I could reply on behalf of the UN in something to the effect of "we will reconsider your job application next year on July 31st, please do not contact any other authorities until then"

I'm so over this roommate drama.

wild like kudzu — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:56:27 -0800

So, I have a roommate. I love her, we usually get along just fine, but recently we argued over some financial stuff and now we're not really on speaking terms. How the heck should I handle this? (Long post, long story) So, it's a long story, but essentially I paid half of the bills last month with checks and asked her to mail them out. She had no problem with that, but she tried to mail them out of our mailbox at our apartment and the mailman didn't pick them up, so knowing they were slightly late she paid them in full online and ripped up my checks. I had no problem with that, and she said she would sit down and figure out how much I owed her. She said that a few times, but it never happened. Anyway, she let me borrow one of her pairs of sunglasses last week and I left them on the coffee table by mistake at the end of the night. Her cat knocked them off and broke them in the course of the night, and when I got up the next morning I actually stepped on the broken pieces and got a nasty cut on my foot. I cleaned it up, and told her about it when she came home. If I recall correctly, I offered to help pay for it, but there's a chance that I didn't offer anything at first.

Anyway, a few days later she and I went out and she drove my car home because she wanted to leave before I did. I had no problem with that, but when I went out to the car the next day the door was unlocked and my ipod was gone. I assumed she had left it unlocked because she's left our front door unlocked before, but I have no proof and have since let it go. Yeah, it sucks, my ipod is gone and I don't have the money to replace it, so when I saw her next I told her about it and asked if she'd be willing to help me pay for it. She seemed really irritated, and brought up the money I still owed her from last month's utilities (and here I am thinking she's going to tell me how much I owe her). I brought up the sunglasses, and how I was going to pay to replace them. She said she thought I was only bringing that up because I wanted money from her. She said she thought she locked the door on the car. She said if she let someone borrow her car she would have gone down in the middle of the night when she got home and made sure everything was locked, I thought that was ridiculous. Anyway, basically she said she was pissed off and so I went into my room. I thought about it for a while, came back out and apologized for not offering to pay for her glasses sooner, but she said "it's okay that we don't get along sometimes. I'm not mad" so I went back into my room and called it a night.

The next day I looked through our bills to figure out how much I owed her, and paid her in cash for all the utilities from the month before, plus $35 for her sunglasses. I left it with a note on her computer, asking to make sure it was right and whether this made us even. I was asleep when she got it, and she hasn't said anything to me about it.

So, I'm totally over all of this bull. I wanted to get us back to square one, with nobody owing anyone anything. Unfortunately, this was clearly not enough as I saw her last night and she barely looked at me, barely spoke to me. I tried to be cheerful and happy (I have not said anything at all about the ipod since that first night) and interact with her, but she just retreated into her room. Her phone is broken, so I can't call or text her at all. I've been trying to give her space and leave her be since that's what she seems like she wants, but I don't know why we're not on good terms at this point.

Here's the thing, too, I will honestly be a little upset if she doesn't help me pay for my ipod, just because I would help her pay for hers if the situation was reversed. I'm insulted that she thinks I would lie "just to get money out of [her]" and irritated that while her cat broke her sunglasses it's still up to me to replace them....

This all seems so petty, we're really good friends usually and we've only been living together a few months. I'm going out of town on Wednesday, and I'm probably not going to see her much before then, I'll be back a week later.

What the heck should I do here? Be an invisible ghost who hides in my room? Give her space? Stop her and confront her? I sent her a message online that she probably hasn't seen yet saying that I'd really like for us to sit down and talk. I guess I'm also just irritated because I feel like I have to coerce her into forgiving me for something I think I've made up for in other ways, including actual apologies. She has said in the past that she hates how quickly I bring up issues, but this difference is evident in the way that none of my aggravations with her ever turn into anything major because I bring them up at the time, when they're just a small problem. She, on the other hand, holds onto small annoyances and then when I talk to her about anything she brings up everything I've been doing to piss her off. They end up seeming way worse than they are that way.

Gosh! So irritating! Anybody have any thoughts?

How Do I Give Myself a Chance to Get Better?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:17:27 -0800

After a long and losing battle with depression, I am going to a short-term (10 day) partial hospitalization program at McLean Hospital near Boston. I need advice on how to convince myself that there’s hope for me and get into the kind of frame of mind that will allow me to benefit from this kind of program, despite its short length and limitations. I have struggled with depression since early adolescence, but felt like I was on the road to managing it and leading a healthy, happy life until a serious breakdown about 9 years ago, when I was 26.

