Posted by Bob on November 18, 2005, at 17:35:39
In reply to Re: When the options are gone?, posted by blueberry on November 18, 2005, at 5:29:08
> Cocaine makes almost anybody feel good...I'm not suggesting it at all...but ritalin is very similar...have you tried the stimulants like ritalin?
>
> Have you tried mood stabilizers alone without antidepressants in the mix?
>
> Have you tried ssri + naltrexone? (the opioid-serotonin connection for treatment resistance and for ssri poopout)
>
> Have you tried low dose amisulpride? (mailorder) Have you tried tianeptine?(mailorder) In your situation, I would not hesitate to use overseas meds, some of them are fantastic and are very popular across the globe everywhere except USA.
>
> I could be wrong, but I'm not sure all the options are gone.I would say, looking back on my history that, I fear pretty much all the options are gone, except maybe MAOIs. I've tried every SSRI class drug with the exception of Cymbalta, which is already gaining a nasty rep for withdrawl. I had enough of that with Anafranil and Effexor, which were extremely challenging. I've tried mood stabilizers: Depakote, Tegretol, etc, as well as drugs like Topomax (I almost bought it on that one), Lamictal, Neurontin, Trileptal, and probably some I'm forgetting. I've augmented with stimulants, both typical and atypical, such as Ritalin and Provigil. These worked for about 2 days, and all benefits disappeared and I was left with fatigue and breathing problems. I've also tried thyroid hormone augmentation. And yes, unfortunately, I had 21 fun-filled ECT sessions which left me feeling, in the end, somewhat like what happened after Topomax, except eventually worse after I stopped. It's weird, those last two treatments did some good things in the beginning and brought some hope, but looking back and taken as a whole, they were absolutely disasterous and life threatening. I am well aware of course, that these responses are peculiar to me. In fact, when I first took these meds years ago, not only did I respond differently to them, but my symptoms were a fraction of what they are now. I have had at least two breaks of being off all meds, and they were not good times. Currently I'm only taking Lithium with a touch of Klonopin. I'm an not in good shape, and instead of stabilizing I'm degenerating. Not a good situation. I may end up in the hospital soon, but I hear that they only take you if you are suicial, and there only goal is to hear you say you're currently not, and then they discharge you. That doesn't sound very helpful to me, as anyone can slap some nasty sedating psychotropic on a patient and then send them on their way. I guess there's VNS, but I don't know why that wouldn't end up disasterously also, and besides, I don't know if I have the 2 years to wait and see if I'm one of the lucky few for which it seems to work.
I do currently have a therapist and a longtime psychiatrist. In fact, I just had a discussion with my therapist last week about whether I should keep seeing her, as it is obvious nothing much can be said at this point. However, we agreed it was at the very least cathartic.
I got a complete physical checkup and all kinds of blood work, along with an MRI about 2 months ago. The tests came back that I am robustly, and rampantly healthy. Of all the tests that were done from the 6 to 8 vials of blood they took, the only thing of any note was a slight elevated cholesteol level, but the doc said it was nothing at all to worry about.
I imagine psychosurgery might not be a good option in some peoples' opinion because it is utterly unreversible. What every happens after that, well, that's what you've got for the rest of your life. I've never heard any of my doctors bring it up.
I've never heard of the SSRI + naltrexone idea. Sounds interesting.
I have not tried amisulpride or tianeptine, but how would I get those without a scrip, and what if my supply got interrupted? Besides, I thought I remembered see posts on here about those two things not really being that effective? Maybe I'm remembering something else.
I think I'm finally at the end of the road here, and it seems to me that my body just cannnot tolerate these meds, not to mention that they don't work for the most part. I'll probably be limping along as long as I can on some barely tolerable med. Kind of ironic: when I first started posting on this forum, quite a number of years ago, I used to read posts of people who were much sicker than I, and almost reflexively think, well at least I'm not that bad. Now, I'm in almost the worst condition of anyone I know, whether it's on this board or not. That's probably an exaggeration, but not by much. I haven't been out of the house in days.
It's just stunning to me, upon reflection, that this has gotten so debilitating, and brutal, and that the medical community knows so utterly little about what is going on. I guess there are a number of other diseases out there like that, but don't it seems that the "imbalance of chemicals" theory is really, really vague.
poster:Bob
thread:579730
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051112/msgs/580174.html