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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 23 of 23. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by jonhed on July 2, 2016, at 12:20:35
This is day 2 and i feel great, or to be more exact, nothing yet and that's great for me cause it "should" have started a shitload of anxiety by now, but i could even sleep this night very good.
A little scared but that gave away when i turned on some light. (This happens when i worry about things, i get scared of the dark. Like the iron maiden song, no i'm not an iron maiden fan.)I NEED to point out this.
I know that there can be some side effects on memantine that starts after some days and i'm very very worried about it. Like the depersonalization/derealization.This is important, and i hope that you all can respect this:
I don't want to hear peoples bad experiences in this thread, because i need to give this a fair trail and i'm a very anxious guy.
A bad experience can cause me to withdraw from the medicine, which i did the last 5 medicines i was on, and it could be very bad for me.I don't mean to say to you what to write, but please respect this.. I get all the side effects when i read them.
So if you lovable folks want a journal, updated every day. Don't write your bad experiences.
And i promise to write a very detailed journal of my experience, for you and for me to learn something from.
Peace and love, and wish me good luck. I love you all! :-)
Posted by jonhed on July 2, 2016, at 12:24:56
In reply to My Mematine Journal., posted by jonhed on July 2, 2016, at 12:20:35
This is a very critical moment for me, cause my OCD is off the roof right now and is so handicapping that i need to be strong and give this a fair trail.
Cause some has been helped with their severe OCD with memantine, and i hope that i will be one of them.
I can't do this much longer..I think you all understand, you are so kind everyone here and so emphatic.
/J
Posted by SLS on July 2, 2016, at 13:47:47
In reply to My Mematine Journal., posted by jonhed on July 2, 2016, at 12:20:35
> I NEED to point out this.
I'm glad you are able to verbalize your needs at this point in time.
I tried memantine once. I found it to be a very clean drug. I experienced no side effects at all.
If you experience anything that has you thinking about aborting your trial, perhaps you can describe the effects you are concerned with before discontinuing it. I hope nothing untoward emerges.
Thank you for creating a journal for the rest of us to read and learn from.
Good luck.
- Scott
Posted by jonhed on July 2, 2016, at 16:40:01
In reply to Re: My Mematine Journal. » jonhed, posted by SLS on July 2, 2016, at 13:47:47
I think i feel that this is a clean drug to, even just after 2 days.
I like simple stuff so yes this is going to be interesting and hopefully useful to.I will start writing tomorrow as i don't feel any effects now.
I've read that due to the extreme half life, it can take 2-4 weeks before your serum level is where it suppose to be.My doctor is very positive to this drug (i have concerns that she is cooperating with the pharma that does this drug. But at this point i don't care. *I know she is because she's very famous here so you can read about it*), så therefore she has set up the titrating-scheme like this - 10mg a day for one week, then 20mg directly after seven days.
I think that sounds a bit fast so i'm going with upping the dose 5mg per five days until 20mg.
And if i feel any side effects, i will stop and take five days more at the same dose.She is willing to go up very high but want to start with 20mg for a while, which i think is responsible.
Thanks Scott for encouraging me, that's what my psychologist do to when i verbalize my needs, as i'm pretty bad at it most of the times, but it's getting better every month.
CBT is really working, i hope people knows that and don't doubt about it.
If the psychologist is a trained CBT-therapist, then it surely will be good. I think.
She's also a behaviorist.
But in sweden the psychologist doesn't have anything to do with medicines and just work with what is right now.
The psychiatrist has the medical responsibility.Maby it's important to know, i don't know. I said it anyway.
Posted by jonhed on July 4, 2016, at 15:44:59
In reply to My Mematine Journal., posted by jonhed on July 2, 2016, at 12:20:35
Now is day 4 on 5 mg of memantine in the evening.
I take it 30 minutes after i dose 2 mg of clonazepam so i don't panic about having a pill in me that is not familiar, and that strategy works fine.
