I used prednisolone for years but I was a reckless patient and there were very short periods where I stopped taking it. I never went into full remission because of my recklessnes and my situation is the anwer to the question "why they stay on it so long if it is notoriously that bad?"
I simply didn't realize it was that bad. My doctor only told me it could cause depression and weight gaining on top off the bloating effect if I consumed too much salt. Abnormal depression? It was none existent. Appetite? I was able to control it, though I would welcome it whenever it came since I was always skinny. Salt? I stayed away from it. He didn't tell me it could make me hairy but pred gave me an awesome beard so I wasn't complaining. I started taking it in May, 2012 by the way.
Then, around a year and a half ago, other side effects became apparent but I was so blind I didn't see them. Two years ago, pred appetite really made itself known to me and I kept eating. I was always a melancholic person but never too depressed. Somehow, the more ate, the happier I got! I didn't give a crap about
my bloating face! It was like I had found happiness in food! After that, appetite got lessened, I lost my extra weight slowly but happiness was still there? Good things happened to me during that time, so I thought that was the reason. I never thought it was abnormal for me to get a "exploding" happiness out of small things and of course, I wasn't complaning. During that time, I got incredibly lazy, had trouble sleeping but once I slept, I couldn't wake up for 10 or 12 hours? But like I said, I was so happy about
little things I didn't give a crap. I was getting too easily bruised, tiniest cuts were leaving scars and I still didn't give a crap. I was literally twitching when I drank coffee but I was doing it anyway because in the last year my ability to concentrate went haywire and it was helping with that. It was making me bleed but I hated not being able to concentrate so I kept drinking coffee. Then came my mood swings; I'm very good at restraining myself, I started getting so angry out of a sudden, I quit my job in a moment of rage. After that, my sadness about
certain things turned into depression. My loneliness started cutting my insides like a blade eventhough it was just a mere annoyance before, since I was not a social person. I still didn't suspect it was pred, because some people in my close family had psychiatric problems and I thought maybe I was just prone to it. I told myself I could control it and guess what; I couldn't. Then I learned the extent of pred's side effects when I started going to gym, and signed up to this awesome forum. Now, at 15 mg dosage, I'm waiting for Imuran(1.5 months in at the moment) to work so I can get rid of this thing. If Imuran doesn't show effect as a maintenance drug in addition to mesalamines, I'll ask my doctor to prescribe me either Remicade or Humira. If that doesn't work, I'll try smoking and LDN theraphy. If those two don't work, I'll go and ask him to remove my colon because I've had enough!
Post Edited (solitudent) : 7/1/2016 1:22:31 PM (GMT-6)