Posted by SLS on November 25, 2022, at 14:01:17
ac > Have pretty severe GAD. Been on 50mg pristiq for almost a year. Hasn't done a lot. I tried 100mg and it seemed to move the needed a little, but I dropped back down to 50mg because I was getting lethargic.
I'm going to have to get a bit strong here. I don't know how long you were on 100 mg/day, but that's the dosage that gets most people well who have a genuine case of MDD (melancholic or atypical) or BD. I am not sure about GAD. I will mention here that Nardil is probably the most effective medication to treat it. Not going up to 100 mg/day of Pristiq and hanging in there for 4 weeks was likely to be a complete waste of your time.
It invariably takes 3 months for me to regain the ability to orgasm after introducing Nardil.
How long were you at 100 mg/day before you aborted the experiment? If you are working or in school, it might be difficult, or even impossible, to function with the psychiatric side effects you get from jumping up 100% in dosage. I don't recall what the lowest dose of Pristiq is. If you have to, Split 50 mg pills and try to go to 75 mg/day before increasing to 100 mg/day. You might be able to work or go to school with a less robust negative reaction. Stay at 75 mg/day for at least 2 weeks after the side effects have dissipated. If, however, you are not required to function, you could go to 100 mg/day and simply wait until the side effects disappear. Now that I think of it, jumping to 100% of your current dosage makes no sense at all for you - and perhaps everyone else as well. Because you have come to micromanage side effects, slower is better. You will be less apt to abort all of your experiments.
Is it possible that some members of the Psycho-Babble community have developed counterproductive habits and "schools of thought" that inevitably sabotage every one of their trials - simply for being here? Do people feed off each other to develop the habits that prevent them from getting well? I'm not sure, but it is a concern of mine.
"Start-up side effects" are almost inevitable with certain medications, many of which will disappear with continued treatment. Who here has heard the medical term "start-up side effects"? I wish I had begun using it on Psycho-Babble 23 years ago. That was an oversight on my part. It is very instructive to ponder the reasons why doctors and researchers use that term.
Would you trade 3 months of anaorgasmia for a lifetime of remission? I would/did. I wouldn't have known that my ability to orgasm would return had I not continued treatment for 12 weeks beyond the point of achieving of remission. That was about 2.5 years ago.
Don't immerse yourself in the horror stories of others, even when their stories really occurred. They might not do so for you. Don't spend too much of your time formulating sophisticated theories when neuroscientists remain baffled.
The practice of clinical psychiatry is still a largely empirical endeavor. That's not to say that there are a lack of facts. Quite the opposite is true. The amount of data produced by the scientific community is boundless. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of understanding that prevents the assembly of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. Treatment decisions are often based upon the reported experience of others in the field.
Do you want to kick depression's *ss or do you want temporary side effects to kick yours?
- ScottSome see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
poster:SLS
thread:1121118
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20220917/msgs/1121118.html