Posted by bleauberry on October 18, 2019, at 16:12:17
In reply to question about treatment resistant, posted by rjlockhart37 on September 12, 2019, at 21:45:51
I'm a huge fan of Ritalin for treatment resistant depression and all cases of depression. I think it should be utilized 10X more frequently than SSRIs, and should be a first line choice.
Clinical studies show that it gets majorly depressed senior citizens up out of bed playing checkers within just a few days. It helped me more than any other med in the entire arsenal of psychiatric meds. It isn't really a perfect antidepressant, but it is better than what they call antidepressants. I say that because it works fast - within hours to days, a couple weeks at the most, and instead of numbing your emotions like most antidepressants and antipsychotics do, it gets you interested in your hobbies and activities again, and gives you the energy to carry through with your newfound motivations. That leads to your becoming undepressed.
Ritalin does serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. But it is specific to the mood center of the brain. It also increases the firing rate of the brain, which in my case was the total reason for the depression in the first place, it had nothing to do with mood chemicals. SSRIs made me worse for a reason - they caused firing to slow down! My firing was already too slow. So I got worse. Ritalin increased firing and I felt better almost immediately. Adderall is just norepinephrine and dopamine without an increased firing, and in fact, blunted firing.
Some people will do better with Adderall or Modafinil. Adderall is just like "uppers" on the street. It is amphetamine. It leads to longterm troubles like you see with people strung out on drugs on the street. Ritalin is sort of in the cocaine family, distant, and doesn't seem to have such longterm risks. I was on it for over a year with no problems. I did build up tolerance to it but reached a plateau where it worked good between 40mg to 60mg per day in 10mg divided doses. I do not like the extended release versions. The short term action is part of the therapy. The extended action sort of cuts into that.
They are talking about using magic mushrooms, LSD and such for psychiatry. I think those could work very well, though at minuscule doses, not recreational doses.
In terms of stigma, what other people think, how law feels, how family feels, who cares? You shouldn't care. All you should care about is restoring some quality of life. Whatever it takes to do that. I think the best outcomes I've seen are from people who experimented, people who got outside the box, and people who did unconventional things such as stimulants for depression instead of antidepressants for depression.
Anyone in a legal state should try to use either marijuana smoke, marijuana edibles, CBD oil, or full spectrum oil, for their mood disorders. There are many reports of amazing success. I know 2 people who were basically institutional cases of depression, lost causes, no hope, who now operate fairly normal engaged lives with just marijuana. One guy does amazingly well, completely normal, on very high doses of edibles in combination with smoking multiple times throughout the day. No red eyes. No glassy eyes. No high. Just tolerance and the therapy that comes from that.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1106104
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20190728/msgs/1106487.html