Posted by Peter on October 14, 2003, at 20:01:17
In reply to Peter?, posted by wsj on October 12, 2003, at 23:34:36
> lexapro working any better? im still at 10mg but have to aug w/ dexedrine to make it work. then dexedrine presents its own problems w/ sleep. have to stop early enough to sleep that evenings are not much fun. then have to take 1-2mg klon to fall asleep. thought about upping lexapro while reducing dex & klon but i think this would kill what little sex drive i have.
>
> wsj
>>Hey wsj:
I was actually thinking about you recently and how things are going with your lex and dex. Are you still considering a switch to an MAOI?
I'm just really confused, as usual. I'm going thru a similar thing as you; I'm staying on 10mg lexapro (I think it's almost the beginning of week 7 for me), and I've had mixed results. Every once and a while I feel that my mood might be improving and I'm trying my best to get better sleep and exercise. But overall, I still feel like crap; and each time I taper the adderall back down to see if it is somehow 'hindering' the benefits of the lexapro, I find that I get so lethargic that I need to again increase the adderall. I'm also experiencing some wierd physical effects: It's like I always have this wierd combination of feeling both lethargic AND agitated at the same time. As I might have mentioned before, adderall tends to both stimulate me AND calm me down in a way. So, during the day, when I'm taking adderall, I get slight, short mood lifts and better focus, but I still feel this sense of physical discomfort. At night, I'm beginning to grind my teeth more and get more agitated and anxious around bedtime. I still isolate all the time, and a lot of my phobias are hightened. My pdoc diagnosed me as falling somewhere in the 'mild' area of the 'bipolar spectrum.' I used to always take mood-stabilizers with SSRI's, but this time he said my bipolar features are not severe enough as to warrant a mood stabilizer. But I did notice that, in the past when I took mood-stabilizers with SSRI's, I wouldn't have such physical discomfort and varying levels of lethargy and agitation. Needless to say, thoug, even with mood-stabilizer add-ons, I still always felt a certain degree of discomfort on SSRI's. Maybe this lexapro trial is really verifying that I respond badly to SSRI's. I've never taken a TCA, but my pdoc keeps saying their SE profile sucks and I would hate them. I still don't see how the risks and interactikons and SE's of MAOI's are not as severe as those of TCA's, but that's what he claims. Furthermore, I have been reading up on posts at the the Yahoo MAOI group, and I continue to hear nothing but positive stuff about traditional MAOI's. But I can't seem to get over my fears about the dangers of the MAOI's. It's almost like the symptoms for which I'd be taking the MAOI's are preventing me from taking them! No matter how much I hear that the dietary restrictions are not a big deal, etc., I still have this MAOI-phobia that's hard to shake. But I also still have an MAOI-fascination and a lurking sense that it could be my long-awaited answer for an effective anti-anxiety, AD med. So I'm still hanging in there with the lex, wondering if I should reduce it to 5mg - if maybe doing that would give me more benefits and less of these wierd physical/mental adverse events. Or I'm thinking of seeing if the agitation/lethargy could be somewhat alleviated with a mood-stabilizer add-on and or/ switching from adderall to dexedrine spansules and giving them another try (since many say that the l-isomer in adderall is responsible for more anxiety and periheral SE's). I also considered retrying the RIMA moclobemide, though I'm not sure if that would be essentially wasting time on my part, as my pdoc says it doesn't do very well with social anxiety and is not that good an AD. So maybe, again, I should instead just bite the bullet, get off of the lex and adderall, and start Nardil or Parnate once and for all. AGH! It's all so frustrating; if I could only get over the fear of hypertensive crises, etc. as well as my fear of a month of hell withdrawing from my current meds and waiting until it's safe to take an MAOI. And then I begin doubting my pdoc, wondering if skipping a TCA trial and going straight to an MAOI is really the right thing for me. I don't know; this sucks. Everyday is like trying to medicate myself with the adderall to get out of the discomfort that I think the lex is causing-it's a mess!
poster:Peter
thread:268836
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031010/msgs/269466.html