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Thank you for the link, looks interesting, bookmarked, and I WILL see what it is about. Heh. I still have a sense of humor sometimes. I think. Curiously, I was just ready to shut down and clean up for my monthly appointment with my therapist who happens to be a psych nurse (and a Dem) but nice, my age, and I like her if we don't talk politics. So I very, very carefully jotted down the URL, tested it, and took it with me. Thought about asking for a Republican therapist, but I think in that profession they are mostly Dem (grants and govt money), and I could get somebody that would end up worse for me. This is the second time I've shown her an article citing a credible professional journal linked from this site that I knew she probably hadn't heard about yet. Where did I find that? A hate site (tongue-in-cheek, because that's what Dems say, didn't tell her about DU) where they post news articles from all over the world, and I've met some nice people there, didn't mention a few I didn't hit it off with, trying to stay positive.

Then she wanted to up my depresson med, and I said no, I will get busy instead. At some point I might, but there is one side effect with that for me (constipation, says in the literature, too), no big deal but a nuisance. Then there was a med on my record, can't remember what the name of it was, never heard of it, wish I'd jotted that down, she wanted to know why that was on "there". I didn't know. It is a mistake. I have never been on that med. If you prescribed it for me and called it in, then there is a prescription over at the drug store I didn't know about. I wouldn't take it anyway if I didn't remember talking about a change. What is it for? Anxiety. Oh, well my anxiety med is holding, klonopin (holds longer than xanax which doesn't last long, some don't need it to last long), I don't take the full dose prescribed unless I really need it and am honest about it. I found that one by researching on the web and reading a couple personal cases, mentioned it to them, then they finally prescribe it like they thought of it themselves. Maybe they did. So you have to keep one step ahead of that stuff. It WAS a mistake, have no clue who put it on there. I was having 6 anxiety or panic attacks (I'm still not sure what the difference is, a matter of degree, I guess) a day where my heart started racing so fast for NO reason, and it went on for about a half hour that way. It is very scary, especially now that I am older.

At my age is is harder to feel confident that anything will work, but I will definitely look into the link because I have insurance, may not be necessary, don't abuse it, and have little to lose at this point and everything to gain. That one schizophrenic did reprogram his brain circuitry over time, if he can do it and there is a way to do it, I ought to be open to that if it's along those lines.

Dianna, thank you for your kind words. People don't understand if they, a close friend/associate, family member haven't suffered from it. You and some do. If they don't understand, it is a source of shame, so I avoid people who are unkind about it. And no two cases are exactly alike. Of all people, I am just as alarmed about pushing drugs and pills on people because of negative consequences we read about and have seen like when my daughter took her son off ridlin, moved to a different school district and doctor, smart move in that case, they had him completely zombied out, he outgrew it but may be beset with something because some of it runs in the family and is genetic. Now they have my younger grandson on something for hyperactivity, I don't like it, but have no say (and would be careful about that anyway) because his mother is divorced from my son. I was hyperactive as a kid, too, and thank God I was spared that because I outgrew the hyperactive part by late teens and wasn't that bad anyway, people just don't want to deal with a child with more energy than others. My daughter and son were hyperactive, too, but they didn't have ridlin then, thank God. But there is definitely a flip side. By the time this new whatever it is is tested, it may not pan out into anything that will be safe or work for humans, etc., but they may peddle it anyway. I'm used to people writing the things they sometimes do. Some people through willpower and facing their fears, can overcome. Some people spontaneously get better. We have never gotten to the bottom of what triggered mine in childhood, much adult trauma but nobody shooting at me every day but more prolonged) and a waste of time for me to go there.

JmyBryan, thank you for the hopeful words. Clam Digger, I used to love fried clams, can't get them any more at Long John Silver's around here, same with breaded oysters, went digging for them once on Cape Cod, didn't have a clue what to do if I had actually found a clam :-). I hope something will turn up that will work better, too, I don't place my hopes in things like this MIT discovery at all, but can be convinced to try a new med in a very low dosage if they won't force me to up the dose or keep taking it if I have a bad reaction. Some people are under court orders to take their meds. And some people who have increased anxiety when they first go on SSRI's get past it with anti-anxiety medication, but it wasn't working for me. When they tried an MAO inhibitor on me, can't remember the name of it now, nardil, I threatened to get a lawyer if they tried to make me take any more of it, and it was not an idle threat. The doctor backed off instantly. I lost control of my bladder and woke up 15 times a night, felt like lying down when I tried to go out for a walk in the park, gave it a fair shot, didn't make anything one bit better, didn't feel like hurting myself or anyone though.

I am thankful to have something that works at all. I took imipramine at a high dose for over 30 years that only half worked the whole time, then quit working. I tried to go back on it, but now that I got it out of my system, it can't handle that any more either.

