Posted by Mitch on January 5, 2002, at 10:15:14
In reply to Re: GABITRIL (tiagabine) new anti-anxiety drug????? » Mitch, posted by MB on January 4, 2002, at 23:37:26
> I also dropped out of college a number of times. I got great grades (most of the time) but I would always start self-medicating with the ol' recreationals and drop out. I got on medication, but it never really worked with the drugs (also, I probably had the wrong med combo). It wasn't until I had been "sober" for six months that I was able to go back to school, but at that point I had quit my meds cold turkey. I had been on Paxil for two years when I went to rehab. Once I got the booze out of the old system, the side effects of Paxil really kicked in (funny that they didn't kick in before that...) and I was sleeping 14 hrs a day and gaining weight like crazy. I'd go to work at 3:00 pm (sushi chef), work until 11:00 pm, get in bed by 12:00 am, and crawl out of bed at 2:00 pm. I got off the Paxil and it was like I finally "got my soul back". It was like part of the movie Pleasantville where the black and white town is infused with color. I had energy, finally, and I could eat a meal and feel *full* afterwards (what a concept). It wasn't long, though, before I was an anxious, depressed, raging freak again. Without the meds, I need about three hours a day where I can just sit, do nothing, and focus on calming down and not killing myself. This need for ~20 extra hours a week to just sit pretty much precludes the course load I would like to take. Plus, with the OCD, I spend too much time on projects (e.g., turning in 20 pages when the assignment only called for eight--this might be manic, too). Well, I hope that with the right combo and some good therapy I can have the stamina you did and FINALLY GET THROUGH SCHOOL!!! Lord knows it's been 10 years since I started out on getting a degree. Yikes.
>
> MB
Booze can really disrupt your sleep architecture and make you sleep-deprived even though it seems you have slept enough. I think sleep-deprivation (no matter what the reason) tends to self-perpetuate itself (and hypersomnia-likewise). That may explain why I didn't have a lot of trouble with a few hours sleep every nite (once I got used to it). When you get bogged down with a lot of courseload and work in school you will begin to "self-schedule" and assign yourself appropriate amounts of time to do projects (it took me about four or five semesters to get that down). It was like boot-camp with my ADHD! I have to makeup sticky notes with color-coding all sorts of crap to stay on track, otherwise I will procrastinate all the way down to the deadlines and get more and more agitated.
FWIW, Prozac is like night/day compared to Paxil as far as energy goes. You might even experience some agitation on it if you start out on a big dose. I started out on 20mg capsules and I was ok....for a few days. When it started to build-up in my body it got to where I would barely sleep at all. Whew! I was wired for sound. My pupils were dilated and I was all sweaty. I had to start reducing the dose after about ten days on 20mg. I cut it in half to 10mg/day for several more days, and I was still too wired! I settled on 5mg/day for about another month or so and then finally reached a point where I spread a 20mg capsule (in juice) out over an entire week. That was my maintenance dose for several years. I just needed to push it up during the winter. I took my lithium at bedtime. Prozac is probably a really good choice-just watch out on the dosage.Mitch
poster:Mitch
thread:86944
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020103/msgs/88826.html