I have not feel any, and i mean any, side effects from memantine yet and that should, in my opinion, mean that i tolerate this drug very well.
I feel like i have a clear mind and it's easier to hold a conversation with people, and i feel like it's easier to stand my ground, as it is a big problem for me who has DPD.
I very much like my regimen i have now and have decided to not change anything for 3 month at least, so i can evaluate the effects of this regimen.
15mg of methadone in the morning, 2mg clonazepam and 5mg memantine in the evening. And soon 0mg of zopiclone (yay).
I feel that my social anxiety (that has had been very bad, very very bad) is nearly totally gone, i sleep for 7 to 9 hours a night and have no problems with food anymore.
I haven't had any "exploding head"-syndromes in nearly 3 weeks because of clonazepam, and that is something i have had every day since i was 8 years old.
Google it if you want to know what it is, icd10 has it anyway.
So yeah, not much to say. I can work 50% instead of 30, and that's big. it's, for me, 8-10 hours more a week.
And i don't feel like i'm in a mania or drugged up on the pills either (My psychologist said she doesn't think that either, and she's extremely hard on that since she's a therapist at the addiction center with much experience and have seen me drugged up for many years, so i believe her when she says that i'm not affected in that way now.)
In 2 days i will try to raise the memantine to 10mg and see if i can tolerate that, i hope so because i really feel good on this drug.I'll keep you updated.
Kind regards /J
Posted by jonhed on July 4, 2016, at 15:50:31
In reply to Re: My Mematine Journal., posted by jonhed on July 4, 2016, at 15:44:59
I will add that people around me (social workers, family, doctor, psychologist) says that i look very clear in my eyes since i started methadone. I think it is because i've kept it so low.
The say that i look very foggy when i don't have any medicine in me, cause of my anxiety and that i tend to "be in my head" all day. If you know what i mean?
I'm so caught up in disturbing thoughts that it affects how i look.
That seems to be gone with my current regimen so i'm happy about that.
I just hope this keep going, but i'm not very optimistic because that could lead to me being sad if it doesn't work.
Posted by SLS on July 4, 2016, at 16:04:18
In reply to Re: My Mematine Journal., posted by jonhed on July 4, 2016, at 15:50:31
Very encouraging.
I am especially encouraged that you should want to give this new treatment several months to work.
- Scott
Posted by jonhed on July 4, 2016, at 16:52:10
In reply to Re: My Mematine Journal., posted by SLS on July 4, 2016, at 16:04:18
Thanks!
I will update tomorrow to even if nothing has happened, just for people to follow in depth how i feel on this drug i they want to.
I was so helped by the parnate journal on SAS even if some days was nothing special.Good night!
Posted by jonhed on July 6, 2016, at 17:02:53
In reply to My Mematine Journal., posted by jonhed on July 2, 2016, at 12:20:35
Tomorrow i will take the big step and raise my memantine to 10mg.
I'm a little bit nervous but it's under control for some reason. I should be very scared but i'm not..Today i noticed something on my body (i will tell you tomorrow, cause someone is going to comment this if i do it today before i've checked it. But it has something to do with my clonazepam, and i will take blood tests tomorrow and see if it's something wrong or not.).
And i didn't feel panic?I was going to my job and feeling very calm. It's crazy cause i'm extremely hypocondric, but i think the memantine is working already?!
I will update you tomorrow, i feel great and i sleep great!
Memantine is a very clean drug indeed.
Kind regards / J
Hear you tomorrow, i promise to update on my raise in dose.
Posted by jonhed on July 10, 2016, at 5:07:01
In reply to My Mematine Journal, day 6., posted by jonhed on July 6, 2016, at 17:02:53
I was doing so well, was even writing an email to my doctor about how good i feel and how thankful i am to her.
But as i, the 3rd day on 10mg, took my memantine dose, 3 hours later i couldn't read because of the side effects, and faces looked alien and wierd.
The good thing is that i'm used to this sort of perception disturbances cause of my past drug abuse, but why did i write to my doctor so fast?
