Posted by Talbot on March 13, 2006, at 1:16:48
Hello!
I found this site a few years back, and it helped me immensely in helping to figure out what was going on with me emotionally, and helping me realize I wasn’t the only one with my issues. Anxiety was a major issue for me back then, and after running the gamut of medications including SSRI’s (most of them) , TriCyclics (Doxepin), BuSpar, Inderal, Neurontin, Depakote, Seroquel, etc. etc. My doctor prescribed clonazepam 2mg/day as a last resort since I wasn’t responding to the other meds….and POOF!….almost like magic my anxiety was under control, and stayed that way for a couple of years.
I made a decision to wean myself off the Klonopin gradually, and finally stopped taking it completely. I had some mild anxiety issues, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. Then last year my mother passed away, I built a new house, and undertook 2 new businesses. WHAMMO! The anxiety came back. It started slow, with intermittent panic attacks and brief moments of anger/irritability/rage, but soon escalated into something I was unable to handle anymore.
My regular physician thought I might do well on Cymbalta. Unfortunately I did not respond well to this med, which is most often the case with my reaction to SSRI’s. If anything, I was more anxious, and had terrible sweats that were very embarrassing. I stayed on the Cymbalta for 8 weeks with no improvement.
I recently went to see my old pdoc, and explained to her my dilemma. She prescribed clonazepam again, 2mg/day, along with 150 mg Wellbutrin in the morning to counteract some of the sedating effects of the clonazepam. She also added Lithium to help control my anger outbursts, and started me at 300mg bid. This was sort of a shock to me, as I related Lithium with “drugs for crazy people” (ignorance on my part). I’m due back in 10 days for my first blood test to check the lithium levels.
After one week on this “cocktail” as some call it, I’m like a different person. I’m much more patient, not worrying about things I can’t control. And my anger outbursts have gone down dramatically. And I’m not the only one that notices it….my wife sees the change too. I’m hoping maybe to get even more relief when my Lithium dosage is raised to the normal 900mg (from what I’ve read this seems to be the typical therapeutic dose). I’ll think twice before acting like a physician again and discontinuing my meds!! Well, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night….J
Thanks for all of you that post on this forum. So many questions have been answered for me, ranging from side effects of drugs to how these meds may interact with one another, to how they affect other people. And I no longer consider Lithium a “drug for crazies”. It seems to be the exact thing I needed to augment my therapy.
poster:Talbot
thread:619687
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060310/msgs/619687.html