Posted by blueberry on February 4, 2006, at 4:46:49
In reply to any BIPOLARS use LEXAPRO??, posted by bipolarspectrum on February 3, 2006, at 19:58:25
It's so hard to predict which meds will do what since we all respond so differently. That being said, I doubt lexapro will bring you the happiness you are looking for. But that's just opinion. Basically I think all serotonin meds are emotional anesthetizers. That is, they tend to dull out the depressive feelings but they also dull out the happy feelings, kind of like squashing the entire emotional spectrum into a steady flat line. I've seen people report here hundreds of times, and it includes myself, about how ssri's make them feel apathetic and emotionless.
Those happy feelings you are looking for are more likely to be found in dopamine and/or norepinephrine mechanisms. But even with those, it is like throwing the dice each time you try a med that you think might be good.
But to be fair, there have been reports now and then from people who feel great on lexapro or other ssri's.
Of all the ssri's, it is my personal experience that prozac is the least dulling of all and the most likely to help restore happy feelings, probably because it has significant activation of norepinephrine and dopamine that the others do not have. But it seems to be better at this at low doses ranging from 10mg or 20mg a day to 10mg or 20mg twice or three times a week. At higher doses the serotonin effect becomes too strong and the dulling effect takes over.
Wellbutrin maybe. People seem to feel really good on wellbutrin and they feel it pretty quickly, or they feel really bad and they feel it pretty quickly.
DL-Phenylalanine might be a quick cheap simple test. 500mg once a day, though in some books they actually go as high as 3000mg a day. Or take it just once every 2 or 3 days. It naturally increases the feel-good endorphins, norepinephrine and dopamine, but mostly the endorphins. One book claims that the elevated endorphin levels stay elevated for a few days after a single dose. In my own personal trials that seems to be true for me.
Anyway, just some opinions and some ideas to play with.
poster:blueberry
thread:606062
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060129/msgs/606192.html