Posted by Francisco on July 16, 2002, at 10:44:22
In reply to Re: What is going on with me? Long story..., posted by katekite on July 14, 2002, at 16:49:14
> It sounds like there are a lot of issues: sleep, attention and cognitive things, depression, daytime energy, motivation, and whether or not your moods are overly extreme. Dysthymia sure doesn't sound like it explains most of that! I don't buy it as a solo diagnosis.
>
> With the new doc, it is a psychiatrist right? It might be useful to do an MMPI or other mood/personality test to help them figure out what other classes of meds might help.
>
> It's important to rule out ADD. I liked the quiz at www.mindfixers.com. Have you ever been prescribed ADD meds? like Ritalin or Adderall? It is important to get tested for ADD when on the smallest amount of meds possible. If you think the neurobrain guy you saw long ago could have been wrong, talk to the psychiatrist about getting a formal evaluation. In unclear cases a psychiatrist will most likely know an ADD specialist that could really figure it out once and for all.
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> It sounds like you've unfortunately had to deal with bouts of depression since you were a teenager. Something severe enough to make you need pot on a daily basis just to get by! That says a lot. It's reasonable to be scared of what happened with remeron or the side effects of prozac. There's no reason you need to tolerate those things (and no reason you have to live with pain itself). Almost everyone eventually finds a med or maybe a combination of two that really makes life livable again. It just takes time.
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> Can you elaborate on the extra range of emotion with remeron? Did that happen while you were on it, or after you stopped? When you say you had panic-like symptoms, how long did that last and what did it feel like, exactly? Are you sure it wasn't agitation, dysphoric hypomania or something else?
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> Katei did take the ADD test at mindfixers.com and i believe it said probable ADD. but then i didn't have concentration problems until i first got depression during adolescence. i have never been prescribed ADD meds. as for the range of emotions with remeron, it came when i purposely stopped it for a day or two because i didnt want to mix it when i used recreational drugs. looking back, maybe what i went through was withdrawl or something. my current doc doesn't want me to mix meds, when i asked her of that possibility, she said that would only be necessary if the situation was desperate enough. the first so called panic attack came when i tried driving on the freeway after i smoked pot while on remeron. the second time i felt it was during the post-ecstasy depression phase. both times it only lasted part of one day though. perhaps it wasn't panic attack but i sure was panicking. can u tell me what dysphoric hypomania is?
i have been reading about dysthymia lately and the more i read about it, the more it is the correct diagnosis. however, i did and still do have certain periods of unbearable depression that feel like episodes of major depression. from what i know, a person with dysthymia is not supposed to have major depression?
poster:Francisco
thread:112307
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020709/msgs/112526.html