Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 4192

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To: Matt!!

Posted by paul on March 30, 1999, at 21:00:29

Matt:

Thanks for your responses to my recent posts. I'm not doing too badly! Actually I have been on 150 mg of Zoloft for exactly 2 weeks now. All my prior physical symptoms (ie poor sleep, no appetite) have completely disappeared and my mood (including my anxiety) is definitely better than it was 3 months ago. However, I continue to have periods of mild to moderate anxiety and worry and it is for this reason we decided to up the dose to see if this would eliminate the residual symptoms. No change yet, but I guess I should stay at 150 for a full 4 weeks in order to give the drug a fair chance. While things are definitely better for me, I do not experience the sense of "wellbeing" which is supposed to occur if an SSRI is working for you. My family doc says we can try Paxil next if it appears Zoloft isn't working ( I have heard a lot of good things about Paxil when used for anxious individuals like myself). I also wonder whether this acute anxiety episode is simply running its course, as it has in the past, and the Zoloft may be having minimal or no effect at all. Its hard to know what to do. I want to get off all meds asap, but don't want to do so before I find an AD that works for me in the event I experience another episode like this in the future.

Enough about me - how are you doing?? I don't know much about you except that you appear to have a lot of knowledge about psychotropic meds. Like you, I have found the benzos to be real lifesavers, especially Klonopin. I try not to take it too often but why the hell suffer?? We are responsible people and are not going to misuse these meds.

Paul

 

Re: To: Matt!!

Posted by Matt on March 31, 1999, at 1:36:23

In reply to To: Matt!!, posted by paul on March 30, 1999, at 21:00:29

Paul,

Good to hear you're doing at least somewhat better. Hopefully things will continue to get better. I'd not bail on the Zoloft too soon--the sense of "well-being" didn't come for me with Prozac for over three months. But it was worth the wait. Buspirone is a possible augmenting agent--it not only tends to increase antidepressant response with SSRIs, but as an anxiolytic it may be just the ticket for you.

As to the Paxil, Paxil is one of those drugs that can be not fun at all to stop. It's not generally as bad as Effexor, but anecdotally it's tougher to stop than the SSRIs. (Though I don't know about Celexa. I haven't heard enough reports from people about stopping it, though I found it to be very "Paxil-like" in its profile. I didn't have any problems stopping it, but I tapered it, and I was on Remeron at the same time.)

Btw, it sounds like you're ruled out Remeron? It really is terrific on anxiety, though there certainly is weight gain (though this exists with the SSRIs in the long run, too).

How am I? Well, things have been better. :) I'm going to come off the Klonopin in a couple weeks and then I'll be on Luvox 150mg and clonidine (used both to come off the klonopin and as an anxiolytic). We'll see what happens; I've done soo much med-bouncing this year it's tough to know what the future holds. Hopefully someday it'll be normalcy again. :)

Matt


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