Posted by snubbel on November 24, 2009, at 7:10:33
I'm currently on Moclobemide. My problems are AvPD with anhedonia and dysthymia. I took 300 mg/day in two doses but I am now tapering down (currently at 112.5 mg AM + 75mg PM) because of the emotional flattening (thymoanaesthesia). It really bugs me. When on the oroginal dose (or higher) I feel active and positive, but it doesn't seem 'real' at the same time. It is as if the feelings aren't 'grounded' deep inside me, just floating aroundon the surface. I feel shallow. Also, my capacity for empathy disappear. When I see something horrible on the news I just don't feel any emotional connection with the people it happened to. I went to a movie with an old friend and we saw this movie which ended with documentary photos from a massacre. My friend started to cry openly in the theatre and many others were crying to. I just sat there, fulle aware on an intellectual level that I what I saw was horrible and moving, but the feelings just weren't there. Something must be fundamentally wrong when documentary pictures of butchered children doesn't feel different than watching a soda advertisement. I was NOT like this before, just the opposite. Dang, I even cried (in private) to the scene in Groundhog Day when Bill Murray tries to save that dying homeless guy.
It is like the med has just numbed me all over, and at higher doses just adds a little shallow topping of activeness and not beeing negative.
At this point I am guessing that the flattening effect is from the regulation of Serotonin, and that I will have the same experience on all meds that regulate Serotonin. Actually, I am beginning to think that the emotional flattening effect is _the_ effect of this meds. That is, the strongest emotions are numbed first and when the dosage rises the softer, more subtle emotions also gets numbed. And finding the right dosage with these meds is about finding the point that is the least bad trade-off. Problem comes when you (that's me) don't have much genuine positive emotions to start with. Then the med just numbs the negative feelings and leaves nothing much at all to feel after that. My choice at this point seems to be either to be numbed and feeling that nothing about me is genuine or true, or to have my old negative feelings that are genuine and true even if they suck.
Should I try Buspirone? Venlafaxine? Something stimulating, like for ADD?
poster:snubbel
thread:926792
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091117/msgs/926792.html