Posted by circusboy on November 12, 2007, at 15:34:34
In reply to Nardil or SSRIs + Cognition, + LongTerm Memory esp, posted by Questionmark on November 12, 2007, at 2:01:48
No, I understand... And you're not being selfish; you're worried that an essential part of yourself has been taken away by the drugs.
That said. Your memory in general might have been worse on Paxil not because of its primary effects on the serotonin transporter, but because of its secondary effects on acetylcholine receptors. I've never tried Paxil, though, so I can't say from personal experience.
My recall is generally better on serotonin drugs. (My concentration / working memory was problematic on Prozac, but I'm not sure I can generalize from that drug. Now that I think about it, my memory was also very strange -- I was good at making creative connections and using my prior knowledge, but there are big gaps that I don't remember from that time). What they /can/ do is separate me a bit from my emotions, so that my memories aren't so rich or intense.
We'll see -- I've just started Zoloft again -- but I'm starting to think this might be an acceptable trade-off. Without a small chemical boost, my memory is bad and I'm often confused by little things (am I heading the right way on the highway? what is the name of that ... thing?), and I'm much less optimistic, curious, and motivated. I'm not as good in conversation. Lately, I've been having disturbing obsessive thoughts and fears that I'm going to screw up (on purpose!) at work.
So yeah... your memories were probably more colorful before the drugs. But they may not be any better if you quit at this point.
(One thing I can't speak to is Nardil's pharmacodynamics. Maybe someone else?)
> Anyone who might have any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, etc. on this, please supply them. I would greatly appreciate it.
> One of the things that concerns me a great deal with being on Nardil still (as did being on Paxil back in the day i think) is cognitive dulling-- and word finding/ articulating difficulties and long-term memory fogginess in particular. For the purpose of this thread i'll just focus on the memory fogginess.
> Now i'm not sure if Nardil (or Paxil in the past) is affecting my long-term memory at all or not. But i feel like it is and has been. It's possible that i'm just not used to having that many more years in my past to sort through (being now in my later 20s); that essentially i'm just getting older. Part of the problem too is that i'm so damn obsessively sentimental and analytical of my past and my life (that is, more-so than the average person it seems). So i'm not sure if i'm just wanting to have this hoard of clear memories and knowledge of the periods in which they occurred, since i was a child, when in actuality at this age that's not possible because there are just too many -- OR if my long-term memory has actually become horrendously poor and foggy and there's actually something wrong with it-- or something in between.
> So i'm wondering if other people who have been on serotonergic antidepressants, particularly Nardil, for awhile are also perceiving the same thing or not really. I just feel like i remembered my past so much better before i got on Paxil and then Nardil. Maybe NOT though. I CAN'T REMEMBER!
> Anyway, any comments, or whatever, would be appreciated. Thank you.
> And i'm sorry for my obsessing, if it is, and my selfishness.
> My god we are all products aren't we? No skip that.
poster:circusboy
thread:794524
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071104/msgs/794660.html