Posted by Girlnterrupted78 on January 26, 2010, at 21:13:03
In reply to Lamictal is ruining my life, posted by Girlnterrupted78 on January 22, 2010, at 19:10:16
So I could not deal with Lamictal and I told my doctor it was ruining my life. I was very grateful that he allowed me to go off it without asking me to "give it at least 6 weeks.." which would have probably left me homeless, or caused some major damage to my life.
Within 2-3 days that I went off it, I'm starting to feel alive again.. what a BiiiiiiiiG difference. I don't sleep all day anymore, I don't feel heavy, lethargic and unable to accomplish anything, and I'm not having those endless suicidal thoughts.. at least for now...
God, I was ready to die.. Strangely enough, I had similar reactions to Abilify, and to an extent to Nortriptyline.
It seems like the only meds that fight my depression effectively are stimulant medications (Parnate & Adderall..) Even Nardil turned me into a zombie and slowly began to ruin my life as well.. I didn't realize it was doing it because it went very slowly...but now that I look back, I see how poorly I was doing on it, and how long I stayed on it due to its great reputation as the "gold standard" for depression + social anxiety.. I wanted to give it as much time as possible to work.. and of course, after a FULL YEAR of waiting, raising the dose, etc.. I had to go off it.
So given this (short) story of success vs failure, and the type of medications that have caused each, does anyone know if there is any med out there that I could add to my combo, that will improve my response and possibly bring me back to my initial response to Parnate?
(For those who might not have read about my initial response to Parnate--it was outstanding and gave me a level of self-confidence and happiness I can only dream of now. I'm not in the pit of misery, insecurity and depression right now, but I'm definitely far from that initial response. Back then I was feeling so "normal" that I could not believe it. Just like one of those normal people you see laughing and enjoying life and social interactions, and that you could never understand... Sadly, it didn't last..)
Within 2-3 weeks of that initial response, the effectiveness of the combo diminished from an 80% to about a 40-50%..
Even though not back to full blown depression, some symptoms began to return when the med partially "pooped out".. the great confidence was replaced by a sense of slight discomfort.. not bad enough to make me as socially anxious as my natural state, but bad enough to not allow me to enjoy several social situations that I was able to enjoy during the initial response I had to Parnate.
So now that I know all these meds (Lamictal, Abilify, Nortriptyline)strangely enough make me sleep an untold amount of hours, make me lethargic and apathetic, and worsen my depression to a point of engaging in suicidal ideation..what could be added to my current combo that will not do the same, and that will potentially kickstart the antidepressant effects I initially had?
All ideas or suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
poster:Girlnterrupted78
thread:934714
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100122/msgs/935091.html