Posted by ggggg123 on November 2, 2010, at 14:21:54
In reply to Re: To Cheryl-Lynne Anhedonia, posted by Conundrum on November 2, 2010, at 12:58:00
Hi, cheers for the info. The only reason I choose bromocriptine was cost, its cheap I would rather buy miraplex. I haven't started the Reboxetine and probably won't get it for at least a week or two, as the doctor said only a psych can prescribe it. My experience with bupropion after using it irregularly for many months, I would say it is relativcely weak, I am hoping the strength of reboxetine can provide a more stable sustained flow of NE, but as with bupropion it is dosed BID. After you mentioned about ne it made a whole lot of sense, as bromo is not anywhere near sufficient alone, but is good when combined with bupropion, plus dopamine makes you tired.
NE is what gives you the fight of flight response, it keeps you on your toes, it makes you want to do things, it makes you want to move forward with time, rather than backwards. It gives you emotion and passion, where as I believe dopamine allows you to experience pleasure from these activities, overall I thoroughly agree that NE is of major importance in anhedonia, I also believe that raising ne will indirectly increase dopamine and some serotonin. If you suffer anhedonia without much anxiety, as I do, just a complete horrible flat apathetic zombie type feeling, which you can tell is biological, then i think the main building block will be norepinephrine, obviously if you have anxiety a small amount of serotonin maybe needed.Personally I think its best to get shut of the ssri, and try and adopt new habits when taking a more NE based med, like getting lots of exercise, good sleeping habits and healthy eating habits. all this will boost serotonin, the problem is with ssri's is one does not feel like exercising or being very active, including mental activity, which is absolutely crucial. When I was 16 I has severe depression, but my docs gave me nothing, and over a period of a year I made a full recovery, I then went to college and then started university, in my second year at university I got severely stressed out and fell into depression and anxiety again, this time it was in the severe range, where as before it was moderate. this time I felt I needed treatment, So I was prescribed citalopram, which is very common practice in the uk. But my depression was very severe, I went upto 60mg of citalopram and was told its the best drug and to keep taking it, so I took it for 7 months after this time I was so sick of having no kind of sexuality and feeling so dissociated from life, that I decided I wanted to quit, I slowly tapered, still experienced terrible headaches, what I was left with after the side effects cleared was anhedonia, in the purest biological form. I have rarely experienced despair in my life, as I always try to be positive, but.... I found myself in a state of despair day after day after day, all because of my anhedonia, the way I was feeling and the worry of ever improving. People talk about permanent problems, which scared me, but deep down I don't believe they are permanent because I am able to look at the situation as a whole and each symptom, including sexual dysfunction, loss of drive, emotional blunting, over sleeping etc all indicate a lack of NE and DA, if you think about it, the fight or flight response is also affected as: you don't feel as excitable or as nervous, you don't feel the adrenaline pumping that makes you feel alive, basically you have lost the ability to experience thrill, if you work from the top it becomes obvious that all the symptoms tie together and can easily be linked to the simple mental symptoms, which are certainly a loss of adrenaline and a drop in dopamine. How effective ad therapy is for raising these neurotransmitters still remains to be seen for myself, but it should'nt be too difficult and within a year I imagine the adrenal system will kick back into action and life will be just as we once knew it.
Do not give up or despair, there is absolutely no reason any of us can't make a full recovery, trust me the brain and body recovers from depression, I've been there, but honestly I can't stress enough how important activity is, today I have been out and about and I feel much better. In my last depression I had no meds, but I had to go to college, then over a period of about 6 months I had improved massively, as I had to concentrate on making friends, studying etc, I actually became excited and the depression disappeared, but my depression was moderate, I know if I had'nt had NE I would never of got better as I became so active, playing soccer, going on nights out, studying, exams etc, all the behaviours that led to my full recovery, these are the behaviours that make you well, they are not achievable without NE and some DA. Serotonin will make you a functioning zombie, but when you come off you will be a non functioning zombie, the drug that suits you best will cause you no bad side effects once the initiation problems have subsided.
The brain loves exercise, who takes an ssri and feels like going out and doing a marathon? I am ssri free for 6 months and starting to feel better and better. NE is very important, but one only needs a small amount, if you feel the prozac does you some good a low dose might be ok combined with a NRI, but in my view its better to adopt the lifestyle habits and drop the ssri, they are bad news, man needs every bit of sexuality he can get, its part of who we are, plus we need to feel love and passion, I don't even watch my favourite soccer team who I have supported all my life. Maybe amintepine with an nri? I think low dose NRI is important and as I said people need to understand how important being active is, its like magic!!! nothing in this world will give you the all round well being. I have never felt normal taking even 5mg citalopram, serotonin is definitely to the answer for a lot of people. We are just tricked by our doctors that it is, but we need to learn about our own body and make our own decisions.
poster:ggggg123
thread:10100
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20101030/msgs/968084.html