Now i have to tell her about the side effects and that will just sound ridiculous cause about 15 hours ago i didn't have any.I will ride this out though, cause something is different this time.
I don't feel scared when these side effects come, as i always has been.That must be because the positive over weigh the negative in this case.
I want to give it at least 50 days (that's when school starts, and i can't have this side effects then.)
I now feel the powerful effects from memantine, cause last night i was definitely experiencing some dissociative side effects.
Without the clonazepam i could not do this, i promise.
Maybe i will ask her to raise it to 3mg for some weeks until the dissociative effects are over (they're there now to, it's 12 am in sweden, lunch time).
But anyway, i feel good and not any anxiety, not any panic or something like that.
Just hope that this will go away.
Posted by jonhed on July 10, 2016, at 6:40:32
In reply to My Mematine Journal, day 10., posted by jonhed on July 10, 2016, at 5:07:01
One hour later update.
I took my daily supplement of omega 3 ( 0,8g EPA and 1,2g DHA and 0,4g of fish oil in 10ml cod liver-oil)
Ate breakfast, took my daily dose of methadone, 15mg and sat in the sun for 1 hour, and now the side effects are gone.I wrote an email to my pdoc and told her about last night and wrote that i am not worried as i had expect this to some sooner or later. And that i'm gonna keep taking it and give it time, cause this is GOING TO WORK.
I've set my mind on that.I feel so damn calm so the perceptual thing i can live with for a couple of days.
Now it's lunch time. Cornfed chicken filet, celery, onoin, cabbage, paprica and egg-fried rice with fermented turkish yoghurt. A normal swedish meal. :-)
Love / J
Posted by jonhed on July 10, 2016, at 10:22:22
In reply to Re: My Mematine Journal, day 10., posted by jonhed on July 10, 2016, at 6:40:32
I was sitting in a park reading a book today, and after 80 minutes i realized that i have not lifted my eyes from the book for 50 pages.
I was able to read without even think about obsessively re-read things and look if i am on the right page.Oh, i hope this is not just initial effects. Maybe my school could work this time, i'm 26 years old and have no education. This must be it.
Kind regards / J
Posted by jonhed on July 10, 2016, at 12:33:34
In reply to Re: My Mematine Journal, day 10., posted by jonhed on July 10, 2016, at 10:22:22
I have to write "memantine" instead of "mematine", so people can search for this.
I saw it now that i have written it wrong :-)
Posted by jonhed on July 11, 2016, at 17:08:38
In reply to Re: My Memantine Journal, day 10., posted by jonhed on July 10, 2016, at 12:33:34
Now it's day 4 (or 5) at 10mg and i feel wonderful.
I can do things that i didn't think i could do before cause my OCD is so much under control.The only side effect was at the third day on 10mg, when my vision got very blurry, but it hasn't come back ever since.
I look forward to upping the dose on friday to 15mg, this is been a miracle for me.
Due to my ocd i have not had a job in my whole life (due to my abuse to), and now i'm working 50% and every morning i feel like i WANT to go to work, i even work overtime.
I work in a store and meet people all day, and it's fine.
I cross my fingers for this to be the right medication.
I have tried 35-39 medicines and now got to be it.
Posted by jonhed on July 13, 2016, at 15:40:08
In reply to Re: My Memantine Journal, day 12., posted by jonhed on July 11, 2016, at 17:08:38
Something strange happened to me just now.
I received a email from my pdoc in answer to a question i had about upping the dose to 40mg in one month from now.
I asked her what she thinks of that dose, if it's to much or whatever.Then i got an email some hours later that said "Up the dose til you feel side effects. Kind regards **"
She is a professor as i have said before and very famous here in sweden (promise to you all, i'm not delusional, sweden is a small country)
So i asked her if there are some dangerous side effects that i need to look for, or if i can trust my own body and stop upping when i feel that it does more damage than good.
