Posted by johnj on May 21, 2002, at 16:58:05
In reply to Re: SAM-e Status » johnj, posted by Ron Hill on May 21, 2002, at 15:45:40
Ron,
First I am sorry to hear you had a depressive episode, they are the worst of worst and I feel for you.
My dx consists of mainly depression, but what the docs have ignored is the anxiety/panic to my problem. My first treatment was needed after I experienced a few days, in 1992, of anxiety which consisted of worry, lack of concentration, jumpy, etc., basically read the diagnosis for anxiety disorder and it is me. After a few days of that I had a massive panic attack late one Sunday night and by Monday morning I couldn’t eat or barely function and I had this nagging panic/anxiety inside. I can admit it now, but I quickly became suicidal, had the fear I was just going crazy, became withdrawn, and even started to fear I might hurt somebody. Essentially, I became the exact opposite that I was before the attack. It was the strangest thing, it was as if my mind knew what would scare me the most. It was as if my flight or fight mechanism was turned on and there was no way to turn it off, that is where I believe my abnormal thoughts originated, sort of like I couldn’t run so I had to “fight” at some primitive level. I was living abroad so some of it was situational. I was losing my job, dating a great woman, whom I did marry, and was struggling with what to do in life(I still struggle with that!)
My current regime is
50 mg of nortryptline
600 mg of lithobid—booster for AD
7.5 mg of tranzene, and
3 days ago started to split another 7.5 mg of tranxene after lunch and late afternoon.The anxiety came back and I just wasn’t sleeping so I have returned to the benzo dose I was at about 2 years ago.
The strange thing is I quit remeron 2 weeks ago(too sponge-headed on it) and added 20 mg of imipramine which was GREAT for 5 days and then BOOM, anxiety. I wanted to quit the nortryptline and switch to imipramine because I believe the norty. is causing me problems when I work out(something Colin has had some experience with too). But, any higher dose of a TCA and side effects hit me hard. I didn’t sleep one wink last Thursday and sweated most of the night, but didn’t feel so bad mood wise just anxiety for no reason. However, since I added the extra 7.5 mg of tranzene I feel better, but not something to write home about yet.So the meds I have tried are:
Remeron—30 mg, then up to 45 and even more spaced out. When down to 15 and actually felt ok for a few weeks, but seemed to get more depressed as I lowered the dose.
Imipramine---not sure what I think of it yet. I wanted to put it in place of nort, but the doc wanted me stable on it before going down on nortryptline, but that won’t work.<Define what you mean by "anxiety". Is it worry or fear or irritability or something else? Have you tried Serzone?>
My anxiety can range from worry(mainly), to fear(ex, am I doing ok at work?, am I a good person?), and does have some irritability which I find the most annoying . Because I hate to bitch at the ones I love. But a lot of it is just baseless worry I guess, kind of hard to explain since I always thought that it was all one disorder and know I suspect my anxiety might be a major reason I get depressed. I had times as a youth where I became depressed, but they are all related to worry or anxiety (like being bullied at school). So, I wonder….treat the anxiety and does the depression factor fade?
Nope have not tried serzone, and I understand it does require some benzo dose adjustment so I don’t know if it is what I want right now or not.<John, tell me what you mean by "overdrive". Do you mean worry and fear or do you mean hyperactivity or something else?>
By overdrive I mean causing me to become too anxious and starting feelings of anxiety or worry. It is hard to explain and I am just starting to understand the different components to my illness.
I still want to try and did buy some sam-e. Not sure what to do right now. I want to learn more about anxiety/panic disorder and what supplements etc., may help that aspect. I don’t know if sam-e has any benefit to anxiety/panic???? From what I have read xanax has some AD benefits, and if it was longer lasting it might be a very excellent med for me. When I went off the 7.5 mg of tranzene 2 years ago I had some jumpy legs, but otherwise it wasn’t too bad. Need to go, talk to you soon Ron. Take care of yourself.
Johnj
poster:johnj
thread:106963
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020517/msgs/107186.html