Posted by AMD on August 21, 2005, at 14:25:09
In reply to Declan, that's exactly what I was thinking. . ., posted by Sarah T. on August 20, 2005, at 21:56:47
>
> I cannot understand why doctors prescribe a highly selective SSRI like Celexa to someone like the original poster, who craves dopaminergic meds!
>
I should explain my history a bit more.I began taking Celexa about five years ago, when I was bulimic, down to 98 pounds (I'm a slim, if muscular, 165 lbs now), and at the time I'd never had a single drink of alcohol nor any drugs.
Around the same time, I began drinking. I found that alcohol, along with the Celexa, mellowed me out, and for a year or two I was in bliss: life was exceedingly good.
Then I became erratic in my behavior: I would skip work, and think nothing of it. I would drink to excess. I eventually lost my job (and blamed it on my employer, of course!), and spent a summer in a "party mode," as I light-heartedly put it, drinking, smoking (for the first time), and starting to indulging in cocaine.
Around the end of that summer, I decided it was time to get a job again, and I secured an excellent position with a financial firm, with terrific opportunity for growth, and in a field I thoroughly enjoy. So, I told myself, it's time to kick the partying habit.
I was still on Celexa at this point, rarely seeing a psychiatrist, as "it was working" -- and it was, in my mind. It kept me happy and at the time I could still remember the misery of my bout with bulemia and the general depression that had washed over me right before I was put on that drug.
And for a few weeks, I got to work, did my job, and thought, again, life is grand.
But then I started drinking. Then taking drugs on weekends. Being late for work. Acting erratically again. And this time, the aftereffect of the drugs and alcohol were leaving me depressed. For days. Much like now.
Long story short, I ended up in California, was diagnosed bipolar, and went through a series of medicine changes until I finally settled on Lamictal and Celexa, which I continue to take this day. At no point did I stop the Celexa.
In February, after a year of stability, and feeling happy and refreshed, I moved back to New York. Within two weeks, I was drinking and doing cocaine again. That once-or-twice habit of blacking out, smoking, and doing drugs, had returned. I was right back where I started. And I'm still there.
So, as you can see, the Celexa was prescribed at a time when taking stimulants was the furthest thing from my mind. Perhaps it's time to reevaluate that.
amd
poster:AMD
thread:544231
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050821/msgs/544807.html