Posted by Peter on September 16, 2003, at 20:02:49
I am on my 11th day of lexapro, and also take 35-40mg adderall and 3mg klonopin. I've been on and off adderall for 2 years at varying doses. I've taken SSRI's with adderall before also. But this time is different:
QUICK BACKGROUND:
I was taking 35-40mg adderall from last winter thru summer; at the time, I was also taking 50-100mg lamictal, 5-10mg prozac, 2mg klonopin, 25mg strattera, 25-50mg trazadone, 15mg temazepam, and 10mg ambien. Beginning early this summer, I began to get a lot of anxiety, but since I was taking so many meds, it was one big mess. So my pdoc proceded to have me taper off each med, one by one, to narrow down the 'culprit' med. Well, we ended up tapering me off of everything except the klonopin (which I've been taking at varying doses for 5-6 years).
To make a long story short, this past August, for weeks AFTER tapering off all the meds, my anxiety and depresssion became unbearable. My pdoc was leaving for vacation, so he gave me some instructions to double my klonopin dose, and, if I wasn't feeling better after 4 days, to reintroduce the adderall, but at 20mg, a lower dose than I was used to. I did as he said, including the 20mg adderall. About 2 weeks later, pdoc returned and I said I was still experiencing major anxiety/depression, even on 3.5mg klonopin and 20mg adderall (the adderall usually calmed me down, as well). So he decided that I should begin Lexapro.
NOW:
I began 5mg Lexapro 11 days ago. I had some GI upset and lethargy for the first 4 days. Pdoc had me increase to 10mg on day 7.
The day I began 10mg (daY 7), I really thought I was beginning to feel better - like the med was starting to work. My social phobia improved and I felt like I was beginning to gain interest again in everyday things - something my depression prevented me from being able to do.
However, since that day, my mood has gone down again. I feel much more irritable, somnolent, and socially avoidant - just more symptomatic overall, with the following SE's: constant lethargy, feeling cold and flu-like, low mood, very irritability, stomach upset, spaced-out, foggy,depressed.
MY MAIN CONCERN:
I am concerned because I have increased the adderall from initial instructions for 20mg daily to 35-40mg daily, all within 1 week. I've done it in an attempt to try to ease some of the lexapro-induced lethargy and lift my mood, but I fear I am pushing myself into danger and addiction by self-medicating.
Also, all the higher adderall does is make me feel like I have little respites from the lex side-effects, but I sometimes wonder if the reverse is happening, i.e if the adderall is masking possible benefits of the lexapro, causing me to not notice that the lexapro might be somewhat already working.
I say this partly out of speculation, but also because it seems that the only time of day when I feel a bit better is late at night, around 2a.m, after all the adderall has worn off and after I've taken my bedtime 2mg klonopin and 15mg temazepam. During this time, I'm not tired, just more alive-feeling and in a better mood than throughout the rest of the day.
Does anyone have any opinions? My pdoc doesn't mind my adjusting adderall doses - sometimes I've increased or decreased in the past without his explicit consent, and it turned out for the better. But this time I feel like I'm doing something wrong; from 20-40mg within 1 week. I mean, on the one hand, I am more used to the 40mg adderall dose range from my taking it so many times in the past, and I couldn't feel any benefits from the low 20mg dose. But now I feel like I'm using it to 'escape' the almost-unbearable lex SE's, yet, as I mentioned above, I fear that I am inadvertently, simultaneously 'escaping' possible lex benefits by raising the adderall dose, as the adderall sort of puts a whole new 'haze' on my psyche.
Any feedback/advice would be much appreciated. Sorry for the length.
thanks,
Peter
poster:Peter
thread:260799
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030912/msgs/260799.html