Posted by Seige on September 22, 2011, at 8:56:36
In reply to Re: Memantine + Parnate: Day 1, posted by Sailboat77 on September 18, 2011, at 20:43:19
> I myself struggle with anhedonia. I'm constantly trying to find new ways to battle it because the lack of joy or interest is the worst part of my Treatment-Resistant Depression. All the typical antidepressants and mood stabilizes did nothing for me.
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> I've been on Parnate for 10 months and I'm finding it's no longer as effective as it used to be. About 3 months ago I started taking stimulants to help with the depression and found that it was very effective against anhedonia. In the past, taking a stimulant alone would elevate my mood to the point I felt perfectly content, but I would emotionally crash after it wore off (it was the only time I ever experienced Bipolar-like symptoms). The Parnate + stimulant combination seems to stop the emotional crash and work against the anhedonia.
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> Recently however, the combo has become less effective. Right now I'm taking 40mg of Vyvanse and 60mg of Parnate. I'm still working through it to see if I can get the combination to work at an effective level, but if doesn't work, I got to try something else.
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> DCS sounds like an interesting alternative. Have you ever had ECT treatments? I know for myself that ECT seemed to make me feel worse.
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> -Best of LuckHey Sailboat,
Yeah anhedonia has got to be one of the worst things in the world ever. Like worse than Hitler bad. It takes away the point of living, pretty much.
It affects everything, all the time. And the thing I hate most about it is that it takes away who you are. I really liked who I was. I hate talking to people and now only able to answer their questions and no more. I used to be really funny, and loved talking to people. But each conversation now feels like another person who won't know who I actually was. I also really miss music.
Sounds like you're becoming tolerant to the Vyvanse. Maybe memantine could help you here? Also even taking a break from it could help restore some effectiveness.
As far as parnate goes, it definitely raises my base mood. Parante and Nardil are the only two meds which have been able to do this for me. It actually makes me feel kinda happy all the time, in a really wired kind of way. However, I suspect once the stim effect has gone, it actually makes the anhedonia a bit worse, and I've just felt like doing nothing at all for these years I've been on parnate.
Its actually a fairly disconcerting feeling, being in a good mood but having 0 variance in it, especially when it feels too good for the situation, and you just want to be relaxed.
That said, parnate between 60mg-150mg has been what's been keeping me alive the last few years.
The DCS turned out to be false hope, apparently it'll take 2 hours each day due to cognitive testing etc, so would be pretty much impossible while I'm working (they actually said that). Bummer.
Good news though, my Adrafanil arrived on Monday. Have been taking it at 600mg since then, stacking on top of 40mg Parnate. It's now day 4. I've actually given Modafinil a shot before, which was a pretty rough month. It would make my brain feel a bit more active in a very NE kind of way, but at the same time felt uncomfortable, and needless to say did nothing for the anhedonia.
But I think its still worth giving Adrafanil a shot, if it needs weeks to work it must be somehow different to Modafinil, and maybe the Parnate base will help out somehow.
The first day felt like modavigil, but haven't really felt anything from it since then. Lets see how it goes over the next couple of weeks.
poster:Seige
thread:996139
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110914/msgs/997488.html