Posted by bleauberry on November 16, 2011, at 5:20:38
In reply to what is this overwhelming feeling of despair?, posted by rjlockhart04-08 on November 14, 2011, at 23:30:39
Well, in terms of the biological cause of that particular despair feeling, my own experience with that pointed to dopamine and norepinephrine. Actually most NE with me. Serotonin, forget it, that's not involved. If you are taking any pro-serotonin meds, it is probably making the despair even worse.
Zyprexa I am a fan of, but certainly it can make those despair feelings worse as well, but causing that isolated numb feeling. Might have to lower the dose or switch or stop altogether. In any case, we don't want to be blocking dopamine and NE when there are feelings of despair, but that is exactly what antipsychotics do.
Easy to test. Rhodiola. SJW. Savella. Ritalin. Adderall. DLPA. Tyrosine. I think you would do well to be sampling all of these, not necessarily for treatment right away, but to see what happens and gather clues. They are all going to put the focus on dopamine and norepinephrine, though through quite different mechanisms (that's why each needs to be tried separately).
Despair = low dopamine and/or low NE. Serotonin probably not a major player here. Just my opinion.
I also discovered through Lyme studies that the herb Lemon Balm can help lify those "heavy" feelings, those feelings like someone is pushing down on your head. I am not aware of any scientific explanations of how exactly this plant could do that, since it is primarily an antianxiety plant, but it just does, especially when combined with other depression strategies such as rhodiola and/or sjw. it goes very well with sjw.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1002606
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20111110/msgs/1002728.html