(We work a lot against helping me trusting my own body signals and so on cause of my DPD, so that adds up.)She said there weren't any dangerous that she have seen, and she's been using memantine extensively on young people, so i believe her.
She said that i could experience some dizziness and etc, but no cardiovascular or that caliber of side effects that some substances have.I don't know what to think of this, but i'm happy that she gave me control over it (i say it again so you know, we have free medicines in sweden so the cost is never an issue), and need to see this as a test maybe.
So i'm now on 15mg for today and if there aren't any side effects from this on monday i will up it to 20mg for a week, if i feel remission from that dose i will stop, or else i will up some more.
I feel fine now so my body really accept this medicine.
I'm very thankful, cause as you all know, i'm hard to medicate, espacially with non-narcotics, so my pdoc is very happy about that :-)
Today i worked overtime on my job and still have energy to cook dinner and all that, so this has been a miracle and i hope it's not just initial effects.
One thing i know that it's not is mania, cause i sleep 7-9 hours per night and is tired as F when i wake up, so no mania here.
I will keep updating and hope you all like my journal, i sure like writing about it.
(Please respect that i don't want to hear side effects that you know of, but you can ask questions if you want to. Sorry for being that "bossy", but it's important for me when things going so good now.)
Kind regards / J
Posted by jonhed on July 13, 2016, at 15:43:52
In reply to Re: My Memantine Journal, day 14., posted by jonhed on July 13, 2016, at 15:40:08
In my email to her about upping the dose to 40mg i also attached some reports about people having full remission with their OCD on that dose, so you know why i asked for the high dose.
I even read somewhere on some abstract that at that dose range it can have antidepressant effects to and have helped people with MDD, but i know that you should take things with a grain of salt.
There is no miracle medicines out there.
:-)
Posted by jonhed on July 16, 2016, at 9:08:37
In reply to Re: My Memantine Journal, day 14., posted by jonhed on July 13, 2016, at 15:43:52
I'm on 15mg and feel no side effects, it crazy that i tolerate this pill so good.
I've heard tons of people saying that they felt dissociated just from 2.5mg, but i upping the dose pretty fast and have not felt anything near dissociation, just that i feel so calm and nothing stresses me out anymore, not even working in a store with much much people i meet every day and help them with clothes, dresses and whatever.I think i had an extreme amount of glutamate in my brain before i started this mediacation, and that's wy i don't got any side effects.
The side effects are strictly anticholinergic, but not the dry mouth/slow heart rate-anticholinergic effect, just the blurred vision.
I have a lot of saliva.
That have to be because it's not an anticholinergic in the biperiden trihexyphenidyl manner, it's on the nicotinic receptors.( i doubt someone reads this, but i'm gonna keep writing anyway until it gets in the archive in some days, and then maybe start a new if people want to hear the progress, cause i promise to update even if something bad happens, i'm not here to sell memantine lol),
Can someone explain to me why everyone can't tolerate this medication?
(I can now hear these things without being scared, the 2 week limit has passed and i'm not scared of the medicine and it's side effects anymore).
Posted by jonhed on July 17, 2016, at 16:51:56
In reply to Re: My Memantine Journal, day 17., posted by jonhed on July 16, 2016, at 9:08:37
Today i upped the dose to 20mg and i feel fine now.
The side effects usually comes after 1-2 days when you have upped your dose of memantine due to the extreme long half life of the substance.I read 65 pages of a book today without needing to read things again and i can retell the story without a problem.
I'm sure that i'm not manic, cause tonight i slept for 10 hours straight, and when i'm in a mania of some sort i will just sleep for 4 hours at the most, even if i'm depressed i sleep less cause the morning anxiety prevents me from going back to sleep while i have woken up the first time.
So i think i am making progress with my ocd, very much progress.
And if i don't get side effects from 20mg in 7 days, i will up the dose to 30mg next sunday.
I like to think of this as a experiment as my options are very narrow, and if it can be better i will try.
But also i will have in mind that if i feel fine on 20mg, i will not up the dose just for the cause of it.