Then I went to the credit union to deposit a check, they put a hold on it. Why do you put a hold on it, I need it to pay bills? It's an out-of-state check. I said they didn't put a hold on the last one. Why do they sometimes put a hold on a check from the same person and account and sometimes they don't? She scrolls back a few months and couldn't find a deposit that matched (I was off a little) since May. I said it is on there. I am going home and logging in, and I will find it (thinking now what have they done to mess up my account, they had a new form when I went inside instead of drive-thru because I wanted a new checkbook cover. Anyway, it might not have showed that no hold had been placed on it then. I don't know why they changed the form, but I figured it out but got the suffix to my account wrong. It is 5. I said it was always 9 for that account. They changed it. Hmmm. Then she found the deposit. And I have a hold on my check, no sense in asking to call the supervisor who might call the bank to see if it was ok like he did for me once. Oh well. No sense in arguing with them, I wish they'd make up their minds which way it is going to be. Maybe I'd better go log on and see if they got that right. They changed all that, too, then put an extra layer of security, then changed part of it back because people must have complained.

Like when I got my purse stolen on a weekend and was frantically trying to cancel my cards. My debit card. Who do I call? I took care of it. When I show up first day of business to take care of the rest of it, hot card they call them, I said I already cancelled it but need to put a stop payment on two checks. How did you get the number? It is on the first page of your website.

I'm sorry I got so long-winded, but you really have to keep one step ahead of everything. That is my point. Don't swallow a pill if it doesn't look right. They changed mfr of my blood pressure med, and the pill was a different color when there was no change by the dr in the script. I asked about it. It was ok that time, but sometimes it might not be.

I feel sorry for old people who blindly trust everything. And I really am scared of ending up in a nursing home and being forced to take some psych med that might freak me if my mind is not sharp enough to know what is going on. I feel so sorry for old people like that and know that some of those drugs are bad for them. If you have someone you love in a nursing home and can get the information, check their medication, what it is, what it is supposed to do, why it was prescribed, and make sure it is not wigging them out worse or the wrong med for a heart condition, etc.

If you are in a hospital and aren't out of it, check the meds they are giving you and make sure they are the right dose, etc., kind of hard to do, but do the best you can. It could save your or a loved one's life or save you a lot of extra grief.

Maybe it's not a good idea to talk about some of this, but on the offchance it might help just one person, then I sometimes share some of my personal experience, and do not presume to know more than the doctors because I don't.

And while I am blabbing away, here is a tip that might or might not help someone about a stolen debit card or checks. I wasn't too worried about somebody using my debit card because I didn't have my pw in my purse, but there was something with one of my cards, and when I got part of my stuff back, it looked like they had tried to use it, testing out a password that was not in my handwriting er printing.

With the stolen checks, at first I didn't know which checks may have been fraudulently cashed, but some man found the checkbook minus cover in the street with tire tracks over it, I remembered the last check I had written before I was lucky enough to get the book back, so I knew which check numbers to cancel if I had had to cancel the whole book. Only the two were missing, and the dumb idiots left the tissue copy in there for the two checks they had written only I couldn't read the amount, but the payee. I tried to alert them, but only got to one because there were two many local businesses with the other name, one of which I patronized, so I told them, but they didn't know which one it could be either. I wanted to tell them to save their camera tapes, but by the time the police got to that, it had already been overwritten at one business, they cycle them every two weeks and it was past that. I got a notice from a collection outfit in Texas and a letter from one business for it all where I was going to be in trouble for the bad checks, it took a long time to straighten it all out.

But they could have cleaned out my entire account that weekend before I could get in to put stop pays on checks because I have to go in person for that. Now some financial institutions may help you with that on the weekend. Mine doesn't.

So I have an extra account set up, along with savings, that doesn't automatically suck overdrafts out of it. It is frozen to all but me unless there is some court order, don't have paypal which does it on your main account if you sell and the buyer does a chargeback on you. So I shifted most of the money that was in my checking account into that account online, leaving a little so my own outstanding checks wouldn't bounce because they might hold me responsible for charges on those. At least they wouldn't get it all then and that way.

Stop pays on stolen checks there happens to be no fee and there is insurance to cover the amounts where I bank, probably most banks, BUT I would have still had to WAIT for more money from somewhere and might be more complications. If they clean you out, I had nothing. No money at all. No cash at home. All I had was a new book of checks so used that to get me by in very small amounts and could only do that because the business knew me. They got my cash (only $4), and I couldn't borrow cash on my credit cards because I was cancelling them and didn't have them for a machine duh, and I couldn't use my debit card because obviously I didn't have it. No card, the machine won't work even if you are the only one with the pw.

Some of you would be miles ahead of me on this stuff, but I recommend that you set up an account where you can transfer your funds from one account to another 24/7 and that one is of a type where the bank can't automatically use it to pay an overdraft when no human intervenes like on a weekend.

Then if the financial institution screws you out of charges for stop pays or doesn't come through with their insurance, you will buy some time to sort it out and might not have to beg from a friend or relative, etc.

I don't know what you do if you are travelling and lose everything. Hide some cash or extra cc in the hotel with your luggage or hide some cash on you or both or something else that will work I didn't think about. If it is your passport, I think you have to go to an embassy, no way around that that I know.

Keep your car keys in your pocket (or something) and not in your purse so if they get your purse, you can drive your car, in my case, directly to the police station. I need to wire a spare car key somewhere under my car, but not sure where to do it in case I lose those myself. I keep a spare set at home. Spare house key I hid where I'd have to break in a little to my own house to get it, couldn't think of a better place to hide one that a thief might find and that I could get at in all kinds of weather. I don't want a key rock or one of those magnetized things my parents hid under the mailbox when I was young.