Posted by bones on December 29, 1999, at 15:37:51
In reply to Re: Anxiety Medicines - To Bones, posted by David Mirtzer on December 28, 1999, at 13:41:14
Hi David:
1. How long did it take until benefits kicked in, especially for Social Anxiety?
I'm very medication sensitive and attentive to side-effects. I noticed a decrease in symptoms within a couple of days.
2. What side effects do you have besides possible weight gain? How about fatigue, a “buzz”, cognitive
or memory impairment? Are there any side effects that appeared but went away? Which ones, and how
long did it take until they went away?Actually I feel less tired (during the day) on neurontin than I did on any of the anti-depressants (SSRI's), although it greatly increases my quality of sleep. Yes, I do have cognitive impairment, but I find most of the SSRI's do that to you as well. Slight memory problems. I'm only on a small dose of this med. in comparison with many others.
3. Are you taking any other psychotropic meds?
No.
4. When do you take your Neurontin?
I take 100 mg. in the morning and 100 mg. at around 2 - 3:00 p.m. (Actually now I remember ... I stopped taking the night time dose because I was having trouble sleeping.) 200 mg. seems to work fine for me. If/when I up the dose I feel "flatter" in emotion/physical expression.
It's funny, when I took SSRI's my demeanour was happy, bright - I laughed a lot. (But inside I couldn't connect with who I was, I felt deadened.) With neurontin, I look flatter but feel more like myself.
5. Were your Social Anxiety tremors in the face, hands, voice, or ???
I blush badly and have tremors in my head/neck.
Thanks so much!
DM
Good luck David. I still haven't found a miracle drug (Paxil also worked quite well; but as I mentioned earlier neurontin seems to provide some relief with side-effects I can tolerate.
There was earlier discussion in "babble" about the possibility of these anti-epileptic drugs actually over long-term use CAUSING epilepsy. That kind of alarmed me. But there was no proof to back up the accusation.
Tonight I'm off to a party with a new colleague, and I must say I'm a little nervous. (I've decreased my meds while I'm on holidays this week - only taking 100 mg./day.)
poster:bones
thread:17454
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991212/msgs/17659.html