Posted by gibber on July 26, 2007, at 23:12:52
In reply to Re: EMSAM - First Day » headcheese01, posted by Robert David on July 22, 2007, at 14:01:51
I had a similar experience as Mr. David. Exept I was on Emsam for more like a year/year and a half. Later on I combined it with Lamictal. I am still am on Lamictal. I took some holidays from Lamictal (a week or two). But I seem to keep coming back. I seem to feel better on it. It has been a long time since I've been to this board. Probably since I started EMSAM. I know it is so hard living for some of you. I have been there before. I would say I'm happy infrequently, but light years from where I used to be. I started CBT around the time I started emsam (2 years ago). I am a strong believer CBT. This is after taking every drug available and doing years of psychodynamic therapy too. I'm still in CBT. I'm able to hold a rather demanding job and I'm going back to my second semester of music school. Just throwing this out there, because I know many of you need some hope. Let me know if you have any question about anything.
> > Robert David,
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> > If you don't mind sharing, could you share why you stopped taking Emsam? It seemed to be working so brilliantly for you. How many months did you take it before you quit it?
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> I tried EMSAM to improve my mood, give me more energy and improve mental clarity. Also, I had hoped it might be a replacement for klonopin to treat SAD, GAD and mild depression (not clinical depression/anxiety related) which disabled me socially for over half my life prior to klonopin.
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> All other meds I tried as mono therapy or combined with klonopin were a bust for me. All side effects and no benefit.
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> When I started EMSAM in April 06 I was taking 2mgs klonopin down from 3. I had a very positive initial response to EMSAM. I had a suttle energy boost and sense of improved mental clairty. I was very encouraged.
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> I started having some slight issues with insomnia, but not enough to get me to stop EMSAM as I have never been a good sleeper. After a while and with my doctors permission I started to do a few things to see if I could improve sleeping.
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> First I cut the patch in half, basically to try it at a lower dose. I also tied taking it off a few hours before bedtime then back on early in the morning. Both helped.
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> During the 4 +/- months I was on EMSAM I had the energy to get back to the gym and was exercising more and was overall more motivated at work and feeling better. I improved many areas of my life such as eating better.
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> One night I took off the patch before bedtime and over the weekend didn't put it back on without noticing much differenceon how I felt. Then it got to be a week. At that point I stopped taking it and have not been back on it since.
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> While on EMSAM I was able to drop down to 1.5mgs klonopin where I still am today. Klonopin works as well for me now as it did at 3mgs, but with less tiring side effects.
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> So my overall take on EMSAM is for me it was the best anti depressent I've tried. It really helped give me a boost to get me going again. I don't seem to need anything other than klonopin at this time. I kept my half box of EMSAM and would not hesitate to go back on it again if I slipped back to the way I used to feel.
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> Though I have not followed the board much since stopping EMSAM I hope there are others that have found it to be helpful.
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poster:gibber
thread:630549
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070719/msgs/772268.html