Posted by Elizabeth on June 10, 2001, at 9:55:38
In reply to Re: thanks elizabeth, posted by gilbert on June 10, 2001, at 1:27:52
> I tried all of the slow titration measures and still had other side effects stick around besides sexual ones.
Well, it doesn't work for everybody; the initial jitteriness was what I was thinking of in particular, with a starting dose of at most half of the lowest strength tablet (Zoloft and Luvox are my favourites for pill splitting). I totally agree that benzos are easier to tolerate than *any* of the antidepressants.
> I had raise in blood pressure from both effexor and celexa.
That's unusual from Celexa. How does your BP run normally?
> I had heart rythym disturbances from tricyclics.
That's one of the serious risks from these drugs. Do you remember what type of arrhythmia you had?
> I had vivd dreams and anger outbursts on prozac.
The anger is surprising. Vivid dreaming is common on SSRIs and Effexor.
> I was too dizzy to drive on both buspar and trazadone.
Again, not unheard of. This is the kind of thing that I would expect to go away after a few days, though. You would start out taking the med only at bedtime, when you don't need to be alert or operate machinery.
> There is the inherent risks of cholesterol problems with remeron.
I'm getting the impression that cardiovascular disease is a serious concern for you. True?
> My decsions were based on more side effects than libido although as a guy that's the one that smacks your ego the hardest.
That's hard to deal with for people of any gender. It's good to hear that your wife is dealing with it so well.
> The funny thing really isn't the sex it just seems so odd to me I really have tried most antidepressants except for maoi's and I have never felt good on them.
I think that's a strong indicator for MAOIs, myself. You know that the side effects aren't *guaranteed* to happen to everyone who takes them. Parnate is probably the one that I would suggest you try, based on its typical side effect profile (less likely to cause weight gain, sexual problems, etc. than Nardil or Marplan). The main advantage of Nardil is that it's a terrific anxiolytic and is less likely to cause overactivation than is Parnate.
> There should be more caution exercised on this board....it feels and sounds as if everyone is so sure side effects will dissappear or lessen my experience has been the opposite.
Most side effects do *usually* disappear with time. But that doesn't mean always, nor does it invalidate your experience.
> I become more functional without having to give up something. This may be greedy on my part but of all places you would think the stigma of benzo use would be tolerated most here.
I don't think it's greedy. I think it's completely reasonable. The reason we take meds is to be functional, no?
> Many decisions about what drugs to try are made based on what people read here. I know I tried many drugs because of reading posts here. I just wish I had trusted how I felt more than some of the contributors to the board...I could of saved myself some pain.
There's no way you (or they) could have known that your reactions to the meds would be different from typical reactions. It does seem that some people are sensitive to side effects in general, but otherwise there's no way to predict who will have problems with what.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:65576
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010605/msgs/66005.html