Posted by yznhymer on October 28, 2004, at 16:40:48
In reply to MAOIs and anxiety, confusing! my life an apology, posted by ravenstorm on October 28, 2004, at 15:52:55
> I did look up those posts by/about Adam. THe only thing I could glean was that he had a severe depressive disorder but no word about anxiety.
>
> I did find one person who took oral selegeline had anxiety (similar to WB). Others had no anxiety but perhaps were not predisposed to it.
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> I am feeling pretty stupid at the moment. A lot of my decision making about meds lately has somewhat centered around not wanting to be on anything I couldn't easily get off, or anything I couldn't take concurrently with the MAOI patch when/if it comes out. (A while back it looked like it was going to be before the end of the year) I was so interested in the patch because I have such a bad stomach and I have heard that MAOI's kick butt in terms of depression etc. I haven't reallized until recently that the different MAOI's are so different. I just thought they all worked on the three big neurotransmitters so they were probably just somewhat different in the same way that different SSRIs are different depending on the person. OK, DUH, not true. Seems like selegeline will be more activating than parnate. But, I have found plenty of examples of people with anxiety who take parnate and it helps their anxiety. (The person who got too activated by oral selegeline found that parnate helped both her anxiety and depression).
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> In my own defense, I was too screwed up for much of last year to think all that clearly. I did try nortriptyline, celexa, prozac, remeron, WB and all the natural supplement crap. The remeron/WB combo gave me a good month and a half of somewhat normal (still some crappy side effects) but I thought I could limp along on it until the patch came out. But the last month or so on the combo has been excruciating, hellish anxiety. And so as of yesterday, I will be unable to continue with the WB. And the irony of all this? I get withdrawal syndrome (NOT as bad as paxil, but serious deterioration in mood and nausea/insomnia) when I tried to stop the remeron (I thought this drug didn't have a discontinuation syndrome--but again, I'm super sensitive). At least when I was trapped on paxil, it worked and didn't make me angry and tired like remeron. And the greater Irony of course is that I may not tolerate the patch anyway if it is going to affect me like WB.
>
> Anyway, I'm trying to decide what to do next. NE seems to not agree with me. Not even the small amount that remeron affects,(oh, and my pdoc didn't even know that remeron affects NE!) so I think cymbalta is pretty much out. I can try lexapro again and see if I can make it through the start ups since I have a small toe hold on sanity compared to before.(Made me seriously ill for four days--puking foggy headed, worsening of mood) when I tried it the first time before moving on to remeron. Should have tried it longer, but again, was afraid of not being able to get back off of it. Which was stupid thinking, as I probably won't be able to tolerate the patch anyway!
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> Oh, back to the topic at hand. Sorry for digression. I asked my doctor (who I have virtually no faith in anymore because he doesn't think WB really causes anxiety and he mentioned that he doesn't think effexor is hard to get off of!) if he prescribed MAOI's and he said he gives nardil. I asked if nardil didn't tend to make people fat and asexual and he said it wasn't that much of a problem. He then said he wanted me to try to keep taking the remeron and lowered WB awhile longer, but I called yesterday and left a message that I just couldn't do it anymore. Severe anxiety destabilizes my mood faster than anything. I am crying all the time, and leaving the house is difficult. (Which is sooooooooo dangerous this time of year for me. This summer I exercised outside three to six times per day. It is critical for me to keep exercising with my seasonal affective disorder, but I need to go join a gym this time of year and I am too anxious from the WB to even go to one!!!!!!!!)
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> I would think nardil plus remeron would be a sure way to guarantee obesity!!!!!!!!! (But as the previous poster indicated, he didn't gain weight at all) I don't know how he would react if I tried to demand a trial of parnate first. I didn't really get too far with questions on the phone because when I'm having anxiety, it is difficult for me to talk on the phone and process what the other person is saying. Also a bit freaked out about the withdrawal syndrome of MAOIs. Don't get me wrong, if I find something that works again, I won't go off of it. The fear is trying something, discovering it doesn't work and then having to go through withdrawal. Its not just the physical discomfort (though that is pretty severe--its the anxiety and suicidal ideation--which is what was going on last week-- that scare the hell out of me).
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> Finally, if anyone is even reading this. I would like to apologize if I have been out of hand in some of my posts. I'm pissed off that I thought I was done with this and I'm not. I'm pissed off that I get so sickand or suicidal when I try to come on and off these meds. That and i'm on two meds that seems to cause me to be angry (husband noted it after only two weeks on the remeron--should have just stopped taking it then and I wouldn't have to worry about withdrawal!!!) Regardless of all that, you all have enough problems of your own without having to listen to my whining.
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> Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
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> P.S. am trying to research through old posts but it is hard to tell if people taking parnate have anxiety disorders or just atypical depression. Also, found some pubmed reports on parnate addiction (their word, not mine)--is that possible?
>
> p.p.s if I go on an MAOI I can't have children. But at this point I have pretty much told my husband he would be better off divorcing me as I may never be well enough again to have children, and if I do get well I may be on something that causes birth defects (like MAOIs)I'm sorry you are having such a bad time of it. Drug trials that don't work out are really the pits. I just had to ditch Cymbalta after 2 weeks, and I don't know what Imna do next. I too am hoping the EMSAM patch may be the ticket. Fortunately, I haven't had the kind of depression that causes suicidal ideation in almost a decade, so as bad as I often feel, its nothing compared to the snakepit of dispair that depression can induce.
I've been concentrating on making the quality of my life as good as it can be given the fact that I'm chronically tired, unmotivated, disinterested, and irritiable. It has helped, but then I have more leeway then when I was younger and had to hold down a job, raise kids, etc. Cheri Huber (sic) has written some wonderful and easy to read books based on zen principles that have helped me immensely to live with depression until I find the path to remission:
"The Depression Book: Depression As an Opportunity for Spiritual Growth"
"There is Nothing Wrong With You"
I know very little about meds but I do share your sensitivity to side effects. Others here will probably have better medical advice for you than I can muster. I'll share a couple of layman's thoughts though...
1. If you can find an antidepressant that works on your dpression and that you can tolerate, you probably can augment with something to ease the anxiety. I envy people who get relief from their depression and anxiety from one pill, but have learned that ain't gonna be me.
2. Moclobemide (Manerix)is a selective reversible maoi available from Canada with a prescription. I didn't find it robustly effective for me, but the side effects were very tolerble (almost non-existant), and I'm usually very sensitive to side effects. Also, getting off it was a breeze. Perhaps your doc will be willing to consider it. One of my pdocs was OK with it, the most recent is not comfortable prescribing it since its not approved for sale here. I just don't think its as robust a med as Nardil or Parnate, but you may not need that level of robustness.
Best Wishes...
Mark
poster:yznhymer
thread:405309
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041024/msgs/408488.html