I desperately want to live life differently and get better, and that’s what’s given me the ability to plug along over the last decade or so, trying new therapists, new doctors, new medications, and all kinds of lifestyle maintenance and changes (i.e. diet, exercise, supplements).

I’ve taken all the classes of anti-depressants, drugs for bipolar disorder, atypical anti-psychotics, thyroid supplements, stimulants, drugs old-fashioned and cutting-edge, 21 sessions of ECT. Mostly, they didn’t help. When it did, the effect soon wore off.

I was tested for everything: diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, thyroid problems, adrenal problems. Fancy doctors from various sorts of prestigious institutions tried looking at the problem from all kinds of angles, applying new diagnoses that might shed new light and help me get better, including bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, but the new diagnostic lenses and alternative approaches didn’t yield any results.

While much of the McLean program will have a diagnostic bent, it’s also supposed to have a therapeutic element, insofar as these 10 days will be a time-out and a potential physiological and psychological reboot.

I don’t know how much of the program's benefits depend on my ability to try to maintain a attitude that is at least open-minded (if not outright positive). But if there’s any chance at all that being able to feel less despair will improve my chance to get more out of the program, I desperately need to do so. I’m also afraid of getting written off as having a negative attitude by the program staff.

The trouble is that after years of encouraging myself, trying to maintain a positive attitude, and trying to get better, I can’t bring myself to believe that something else is possible. In another Askme on depression, a user here once wrote about how depression “ruins you inside,” and that’s a pretty accurate way of describing the effect this has had on me.

Not long after the breakdown, I picked up Andrew Solomon’s The Noonday Demon, hoping to find some insights into what I was suffering. It terrified me so much I couldn’t finish it: the book was replete was stories of people who had struggled with depression for years and whose lives were lunar landscapes of pain and failure. Nine years later, I have become one of those people.

Hope seems fundamentally irrational, and I feel like an idiot trying to improve my situation despite all the evidence that shows that I can't be helped. I know that McLean doesn't have access to some kind of special magic potion, and I don’t know what kind of new information they could get that might help provide a new diagnostic or treatment angle to my condition.

Psychiatry treats despair and hopelessness as if they were irrational, or symptoms of an illness, but right now they feel pretty damn logical, insofar as it no longer seems logical to believe I can live differently. Yet somehow I need to muster the ability to believe that this can help me. I don’t know how to do that.

I am very grateful for your ideas and feedback as to how to increase my chances of benefiting from this program and giving myself an opportunity to get better.

Please help me help my uncle

Anonymous — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:37:08 -0800

Please help me help my uncle, who is drinking himself to death. I have an uncle in Canada - Alberta, actually - who has had an alcohol problem his entire adult life. Apparently things have taken a turn for the worse, even for him, and his wife and kids are concerned that he could be heading towards severe physical damage if not death.

I have no problem confronting him and performing some sort of intervention, and as there are a number of alcoholics in my family, I know that they can't be helped unless they want help. So I don't need that pointed out to me. I think, based on what his wife tells me, that given the right push from his relatives, he could get some help. What my concern is, is this:

I'm an American, and I don't know what resources apart from AA meetings are available to him in Canada. Are detox centers covered by national health, for example? Any and all information would be very helpful and much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Good eye treatment for a smooshy faced cat.

MaryDellamorte — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:55:49 -0800

What over-the-counter eye drops/ointment can I give my Himalayan cat to help his sometimes red and irritated eyes. I have a Himalayan who has the all too-common problem of watery, leaky eyes but sometimes his eyes get red and irritated. Has anyone had any luck with a particular kind of eye treatment?

Any good tinea versicolor remedies?

LolaGeek — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:02:55 -0800

I've had tinea versicolor for a couple years now, treated with prescription ointment. The ointment doesn't seem to be working anymore, and I don't know what else to do. Please help an itchy lady. Two years ago, a dermatologist diagnosed the itchy, red, scaly patch in the middle of my chest as tinea versicolor, and I started using a prescription ointment - Ciclopirox Cream 0.77% - to treat it. After several months of twice-daily application, it started clearing up slightly (was still scaly, but the redness and itchiness were mostly gone). I continued using the ointment once a day, and the patch of skin stayed about the same. A few months ago I went back to the dermatologist because I was running out of ointment, and what I had had expired (also, it was time for my mole check-up). I got a new prescription of the same ointment.

