Visited the Doctor (UK) - Anti-depressants

[Monkey]

Since going on a treatment (Revivogen) the amount of shedding has completely broke me and I guess over a period of time i've just become someone different due to male pattern baldness. My gf convinced me to go to the Doctor and I poured my heart out about whats been happening to me (i've got loads of depression symptoms). He listened, and said 'i'll give you some tablets - goodbye.'

I thought he might have done this, but also recommend things like exercise and getting back into the hobbies I used to do all the time. I don't think they can be bothered to help with hairloss (as many other people have said on here). He didn't even mention trying some sort of treatment, which I find strange - do doctors not believe in them?

Anyway, I got prescribed Fluoxetine - has anyone got experience on this? Or even general advice about how anti-depressants have helped (or not).

 

[Stabber]

i strongly suggest you find a dr that is willing to speak with you about problems. I went through the same $hit.

Dr: So tell me what's going on?
me: blah blah blah, blah blah
Dr: uh huh
me: blah blah blah blah blah
Dr: nods head
me: blah blah, looks at Dr:
Dr: I think you have ___insert disorder___. Take these once a day
Dr: I'd like to see you back in 2 weeks so I can finish the extension I'm buiding on my vacation house.

Find someone who does cognitive behavioral therapy, even if you have to pay out of pocket. Trust me, it will save you pain in the end. Don't get on the meds if you don't think you need them.

 

[ledon]

About 8 months ago I decided to do something about my crown - at the time it was about the size of a 50p coin, the hair around it was pretty thick but I figured that prevention was the best cure so went to belgravia centre. They sold me alzeic acid plus minoxidil (12.5%) after I said I didn't fancy propecia. Used the stuff for three weeks which gave me a cracking headache every day, so stopped and returned it to them.

From then on I literally watched as hair was lost from my crown at a speed that I can't even begin to describe - genuinely scary. The more it thinned out, the more I would feel anxious, the harder it was to sleep and the less I ate.

After about four months of almost total insomnia (managed about 2/2.5 hours sleep a night) and getting up every morning and being sick (due to the overwhelming anxiety that I was experiencing from hairloss, the speed of it, and how I would look at the age of 24 with no hair) I eventually had to split up with my girlfriend of 6 years.

Ended up feeling so bad that eventually had to go to the doctor. After trying various meds and seen various people over the last couple of months am now taking sinequan which has totally got rid of the anxiety. Can now eat, sleep and function normally and am seeing a cognitive behavioural psychologist who's realigning the way I look at things and changing my perception of what's important and what's not. I've also seen a certified trichologist who's helping me deal with the hairloss through the use of a topical anti-androgen. Too early to know if it's working, but would still rather do something than nothing...

Hairloss is potentially lethal. It has the potential to ruin lives. They say that male pattern baldness occurs in those people who have excessive androgens combined with a genetic predisposition to male pattern baldness. I would add to that that for hairloss to ruin your life, which it can easily do, you need the 2 factors mentioned above plus a mental outlook that allows you to inflate the importance of having a full head of hair so massively that without it you can feel that life's not worth living.

I think one of the users on this forum has a tag line that says something like "you have to sort out your mind before you can sort out your hair or you'll end up losing both....". I think that's definitely true. The way I'm looking at it right now, is that i'm still here and that given how low I've felt I now have genuinely nothing to lose. Which means that I can go all out to create a great life for myself - to develop my career, to build a great physique, to spend time with friends and have them look forward to seeing me because I've got a great sense of humour and I'm fun to be around, to be confident and happy irrespective of what's happening on top of my head...

I think that within my lifetime - hopefully within the next 10 or fifteen years - there will be a "cure" for this hairloss crap, whether it's developed transplantation techniques / hair multiplication / some new amazing topical solution or a pill that will fix this problem. When that thing comes along, I want to be successful and wealthy, happy in myself and in good health with a great bunch of friends and a good relationship with my family. I want any hairloss "cure" to be an added bonus for me - something that makes a great life an even better one. The alternative is that I let this eat away at me and my confidence and my sense of worth so much that by the time a cure comes along I'll be a broken man - I will have lost my job, I'll have ignored my friends and family and I'll have no money to pay for this great new solution (which I'm assuming already will be pretty expensive...).

Life lasts a long time fellas. Sorting out our minds has to be stage one - without a sense of perspective, and an attitude or way of thinking that is positive and conducive to achieving great things with our lives, then we'll allow this one problem to ruin everything else that contributes to a good life.

Specifically, on the anti-depressants thing, everyone is on this site because they're concerned about hairloss. Just as some will have already lost a lot or even all of their hair already, some will be at the early stages, yet the amount lost will not affect how well or badly people are dealing with their situation (I felt a billion times worse three months ago, at which point I can categorically say i had a lot more hair than I do now...). So, if you think that you need to get a new perspective on this, or you need to stop overwhelming feelings of anxiety and/or depression, then ask your doctor to refer you to a psychiatrist who will discuss with you whether medication and/or a regular appointment with a psycholgist could be of benefit to you. As stabber said, cognitive behavioural psycholists are the way forward - they don't just listen to you talk about your problems but help you to make the changes necessary in your life to feel better, more positive and excited about life.

There's nothing embarassing or shameful about getting a little help to deal with this (especially as you don't have to tell anyone about it). It's your life - don't let hair loss f*ck it up for you.

Good luck.

