Posted by morgan miller on September 2, 2010, at 11:06:46
In reply to Re: St Johns Wort Combined with SSRI's ) Morgan, posted by Huxley on September 2, 2010, at 5:13:59
Hey Huxley,
So you are still taking those 3 medications but you just cut down the doses significantly, right?I know when I took Lamictal I could not handle more than 100 mg and I did not want to go to 150 or 200 to see if the side effects were transient or dose related. I realize it is possible that I may have felt even better at 200 mg, and maybe I should have kept going up, but after feeling as bad as I did on 125 I just could bring myself to keep raising the dose.
When I was on Zyprexa, it was just too easy for me to sleep in and ruminate over negative things. It's as if Zyprexa helped me with the acute mania but the put me in a state of excessive sleep and locked the negative thoughts in my head with no way to escape. Zyprexa was not the only cause of my rumination/obsession, but it sure appears to make things worse in this respect. I also really don't like the fact that I could just sleep for 10 to 12 hours if I wanted to sometimes, waking up several times but miserably putting myself back into the world of worthless emptiness. So I eventually dropped Zyprexa and upped my dose of lithium. Lithium is not without it's downside. I'm going to give it a few months at 600 mg and see if my brain and body adjust to the point that I do not feel like I am taking anything or feel medicated at all. I used to feel like this on Zoloft monotherapy. It's what all of us are reaching for.
I'm all about a minimalist approach. I have been able to get down to just 2 medications, Prozac and Lithium. I admit though, I may have to go back to Zoloft and try adding Nortriptyline to the mix. I just need some extra help since I have so much going on physically and no longer can I do things that really made a positive impact on my mood and brain function like running, playing basketball, dancing or go to the gym and have great work outs. I also think the stress and depression combined with medication trials has put my brain in a state that requires more than it did before.
So do you believe that each medication you are taking is helping you in some way?
Morgan
poster:morgan miller
thread:960149
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100829/msgs/961035.html