Recently, the condition has gotten much worse. The patch has grown vertically, is much redder, and much itchier. I have to make an effort not to stick my hand down my shirt and scratch my chest in public, and when I do scratch it, there's been a couple times that I broke the skin (not sure if this is because I scratched so hard, or because the skin is a different texture and therefore more fragile). I've been using the ointment twice a day, and also using Selsun Blue in the shower, but there doesn't seem to be any improvement.

I'm getting worried now, because the weather is getting warmer and my cleavage is only going to get sweatier (which seems to be the original cause of this condition). Before I go back to the dermatologist for the second time in three months, is there any other treatment I could try? If I do go back to the doctor, is there another medication or treatment I should ask about?

Also, side question: is it possible for me to spread this to other areas of my body (e.g. by drying off with a towel)?

How to get treatment for depression without income or health insurance?

jnnla — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:14:14 -0800

I suspect I am suffering from Depression and I have no health insurance or current source of income - how do I get help? Three months ago I quit my high-paying job due to extreme job dissatisfaction, and with the job, I also lost my employee sponsored health care. I have since missed the deadline to file for COBRA (I live in California).

As a result I am currently unemployed (by choice) and without health care. I am 26 years old and am extremely fit and healthy physically (gym 3x at least per week), but mentally I suspect that I am suffering from depression.

I was diagnosed with depression as an 18 year old, but overcame it and within a year and a half became happy and healthy again.

Within the last two years, however, I have felt "flat," and I feel the familiar pangs of depression - a general all-encompassing apathy, constant anxiety and intrusive negative thoughts, as well as the random urge to cry or hole myself away in my bed. My omnipresent negative emotions and worries, I feel, prevent me from reaching my potential. These feelings partly led to my decision to quit my job, which was only exacerbating my condition. I committed to take time off for a few months to work on personal projects, explore other possible career paths, and to try to handle my negative feelings. I have saved up money (quickly running out) in order to facilitate this plan.

I would like to see a therapist and get a diagnosis, as well as schedule regular therapy sessions. In my normal state I am a very vibrant and social person, who has a zest and love for life - and I would very much like to have that person back and get him working again...but I feel I need treatment.

QUESTION:
So...what is an unemployed person without health insurance to do? How do I go about getting help? I can afford CHEAP health insurance for a few months (100-150 dollars per month). I have looked into Tonik, and am going to give them a call but it is unclear to me whether they have mental health coverage - furthermore, should I be mentioning my condition when calling health insurance companies or will that get me denied or put me in a waiting period for treatment? I assume my options are to see a therapist of my choice out of pocket or to buy health insurance and have them foot the bill for an in-network shrink. In the meantime are there any free or state-sponsored options I can look into? Any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated!

Hot Oil for My Hair?

bluefly — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:56:23 -0800

Do hot oil treatments for hair work? Are they good for curly/frizzy fairly thick hair? Will they make my hair silky smooth? Or do they do nothing? I have ok hair. It is, I feel, intrinsically a bit dry and frizzy. I counteract this by alternating between an array of hair products (Redken curl creme, Aveda BeCurly, BedHead Curls Rock, and some others) depending on what's available at the stores where I am. I recently met an Indian lady who swears by hot oil treatments. She says women from her region have been using oil in their hair for centuries, and it makes your hair soft and shiny and more manageable.

Is this true? And if so, what are good treatments to buy? If I decide to DIY, how would I go about doing it?

How to write a compelling pitch for a reality show?

Elle Vator — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:38:37 -0800

Dear Hivemind: Where can I find examples of treatments for Reality TV shows? I have experience writing treatments for film, so I'm already on the right track in terms of describing character or writing synopses... but I'm a bit at a loss as to what points must be hit, in what proportion and in what sequence in a Reality TV Treatment. I've worked in reality before and I'm fascinated by the genre, so I know what goes into a show similar to this. That said, I also know that I've never written a treatment for this format and I could really use some guidance.

Here's how I'm picturing it:
-logline
-expansion on logline (short paragraph)
-nuts and bolts stuff (length of season, length of episode, basic production premise, audience/market brief... too much? not enough?)
-background of the concept (establishing main characters and reasons why the show is being made and will be awesome)
-more detailed breakdown (consisting of...?)
-> season synopsis
-> episode breakdown
-> overall result of the first season and possibilities for subsequent seasons
-team bios
...all about ten pages of well-spaced text (with the first page created as a stand-alone one-sheet) before we add pictures.

