Posted by Ritch on March 28, 2005, at 11:08:55
In reply to Mitch: Med Dose with Age, posted by smith562 on March 27, 2005, at 20:02:54
> Hey Mitch,
>
> I have been following your and B-Cats posts on taking "micro" doses cymbalta. I have seen/heard many individual talk about taking hefty to normal size antidepressant doses when they were younger .... now only to require "micro" dose or no ads as they get older. My question is do you think individuals with bipolar or bipolar spectrum illness tend to require less antidepressant with age?
>
> If *yes*, is this due to kindling and the solidification of bipolarness (or another way to put it increasing sensitivity to ads as bipolar tendency concrete) .... or that as hormone levels decrease with age, one needs less ad? Thanks.
>
> Smith
Hmmm. Interesting idea. I don't think in my case that the AD use sparked more *kindling*, I just think that the *serotonergic* antidepressants in particular just happen to make for very effective mood nitroglycerine. When I first tried Prozac long ago, I went from 20mg/day to 2.5mg/day within a month-- adjusting the dose down because I was hypersensitive to it. That's what I think it is--just hypersensitivity. I think there is a LOT of people out there crushing, chopping, mixing, etc., to "create" their own personalized doses. There is still a lingering question of.. IF you are hypersensitive to a med.. should you be taking it at all? I don't know. I have recently stopped my mini-dose of Celexa. My head has gotten a lot quieter since and I'm far less testy. But, I feel less creative and blah without it somehow. I just read about that "ACID" syndrome (antidepressant induced chronic irritability syndrome) that was posted here recently, and it got me to thinking. They mentioned in there... that they withdrew the AD's and after a couple of months it all settled down. I haven't noticed any panic anxiety returning (but I'm usually not depressed at this time of year and that's when I get the panic-when I'm depressed). It's almost like I *miss* the irritability somehow. Come to think of it.. I remember several years ago noticing that when I "recovered" from depression in the springtime it was when I started getting angry. Another thing I've noticed.. the serotonergics seem to "color" my mood. I think that's what they call mood lability. There would be some sort of mood theme (out of several colors to choose from), that would "permeate" my being the entire day or several days. I'm noticing that starting to fade away.. Don't know if this is going to work or not-I'm willing to give it a try (staying off AD's). I don't know if this helps or not--- Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:476412
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050326/msgs/476721.html