Posted by mouse on July 6, 2002, at 15:37:00
In reply to Question for all-any advice please!!? long-sorry, posted by hildi on July 4, 2002, at 19:27:04
> Hello to anyone who reads this. I have been getting some useful information from reading the posts but I'm still confused what to do and I don't think my pdoc is much help, at all.
Lots of people here who know their stuff. you'll be pleased with the information.
> I have major, unipolar depression (I believe) with severe anxiety d/o. I had been on zoloft 50mg. fpr approx 8 years. Worked pretty well, for the most part (for anxiety, mostly), but the side effects suddenly became too much and the apathy was just too great-I couldn't stand it anymore.
Sounds like me when I was on Effexor. It stopped working and all I had were the side-effects. Not too great. Changing meds can be a bummer but sometimes it is just necessary.
> I tapered off zoloft slowly and tried some 'natural products'. Got a bad reaction, sick as a dog, anxiety through the roof, depression at a point so low it was worse than I can ever remember being. Then pdoc gave me celexa.
>I tried celexa too. Increased the anxiety if I remember correctly. Sometimes I think these meds cause more problems than they are worth. I didn't like it at all. My pdoc told me to stick with it. I did for 3 months. Still felt like cr*p.
> At 10 mg I gave it a few weeks- got a glimmer of hope, some anxiety relief, but I also got a whole NEW kind of anxiety altogether(wierd!), and one really good day-then I crashed and felt worse than ever. I continued to take the celexa, but It was making me feel MORE depressed, also jittery, irritable, and confused. I tried upping the dose and it made me feel worse.
>Are you upping the dose on your own or with your pdoc's blessing? If with his/her blessing than it looks like you are going to have problems getting the med into a range where you get theraputic usage. That was my problem with the med as well.
> I went back down to 10mg. after talking to my pdoc
> and continued to feel worse than ever. Crazy confused thinking- getting lost easily, forgetting the simplest things. More jumpiness and anxiety. Crying spells, endless crying spells. Despair, gloom, jumping out of my skin.
> I was feeling like I was going crazy. Went to pdoc and said I can't take this, give me something else, but he says to give it more time and that celexa needs longer than the three/four? weeks I've given it. He gives me a seizure med to take with the celexa, to calm me down. The name escapes me- something like trileptal??
>hum? After the 3rd month for me I went in with a plan. I had originally suggested Parnate but he'd rejected it for the celexa, but this time I made the request again. He talked about the food and drug interactions and looked at what I was taking. I assured him I was up for it. Glad I did.
> Well I am afraid to take his seizure med after reading some of the posts on it, so I started taking low doses of zoloft again. I started feeling better right away.
> I am only taking approx 6.5mg. zoloft right now and the crying spells are gone. It has been 5 days since I've had a celexa. But I feel extremely nauseaus- I have for days on end. I have apathy like you can't believe! I have no passion, feelings, thoughts on anything. I am a shell of a person just walking around.
>Zoloft works in ways but in other ways you are not getting the "life" you need as well. Too bad. living in the state where you feel apathic is the pits.
> I don't know which is worse. Feeling dead on my feet-a zombie, like I am now. Or feeling exposed to the world and going out of my mind with emotions and sensations as I was on celexa
>This is really tough. I feel for you. Most of us have been where you are at and totally understand. But you don't have to settle for one or the other of these options. There are MAOI's. If you don't want to try them what about the old meds that are not SSRI's? Can't remember their class name. I'm not the smartest person when it comes to this stuff. Sorry. But I do understand how you feel when changing meds and not finding the right one. It takes so long and is very frustrating until you do find one that will work.
> My question to you all is this: Plan A: Should I try mixing the two- I mean take small dose of zoloft in AM and small dose of celexa in PM? I remember reading a post a while back in which someone took only small dose celexa to add a 'spark'- what I need to make me feel like I'm alive. Will the celexa ever kick in with a/d effects and will the anxiety go away?Talk with your pdoc. Can't suggest anything here.
> PLan B: Go back to prozac? I took prozac before I took zoloft. I remember feeling 'alive'. However, I discontinued and switched to zoloft because of the anxiety. I could try a lower dose of prozac than before.
> Plan C: Take this trileptal, whatever it is! The seizure med prescribed by my pdoc. Wouldn't this make me more apathetic?
>
I don't know about the bipolar stuff, nor do I know much about the classes of meds but do know that sometimes it is suggested to change classes. Your situation may be one that would get this suggestion. But for me I am taking an MAOI and it is working very well. I don't have the depression and the anxiety is much less. I still have some issues I'm trying to resolve but Parnate has been a god send for me.
> Any Ideas?? Please respond- I don't expect a diagnosis, just opinions from those who know how frustrating this whole med mess is!!
> Thanks,
> HildiGood luck!
>
> PS: As a 'recovering' alcoholic/addict, I cannot take anything like benzos, so I can't even consider that route.Recovering is a good thing. Sometimes people use because they are medicating. This way you are medicatiting with supervision and it isn't an addiction thing. Good luck on finding what works for you.
mouse
poster:mouse
thread:111427
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020628/msgs/111583.html