Posted by bleauberry on October 18, 2011, at 5:27:04
In reply to what a jip, posted by g_g_g_unit on October 17, 2011, at 5:07:02
I'm always a bit hesitant with "academia" types. That's just me. I prefer the "real world" types.
Anyway, I can easily see how the meds you are taking...all by themselves...would cause the very problems you are complaining of. A flood of serotonin (lexapro) aint gonna help cognition in any way. Depakote certainly is going to worsen it.
I like the zyprexa idea except with one catch. That is, lexapro needs to be switched out for prozac. In my own experience, zyprexa+prozac was excellent for cognition, ADHD stuff, ADD stuff, obsessions, depression, anxiety. The only fogginess I had from it was early in treatment and first thing in the morning. Lexapro + zyprexa did not have those same qualities for me. There is something special about the prozac/zyprexa team which cannot be duplicated with other SSRIs.
If your doctors are not going to help with stimulants, and you are not willing to find new doctors, then you still have choices. They are in the botanical medicines, not man made medicines. Ones I am thinking of include:
Rhodiola Rosea
Eleuthero root (siberian ginseng, not a true ginseng)
CordycepsSmall amounts of DLPA or tyrosine could be helpful and are cheap enough to experiment to see if good or bad. They will lead to more production of the same neurotransmitters the stimulants increase.
Of all the options, including meds, the one I favor the most is Rhodiola. Another one, not very well known, and not usually thought of in terms of psychiatric stuff or your particular symptoms is Resveratrol (the kind from Japanese Knotweed, not the kind from grapes). Perfect brand is the 40mg version yellow bottle from Source Naturals. I mention this one because it does a ton of stuff to help...anti inflammation, soaks up toxins, potent antioxidant, on and on.... A friend of mine started taking it just for general brain/heart health and said for the first time in his life he can now remember where he set his car keys every day. It has cleared up a lot of my lyme brain fog. And it's a very good antimicrobial too, so you might not every catch a cold or flu again. Dittos for Rhodiola the same.
Adrafanil. You can study up on and order this one by yourself. I was on it for a few years and I can say from my own experience it is a good choice for what your complaints are. It increased my anxiety for about a week and then after that things just got better and better as the weeks and months went by. And that was with only 150mg starting dose and 300mg maintenance dose, which is only 1/3 of the full dose.
So anyway, in this post are some solid ideas for you to work with. No need to feel trapped or jipped.
> so nearly 3 weeks after my relatively unspectacular 'cry for help', I saw a psych professor for a second opinion today. surprisingly, his sentiments echoed every other stuffy, close-minded psychiatrist I've encountered - namely, despite your lifelong, evidently comprising difficulties with attention, you don't have ADHD (??), but you do suffer from OCD and depression.
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> anyway, I thank God for my primarily psychiatrist - who recognizes my attentional difficulties, but who's now out of prescribing ideas.
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> I'm taking 15mg of Lexapro and 500mg of Depakote. I feel numb, dissociated and can't really read or focus. Stimulants kinda help but increase anxiety too much. The professor recommended I increase the Lexapro to 20mg, switch the Depakote for 10-15mg of Zyprexa and stay completely away from psychostimulants.
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> I know part of my is just being an uncompliant jerk, but I just fail to see how Zyprexa is going to help my social anxiety (which he insisted it will), or my anhedonia, apathy and disastrous executive function. I kinda figured it would just make all that stuff worse? he also said it's "highly unlikely" that I experienced akathisia on only 25mg of Seroquel.
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> 2 weeks 'til my doc gets back. haven't left bed since I got home from the appointment 5 hours ago. there just doesn't seem to be any end in sight..
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poster:bleauberry
thread:999961
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20111016/msgs/1000082.html