Posted by Amelia_in_StPaul on April 25, 2009, at 14:30:55
In reply to Re: d/r + experts - desperate for help w/my meds, posted by desolationrower on April 24, 2009, at 21:30:47
hey, d/r!! thanks so much for responding!!! its okay you don't do hugs--every one of us has something to contribute, and you obviously do us all such a favor by using your huge smarts to help us out. so I thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
some responses in text...
> hey, i'll try to respond. i'm probably not much use with hugs. and its a grass=greener, but i don'tn really experience 'breakdown', i just feel kind of dead, and kind of wish i had something to say other than 'i sat around, not doing much, and was sad'. so anyway, what i mean is that even though it takes me a while to read through, i did find your story interesting. i did have a 'am i schizophrenic' moment, woke up with lots of jamais vu, and had to call my old man.old man=psychiatrist? I'm confused--and I'm abashed to admit this, as it means that for all my feminism, I am sexist, but I thought you were/are a guy?
about jamais vu--you wouldn't happen to have temperoal lobe epilepsy, would you? that can happen without it being clear that you have seizures (you probably already know this). things like jamais vu and a lot of deja vu are often signs of TLE.
> about TCAs, they are preferred for psychotic depression (+an antipsychotic).
I'm confused. Why do so many of them have a side effect as inducing schizophrenia, as opposed to the MAOIs and SRIs?
>they won't help much with OCD, but they are effective for panic, at least once you get to a good dose and are there for a bit. perhaps a low dose of an sri would be worth trying, once you're on a good dose ofa tca.
>
> if traz. helps but gives you a hangover, try something with a shorter half life maybe. cyproheptadine or low dose risperdone. probably gabapentin/pregabalin. i just realized i said this to you before i think/?I think so. Are you in favor of low-dose antipsychotics even in absence of a psychotic disorder? I looked up cyproheptadine--how do you know about this stuff? my pdocs have never even mentioned this medication. it looks promising, from what I've read, in terms of increasing non-rem sleep (which I need).
> so i guess i'd say get some nortryptaline. oh, i see you've tried amytryptaline. could you say more about it you didn't like? maybe you're sensitive to antimuscarinic effects. maybe some huperzine would be helpful?
>
I remember that it didn't really put me or keep me asleep any better than not having meds, but that I was quite out of it the next day, bumping into things and unable to focus--even on objects--as though I could see, but not really see. I don't know how to describe that. I could see objects, but couldn't precisely judge their location in space, so I'd bump into them.I think you may be right about anticholergenic drugs (their antimuscarinic effects--whew, I'm googling like crazy), if Effexor would be considered one of them. Are there classes of drugs that are anticholergenic, like SNRIs? Is Seroquel one of them, or no?
> also, read the post i made for zana, i think that has about everything relevant to alternative (but not including herbal ADs) as far as nutrition and its pretty much the same thing for health. do'nt take a statin, though.
>OK, will do.
> inositol (titrating up to 15-20g/d range) and modafinil might help too.
It's funny. I had my first dose of GNC women's multivitamin, which has excesses of some B vitamins, and has iron, and I was SO ALERT--not right away, but maybe 5 hours later. I couldn't sleep last night, didn't fall asleep until 2:00 (my usual is 12:00) and had a fitful sleep. I took the multi too late--at 3:00 PM. I am supposed to take them b/c I am on borderline deficiency with iron and B12.
>
> also, things like 2-day trials of meds isn't necessarily indicative of how they will be long-run, make sure you don't start off too high and so get a bad reaction to a drug.OK. I think that is what has happened in the past!!
> things like nausea from ADs usually go away; its the side effects like sexual disfunction that don't.
>is eye dilation a troubling sign? Or double-vision--should I withdraw after only two days if that happens? Nausea I've been able to work with, like when I'd start Wellbutrin (back when it didn't make me into a bit of a maniac), and just push through.
> maybe try NAC for the OCD? could try memantine too, but its DX and more $.
WOW, I have NEVER heard of these things, things like NAC. THANK YOU! What an encyclopedia your mind is. Methinks you are a pharmacist or doctor??
>
> oh, i like reading to distract myself too. or video games, i did that thsi last week and just now am emerging.Ahhhhhhhh yessssss. My distractions are word games online. I wonder, though, isn't that a sign of perhaps some sort of dopamine deficiency, since gaming taps into the reward center of the brain?
d/r thank you. thank you. thank you. I have learned so much in the 20 minutes that I've read and processed your post.
sounds like maybe you were down last week if you were gaming? if so, i'm very sorry to hear it.
poster:Amelia_in_StPaul
thread:891937
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20090129/msgs/892740.html