Posted by pedr on February 27, 2002, at 7:34:44
In reply to Am I the only person this happens to?, posted by misty99 on February 23, 2002, at 8:55:20
> I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this? I started a regular exercise program in addition to taking my meds because I want to do everything possible to help myself. Currently I am taking St. John's Wort, Adderall, and Remeron at night. The Adderall I take three times a day and I had been taking St. Johns Wort in the morning all at once because I have been having difficulties with insomnia.
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> I have consistently walked outside for about 15-20 minutes right before lunch and my next Adderall dose. Last week, it seemed like early afternoon, I started feeling agiatated as it just seemed like my body had used up the St. Johns Wort. Taking an additional amount didn't help and actually made the situation worse.
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> Yesterday, I thought I would try adding 150mg to the morning St. Johns Wort dose and the same thing happened in the afternoon after I had walked in the morning. Because of what happens, my mood sinks in the afternoon and I end up not being able to sleep.
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> Today, I will try the strategy of spreading the dose out to see if that helps before I bag St. Johns Wort and go on to another antidepressant. It's very discouraging because I feel I am being the good patient and doing what I am suppose to do and it just seems like I am feeling worse. I do know I am getting some benefits from exercising so I try to keep that in mind but it's hard.
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> I know there was an earlier thread last year? that seemed to be somewhat similar where someone said after exercising, he felt that a chemist was was rearraning the chemicals in his brain. But other than that, I have seen nothing that even comes close to mentioning the problems I am having which makes me feel even worse because there just doesn't seem to be an answer for what is going on. By the way, the medication works great until I get that affect in the afternoon.
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> If anyone has any insights or has heard of anything similar, I would greatly appreciate it.
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> MistyHi Misty,
in terms of looking for an answer as to why your mood swings down when it does, that is something I find myself often asking. My mood will suddenly plummet without any causal thinking that I can detect. I am sometimes able to link resultant low moods/anxiety to depressed thinking I've just done but this isn't always the case.
For some dives in mood I don't think there is a viable explanation and often, trying too hard to work it out and obsessing over it can make things worse.
I've asked my shrink about these sudden dives in mood and we concluded that the only viable scenarios are:
1. there is no causal thought and the mood swings are "biological" in nature. This would imply that a change in dose/drug might be in order.
2. there is a causal thinking pattern but I can't detect it. I guess the only thing that can be done here is to maintain focused effort on detecting and challenging this thought pattern.
As for exercise, I find it helps briefly in that the 1/2 hr afterwards I feel better but that's about it. It certainly doesn't last for me.
Sorry I haven't been much assistance but I just wanted you to know that you're certainly not the only person out there who doesn't know why their mood swings down so horribly and inexplicably.Best wishes,
pete
poster:pedr
thread:95198
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020222/msgs/95678.html