Quote: Ellie- you ask if the meds were just recent--she has been on a myriad of drugs for at least 10 years..after the youngest was born it all started with Thyroid problems, migraines, post-partum depression..so she was seaking help for all this..somewhere along the line they diagnosed her with the fibro (at least 5 years ago)
If all her Rx's are from one doctor, and seem to be appropriate amounts (that is, one month's prescription lasting one month) she may be okay (addicts usually docotr-shop to get increasing amounts). Some Drs. out there will treat "chronic pain" with long-term narcotics - it is controversial. Of course, given SIL's family history, she is a very poor candidate for taking narcotics.
Quote: after the youngest was born it all started with Thyroid problems, migraines, post-partum depression.
Depression seems obvious, especially with her family history. Thyroid problems - well, the one time I felt I knew what fibromyalgia must feel like was when my thyroid bottomed out after radiation treatment of my thyroid - only lasted a couple days, but it was awful. Really made me wonder how many fibromyalgia patients actually had under-treated thyroid disease (some people don't respond adequately to the usual regimens).
As for the hyper-religiosity and compulsive shopping - they may be connected. Compulsive shopping can be an addiction, like gambling - the temporary "high" of buying things raises levels of neurotransmitters, temporarily relieving depression. Compulsive shoppers are treated with antidepressants.
Religion (and please, no offense to all the "normal" religious people out there) can crop up as a factor in mental illness. Schizophrenics are often hyper-religious (no, I'm not suggesting she's schizophrenic). People in the manic phase of bipolar disorder may become hyper-religious (bipolar does seem like a possibility given her family history). Or religion may just have been her anchor while she was drowning in her depression.
Any which way - her problems are serious, whatever they are.