 

[Monkey]

Good man - they should employ you on this site. Appreciate you taking the time to respond in so much depth, I will take what you said on board and sort myself out.

 

[Weepy]

Anyway, I got prescribed Fluoxetine - has anyone got experience on this? Or even general advice about how anti-depressants have helped (or not).

This is generic prozac. You may notice weight gain. Did he not give you any information on side effects? What to expect? How to even take it?!? Etc.? If he did not, you would be better off finding a better doctor. God, I can't believe these doctors.

Good post Leden.

 

[imissmyhair]

ledon.. so true

 

[Monkey]

I asked about side affects - he said in very rare cases you can get diorrhea and headaches. Funny though, I read the notes that came with it and there was like fifty possible side effects (including hairloss).

Gonna go with it for a while and see what happens, see him again in 3 weeks and might give him some grief.

 

[Guest]

Amen.

 

[Britannia]

This is generic prozac. .

Remember this is in the UK. The NHS uses generic medication all the time. Primary care trusts (i.e. the trusts running family doctors) are the worse culprits of this.

 

[Monkey]

I lasted a week on the anti-deps - I have never felt as rotten in my life, almost suicidal. There are other ways to sort my head out, I feel great just not taking them.

 

[Radio]

This is generic prozac. .

Remember this is in the UK. The NHS uses generic medication all the time. Primary care trusts (i.e. the trusts running family doctors) are the worse culprits of this.

Is it bad for doctors to prescribe a generic ?

 

[Radio]

I asked about side affects - he said in very rare cases you can get diorrhea and headaches. Funny though, I read the notes that came with it and there was like fifty possible side effects (including hairloss).

Gonna go with it for a while and see what happens, see him again in 3 weeks and might give him some grief.

Don't give the guy grief, this doctor has about 10 munites for each patient in the UK, as soon as you are out the door in walks a guy with renal cancer and as soon as he is out the door in walks a guy with pains in his hands, this goes on all day, every day and all week, every week.

You can hardly expect him to sit there and go through everyone of the 50 side effects with every single patient, he would spend his life reading literature from the side of medication boxs and jars.

If you have any specific concerns bring them up with him.

Many many years ago I had a brief spell designing 'trade cards' for various pharmaceutical companies, these were large boards advertising products for display at trade shows. At the bottom of each one was a list of possible side effects that were required by law to be listed. It became a bit of a running joke becuase EVERY SINGLE product from aspirin to cancer treatments had an enormous list of side effects that nearly always included 'black tarry stools' at the top and 'death' at the bottom. My point is that because your medication carries this list, it makes it no more dangerous than a painkiller you can pick up in boots.

Fluoxetine is unique amongst the SSRI medications in that it has a very long half life, this can be good and bad, but SSRIs are all pretty much the same.

If you do get any of the side effects they will tend to dissipate with continued use, the most common side effect is some stomach upset during the first week or so, taking the pills in the morning and/or with food can help here.

 

[DaSand]

I have been taking Fluexotine for almost a year now and it does help me out. When my psychriatrist put me off it to see what would happen, I was in the dumps for a long time. I'm better than when I was off of it taking what I had left. It didn't give me any side effects.

I'm also seeing another counselor at school too and he's been a good help to me. Students get 15 free sessions so I took advantage of it.

But now, I've haven't been letting hair loss bother me. It's just the past months I've been having diffuse thinning all over. My hairline stopped receding. I've also had some regrowth without Rogaine or anything. I may be genetically predisposed to baldness, but it doesn't mean I'll be completely bald. Heck, my hair loss might stop. Maybe I'll be a Norwood 3 with thinning on the vertex for the next 20 years.

I saw pictures of my grandfather (my mom's father) when he married my grandmother back in the late 40's when he was about 28. He still had a hairline, but receded greatly and thin on top. He just had the top cut off later so they look bald.

Maybe I won't look like Patrick Stewart when I'm 23. Maybe I'll keep the same hair. I normally don't shed 100 hairs, the most I shed is 2 or 3 per day.

Besides, I know I'll get something that stop it and grow all of it back one day. Till then, just enjoy life!

Hey Radio, why a picture of Abe Lincoln for your avatar? I'm just wondering.

 

[SE-freak]

I normally don't shed 100 hairs, the most I shed is 2 or 3 per day.

 

[Radio]

Hey Radio, why a picture of Abe Lincoln for your avatar? I'm just wondering.

How dare you !

That is a picture of my mother.

 

[ShedMaster]

My point is that because your medication carries this list, it makes it no more dangerous than a painkiller you can pick up in boots.

Boots?

 

[Radio]

My point is that because your medication carries this list, it makes it no more dangerous than a painkiller you can pick up in boots.

Boots?

Yes I can see why that may seem mysterious to those of you in gods country, Boots is a large chain of pharmacies here in the UK.

 

[ShedMaster]

Yes I can see why that may seem mysterious to those of you in gods country, Boots is a large chain of pharmacies here in the UK.

gods country?

 

[Weepy]

Anyway, I got prescribed Fluoxetine - has anyone got experience on this? Or even general advice about how anti-depressants have helped (or not).

Are you responding to the medication? Are you feeling better? You can PM if possible.

 

[DaSand]

Hey Radio, why a picture of Abe Lincoln for your avatar? I'm just wondering.

How dare you !

That is a picture of my mother.

Sorry about that Radio. Heck, with my thinning, I'm going to use the razor soon and not worry about hair loss anymore.