But maybe, cause it doesn't have any side effects that scares me so why not, if i don't like it, i will just go down to 20 again.I've been talking in another thread about olanzapine, and i will add 2.5mg olanzapine if the memantine doesn't give me full remission. Cause actually that's what i'm looking for. Full remission with my OCD.
Not full remission of every psychiatric disorder i have, but the OCD i will have a high goal, and that is full remission.It's important to remember that i do CBT 1-3 hours every week and have done for 3 years straight, so i don't recommend just medication. I do not believe in just medicating yourself without talking about the problems to.
I think the two are equal important.
I will update tomorrow to.
Wish me good luck on my job and i cross my fingers for not having blurred vision when i wake up in 8 hours!
Cause that is the only, and i mean the only side effect that has been with memantine.I even start to think that it has antipsychotic properties in the olanzapine range due to the 5-HT3 receptor-antagonism that the two shares.
Or maybe that is the antidepressant target of olanzapine, i don't really know but it's working anyway.I was also talking about the d2-agonism that memantine posses, same as pramipexole, and i was not feeling good on pramipexole, now i think that that was because pramipexole doesn't have any antagonizing properties that memantine has.
Cause if you antagonize serotonin to some extent, i think that you could agonize dopamine without getting impulsive behaviour.
Cause actually i feel a lot of similarities with memantine and dexamphetamine, when talking about focus and wakefulness, but completely without the paranoia that is involved with amphetamine.
Or i have to say that it's very much like desoxypipradrol, the good effects from that was awsome i think and it is a shame that methylphenidate won the ADHD-medication race. Cause desoxy is way more stabile in my opinion, in every ways.Now i'm rambling, but this is interesting i think, and i hope that someone is getting some information from this.
I sure fell good about writing it so i will continue.Kind regards / J
Posted by jonhed on July 19, 2016, at 17:16:53
In reply to Re: My Memantine Journal, day 18., posted by jonhed on July 17, 2016, at 16:51:56
I'm way in to day 20 now and i feel weird i must say.
This is the third day i take 20mg and i definitely feel some side effects, but just the same as the one i wrote about when i upped from 5 to 10mg, extreme blurred vision but unfortunately also pretty massive fatigue.If it's like when i upped to 10mg, then the side effects should be gone by tomorrow and never come back, but if they do and they continue for 1 week, i have decided to try and talk to my pdoc about adding modafinil in the morning.
Cause i definitely don't want to stop memantine, it has done wonders for my OCD and still it surprises me every day.
I never experience hyper arousal anymore, and that has been a massive issue for me, i can assure you that.
That it completely gone, nearly to the point that i have developed some "who cares?"-Attitude about things that happens, which is great since i have been super sensitive before.
And yeah, i can handle it. I'm not going to become histrionic or narcissistic because of this, i just feel like i suppose to feel i suppose?But the fatigue and brain fog is real right now, but i think that will go away.
Every medication comes with initial side effects, and memantine has very little of that but the vision and the fog is pretty extreme and i can see why people don't wanna continue it when this happens. But i'm thinking, is this worse than something else?
No it's not, it's easier to cope with just mental stuff than if i have had an extreme body load on this to, stiffness and some palpitations added to that.I'm gonna keep update if you want that, but i think that it's time to do another thread so this doesn't end up in the archive,
do you let me do that?Now i'm going to sleep!
Kind regards to you all :-) / J
Posted by jonhed on July 21, 2016, at 17:47:28
In reply to Re: My Memantine Journal, day 20., posted by jonhed on July 19, 2016, at 17:16:53
All side effects are gone, but it's very late at night now in sweden and i will update tomorrow, cause it's been some problems with my tirtrating scheme due to my healt care providers doesn't agree with my pdoc, or i don't know, it will sort itself out, that i'm sure of.
So on monday i will go up to 30mg per day, and that because i don't feel the side effects from 20, and my plan was to up it til it starts to show side effects.It's a wonderful substance, my god.
