Posted by utopizen on July 6, 2005, at 13:43:43
In reply to Re: i feel bad on zyprexa, but good on seroquel » Jeroen, posted by 4WD on July 5, 2005, at 22:41:12
this is fascinating for you guys to discuss dysphoria on an antipsychotic.
well, I tried Risperdal for 3 days at .5mg x 3/day, before giving up (doc was betrayed I didn't trust him to call him before next appt).
I never felt that bad in my life. Lethargy might suffice as a clinical term to convey my state, but only if it also was mentioned that I felt dyphoria, too.
I remember lying on the floor, in my room, in a fetal position, awaiting some Adderall to give me a kick, which was apparently so overwhelmed by the Risperdal in my system I could just barely notice I took it because my pulse was slightly higher. At 30mg, nonetheless!
That was bak before I ever had depression in my life, and my doc, who told me he refused to give any of his patients Klonopin, and even revealed many of his patients would leave him after a year or so of not getting better out of it, was throwing any med at me as long as it wasn't a benzo.
Well, he goes, "Well, it's not rational to think that way. These side effects only last a few weeks, and then your body adjusts. If you were having troubles, you could have called me, and I could have given you Provigil while you adjusted"
I tried Provigil, much later, after I entered a state of depression the following year. Even 600mg wouldn't affect my somnolence, unless I took 6 bags of tea in a mug and sipped it all down for the caffiene. The combination was the only thing that would work.
I was so desperate at that point, having to work at a stressful, non-paying internship I felt I had to prove myself worthy for, I put up with the wired anxiety I had to endure to substitute the groggy-looking somnolent state I would otherwise be in.
At the time, I was seeing a different pdoc out-of-state while I was taking my summer internship and came down with this sudden depression that I thought was just insomnia and some sleep disorder mixed in.
She was convinced I was bipolar (I wasn't, but you know how it is these days, they assume you are if you mention anything about denying perpetual deep depression 24/7). So she gave me Seroquel samples up the wazoo for me to bring back to my place.
I sorta wish I tried it more than a week or so, because only the first night did I experience this like faint, barely sleeping-yet-dreaming slightly sleep that was agonizing to experience. My body adjusted to that by the second night and I was fine.
Only thing was, I experienced these like, manic-like, racing thoughts in my head-- very creative, but weird, almost lucid ideas for things like ads (when I'm creative, I've always made intricate ad ideas since I was a kid, pretending I was a creative director for an agency).
I read later in a book on bipolar and antipsychotics, the initial period of taking an antipsychotic has some term to it, that seemed to pin down this experience-- where I felt like things were hyper, my mind was getting recalliberated somehow, like the drug was defragmenting my thoughts and determining how to optimize how I thought most efficiently and rationally.
Sort of makes me wonder how I'd be if I stuck it out, but I was actually in denial i even had depression (I was a happy kid, and convinced I was somehow immune to it at the age of 18). Maybe I would be more "rational" today, whatever that means...
I have pretty much entered remission with my depression after a couple of years, now for 6 months anyhow free of it, but my ADD still frustrates me even on meds. I take Desoxyn, 20mg/day, and have tried all the stims.Executive Dysfunction/Time management is a huge deal for me. I'm on Aricept, but only have been on 5mg for 2 months, so will need to likely increase to 10mg and see how it goes.
poster:utopizen
thread:518613
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050702/msgs/524279.html