Can you be too happy?
Or, what is a normal default state? Happiness and sadness both occur and are to be expected. But if a person is sad often and for long time, it might be considered a problem and treated. Part of this treatment can be anti-depressant drugs. But, are there people who are just too happy for too long? Not obsessive, not manic, not hallucinating, but ( Read more... )
Oh, I totally agree with you there.
The main problem (as it was explained to me) is that neurotransmitter balance varies widely from individual to individual. Also, the only way to certainly test this is to do sampling - a rather invasive, messy, and potentially risky endeavor. Also, you'd have to test over a period of time to determine 'normal' variation for this particular individual. Just as complex. Therefore, since you can't use direct sampling you have to use indirect sampling.
The way they determined that I had a chemical imbalance was twofold. (I have mild depression manifesting itself as anxiety, with a tendancy towards PMS and SAD) First off - behavior-modification therapy had only limited effect. My symptoms were being controlled, but not eliminated. So I was instructed to keep a log of my symptoms. Four times a day, I was to stop and write down how I felt, using a 1-10 scale. After 6 weeks of this, we determined that stresses on my system such as skipped meals or shorting myself on sleep result in symptoms 1-3 days later, depending on the time of the month. I would wake 45-60 minutes after falling asleep with all the symptoms of a panic attack. The precision of the timetables helped them figure out that there was a "short" in the system, as it were. My last crisis (the one you so helpfully called me during) hit 3 days after I changed my allergy meds, and at a particularly "vulnerable" time of my monthly cycle.
Treatment for depression is about the same place that hormone treatment was 10-15 years ago - we have a general idea what works, but refining specifics and dosages is still a ways off yet, and we don't know a lot about the long-term effects.
"Hrm, yes, probably.. lets see if $drug-1 works, and if not, we can try $drug-2..."
Well, that's what they have to do with a lot of meds! Claritin and Allegra do NOTHING for me, but Zyrtec works very well - yet all are related antihisthamines. Singulair is the hot new asthma pill, but I do better on the "old-fashioned" Accolate. When I hurt my hands a few years ago, Vioxx put me to sleep but Celebrex worked - yet they are both Coxx-2 inhibitors. It depends on the individual's reaction.
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