Posted by Honore on March 27, 2007, at 10:26:26
In reply to Re: EMSAM apparently is not for anxiety » Honore, posted by chiron on March 27, 2007, at 7:44:35
I had a fair amount of anxiety at the beginning, which became extremely problematic when I had a large dose on during the day-- because I was taking it off at night.
I reduced my daytime dose and actually did much better overall on a lower dose.
I'd say the first time around, because I was increasing the amounts during the day to a high amount (18 mg/12 hours; 0 mg/12 hours to equal nine mg), it's hard to say when my anxiety would have tapered off if I hadn't done that.
When I went back to about 6-9 mg (a schedule of 16-18 hours of 12 mg; and 6-8 hours of 0 mg), the anxiety subsided almost immediately.
I could speculate that there' s a tendency to go up too fast, and maybe to use too much Emsam. I do think it takes a little longer to come to full effect than maybe is thought-- although I had some noticeable reaction to it after about 10 days. Not huge, but definitely there.
I'd say the anxiety peaked for me at about 6 weeks (at the high dose) and fell as soon as I realized I was feeling really embattled and internally in turmoil from it. So it could take a while--although probably not that long. My use was atypical, so I"m not sure.
I had lesser anxiety that was in the background and sometimes became more intense, during the first weeks, definitely. Also insomnia, which is still a problem (but has always been a problem for me).
Give it time. I also was using xanax, which I recommend, to moderate the anxiety that may be inevitable.
For me at least, as I was saying, this time around abilify really reduced the anxiety level, at a low dose. At a slightly higher dose, it also seemed to make me more edgy and impatient.
Honore
poster:Honore
thread:744474
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070327/msgs/744618.html