Posted by DC on April 11, 2000, at 6:50:14
Dear Psychobabblers,
For the past few weeks I have been experimenting with some new meds--mainly for social phobia but also for the Inattentive type of ADD. I would like to share my experiences with these meds because I believe I may have discovered a med combo that might be helpful for people with similar conditions. I must say that I have had some horrific ups and downs these last few weeks, going from feeling great to feeling extremely shaky and nervous, to sluggish and depressed. The main meds I've been experimenting with are: Neurontin, Adderal, and Klonipan. Here is what I have learned:NEURONTIN alone tends to cause "brain fog" and causes weight gain, but it does help some with anxiety and depression.
On ADDERAL alone I found that I could only tolerate extremely small doses (around 2mgs 3/day) anything more than that excaberated my social phobia, almost to the point of schizoaffective paranoia. But despite the increase in anxiety, the adderal helped me in other ways, e.g., with concentration, with writing, with motivation to get things done and to exercise.
KLONIPAN alone was very helpful for social anxiety, but also caused memory problems, sleepiness, and sluggish thinking.
Noting the affects of these meds when taken alone, I began to experiement with combinations. First I tried the Neurontin and the Adderal together. This first combo was pretty good because the Adderal counteracted the brain fog and weight gain of the neurontin, and the neurontin counteracted the social anxiety caused by Adderal. Yet on this combo I was still feeling socially anxious and I couldn't raise the dose of the Adderal to the higher level that I needed for increased motivation and concentration.
Finally I began adding klonipan to this mix and everything fell into place. Now I feel relaxed yet full of energy, more socially confident, and am losing weight. I found that with the Klonipan and Neurontin in the mix, I was able to increase the dose of Adderal and am noticing an increase in energy and mental acuity. The tricky thing is getting the right dose for all these meds. HERE IS WHAT WORKS FOR ME: ADDERAL 7.5mg 3/day, NEURONTIN 400 mg 3/day, KLONIPAN 1.5mg 2/day. Then at night I take a combo of sonata and trazadone to help me get to sleep.
The reason I'm going into such detail here is that I know there are many people with social phobia who only respond to the MAO inhibitors like Nardil and Parnate, but who don't like the extreme side effects of those meds. In my experience, they caused extreme weight gain, constipation, insomnia, and sexual problems. It is for those people that I write this post. Could this combo be an alternative to Nardil for people with social phobia? I can't be sure because I've only felt really good for a few days, but I think this combo of meds might really help some people. The point I was trying to get accross is that these meds seem to work in a synergistic fashion. Instead of having more side effects, as is often the case in med combinations, these drugs seems to counterbalance each other. I will keep people posted to let you know if this combo continues to work.
Thanks, Dwight
poster:DC
thread:29613
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/29613.html