Posted by Ritch on October 3, 2002, at 22:35:52
In reply to Re: Epival VS Tegretol -- Which is better?, posted by MJC on October 3, 2002, at 14:39:32
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> I think if I was to lower my Effexor dose that much my panic/anxiety disorder would be MUCH worse. The Effexor has already helped me a great deal. I'm starting to be able to do some small things and keep some responsibilities as well as finally being able to relax, as opposed to 4 months ago where going through any day of the week was almost impossible. On my good days I felt like I was an elastic band that was ready to snap and on my bad days I would have terrible panic attacks. Not to mention that I was so sleep deprived that my health (both mental and physical) was starting to fail pretty badly. That's why I'm on Effexor in the first place.
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> I've tried Celexa which didn't do anything for me, I tried Paxil which made me into a zombie that couldn't do anything but lay on the couch and "pretend" to watch TV all day, and Effexor has finally got my anxiety under control. The only thing is that I get HUGE bursts of energy and am either very happy, hyper, or angry. Either way, it's a HUGE improvement as to how I was a few months back. Plus, I tend to have a high tolerance for drugs so 75mgs was simply just a starting dosage. I took 37.5mgs for 5 days and it didn't do anything for me. I didn't even have any side effects, it was like taking an aspirin.
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> But if Epival and Tegretol are just mood stabilizers, would Clonazepam (Klonopin) not work just the same? And if my Doctor already asked me to start taking a daily dose of Clonazepam do you have any idea why she would have suggested those other drugs? What would the difference be?Clonazepam is a very effective antimanic agent. The trouble is that with some folks it can aggravate depression, or make it tough to concentrate during the day (being used chronically outside of an acute manic spell). If your pdoc suggested it, I would go with the suggestion. It is entirely possible that you could be on just Effexor+clonazepam and do just fine. Monitor your mood cyling with a chart of some kind to tell for sure...
poster:Ritch
thread:122119
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020930/msgs/122228.html