Posted by Benzini on March 29, 2004, at 19:45:58
In reply to Re: self esteem issues and brain chemistry? help, posted by snapper on March 29, 2004, at 16:12:45
Low self-steem associated with social phobia is due to dopamine dysfunction. Studies on primates showed that low-ranking monkeys were lacking in dopamine. Converse was true of the dominant monkeys. I have social phobia and it manifests itself similarly. For brief periods of time I can be very confident, but most of the time my self-esteem is quite low. The only time I was able to maintain high self-steem and not see myself as being at the bottom of social hierarchy was when I was taking an SSRI (10mg Lexapro). It worked for a few a months (and it was awesome), but eventually it pooped out due to dopamine depletion. I tried Serzone (300mg for 4 months), Zoloft (200mg - 3.5 monts), but both didn't help much. Zoloft made me lethargic, completely apathetic, but still anxious socially. I just didn't care about it. I will be trying Nardil in a few weeks.
poster:Benzini
thread:329723
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040329/msgs/330043.html