Posted by BLPBart on August 6, 2002, at 23:14:37
In reply to ADD only cause of depression?, posted by Preston on July 31, 2002, at 12:40:54
> Has anybody been depressed and then found out they had Adult ADD. Is it possible that one could take adderal or something and not even need an anti-depressant to "cure" them?
I'll give you my two cents worth. Actually, it will be more like 4 cents since I'm going to tell you a long-winded story but I think it helps in understanding since I'm still not sure exactly what is going on with me.
I started taking prozac about 2 and a half years ago when I was diagnosed with major depression. This was the can't get out of bed even if the house is on fire because you really don't care, type of depression. Although I was in really bad shape at the time, it's not the first time in my life that I had felt that way, just the first time I ever went to a doctor and got treated.
The prozac did seem to help with the depression and I found the energy to start getting up and going to work and then even started a running program. I was very proud of myself since I went from total couch potato to getting up 5 days a week and running for an hour (I worked up to that from starting with a 15 minute walk). Despite all the exercise, however, I was gaining weight which was starting a different kind of depression for me. To help with the weight gain, my doctor switched me to wellbutrin SR.
I really didn't notice a difference right away, as in I didn't really notice any weight loss. I don't think I'd really been off the prozac long enough however for it to clear totally from my system. However, I suddenly went into a severe depression that my doc and I thought was PMS-related. It wasn't until later that I put 2 and 2 together and realized my sudden spiral into depression was probably an after-effect of 9-11. Anyway, because we thought it was PMS my doc added 10 mg/day of prozac back along with my 300 mg/day Wellbutrin SR.
This combo seemed to work for a short time and then I got hit with this unbelieveable fatigue. I suddenly started sleeping 16 hours a day, would call in sick to work and literally sleep all day. I also started having weird problems like muscle pain and joint pain that felt like arthritis. I went back to my doc and we discussed what I should do. He took me off the prozac entirely and told me to see what happened. He mentioned the possibility of adding a stimulant if the fatigue didn't get any better.
Interestingly, two things happened in the couple of months I waited for the prozac to leave my system and I was on wellbutrin alone. I noticed that I was a little more focused and organized at work. I also starting reading up on stimulants and during my research came across several sites on ADD. I ended up taking the ADD survey/test and discovered that it was very likely that I was ADD.
When I went back to my doc he agreed that I met the diagnostic criteria for ADD and added dexedrine (40 mg/day) to the wellbutrin. We didn't start at 40, it just took 40 for me to see any effect whatsoever. It's amazing that I can take 40 mg/day dexedrine SR, 300 mg/day Wellbutrin SR and still drink coffee!!! I have the occasional problem with insomnia but it's only once in a while and is more associated with just having things on my mind.
Anyway, recently, I started having some strange side effects which are a little hard to explain. I experienced extremely dry mouth, more than I would normally get from the stimulant or the wellbutrin, and then the top of my tongue and the whole back of my mouth began to hurt. It felt like I had used acid for a mouthwash. I figured it was related to the medications and I experimented with stopping one and then adding it back in to see what was to blame. It turned out to be the wellbutrin.
I just went back to my doc earlier this week and he took me off the wellbutrin. We're going to see if I can just take the dexedrine for the ADD and depression. I'm feeling pretty positive right now that it is going to work for me. I'm really hoping so because he wants to put me on zoloft if I do start getting depressed again and I really don't want to do SSRIs anymore after my prozac experience. I do realize that people will respond differently to the different meds, but I'd rather avoid them completely if possible. This is especially since I just got the weight off that I had gained with the prozac and I don't want to start that all over again.
poster:BLPBart
thread:114633
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020731/msgs/115485.html