I know I'm on the right track, kinda/sorta... but my uncertainty is having a negative effect on my creative process. Me? I'm a writer who's been given a great opportunity and a fascinating concept which I've been consulting on for a while. I'd rather not go boldly in the wrong direction on this, if you know what I mean! I think what I need is to see is some sample documents and/or get pointed to a book or article that breaks it down how the document is formatted in a general way.

Tips? Answers? Illumination of any sort? I'd really appreciate it. :)

How about that Super Bowl? By the way, I think you might have borderline personality disorder.

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:02:37 -0800

How does one tell a friend that they might have borderline personality disorder? I'm following this thread pretty closely, for personal reasons. I have a friend who, I've been pretty sure since I met her, has BPD. Before getting into the details, I just want to say: She's preposterously smart, driven, hilarious, and creative. She is not, as this link from the post would suggest, evil. And she definitely didn't cause the fall of Rome.

That said, she displays a range of borderline traits: wild mood swings, impulsiveness, self esteem issues, and most importantly, chronic abandonment issues that result in her testing, lashing out at, and emotionally exhausting those closest to her. Needless to say, it's interfering with her personal relationships, which it hurts to watch. As a result, she's now going through a divorce, after the better part of a decade of marriage.

She's currently being treated for anxiety, for which she takes Klonopin and attends talk therapy. On an ethical level (non-doctors, please feel free to reply), should I mention that she might want to ask her therapist about BPD, or seek dialectical behavioral therapy? If so, any recommendations on how to gently bring up the subject, without making her feel judged or abandoned?

Again, I really think she's great. It'd just be nice to see her get the help she needs, so she's not constantly stuck feeling alone in an emotional whirlwind. I figure it might also help her cope with the divorce, and either eventually reestablish rapport with her husband, or simply have better, future relationships, all around.

How to keep leather handbag looking like new?

stopgap — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:25:51 -0800

I need some handbag care advice for my girlfriend. She has a golden-tan leather Furla bag that is starting to get a little dried out. We're not in a big city, so going to a professional probably isn't an option. What can she do to treat the leather so it stays looking like new? Specific brand names of products we can order are preferable.

I need me some iron!

missjamielynn — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:37:45 -0800

Anyone have experience with intravenous iron treatments for anemia? I was diagnosed with anemia at the beginning of this year and took iron pills for several months until my doctor told me I was no longer anemic. However, she said I should continue to take the iron pills only when I get my period once a month.

When I initially started taking the pills, there was an adjustment period of about a month while my body dealt with some uncomfortable side effects. My stomach pretty much went nuts. After a bit, I got used to it and taking them daily wasn't so terrible.

Cutting down to just one week a month though, seemed to confuse my body and the discomfort lead me to become lax on taking them during my period.

I was feeling fine for the past few months, but have recently noticed anemia symptoms again. I know I need iron, but I really don't want to go back to the pills. I heard that there are alternative treatments such as getting the iron administered intravenously every 3 months or so.

Has anyone had any experience with this kind of treatment? If so, do you prefer it to the iron pills? Thanks!

The Bugs are Gone, but the Bites are Still Here

cucumberfresh — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:02:12 -0800

What can I do to make my bug bites heal faster? Last Friday, I woke up with a lot of bug bites. It turns out we had a pigeon mite infestation (yuck) and while the exterminator has come and gone, my battle scars haven't. I have about five inflamed blister-like bites on my arms and several more "regular" looking bug bites on my back and legs. They don't itch anymore, but is there anything I can do to make them go away faster & lessen the scarring? Thanks in advance!

Tequila as cold remedy?

buriednexttoyou — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:59:06 -0800

My girlfriend has a cold. Multiple people today have told her to take a shot of tequila before bed as a remedy. This sounds like a load of spit to us. Can anyone confirm or refute this? Thanks.

Why Is Obesity Help Often Excluded By Health Insurers?

WCityMike — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:26:28 -0800

Why do medical insurers treat obesity different than other vices? Not a GYOB (I've got one); I literally don't understand the facts of the situation. What do I mean? A moment's thought yields thousands of examples every day where medical insurers cover medical treatment that helps people recover from the aftereffects of their own choices. Childbirth. Smoking. Heart attacks. Lacerations incurred while drunk. (And accidents caused by drunk driving.) Alcohol and/or drug rehabilitation programs. And so on. We make mistakes with our body every single day, and they incur a medical cost to our body's well-being. Most of those medical costs are alleviated by insurance.

