Posted by karaS on October 10, 2004, at 4:03:10
In reply to Re: rip van winkle syndrome, posted by zeugma on October 9, 2004, at 21:43:42
> > Hi z,
> >
> Yes. Tomorrow will be my day off (sort of). And the day after. But there's so much I have to do. It is almost more exhausting for me to be in my chaos of an apt. than to be in my workplace. I think I'm going to listen to music, and let my mind drift. My ADD really feels like a REM state: directionless, random processes that follow their own course. I think Strattera had such an effect on my ADD because it is such a powerful norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, and suppressor of REM sleep. But I can't take it (see below).Music has always been my salvation - until recently that is. My stereo system and most of my tapes and CDs are all boxed up. I haven't opened them from my last move. I never wanted to stay in this apartment so I haven't unpacked a lot of things. Hopefully I will move soon and get more music back in my life (literally and figuratively).
It's hard for me to focus sometimes but I don't feel like my thoughts are "directionless random processes". That must be a strange feeling.
> I am sure that TCA's have a more direct action on panic. Don't have the energy to speculate further, but what you have said corroborates my own experience.
>
> > I haven't started the Cymbalta yet because I didn't want to have unexpected side effects while working. I'll start it this weekend. I hate starting new drugs. Can you tell?
> >
>
> No I couldn't :)
>
>
> > How are you doing balancing the Strattera and Ritalin?
>
> The Strattera is gone. it tore my stomach apart, and it seemed that I got a response only from doses that came close to 40 mg. Plus it would wear off around 1 or 2 pm necessitating bid dosing, and of course, more side effects. It did its job for a little but it is not a medicine that I can tolerate. I am now taking 30 mg ritalin LA am plus 10 mg at noon. It is not doing wonders for me, but I tolerate it better than Strattera, and I need something I can take that does not feel worse than the original condition. If I needed Strattera to work full-time, I would opt for part-time and try to scrape by. I would have no choice.I don't understand. I thought that in the past you had taken Strattera for at least a year and had done well on it. Why is it irritating your stomach now? Is is possible for compounding pharmacies to put the medication into a patch?
Is there a reason that you never consider or try Adderall or Dexedrine?> I explained to my pdoc that Ritalin simply is not as effective for my symptoms as Provigil or Strattera, but that the latter two are not tolerable. I told him that Ritalin's inefficacy in itself causes anxiety, so he let me increase my clonazepam. There is nothing more anxiogenic, for me, than to know that my focus is slipping away, and that others can see it (I have a job that calls for constant interaction, and trust me: they can). My pdoc told me also to decrease caffeine as much as possible, as they compete for the same receptors. I had much the same thought. But if Ritalin at the higher dose doesn't help, it will be caffeine all the way. I am not having serious s/e from Ritalin, so I suppose the dose could go higher. We'll see.
Doesn't coffee rip you insides out as well? Or do you take caffeine pills?
> By the way, to answer your question in your last post: I think I have both. A fun combination :) I am also restarting buspirone, 15 mg hs, as I told him it blocked hypnagogic hallucinations when I knew I would be vulnerable to them (ie, when I am stressed or have gotten inadequate sleep previously). I took it last night without problems. I tolerate buspirone well at low dosages.That made me nauseous. But I'm glad it's helpful to you. Maybe you won't need to keep the clonazepam at the higher rate once you've taken this a while.
> So you are starting Cymbalta today? I am getting impatient!You mean you're getting tired of hearing about it. :-) I was planning on taking it today but i've been having allergy and sinus problems with headache and pressure and swollen membranes for several days now. I couldn't bear the thought of adding on a drug to give me worse symptoms. I wish I could figure out what I'm having this reaction to. It might be the Armour thyroid medication. I'll be going back to the synthetic T4 tomorrow so we'll see if that changes anything.
Hopefully I'll be in the mood to start the Cymbalta soon. I probably shouldn't have said anything about it until I had actually started on it.
K
poster:karaS
thread:397388
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041007/msgs/401080.html