Posted by bleauberry on June 16, 2012, at 6:00:01
In reply to going off meds - finding doc for opiods or stims?, posted by violetdream on June 15, 2012, at 16:40:35
Before abandoning the antidepressant meds you should consider these unless you already have:
Savella
Savella + anything
Zoloft + Nortriptyline
Prozac + Nortriptyline
ClomipramineOk so moving on, for the meds you are looking at you'll just have to switch gears and start going to a doc who deals with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. They are the ones who utilize opioids and stimulants, though they will likely be sure you have tried Cymbalta and/or Savella first. You could move to a State friendly with medical marijuana. That can work for some people when all meds do not.
On the natural side of things you will want to cover these bases....inflammation, toxicity, infection. In the herbal world of plant medicines there are a variety of plants that do these things with considerable potency. I happen to know a lot about many of them because I deal with chronic lyme stuff. It's just that in my journeys I have seen overlap between lyme stuff and what I see here at pbabble. That doesn't mean people here have lyme, it means I believe many of them have inflammation, toxicity, and/or infection issues as major players in the psych symptoms. Some of them do have lyme and don't know it.
In terms of herbs specifically for depression I think my #1 pick is rhodiola rosea. SJW can work miracles sometimes but I think it is generally overglorified about the same as prescriptions.
Something else to keep in mind is that maybe it is not a neurotransmitter deficiency thing, but rather a neurotransmitter excitability thing...a firing thing....low electrical activity. If that were true than your idea of stimulants could be helpful, I favor ritalin but others like adderall. Adrafinil and modafinil are definitely worth a look. TMS does the excitability thing.
One of my parachutes....to save me on a really bad day....is vicodan. I discovered that by accident following outpatient surgery. It can make me feel normal or close to normal for a few hours. And even helps the next day long after it has worn off, which I haven't figured out why that is, but ok. To get that you will have to be talking to a doctor about pain, not depression That's why I said, I think it will be easier to get the meds from a pain fatigue doctor than a mood doctor.
In the same vein must mention Tramadol. At patient rating forums this one does really well, better than the antidepressants, and most patients discovered it by accident when dealing with a pain issue. It is sort of SNRI/Opioid combo in one.
10 years is a long time. For me it is closer to 20. SLS I think even longer than that. My biggest gains and progress came not from psych meds, but from attacking the other issues I mentioned....inflammation, toxicity, infection. It's hard or impossible to diagnose any of those, so you just have to assume and treat accordingly. The treatment itself will in an experimental way tell you which areas are on target and which are not. With me, all three were/are huge issues. Remove or lessen those problems and the psych symptoms naturally improve, because those things are at the root of it all in the first place.....or even if they aren't at the root of it but rather results of something else, lessening those issues improves mood issues.
And if you want to go that route, the best way to learn more is to study up on herbal treatments of lyme disease, even if you do not suspect lyme-like issues, because that is the arena where there is a great deal of expertise on those issues.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1019790
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120608/msgs/1019828.html