But medical services available to help people recover from the aftereffects of obesity seem to be almost specifically excluded. Nutritionists? Nearly always excluded in every plan I've seen. Physiatrists or sports medicine for medically safe exercise? Ditto. Removal of large amounts of loose skin post weight-loss? Some people have navigated their way through appeal processes into coverage, but it's not covered without great effort and trial.

What puzzles me is that preventative and "repair" treatments has got to be more cost-conscious than paying for heart bypasses, etc., so it makes from the ultimate viewpoint that means the most to these companies, the Almighty Buck.

So what's up? Where am I making the mistake in thinking this through? The pattern seems to have boundaries that are clearly enough defined -- it seems highly, highly improbable to me that this wasn't a purposeful policy decision.

Possible strained armpit muscle--looking for advice on care/diagnosis/prognosis and other options

weakcore — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:56:52 -0800

I'm a 26 yr old male and suspect I have strained my right teres major muscle. Is it worth seeing a general practitioner/family doctor first (I suspect they will just toss me painkillers and tell me about R.I.C.E.)? If not a GP, what are ways I can find somebody in sports medicine or physical therapy (do they have hundred dollar new patient processing fees, etc too?) apart from references from acquaintances? Also, any relevant suggestions on what else I can do are also greatly appreciated. I am relatively inexperienced with dealing with doctors/doctor's offices but am interested in how I can become a more informed patient. I feel swelling in rear of my right armpit like there's a crumpled wad of paper wedged in that area and there is soreness not unlike soreness experienced in the days following a rigorous workout, only 50% greater in magnitude. I think I sustained it while attempting to do dips on non-immobilized push-cart w/out proper warming up, etc. while bored at work in a misguided effort to start rectifying a muscle imbalance (tight chest muscles, overly weak back muscles) and not having had regularly lifted weights in a considerable amount of time, though this was at least a couple of days before I was aware of the pain & I did not have an "oh crap, I think I pulled something" moment typically associated with strains.

Onset of pain was approx 5 days ago & I suspect I have been making it progressively worse in attempting to stretch it (the thought did not yet occur to me this pain was a muscle strain until only the recent few days) with attempting to practice yoga every other day (3 classes since then). While I did feel resistance and pain at the beginning of class, after warming up, the discomfort only was very mild/barely noticeable during downward dog/sun salutations.

Initially I was able to reach up and to the right and only experience mild discomfort; now, motion is restricted such that I feel pain when attempting to raise my elbow more than 45 degrees. Additionally, this is my primary mousing arm and and I have also been experiencing RSI-like symptoms for the past two years. I have been coping via [attempting to] reduce/reducing my computer use, making efforts to improve my posture, yoga, and meditation (still a n00b at the meditating) since my insurance currently does not cover specialist visits due to a pre-existing waiting period).

How, exactly, do I get treatment for depression?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:11:26 -0800

After battling on my own for three years, I have finally decided that I need to seek medication for my persistent depression and associated overwhelming anxiety. Here's the problem: I have no idea what steps to take to get treatment. Can you provide me with a very detailed step-by-step map or script to follow? Although I've been doing pretty well fighting this on my own - most people who know me don't know there is anything wrong; its not like I'm so depressed as to be nonfunctional - the stress of having to fight against this constantly is taking its toll, and I think its time to go on medication. The problem is, of course, that I have no real idea what I need to do in order to get medication and treatment.

My primary care "physician" is a big practice where I see someone different every visit, (and almost always a PA rather than a real MD) so there isn't one doctor I have a strong existing relationship with. Do I just make an appointment and say "I need anti-depressants" and walk out with a scrip? If so, that seems -- odd. Or will there be some string of tests? Should I try to find some different kind of doctor than my GP, or will I see my GP and then get a referral to some other MD?

With a "regular" illness I'd walk in and say "I think I have XX." or "I have XX symptoms" and there would be tests and the doctor would do the diagnosis and prescribe the appropriate thing or give me a referral and the specialist would diagnose and prescribe. Walking into a doctors office and basically dictating what treatment I need seems like a big reversal in the normal process.

Also, I have concerns about the potential side-effects -- in particular, I've known three people who had some pretty severe problems START after they started SSRIs -- one who had significant insomnia which led to hallucinations and ultimately a suicide attempt, one for whom long term SSRI use led to weight gain of more than 40 lbs and diabetes, and one for whom SSRIs led to migraines and hand and arm tremors. A fourth friend when through a year of trial-and-error hell while they attempted to find a medication that would work at all. Are there tests the MD can/will do to find out which of the multiple drugs on the market will best help with the fewest side effects? How exactly to MDs decide which drug they will prescribe?

Thanks for the help.