movie, depersonalization, etc.

First of all, I didn't think the movie was that bad. I think anything as internal as depersonalization would fail to make an accurate representation on the screen (think The Trip trying to represent an LSD trip), so it wouldn't make a worthwhile film. So, it was alright for what it was.

I'm diagnosed with panic disorder with chronic depersonalization as well as major depression, so I've been on the psychiatric med-go-round. Being a comedy, I understand the doctors looking like quacks, but as a patient I took offense to a few things. I'm not a doctor, but I have read a few psychopharmacology textbooks/books to know what I'm being prescribed and have asked a few specialists many questions. So, here it goes:

Divalproex sodium is an anticonvulsant, not an antipsychotic and doesn't cause Tardive dyskinesia. Tardive dyskinesia is very rare with the new antipsychotics and the permanent form is extremely rare. One of them helped me in the first stages of my illness within a week, so people get a one sided view with this film.

Also, being on Buproprion, Fluoxetine, and an MAOI at the same time, as he says in the film when the doctor "tries everything at once", would most likely put you in a coma or kill you. No doctor combines that many drugs for a non-life threatening illness (at least not the ones I've seen). Even if you were on medications that weren't fatal in combination, with that many the side effects probably would render you incapacitated anyway.

And, to top it off he doesn't stay on any of them long enough to know what would work. And he smokes pot again? Ask any panic/depersonalization patient (if you can find one) and the last thing they'd want to do is smoke something that alters their already altered state.

If I sound biased it's because medication makes my life tolerable and even good for long stretches, and the general attitude of the film seems so anti-psychiatry that I can't help but say something. If medication might work for you, you have to stick with it and face the fact that it takes years to get better. Hell, you might get better anyway, but it makes getting there easier.

I wouldn't bother with an annoying rant like this on any other post, but this seems to be drawing a lot of sufferers of this illness and I just felt I should put in my two cents.