Posted by Keith Talent on May 16, 2004, at 1:16:06
In reply to Re: Panic/anxiety/depression/Cocaine/Marijuana/Nardil?, posted by RobertPalsing on May 15, 2004, at 20:02:11
I guess the key here is to identify what symptoms that you had that you tried to self-medicate away. Depression? Social Anxiety? Feeling that you don't make conversation enough?
From there, your psychiatrist can move to a diagnosis. It seems that you probably have Social Phobia. If that is so, I'd go for clonazepam (Klonopin) and dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), with maybe an SSRI as well. Clonazepam is of higher potency and is longer acting than lorazepam. Dextroamphetamine, in a high enough dose, will make you more sociable.
The closest match to cocaine would probably be dexmethylphenidate (Focalin). Methylphenidate (Ritalin) is a 50:50 mix of two mirror-imaged chemicals. Dexmethylphenidate is just the right-handed one. It is more potent in the brain, with less side effects in the rest of the body (racing heart, tremor, high blood pressure). The problem is that it only lasts about two hours and it is expensive.
There was a small study done in Sydney on using dextroamphetamine to wean cocaine users off cocaine. It seemed to help a good proportion of the patients, but you don't sound like you are even remotely dependent.
Oh, and keep in mind that regular, heavy use of marijuana can make you very depressed. It seems that it can also bring out schizophrenia early in people who are predisposed to suffer it.
poster:Keith Talent
thread:347055
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040515/msgs/347322.html