Posted by Ritch on February 4, 2002, at 23:46:18
In reply to Re: The Yin-Yang theory of depression recovery » Ritch, posted by manowar on February 4, 2002, at 16:49:05
> Hi again,
> Hope all is well. I just have a couple questions and some comments to your last post...
>
>
> > Hi Tim,
> >
> > Thanks for the response. I just can't get over how that pstim completely remitted my seasonal depression and I could stay quiet and *listen* to people(on 5mg/day...)! Listening to people turned into an interesting new event of sorts-What do they think about x, what do they feel about y? I think there *has* to be a way to incorporate a low-dose pstim into my regimen and *not* get panicky and anxious. You mentioned "deep limbic ADD". Well, my nephew who is on Ritalin fits that to a tee. I fit that to a tee for nearly half of the year.
>
> I new that I was spelling “Yin” wrong, but I just couldn’t think of it-ha.
>
> I don't know if you had this problem, but for me it's great to be able to really listen to people without butting in or just ignoring people, not by choice but by default.
My sentiments exactly. I like that-"by default". I have always have had GRAVE problems with understanding speech and paying attention to people when they are talking. When it comes to *written* communication-that is somewhat different. It is static-stuck in space-in front of me-it's frozen instead of fluid(I can scan the contexts reiteratively). I have trouble with certain *sounds* people make when enunciating. I know this girl who is from the UK and I talked to her over xmas and she said something really simple and I repeated back to her what I thought she said: "Take two pecans and put them into place"??, and she looked back at me puzzled and told me I had trouble with listening to her, right? YES. There is such a thing as CAPD-which is cognitive auditory processing disorder, and there are some circuits involved with that which get crossed up with my ADHD and bipolar as well.There is one insight I had about this whole subject lately I would like to share: There are two different aspects of distractibility that relate to ADHD and bipolar. I experience both of these. One is the ordinary day to day problems with staying with a *task* and going through all of the *subtasks* to get the primary task accomplished and followed through. The bipolar aspect is the "Eureka response", where you believe that you have discovered something important-which leads to a chaining and tangential spinning off of *ideas*. I have noticed with age that the "idea-oriented" distractability is waning away and the "task-oriented" distractability is becoming the primary problem. This leads me to think that many BPII people could possibly be simply therapeutic subsets of adult ADHD. Otherwise, how would the "kindling" theory fit in here...???
> Did you just start taking pstims? I guess that you're taking 5 mg a day of Adderal, do you mind if I ask what else you take? Have you tried Ritalin, Provigil, Wellbutrin, Dexedrine or any other stimulating drugs? Adderal helped me, but kind of put me on edge or something. The Concerta (which is just an extended release Ritalin) and Provigil/Adrafinil do the job well for me.
I got dx'ed as bipolar 23 years ago. That got changed to BP-II when the differentiation of BP types came about. I saw a behavioral neurologist about 4 years ago who did some EEG stuff who thought I was having temporal or frontal lobe seizures-but I was very skeptical at the time and didn't want to do an MRI or sleep-deprived 24-hr EEG to further investigate it (there was no obvious seizure activity on the standard evoked potentials, EEG, etc.). He thought I had some form of ADHD at that time because of my forgetfullness and needing to have rituals to remind myself of everything.
I got dx'ed as adult ADHD three years ago (by subsequent pdoc-neuro retired). Now it is a three-way comorbid diagnosis which includes social phobia/panic. I tried Adderall only once and only in combination with Neurontin (5mg AM Adderall + 100mg Neurontin 3x daily). It worked great for a few weeks, but I started getting panicky. I had stopped an SSRI before I started the Adderall, so it makes me wonder whether it was an SSRi withdrawal or the *need* to take an SSRI to prevent panic-rather than the Adderall being responsible for the panic. I had stopped an SSRI before I tried the Adderall and had similar things happen that required restarting the SSRi (always at low-doses).NOW: I am taking Neurontin 100mg tid, Klonopin .5-1.0mg, Celexa 2.5 mg 4-5x during the week, Wellbutrin 1/4 of 75mg tab in the morning with some strong coffee. It is working fairly well. The WB just doesn't seem to touch the ability of the pstim for being able to stay on task and ability to listen, however.
Thanks for sharing that info about Ritalin. I have only tried Adderall, but not Ritalin. I mentioned Provigil to my pdoc last visit and that is being *considered*.
> >
> > The "Yin-Yang theory" I like that. When I am depressed or even hypomanic it seems like the "contrast control" is turned way down (sleeping/waking is just a relatively undifferentiated blurr). When I get hypomanic OR depressed it seems that I never fully deeply rest at nite.
>
> Absolutely, me too!
>
> >
> > I have increased my exercise level, sunlight exposure, caffeine intake, etc. midday and have adjusted meds a little (200mcg.of melatonin now at bedtime) to try to "shut myself down" at nite and it definitely seems to be helping.
> >
> > Mitch
>
> BTW: One other thing I've noticed in the past is that I truly feel better when I used to go to a tanning bed. No *hit! It's been years since I've been to one, but I think I'll start going again, what the hell?
>
> Tim
I used to do that back in the early '80's when it was first popular and it did seem to help, but OTOH I was interested in it mainly was I was feeling hypomanic in April and May.
Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:91597
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020131/msgs/92912.html