Posted by g_g_g_unit on October 25, 2012, at 5:48:56
In reply to Re: Day 2 on Memantine/Nameda and feel Very Weird!!, posted by AlexCanada on October 24, 2012, at 19:00:42
I'm trying Memantine for OCD/depression at the moment.
I started on 2.5mg and worked my way up to 15mg, but it skyrocketed my anxiety, made me dysphoric, caused insomnia and generally put me in quite a hellish place. There were some positive early effects at the lower doses -- moments where I felt more joyful, clear-headed, and this weird, almost psychedelic visual clarity where colors were insanely enhanced. It's effects on anxiety have been pretty inconsistent .. sometimes I'll feel really calm and stable, other times quite agitated.
That said, I, ever the stubborn one, have cut back to 2.5mg twice a day. I tend to be really sensitive to medication in general (my doctor suspects I'm a slow metabolizer), so I'm hoping the lower dose might help. I only lowered it 4 days ago and have been feeling *very* strange -- moody, dissociated etc. -- so I can totally relate to what you describe; it almost feels like a bad drug trip. But my mood has been a bit more stable than it was at the higher doses.
Anyway, I often feel dissociated from anxiety/depression anyway, so I'm just pushing through it. Maybe you should have given it longer, since my understanding is that it takes about 5-10 days to adjust to a dose, and the dissociation is supposed to pass. But then again, I'm so desperate for something to help w/out painful side-effects that I'm ploughing ahead .. I plan to give this dose about two weeks before calling it quits.
I'll keep you updated ..
poster:g_g_g_unit
thread:1029101
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20121018/msgs/1029734.html