Posted by Ritch on January 19, 2003, at 21:40:19
In reply to Re: Very Confused-need some advice » Ritch, posted by Peter on January 19, 2003, at 14:39:14
> > Peter, I would follow your current pdoc's advice about not taking the nortrip. just yet. From what you say in this post it really does sound like rapid-cycling bipolar. You mentioned dropping the Adderall a bit and things improving somewhat. It also sounds like SSRI's are setting you off badly as well. You might talk to your pdoc about another dose-reduction of your Zoloft (if you haven't stopped it already), and dropping your Adderall back to 20mg for a while and see if you improve some more. Hope this helps some..
> > Hi Mitch:
> The only problem is that the Adderall for the past year has been the only med that has helped me with my lack of motivation/lethargy/SP. And when I took it with the zoloft, I found that that they balanced out each others' negative effects-the SSRI took the agitation edge off the adderall, while the adderall decreased the impulsivity of the SSRI. But, the instability did come after a few months, and my impulsivity increased again. But at least it seemed like I was more on the right track than I am now! And I'm just sick of waiting while my mood keeps getting worse; the lamictal isn't doing crap and I'm cold/depressed/irritable/withdrawn/utterly lethargic & unmotivated. And I've been completely off the zoloft for over 2 weeks. I'm sorry for always being the victim on these posts and never the contributor.
> Thanks for helping out, though-you always do,
> Peter
>That's OK. You have a lot of similar symptoms that I have, so I want to see you do better, and wonder what will wind up working for you, because it may likely work for me as well! I got some similar effects with taking Adderall and Effexor (at much lower doses though), in regards to them "balancing" one another. It is like the Adderall does "hit" a particularly important circuit/pathway in a positive way, but it is like a bad keyboard player that gets the major and minor keys mixed up somehow. FWIW, you might *still* need a tiny dose of Zoloft (maybe 12.5mg every other day) for awhile to stay stable. The worst type of withdrawal I have ever experienced was trying to stop an SSRI. It wasn't "brain zaps" and all the usual stuff you hear about, it is more of an existential thing (a psychic thing), and it is like the "coldness/withdrawn" feelings you talk about. Perhaps a lower-dose continuation of the Zoloft/Adderall (with less "tweakiness") with the same dose of Lamictal given a little time and then see how you get along? No sense giving up totally on stuff that works, maybe just back off the dose to settle things? --Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:136494
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030119/msgs/136653.html