Posted by g_g_g_unit on September 15, 2008, at 2:06:00
hey - i just wondering if anyone could offer some guidance. this is something i've never really admitted - to myself, or anyone else before - but i feel like i've suffered with a drinking problem for the past 3 years. now when i say that, i don't mean that i drink everyday; instead, in an attempt to balance out my social life with my work life, i've tried to compartmentalize the two. when i was younger (20) and first began drinking, this system worked out, i guess because being a straight-A student who had spent his formative teenage years holed up in his bedroom on weekends, i had brain cells to burn. but lately, i'm finding my memory failing in simple, everyday situations - losing keys, sunglasses, etc., forgetting names of films ... and overall I'm just not as sharp as I once was. Illicit drug use has been kept to a minimum (I've tried MDMA twice, and that's about it), and I have managed to cut down from drinking every weekend to now drinking once or twice a month. I never drink two consecutive nights in a row, but when I do drink I have no self-control and will keep going until I feel sick. Then I will become obsessed with the fact that I'm slowly curtailing my mental abilities, but once, 14 days later or whatever, I feel that I'm okay, I'll decide to drink again. Anyway, I've decided that I want to stop drinking now, and am determined to see it through. I've been taking Acetyl-l-carnitine (250mg has no discernable effect, 500mg leaves me irritable), Omega 3 and a phosphatidyl complex to assist with cognitive repair. I realise that in a sense - due to an anxiety disorder/OCD - I am overreacting; yet i also don't want use that as a cover-up to the fact that undoubtedly i've done some damage. now, i've never discussed any of this with my psych ... which brings me to my main question. the last time we met, six weeks ago, he prescribed me nortriptyline + prozac in accordance with an article by an australian psychiatrist that was posted on here stating that an SSRI + NORTRIPTYLINE will be superior to treatment with an snri (our determined next-step, given that i'd failed on most of the ssri's). i didn't start taking the two, partly because i was hesitant about advancing beyond mono-drug therapy, and partly i've been preoccupied with work. obviously though i'm not going to successfully break my abuse habit, and tendency toward extreme mindsets, unless i get my OCD under control, which i believe requires medical intervention once again. (more often than not i will refrain from pharmaceutical drugs because i worry about cognitive side-effects yet ironically will then self-medicate in a much more harmful fashion). anyway what i was wondering is whether it might be worth going on something like HYDERGINE for a bit? can it be taken alongside NORTRIP + PROZAC? if not, is there another nootropic that won't interact? or will simple abstinence be enough? thanks 4 your help
poster:g_g_g_unit
thread:852079
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080903/msgs/852079.html