Posted by utopizen on March 15, 2004, at 10:30:53
In reply to Re: Can Straterra really work within a week??, posted by liquidchakra on March 15, 2004, at 9:16:42
I am hoping simply switching back to Adderall after having been on Desoxyn since April will help me feel more in control of my life to some extent.
I suspect now my low energy levels are largely related to depression, although it's far from anything featuring sucidal ideation and I have been in denial that I could ever get it, being the happy kid I once was just a year ago. But stress over school and feeling out of control with things has led me to feel overwhelmed, and hopeless.
I see a therapist now again to remind me that I can't convince myself I can cram or chunk up large tasks so much that they seem too insurmountable to approach at all.
But it's tough, because mid-terms are already well underway and I still have two incompletes that have switched to F's and must now begin those and then finesse my professors into changing my grades despite the missed deadline.
Adderall seems to be a better bet, despite my apparent lack of concentration and moderate depression on top of anxiety about everything.
My doc gave me klonopin, which I haven't had since January for my social anxiety, and this appears to help with calming me down into realizing college isn't a boot camp for my brain.
My only concern is not passing my courses, which means not living with my roommates... oh well, so much for that(?)
I do have a 504 plan, a neuropsychological evaluation, and a triad of docs willing to write me notes for my dean or housing as necessary... but I like things to be more predictable and less reliant on the fickle swaying of the powers that be at my college, despite my ADD and its nature of placing me in these akward situtations.
I don't think Straterr'a worth the risks from now until final's, despite its potential. There's just too many chances it will either not work (and without Adderall, that means no backup strategy) or give me side effects that don't let me function enough to do my readings and studying.
My doc meets with me weekly. But he's so rigid about the one-drug-at-a-time approach that it's irrational. He took 3 weeks just to "wean" me off of Xanax XR, which I was on at 3mg/day for two months. He acted like he was taking me off of an 8-year old crack habit! And he wouldn't prescribe anything in-between, thank god I had my useless desoxyn filled by my former pdoc just before seeing him.
If I'm lucky, he'll give me Adderall, as my Desoxyn runs out today and I see him tomorrow. He was ready to give it to me a month ago, but I went off on how I wanted Desoxyn, and he never heard of it, so refused to prescribe it on that basis. (He also is "uncomfortable" with the notion of prescribing Klonopin Wafers over Klonopin tablets for the same reason!)
He also sounded like he wanted to spent the next four weeks making sure my Klonopin dose was perfected to a T, and then the following four weeks weaning me from the Nadolol (all-day beta blocker for my social anxiety disorder)
I haven't told him I haven't bothered to even refill for a month now. He didn't have any clue about its use in social anxiety disorder, despite my detailed explanation into how a psychosomatic biofeedback response stemming from the heart exacerbates social anxiety states.
He tried to rule the possibility of my other doctor's basis for this out by looking at the PDR and not finding that indication in it. I had to crack up laughing at how naive he appeared to me several times. I'll be damned if he uses Nadolol tapering as a basis for not changing a med in the future, as I haven't used the stuff in a month now. I've already wasted three weeks from him tapering me off Xanax, as I pretended to go along with him and act like I was. 2 months, if that, at 3mg, this guy is ridiculious.
poster:utopizen
thread:323760
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040313/msgs/324591.html