An interesting review of the discussing around parity for coverage of mental illness:
The Murky Politics of Mind-Body: "Depression Is a Brain Disease" 101
Monday, March 31, 2008
On insurance parity for mental illness
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The first year
Next week marks the end of my year out of work. There's no doubt that I'm much better than I was. As I review the year's numbers, I also get the feeling that I underestimated how out of it I was. Now, as I have several good days in a row, I can see that I'm a long way away from being able to do the kind of work that I used to do.
Along those lines, I received a note from the Social Security Administration regarding a program called Ticket to Work. Briefly, the program offers an array of services to help disabled people find a path to work. It could be full- or part-time doing what you did before something new. I called the local agency, Mass. Rehab., to get the process underway. They have a six-month waiting period for new services, but at least I'm in the queue.
I have an appointment with my psychiatrist this afternoon, mostly to review meds. After all the trouble we had getting the prescription for Sonata, I haven't been impressed by what it's done for me. We'll twiddle the dials, but, overall, I'm doing ok.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
For varying values of spring
Although the vernal equinox doesn't take place until next week, March is often classified as a spring month. We're finding, however, that someone forgot to tell Mother Nature. We had a brief burst of snow this morning, enough to cover the ground. The temperature has risen enough to melt most of it, but there's another storm in the forecast for the weekend.
After all the hoopla regarding medications, I think we've found a mix that works pretty well:
- Sonata, for sleep. (This was the one that took several weeks of preapproval brouhaha.)
- Seroquel, a mood stablizer that also helps with sleep.
- Emsam, the MAOI patch.
Next Monday, I'm going to meet with a new therapist. Although I like my current therapist, I'm not feeling as though we're getting anywhere new. I'll see how I like the new guy, a pastoral counselor with a D. Min., before I make any permanent changes.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
If something to turn - holiday is necessary you!!!
I used a few web-based tool to bring in news regarding depression. You can set up automated searches with Google to keep track of news and blogs that have the word 'depression' in them. Sometimes, you'll get information about economic depression or Depression glass, but, for the most part, Google provides good and interesting information several times a day.
Of course, there are a lot of folks peddling a lot of ideas regarding the treatment and/or cure of depression. For example:
It reminds me of the web classic All Your Base Are Belong To Us, but now for psychiatry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
