Posted by KaraS on July 17, 2004, at 21:41:02
In reply to Re: Zeugma, ADD diagnosis, posted by zeugma on July 16, 2004, at 22:45:25
> hi Kara,
>
> Yes I feel much worse after sleeping a lot. The optimum for me moodwise is to sleep about 5 hours hours. Unfortunately I seem to require a time to repay the 'sleep debt,' and then I have this comatose sleep that is unpleasant. but if I don't do this (for example on weekends when I work all week) I start to feel myself 'running down' inside. In fact, on Fridays I always feel this, and the mood- and energy-elevating effect of little sleep turns to acute dysphoria.
>
> I didn't experience any tachycardia on nortriptyline. I suspect I am relatively immune to this effect since it seems to be mediated through blockade of the muscarinic receptor, and I have reason to think that overactivity of this receptor helped cause my history of depression. depression has many causes, of course; that's why the TCA's are generally so effective, they are 'dirty' drugs, which can be a virtue.
>
> The least anti-muscarinic TCA is desipramine, which is similar to Paxil in potency in this regard; did you ever experience this effect on Paxil, if you tried it? If nortriptlyine energized you, then you would definitely be energized by desipramine. Of course, the tachycardia could be an indirect result of NE stimulation. Did you ever take Wellbutrin (forgive me if you told me already) and if so what effect did it have?
>
> I think you said you were on Effexor now? Is that energizing at all?
>
> If you are having the cycle of insomnia/oversleeping, I wonder if it's because you have a reversed circadian cycle. I don't have one now, but at the price of diminished energy: my energy naturally seems to peak around 4 am. 100 mg of nortriptyline is helping with energy a little, and the Provigil may be having a small effect too. Are you thinking of trying Ritalin again? I'm actually thinking of taking a 'drug holiday' from nortrip for a night, and taking a little Ritalin LA and seeing if I can get any work done on my grad school thesis. I wrote a chapter in January on an all-nighter but that had me feeling awful for a week!
>
>
> z
>
Hi Z,
I have also tried desipramine. Same effect on me as nortriptyline. In my mind they are the same drug. (BTW, how does anti-muscarinic differ from anticholinergic?)I did have either tachycardia or irregular heart rate (I thought it was the latter, my pdoc insisted it was the former) from Celexa, believe it or not. That was a HORRIBLE medication.
I tried Wellbutrin in small amount. It didn't give me tachycardia but I had a strange allergic effect. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I thought it could perhaps have been due to excipients in the pill but recently I remembered that I also tried the extended relief capsule with the same result.
Provigil made my limbs feel like cement. Also very strange but a known side effect for some people.
Effexor was rather neutral for me. I took the XR form because I experienced what I felt was an irregular heartbeat on the regular pills. I could take the XR in the morning or at night and it wouldn't make much of a difference. Unfortunately the antidepressant effect was limited but i had virtually no side effects. No pain, no gain I guess.
Paxil did absolutely nothing for me except give me a hard time getting off of it.
Zoloft did nothing for me. Also couldn't even tell I was taking anything. Amazing sexual response when I was going off of it. Like nothing I could even begin to describe - the ultimate aphrodesiac. (Hmmm, maybe I should go on and off of it more often...)
I just took 5 mg. of selegiline to wake up my brain. I had just slept a lot and needed something desperately. It has helped a bit. I'm going to try 10 mg. sometime soon. Have you tried selegiline at all?
I've mentioned my experience with Ritalin in a few other posts, but I don't remember if I've said anything to you about it. I tried 5 mg. of generic methylphenidate and it made me so sleepy. Did you react like that to a small dose of it? Does that reaction seem like it might give more creedence to the argument that I have ADD? Or is it completely unrelated? I'll have to try the 10 mg. when I get up enough nerve and see what happens. I have yet to try anything that has a truly profound effect upon my focus or concentration (but when I find that, get antidepressant relief and normalize my sleep, I may actually be able to get a good job!!)
Have you decided whether to forego sleep for a night, take Ritalin and work on your thesis?
-Kara
poster:KaraS
thread:364549
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040714/msgs/367266.html