My OCD and espacially the constant rumination is nearly completely gone, that's mad.Yeah, good night to you all and i promise to update tomorrow.
Kind regards / J
Posted by jonhed on July 25, 2016, at 16:14:21
In reply to Re: My Memantine Journal, day 22., posted by jonhed on July 21, 2016, at 17:47:28
Today i upped the dose to 25, i wanted to give 25mg 3 days before going up to 30mg which was my first intent.
I feel good, and the initial side effects are starting to become initial great effects instead, i like this feeling, it's cozy and warm and at the same time i can interact with people in a whole different way than before.
Today my boss said to me that i have done a tremendous amount of upgrade since i started working there for about 2 month ago.
She said that she's impressed that i now can be inside the store the whole 6 hours i'm at work, cause in the beginning i was in the store for 1 hour and the remaining 3 hours that was left from my initial working schedule, i was in the storage and warehouse hiding.
That was before i started with memantine.I started working 33%, and now i'm up to 65%. That is amazing for me that has never had a job before, and i have time to cook for myself, clean the house, keep up with hygien and play some video games (And nerding here on babble to like 3 hours a day ;-) )
I have no idea why i get these extreme good effects from memantine, maybe because it is not that strong, or maybe because i actually had very much stress and glutamate in my body.
Because i think this is how i should feel on antipsychotics, but i don't. Yeah, it's interesting, and i'm so happy i don't know what to do with myself!
And i say it again, i sleep 7-9 hours a night, i eat 4 times a day and everything is normal.
Okey, i feel a little buzz from my medications, but i'm mentally ill to so i should be allowed to feel good on medicines i think :-)I will not promise you an update tomorrow, cause if it's too much to do or if i think that it's more important to answer a persons question about something here on babble, i will not update.
It's better to do that when i feel like it.But i will promise you to update on every change in dosage that i do, and i think that i will up my dose in 2 days, cause one has already gone.
Kind regards / J
Oh, and please ask questions if you feel like it!
(I sincerely think that memantine potentiates methadone and clonazepam big time to, but not in the way that i feel drugged, just in the emphatic and social way if you know what i mean. I think there is some abstracts on this topic to, about how it potentiates other substances.)
Posted by jonhed on August 3, 2016, at 2:04:41
In reply to Re: My Memantine Journal, day 26., posted by jonhed on July 25, 2016, at 16:14:21
now it's day 35 on mmemantine, and i was on 40 but that was to much so i titrated down to 30mg instead.
The bad thing is that in induces mania on me so haven't slept since Thursday.
Tonight i eat 150mg zopiclone and 8mg clonazpeam and 1omg on flunitrazepam and still i didn't sleep.
So today i'm going to the psychiatric ward, cause they have to but nme down with propofol unfortunally...I will update you on that and sa a word o caution, do not augument cns to memantine. it was the baddest idea i have ever done and i can't even belive that my doctor gave me it??
like what the f.so no i'm going to my mom and you all know here that it's hard to think clear after 120 hours wihout sleep.
HTANK GOD htat i'm not agressive or something like that, just get so paranoid that i don't know what to do.
Scott, do tou have any tips for me? it will be greatly apriciated. cause3 i donät like this...
Kind regards j
Posted by SLS on August 3, 2016, at 7:03:58
In reply to Re: My Memantine Journal, day 35., posted by jonhed on August 3, 2016, at 2:04:41
You were doing so well with memantine at lower dosages. I hate to watch you give up on it.
If memantine were the only drug that helped me, I would continue to work with it. Perhaps you can return to 10-20 mg/day and then make a plan to deal with the insomnia and agitation if you need to. However, if you relapse, I am inclined to suggest using an antipsychotic temporarily to treat insomnia and agitation. You can then return to higher dosages of memantine while continuing with the antipsychotic.
I'll give it more thought.
Why do you think that you have bipolar disorder?
- Scott
This is the end of the thread.
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