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What helped and what didn't- my update.

Posted by delna on March 12, 2010, at 10:29:57

Hi everyone,
I thought I'd come back and share my experience- positive and negative, in case it may be helpful to others. Please forgive me if this is a bit long- I have tried to keep it brief as possible.

My current state is that I am still quite depressed and suicidal and although much better, I still struggle with fatigue.

I am now on:
Prozac 20mg
Lamictal 200mg
Wellbutrin 450mg
Ritalin 40mg
Provigil 450mg
Klonopin 1mg

You might remember that I was here alot from October to December 2009. I had severe depression and exhaustion. I was also very suicidal. I failed a short (but traumatic) trial of Parnate which seemed to be my last hope and I was getting rather desperate.
After reading the experiences of other members of PB, I asked my psychiatrist if there could be some other cause for my symptoms (like an infection), especially the tiredness. He said it was highly possible.
However after seeing many doctors and having several tests, nothing earth shattering showed up- just low levels of Vitamin D. But I am sure something underlying is still lurking even though it hasn't been identified yet. Maybe when a new, less 'vague' symptom surfaces I will get a lead. Meanwhile I am just covering up the exhaustion with stimulating drugs.

Experiences with meds:

Stimulants
I am on Ritalin 40mg, Provigil 400mg and Wellbutrin 450mg just to stay awake. This combination helps but I still struggle with the fatigue. I also take 100mg caffeine pills as needed.
Ritalin has been by far the most useful for tiredness. Provigil does not compare even at 400mg. Adding the Ritalin (40mg) is what actually got me out of bed. Ritalin also made me more motivated in a way that Provigil doesnt. I have been on the Ritalin for 3 months and as it stands I have noticed no tolerance build up.
I am not sure how effective the Wellbutrin is. It seems to help the fatigue but has no effect on my mood (which is still very low)

Prozac:
I am very disappointed with Prozac. I chose it over venlafaxine because I believed that its binding at 5-HT 2C would be activating. However it wasnt. Prozac (20mg) is hardly helping my depression and making no impact on the tiredness whatsoever. Infact I take it at night. Currently I am only taking if for OCD.

Venlafaxine
I tried 75mg of Venlafaxine for a few days and I found it very helpful for mood symptoms. However it made me sleepy so I gave it up.

T3
T3 was a nightmare. I took 25mcg for 2 months. I had the most awful side effects like violent shaking and bad overheating. I cannot tell if it helped with the fatigue but it had no effect on mood. I gave it up a few weeks ago but still have not fully recovered from the side effects.


What I still cannot understand is how an anti psychotic (like Geodon in my case) can be more stimulating than all these stimulants put together. It's perplexing!

A question:
Has anyone taken more than 40mg Ritalin? I think 40mg is still too low for me.

I hope people are doing somewhat better.
Take care
love
D

 

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poster:delna thread:939254
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