Posted by mtdewcmu on December 25, 2009, at 20:05:29
I need to run my situation by the regulars here and maybe get some advice or reassurance...
I am taking 20mg Prozac, 30mg Remeron, 150mg Wellbutrin, 75mg Zoloft, and 2mg Abilify. It seems like I am on a ton of meds, but sometimes I don't feel like I'm on anything. I've noticed lately that I get very depressed and dysphoric after the sun goes down, which happens about 5:00 here right now. I have a bunch of possibilities running through my head; like I've only been on Prozac for slightly more than 2 weeks, so maybe it needs more time; I decreased the Zoloft from 100mg a few days ago, so maybe I'm having a little bit of withdrawals or a let-down from that; I'm on either too much or too little Remeron, I can't figure out which; and I'm on either too much or too little Wellbutrin.
The reason I think I might be on too much Remeron/Wellbutrin, is because I feel like my sleep is not refreshing, which could be a result of excessive stimulation. On the other hand, my sleep may not be refreshing due to depression, which would argue for increasing the dose of those drugs. When I was on a higher dose of Wellbutrin, I felt great for a few days, but then I started to feel terrible and I was waking up after getting about 4 hours of sleep, which is not normal for me. It seemed like the WB+Remeron was preventing me from sleeping, and so I halved the dose of WB. (Could this be WB withdrawal?)
I've had this experience of feeling crappy when the sun goes down previously, pre-medication. So it would seem to be a symptom of my depression and not a side effect of any of the meds. Which argues for either increasing the dose of something, or waiting for the current meds to work. My dose of Remeron has been steady for well over a month now. I tried upping the Abilify for a while, but over the past week I have been trying to let it wash out of my system at the suggestion of my pdoc and because I am doubtful of its benefits.
I'm going to wrap this up, because this post is already pretty long -- and no-doubt confusing, like my med history. The reason I've been making so many changes in such a short period is that I have been running out of patience with this process. I started the process of changing meds way back in July, and I'm not 100% certain if I've made any progress at all. So I am trying all kinds of ideas in the hope that something will work. I just took a second 20mg Prozac this evening in the hopes that that would help smooth things out and perhaps make up for the decreasing levels of Zoloft.
OK, so, I think I've convinced myself that the nighttime dysphoria is actually my disease and not the meds. So I must need more meds or more time for them to work. I hope I haven't terribly confused you... any suggestions?
poster:mtdewcmu
thread:930897
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091217/msgs/930897.html