Posted by Metalblade on January 3, 2004, at 22:31:45
I really need some opinions here on what I should do. First off let me give a brief history of my Mental illnesses. Well maybe it won’t be so brief because I’m starting from child hood. :-) When I was very young in like Kindergarten the teachers noticed that I wasn’t playing with the other children. I would go off on my own and play or I would just find some place to set and watch the other children. I had no desire to talk much. My problem got worse as I got older. Middle school and High school was a nightmare for me because I was scared to talk to people. I started skipping school because of this. At the time I didn’t know that what I had was called a Social Phobia. And on top of this I was also very depressed and of course I had no idea what that was either until eventually mom finally took me to a Pdoc. He told me I had Social phobia and depression. I was like hell ya; I finally have a name for it. That was not the end of my problems though. This doctor put me on Effexor and buspar. Well I noticed a response immediately. In fact the Effexor made me manic which was great for the Social Phobia but terrible at the same time because I was doing crazy things like running red lights for fun. The buspar is a joke by the way! I could take as little as 25mg of Effexor and this would happen to me. My eyes would dilate really big too. Any way when I had started taking the Effexor I had already quit smoking cigarettes about a month before and was completely off of smoking. But for some crazy reason maybe mania induced I don’t know, I got a cigarette off of a friend of mine. I started smoking again and the Effexor no longer made me manic but it didn’t help with depression at all after I started smoking again. In fact no antidepressant I have tried when I smoke works. Well, I told the Pdoc about my little discovery and by that time I had already looked up that antidepressants cause mania. He told me that there is no way that smoking could have that effect on antidepressants and the fact that I told him how the Effexor made me manic didn’t seem to ring any bells for him that I might be Bipolar. So if any one out there has had this happen with cigarettes let me know. Ok, let me go on. I was very dissatisfied with this Doctor so I went to a new doc. He first gave me Wellbutrin to get me off the Cigarettes, which worked like a charm. Then he put me on Zoloft. I took the Zoloft off and on for about 2 years. And then I got him to switch me over to Paxil because I heard it was better for Social Phobia. Well what I have noticed with these two drugs is that they initially work great the first day but not to the point of mania like the effexor caused, then they stop working and I start to get depressed again. Then if I increase the dosage they work and then quite working all in just a few days. So for the last 4 years I have been cycling my medicine to keep it working. Also I learned something the hard way. Don’t take over the counter sleeping pills. I took them for those four years and they have caused the cartilage in one of the discs in my back to degenerate and also in my hip. Take melatonin instead, its much safer, it works and is available in the supplement section of Wal-Mart. So any way, the Paxil has helped somewhat with anxiety but not nearly enough. I went back to the new Doc and asked him for Nardil. He basically laughed at the thought of even prescribing it to me. Call me indecisive if you will but I once again went back to the first Doctor. And he put me on vistaril for anxiety, which is like taking sleeping pills. He won’t prescribe me Klonipin either. I told him that I suspected that I had bipolar depression and that I had tried low dosages of lithium at 300mg for two weeks to see what would happen when taken along with the paxil. He was really pissed when he heard about me experimenting like that. But the whole time I was taking the lithium with the paxil I haven’t been cycling at all. My mood has stayed constant and I have gotten a lot of work done around the house. I don’t work anywhere by the way because of the Social Phobia. Even though I have got a tun of education. I went to school for electronics then I went back to school to become and electrician and got my license. All the education in the world isn’t going to help if I can’t interact with people. So back to the problem. After I told this to the doctor about my lithium experiment and begging him to put me on lithium he up and tells me he wants to put me on risperdal. I am not psychotic or schizophrenic. And from what I have read people with Social Phobia have low levels of dopamine and antipsychotic medications lower dopamine levels. So am I wrong in thinking this medication is just going to make my Social Phobia worse. Any input here would be greatly appreciated and sorry about writing so much in this post.
poster:Metalblade
thread:296178
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031231/msgs/296178.html